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Show 286. rigidity and fortitude that life was tenuous on the granite slabs above Tenaya Lake. Somehow he missed the jewel in a whorl of twisting weathered branches, shaggy bark, and bristling foliage. In other words he was unable to look fully at the struggle or the pattern of eater and eaten which he commended to his reader in "Wild Wool." Let us consider the strife in Nature. This summer, without consciously looking for it, I have seen several striking incidents, many right outside the door of McCauley cabin. I watched a red shafted flicker chase and attack a weasel as it ran down the hill through the talus. If that wasn't enough, the weasel had problems with the men who interfered with its hunting. I have seen conflicts between juncos and ground squirrels. Down at the river, the gulls were constantly raiding the nests of the Brewer's blackbirds, and the blackbirds were constantly harassing the gulls. If that wasn't trying enough, the river rose high this July, flooding and submerging the willows where the Brewer's blackbirds built their nests. The birds were very distressed during the flood. I still remember how unexpected and surprising it was when a Clark's nutcracker killed a mole while I sat under a tree a few yards away. One day near Wawona I watched a coyote carrying a new fawn at a run through the woods, followed by a doe. if a deer can be imagined as forlorn, then that one was. But of course the coyote too had a family. Now I know that one is not supposed to think in terms of individuals when Practicing ecological consciousness, but all of these examples |