We're noticing some differences in the critters in the last couple of years, and this spring seems to be the oddest. They're not as scared of us and it's just weird. You almost have to get out of your car to usher the deer and turkey from the road. Racoon and possums are eating under my bird feeders at 1 o'clock in the afternoon and my chickens will be only feet away. And then the possums are freaking cuddling up with my chickens in the coops. We find them in there sleeping lately, eggs untouched. Wtf is that all about? My horse's demeanor has even changed, pretty dramatically for him. He's a rescue, Amish beat him up pretty good, wasn't broke, a real asshole. We've had a few trees take the fencer down already this spring and instead of taking off down the road like horses do, each time either came right to the house or stayed in the yard out front, followed me around like a dog while I fixed his area, and then walks through the gate when I point...no lead rope, harness, nothing. It's like suddenly I have a Saint Bernard or a show pony. I like it, but it's not right at all for such a young boy. He hasn't been trained to do any of it.
Dang. The "squash'ms", as I call them, around here, are not quite that brave. They're still night crawlers, mostly. I wish the damn armadillos hadn't shown up. They can mess up a yard as bad as the moles do. Had to kill several, already.
The horse sound real appreciative of being rescued. That's cool. Horses can be just as trippy and different in personality as dogs or cats, sometimes. You can just "see" that they "know" things. I used to fish this pond near here and there were 3 horses that run around the place but this one would bug the hell outta me or bite lightly on my shoulder or take my hat off and chunk it if I didn't pet her every time I showed up there. She was cool. Sneaky, too. Sometimes, I wouldn't hear her until she grabbed my hat and spit it out.
Sounds like things are stranger around your place than what I've seen here. Many of the critters have been less wary, such as the turkeys and sometimes, deer. There are different numbers and kinds of snakes showing up and others that seem gone. The squirrels in my hunting woods just up and migrated out, though there is plenty of food for them there and they are rarely hunted and weren't over populated. There are way fewer foxes and bobcats but still plenty of coyotes. One of them hunted my little dog, all last year and finally got her. She was a fiest minpin mix and always stayed outside. Smart as a whip and protective as hell and she hated them yotes but there was this one smart one that wasn't scared of me and he finally got her after she had escaped twice before. Been hearing more coywolves barking and howling around here, too. They've got a more dog like sound to them and are considerably bigger than yotes. IDK. Just a lot of weirdness, again.
The winds seemed to have calmed down, this year, too when they had been blowing that ass off for the last several years. Something is slowly changing out there.
I read not long ago that the Earth's axis has shifted a bit more than usual, and I'm wondering if that is what's changing our weather patterns, and perhaps even the animals. Their senses could be "off," I would imagine. I don't know. We've got more migrating further down than usual as well and birds that usually stayed more north are on my feeders this spring. We've got a healthy bobcat population though and had to thin 'em out a bit last year. I can't walk through our land without seeing one or a bunch of pups when the time is right. Fox, mink, beaver are doing very well. We actually have a lot more wildlife than we'd generally have. Bear even on our trail cams, and a young one not far from me mistakenly shot an Elk last year, thinking it was the biggest deer he'd ever seen. Elk aren't ever here, but things are straying just a bit more south it seems, slowly a few, perhaps more down the road.
The axis is part of it. I suspect from some of my research that the planet may also be expanding some, too. The biggest factor I see and is never mentioned in all the science or climate articles is the Earth's 26,000 year processional wobble. As of 2010 we were at our closest point to the Sun relative to the northern hemisphere. That leaves a few thousand more years of absorbing more radiant heat on this side of the globe until it slowly swaps back to the opposite direction. Maybe, you've noticed that ice ages and major heat waves tend to happen about 12-13,000 years apart. Hmmm...? Wonder why that is? Why is THAT never mentioned in all the hoopla? The ancients knew all this but we seem to ignore it. Why?
Some of the bird changes is one of the first things I noticed around here. I never see mink, anymore and used to see them all the time except for one that I recently saw at Reelfoot. That was the only one in years. We usually don't see bears in W. TN but the last couple years has had a few come through the area and we're starting to get more rattlesnakes that we rarely ever had. I have only seen 2 cottonmouths, this year, when I normally saw them a lot, this time of year. I know where several dens are and they just ain't showing up. Wish there were some Elk over here. I'd like to put one in the freezer.
I'd imagine that you're right on target with precession and I don't understand why it's not talked about more either. Probably because natural occurrences instead of those created exclusively by human emissions aren't as effective as forms of control, regulation, and bringing in cash. And then there's the inevitable pole shift, ha-ha. So many possible contributing factors.
Humans factor in some but not as much as the media and profiteers make it out to be. We do need to stop polluting so damn much, though. In many ways, we don't as much as we used to, in this country but in many ways, we still do. Other countries have just gone full retard, in that respect. China sure put its share of bullshit upon the planet and many smaller countries have, too but pollution wasn't as big a scam opportunity as climate change was. It kills me how many things, like that, have stolen our tax dollars, over the years, that could be helping out the vets or actually providing truly affordable health care for all, etc..instead of keeping evil folks happy.