Maasai Mara

The lions were sleeping from a food hangover brought on by feasting all night on a water buffalo. Two females, a young male and the dominant male were lying near the carcass. On the road we had seen a young male, alone under a tree. The game driver said that lion had been outcast because he had killed the cubs of a female. Another female was now hiding her cubs in the bush to keep them alive.

The driver takes us straight to the carcass. The dominant male gets up for seconds. The ribs have been stripped of meat. The head still there. He is not interested in me today. I watch as he applies pressure from his teeth, his paws.

on the open plain

animals graze and lookout

preying or preyed on

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dVerse prompt to write a haibun about a situation of pressure. I was going to add a photo but kind of gross.

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Birds of Prey

SHOCKING to see the cardinal eat a gecko

thick beak designed to crack seeds & nuts

one would expect it from a blue jay

not this red bird with its sweet song

now a gecko hangs from songbird beak

lifeless & being shaken

its head consumed then tail

legs gnawed away

it looks like a small fish

yet too big for the throat

of such a now ravenous bird

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I looked out the window today and saw this cardinal with a gecko. Unexpected metaphor to the current events.

Owl

    
Owls are in the neighborhood, calling to each other, a distinct voice in the woodland.  Tonight a pair hunt for frogs by the pond as I watch their heads swivel, eyes set for any movement.  Mayflies hop all day over the water but where are the birds?

There have been other predator, a hawk, kingfisher and great blue heron.  We stopped putting fish in.  The frogs come on their own.  One year there were so many tadpoles!  Where are they now?  Where are the frogs, chipmunk, the squirrel?

beauty of nature

springs forth at the edge of pond

predator with prey

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dVerse prompt – haibun with a sense of compassion