Monday, June 02, 2003

FRESH MEAT, SNAPPERS AND TAILFEATHERS:

FRESH MEAT, SNAPPERS AND TAILFEATHERS: the non-bucolic side of Golden Gate Park

On Saturday I went with Dave, Kim and li’l Daisy to the park, where Dave and I played some full-contact whiffleball and Daisy identifed everything that wasn’t a tree or some grass as a “rose.” Warm weather brought gophers up from their holes, and the gophers brought out some really large hawks that swooped thrillingly down to nab, kill and consume those adorable fuzzy little “lawn rats.” Later, we strolled up to Stow Lake, where the eelfeeding guy was doing his thing.  He was feeding turtles at that moment, and there were several dozen small ones swarming around in front of him.  But he’d occasionally skewer a piece of weiner on a long stick and wave it just above the water, just at the shore.  A leathery head the size of my hand crept out of the water to take the meat; the guy pulled back the stick to tease the turtle into showing more of itself.  I don’t know how big snapping turtles get, but this one was unbelieveably huge.  When it stretched out it must have had a foot of neck as thick as my wrist; the shell might have been 2 feet by three feet.  He was a monster, and could easily have taken off my finger or worse.  After several minutes, we wandered off and Kim found a duck’s tail feather - it had a distinctive and amusing curl in the tip.  I asked Kim to shake it but she wouldn’t.  Dave did, but it wasn’t the same.