It always amazes me how animals adapt to ever-changing situations.
I was going up West Street in Oneonta the other day to play tennis on the college's courts and saw a nice buck eating without concern right next to the street.
If that same deer was on my hill, he would have bounded off to safety in the thick underbrush before I could get within 300 yards of him. But in the city, deer have learned they are safe around people.
Every summer after the song birds have hatched their eggs and the new chicks have taken flight, I bush hog the meadows of our old farm. I like to cut the weeds and other unwanted plants before they go to seed. It seems that if you let it go, the goldenrod overtakes the grasses and there is little feed left for any of the animals that live nearby.
Anyway, within five minutes of my mowing, the barn swallows are diving and darting all around the tractor as the numerous insects are disturbed from the weeds. Butterflies and other flying insects are easily caught by the many swarming birds. I wonder as I go round and round the fields where they have learned this behavior.
Even the crows were having a feeding frenzy. As you may know, crows are very cautious birds, yet they'll come within 20 or 30 feet of a noisy tractor to feed on grasshoppers that are exposed in a newly mowed field.
I've always been fascinated with crows. I had one for an entire summer when I was young. I found his nest in a grove of pines and in a few weeks, he would ride on my shoulder almost every place I went. One day I was up in the meadow and he flew off with some others of his own kind. It was fun while it lasted.
Have you ever watched crows as you drive down the highway? They know that by walking just across the white line onto the shoulder of the road they are safe. They don't seem to care that traffic is flying by at 65 mph or faster. Their timing is impeccable.
Last week, a red-tailed hawk perched in the trees along the edge of a field. As my mower chewed its way through the thick weeds, it swooped and caught a baby rabbit that had scampered out of the dense grasses in front of the tractor. It was probably the same hawk that fed on mice and other rodents in the upper meadow last summer.
It's funny: I mow and they feed. As I came around on the next loop, the hawk crouched and covered its kill with its wide-spread wings.
The most interesting thing that I have heard about is a coyote that waited at a traffic light for cars to stop.
A friend of mine who lives in Orange County approached the light at an intersection and noticed a grayish-brown coyote standing at the edge of the blacktop. He had seen coyotes in town before but was surprised to see the big, wild canine wait for the light to change before running into the street to pick up a freshly killed gray squirrel. He had a picture of the coyote and the red light to prove it.
I guess learning how to cope with traffic on a busy street is a perfect example of animal adaptation. As human population continues to grow and meadows and forests give way to housing developments and shopping centers, animals will have to learn to adjust. We are encroaching on their habitat at an alarming rate.
The animals that can adjust to these changes will survive. And from what I see, most of them are doing just fine.
Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star. E-mail him at robrockway@hotmail.com.
Local Sports
Animals know how to go with the flow
- Local Sports
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Sidney senior, Unatego junior look to go out on top
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HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING _ SECTION FOUR DIVISION II TOURNAMENT PREVIEW ... Area wrestlers have a lot to prove this weekend at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton. That's especially true for the ones who fell just short of the championship round of last season's Section Four Division II Tournament.
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Davenport girls clinch 10th straight division title
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL ... Double-doubles from Sarah Haight and Sam Maidens helped Davenport clinch its 10th consecutive Delaware League Upper Delaware Division championship as the host Wildcats downed Hunter-Tannersville, 45-35, in a winner-take-all girls basketball game Thursday night.
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UV boys top Greene in overtime
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL ... David Anderson hit 3 of 5 free throws in overtime, including his last two with 16 seconds left, as Unadilla Valley earned a 57-54 boys basketball victory over host Greene in a semifinal of the Midstate Athletic Conference 5-8 Tournament on Thursday.
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Wick water polo falls to No. 9
AREA COLLEGE ROUNDUP ... Hartwick College scored first Thursday, but ninth-ranked San Diego State answered with five straight goals en route to a 16-6 women's water polo victory.
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Today's Datebook
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If you're going on a winter hike this year, be prepared for the worst
OUTDOORS COLUMN BY RICK BROCKWAY ... On Wednesday, we went skiing at Belleayre Mountain once again. As my friend Rich and I crossed over the hill on Route 28 below Andes, we looked at the mountains in the distance. There wasn't a drop of snow to be seen. Rich made the comment, "Maybe we should have brought our hiking boots instead of our skis."
- Thursday, February 9, 2012
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Pats win fourth straight East title
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL ROUNDUP ... Kyle Jaquay and Isiah Montgomery had 18 points each as Cherry Valley-Springfield's boys basketball team won its fourth straight Tri-Valley East Division title with a 68-38 road win over Worcester on Wednesday.
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Oneonta High girls cruise to road victory
HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP ... Natalie Vanderlaan-Meyering had 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks to lead Oneonta High's girls to a 51-34 Southern Tier Athletic Conference basketball victory at Chenango Valley on Wednesday.
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Hartwick men ranked first in East Region
COLLEGE ROUNDUP ... Hartwick College's men are the top-ranked team in the initial East Region basketball poll that was released Wednesday.
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Today's Datebook
- Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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OHS boys fall in 4 OTs
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL ROUNDUP ... Zach Collins scored eight of his game-high 30 points in the fourth overtime and Chenango Valley beat host Oneonta High, 92-88, in a Southern Tier Athletic Conference boys basketball game Tuesday.
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Hartwick women extend streak to 10
COLLEGE ROUNDUP ... Hartwick College scored 16 of the last 20 points to beat host Albany College of Pharmacy, 62-46, in a non-conference women's basketball game Tuesday.
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Boys basketball state rankings
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Worcester clinches East title
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL ROUNDUP ... Morgan Clark, Karli Pochkar and Cassie Sklenka scored six points apiece as Worcester opened a 12-point halftime lead in its Tri-Valley League East Division-clinching, 38-24 girls basketball victory at Cherry Valley-Springfield on Tuesday.
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Today's Datebook
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Area Sports Briefs
- Tuesday, February 7, 2012
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OHS girls clinch division
HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL ... ONEONTA _ Kelsey Baker hears voices in her head, but only when she's at the foul line. "I hear everyone in the background and stuff," Oneonta High junior forward Baker said Monday night, "but mainly, it's just me, the ball and the basket. You've just got to make them." Junior forward Baker made five clutch free throws in a row in the fourth quarter, when she scored seven of her team-high 11 points to lead host Oneonta High to a 35-27 girls basketball victory over Norwich.
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Edmeston boys hold off RS
HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP ... Brandon Fallon capped his 14-point night on a layup with about 40 seconds left that provided the winning points in Edmeston's 54-52 Tri-Valley League boys basketball victory at Richfield Springs on Monday.
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O-State coach, Unatego AD takes job in Fla.
The recent departure of Bill May left vacancies at Oneonta State and the Unatego School District. May, 47, was announced as Southeastern University's women's tennis coach Friday. He'll also be the school's men's tennis coach the following season when that program begins its first season. May spent seven seasons as the men's and women's tennis coach at Oneonta State. He served as athletic director at Unatego the last two seasons.
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College Roundup
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