Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters

Preface

11 Preface In the particular is contained the universal. —James Joyce What follow are twenty-nine nonfiction micro-essays, each one a description of a chance encounter I had with a member (or members) of the fraternity of wildlife that call the Pacific Northwest home.Over the last fifteen years I’ve been fortunate enough to live in a variety of rural and semi-rural locations within this same geographic region. This includes Kaslo and Argenta, British Columbia; Potomac and Stevensville, Montana ; and Tumalo, Sunriver, and most recently Bend, Oregon. It’s no surprise that over the years my journals have filled with descriptions of black bears and bumble bees, mountain lions and muskrats,elk,pygmy owls,ravens and flying squirrels.What follows are those stories.With the exception of the snowy owls, sandhill cranes, and golden eagles, which I specifically went to see, all of these encounters were complete surprises: as I came inside from chopping wood a red-shafted flicker flapped against my cabin window; as I rested in the shade by a river a red fox suddenly appeared trotting toward me; lost, driving to a new job, and coming up over a small rise, I saw a hundred bison on the slope below me,their unmatched authority haloing them in the morning sun. Because of the unexpectedness of these meetings they held a special quality for me. Always there was a timelessness,a residue of the sacred,and a lingering feeling that I was witnessing something spectacular.And I was. Because these encounters were often so brief (usually just a 12 matter of minutes, sometimes seconds) it seemed appropriate that I kept my accounting of them equally concise too. For this reason these essays differ from traditional “nature writing.” I have chosen not to include background information, specific locations, the natural history of the animal, or even my history with others of its kind,and in this way only the most important details survive, those few shimmering moments I spent lost to the world, alive in the company of these “other nations,” as Henry Beston describes them, the wild, feathered, and furred creatures we share this planet with. Finally, I must note that there is very little adrenaline here.There are no maulings. No narrow escapes. It is not that kind of book. Instead, it is a quiet book made up of quiet moments that any of us might have, moments (I hope) with as much grace and dignity as the animals who make up its pages. Ultimately, it is to them I owe a huge debt of gratitude. Charles Finn Bend, Oregon Winter 2010 ...