The Great New Hampshire Wind Storm of 2010 struck Thursday night, February 25th-26th. Friday morning, there were around 400,000 power company customers without electricity! We were among them. The power lines that run from the transformer on the telephone pole to our house were ripped loose by a falling tree. We were fortunate to have a generator to power our furnace, water pump, and refrigerator. As a matter of fact, I started writing this post under gennie power. Our power restoration was low on the list, but that ‘s ok…lots of folks suffered MUCH bigger problems than we did. We finally got our power back Wednesday night, March 4th. One of the nicest things was not to have to listen to the roar of the generator any more. Another was having HOT WATER!

Now, about Wild Thing. I took Friday off to get the generator hooked up, rewire my water pump to connect to the generator, and clean the pine branches out of the driveway. While I was out playing “pick-up-sticks,” I looked down only to see a big bird approaching my feet. I don’t know a lot about birds, but I knew she wasn’t a pheasant. A grouse of some kind? Well, between a bit of Google research and a couple of friends, it seems  that Wild Thing could be a Northern Bobwhite Quail. If any of you know differently, please let us know.

As I finish this post, I can say that Wild Thing has been hanging around for over a week now. Sometimes she gets right in front of our vehicles as we’re pulling out of the driveway to go to work. It’s as though she doesn’t want us to go. It’s gotten so that she’ll come right up to me, only inches away, and if I scooch down and talk to her, she coos gently to me. She’s not all gentle, though. Oh no! She flew up onto the porch railing and, as I was taking some pictures, she flew up onto my shoulder. Whoa, I was more than just a bit surprised! I thought “Wow! This is neat!” Then she pecked me on the head a couple of times…and I don’t have a lot of hair up there to provide a cushion…so it stung a bit and I jumped and Wild Thing flew back to ground level.

Deb and I are amazed at the behavior of this wild creature. It’s as though she knows we won’t do anything to hurt her and, for some reason, has decided she likes our company. I don’t know whether something happened to her during the wind storm that has caused her to be disoriented, or disrupted her normal routine. She doesn’t appear to be injured in any way. I imagine that, sooner or later, she’ll move on. Meanwhile, we’re enjoying an unusual connection with one of God’s wild things.

If any of you can explain this seemingly strange wild bird behavior, we’d really be interested in hearing about it. Please leave a comment.