while max and i haven't ventured too far off our usual romp to the field next to our apartment, we sometimes go the extra 'mile' [more like 50 yards LOL] and make it all the way down to the blanco river, cross over the concrete bridge and back again. the last leg of this trip, on the sidewalk next to our beloved field, is what i call the snail graveyard, or more accurately called the 'suicide strip'. for some reason unknown to me, hundreds, and i mean hundreds, of snails converge on the sidewalk. their zigzag tracks glisten silver in the sun and no matter how careful i tread, the sound of their shells being crushed under my shoes is unmistakable. why,why are they on the hard, hot side walk? what has compelled them to leave the safety of the brush and venture out to their certain death? all sizes of snails, both large and the very tiny, appear; at first i thought twas some mating ritual but surely this is not adding to the gene pool very quickly! their comrades who have fallen before lay in a black, gooey, sticky spots - some the victims of ants, most not. apparently while many birds will go after LIVE snails, the crushed ones are not as appetizing...
and then there is the ROADKILL - the bird i came upon not long after i moved into my new apartment perplexed me; i still have not found out what kind of bird it was but it apparently was some sort of waterfowl as evidenced by its very large feet and the fact that we are very close to water. it had black feathers and a small, whitish bill which immediately eliminated a duck or swan or goose as its species - its large feet, out of portion to its body, were a greenish blue color with tiny claws at the end of the 'toes' - i could not tell if they were webbed or not. i did take its picture on my phone but have since deleted that pix for lack of space. anyway, it is now nothing more than a small, mound of black feather mush, on its way to being the proverbial grease spot in the middle of the road. i was also surprised that the many turkey vultures in town had not swooped down to pick the last remains of flesh off its bones....
recently, a brand NEW roadkill victim appeared near the sidewalk next to our field; at first as i approached it, i thought is was a piece of a blown out tire, the ridges of its form distinct in the moonlight. as i got closer, i began to see the tail and claws of an armadillo! it has to be on god's list of the weirdest looking animals ever created, along with the platypus and the giraffe. it is also one of those official mascots of texas and like the turtle and shark, a creature that has been here for thousands, nay, millions of years, with very little evolution evident except for its now smaller size. in the ancient times, this creature was the size of bull and now, its at best, raccoon size. its hard shell is its only defense, its nocturnal nature keeping it out of the sight of its natural predators like coyotes and bobcats, its only threat to humans? besides messing up your quiet drive, it is the only animal that carries, and can transmit to humans, leprosy. quite an interesting fellow! oh, and its on my list of the weirdest things i ever ate - yes, this is texas and we bar-b-qued it! i know this sounds lame, but covered in sauce and slowed cooked over an open flame, well it tasted just like bar-b-qued Chicken!
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