Walking the shoreline of a remote lake, admiring the trail of coyote prints,
I put a shoe print next to one for scale.
I spooked a herd of Nilgai, a large Asian antelope that has established an exotic population in South Texas.
They have a goofy stiff-legged run that is reminiscent of a hyena’s awkward gait.
Not a particularly graceful creature.
The bull is blue-gray, with his tail raised in alarm.
I searched the salty water and found the birds I was after: Snowy Plover, Ring-billed Gull, Wilson’s Phalarope, and headed back, stopping to admire an immense pile of deer poop;
...a significant marking station no doubt.
I found myself in the path of a small pack of feral hogs squealing and grunting their way obliviously toward me.
I decided to announce my presence before they got all the way to me and it stopped them in their tracks.
Wild hogs can be a problem, but these didn’t look too threatening.
I picked up a good heavy hog-whacking stick anyway; just in case. They stopped, looked at me, then ran away in great fear. I continued on. The problem was, no matter which way they ran, they managed to circle around and pop right out at me again and get alarmed even more.
After several terrifying encounters, with much snorting and complaining (mostly from the hogs), they finally figured out a foolproof plan and burst out across the shallow lake to safety on the other side.
We all survived the adventure. Some of us even enjoyed it.
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