Flora and Fawna For Free in Fall!

On any evening at the dump, you can see...













BUCKS AMID THE FLORA EATING APPLES










AND THE REST OF THE HERD COMING TO THE BUFFET




Honestly, many of you would not believe this unless I had proof, so here it is. In what has become a nightly experience, cars line up at the city dump to view the animals. This is the palce where residents drop off yard detrius they are not using for compost: trimmed bushes, grass clippings not headed for lawn fertilizer, tree branches, etc. Come during the daylight hours, and you can be treated to legions of flies that decide the air vents in the car are great hiding places to secret themselves until you're a mile down the road; at that point, they gleefully (I suspect) emerge like ravenous bears from hibernation and buzz frantically around your head. This is especially annoying when I'm trying to eat, find a radio station and text while driving.
But, in the evening, something magical happens, and all the woodland critters (straight from the South Park Christmas episode?)come out and display themselves for the hordes (as you can see) of onlookers. Living in a wildlife sanctuary must have its benefits for the horned ones. Now there's a picture: the city waste disposal in a wildlife sanctuary! Unafraid, they will almost walk right up to the piled yard waste...as long as someone is throwing apples. I've even seen photographers with huge camera lenses on tripods have their assistants throw apples to lure the unsuspecting (or just tame, really) Bambis ever closer for that "just right" shot. Silly me! I thought that was the purpose of a telephoto lens!
As crazy as it sounds, sometimes a person can't even get close enough to drop off the yard waste due to the glut of rubber-neckers! Kids in tow, parents treat the experience like a walk through a nature preserve. At those times, it almost feels like you should aplogize for coming to dump stuff off,saying, "Excuse me, I've just got to dump these bags of leaves off. I'll be quiet...honest!"
Tonight I was disappointed because the turkeys weren't strutting through as they did earlier in the day when I actually had some pruned branches to drop off and carelessly forgot my camera. (In case you're wondering, I DID just go back to take pictures tonight). On the positive side, though, it was too damn cold for the flies.
Having fun in a small town with nature on display.
You can't do THIS in Chicago!