Birds, beasts and bugs are all around this summer. The birds wake me every morning with their high volume melodies and I've been excited to see the various flashes of colour as I walk or sit outside.
I keep my eyes open on the roads and don't forget to look up into the sky to see the graceful flight patterns of various winged creatures. I'm careful to watch the ditches for deer and other animals and saw a young buck with tiny velvet antler stubs just a few metres away while walking in a resort area on the weekend.
The bugs are plentiful and even a little frightening, always buzzing and everywhere around. They are big and active and dusk can even be scary.
The other night when driving down the highway as the sun was going down there were pillars of what I think were mosquitoes starting at the ground and reaching up into the sky pulsating and moving with military-like precision.
It felt like we were driving through a great living coliseum that stretched for many kilometres as we passed a set of columns and could see more ahead of us. It was eerie and the windshield was quickly soiled enough that it was difficult to see, but we didn't dare stop to clean it fearing an attack.
The next day flies swarmed around the front of the car and the bugs on the bumper were as thick as a carpet.
I've had nights when the warm weather has made it difficult for me to get comfortable and as I turned from back to side and side to front I've felt like a snack on a rotisserie as the little pests landed on me. It always seem strange to me a creature so small can make such a loud sound keeping me awake even when it isn't close enough to bite me.
I don't react badly to bites and there are only a few minutes a day when mosquitoes even pay attention to me, but I don't like them and there are nasty bumps on almost every toddler I see, making them look puffy and itchy.
Mosquitoes, wasps and other insects seem to be the most wild of all the wildlife this year and with all the moisture they are multiplying and moving around me like mad. I'm itchy justthinking about it and am almost wishing for winter, but not quite, as the beauty of our Saskatchewan summer far outweighs the buzz and the itch and I plan more adventures outdoors.
