We may not have major team sports to
entertain us these days. But sometimes Mother Nature provides a bit of
diversion to remind us that television is not the only source of visual
pleasure.
On a bright, sunny morning in
last week,l I had what you might call a David Attenborough moment. As I was walking up the driveway to my house,
a flurry of activity on the top of a carissa holly caught my eye. Two adult
brown thrashers were attacking a green snake the size of my thumb. I’m guessing the snake had discovered a nest inside
the holly with freshly laid eggs in it, but the birds were not about to let the
slithering menace dine on their embryonic offspring.
The birds performed a perfect tag
team assault on the little reptile whose valiant defense was futile. They were relentless, first one and then the
other attacking ferociously from either side.
The battle lasted less than a minute, ending with the snake withdrawing
to the interior of the shrub for protection.
The thrashers continued to flit around, looking for their foe, all the
while chattering scouting reports to each other.
Unlike David Attenborough, I didn’t
have a camera to record the episode. But I took as much pleasure in the moment as
I would have cheering for the home team Red Sox against those invading Yankees.
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