Some time ago, I reprinted with permission a news column written by Steve Lekwa, the now retired Story County Conservation Board Director and a long-time friend whom I respect immensely. He continues with his news columns and one he wrote in April gave me inspiration. Rather than reprint his, I am only stealing the topic and filling in my similar experiences. Mother Nature isn’t always kind to wild creatures. In fact, I would go as far as calling Mother Nature a pretty tough old gal. Although likely not his original idea, Walt Disney propagated the simplistic concept that Mother Nature cared for all wild things and that they pretty much led “happy” lives singing and dancing in the forests and other areas. Not since the Garden of Eden has that been the case. First, there are predators that pursue and eat other creatures. In turn, most of them have to worry about something else pursuing them. A bad thing for the “eatee” but a good thing for the eater. The bad things that I really am thinking about are animal accidents. These can be accidents involving man-made items such as being hit by or hitting vehicles. Many kinds of animals discover windows the hard way (no pun intended – OK yes it was). Birds are the most often thought of animals crashing into windows ……or buildings ……or windmills. My life growing up on the farm brought many lessons on animal accidents. Cattle and horses slipped on icy ground and some had to be put down. So, too, with deer. I recall an old cow that forever limped following a slip. She was able to continue calving and a productive part of the herd for several years. In the wild, however, a limp can spell easier prey for predators. In college, this farm boy studied fish & wildlife biology and learned of “mortality factors”. These include disease, predation, starvation, exposure to extreme weather events, and even accidents that didn’t involve people at all.  Wild things make mistakes just as we do. It has been the 39 years since coming to Grundy County that have shown me that birds, animals, and even fish often make mistakes that lead to injury and even death. I have written over the years about young squirrels with tails twisted together, robins entangled in discarded fishing line, and deer trapped when jumping fences to name a few. Many moons ago, I watched a pair of Great Horned Owls that reared several broods of young at the Black Hawk Creek Wildlife Area near Morrison. Each year, owlets are not capable of flight in their first attempts and end up on the ground where they are still watched and cared for by their parents until the flight skills are perfected. One summer (August), I found an immature owl along the creek with a badly contorted and healed wing. Perhaps its first flight was its last or perhaps it misjudged a strike at some small animal and struck a tree or the ground going too fast. The bird was continuing to be fed and protected by the parents. I’ll bet its folks thought this baby was never going to “grow up”. On another instance, I received a call about a turkey vulture that was unable to fly. In that case, an injury of some kind had grounded the bird. Because birds have bones that begin to heal quickly, this bird had a wing that was permanently outstretched. Then there was the deer skeleton that I found on a walk at Wolf Creek Park. Examining the jaw, there was evidence of a nasty tooth abscess. It healed and the deer likely lived 15 years or more judging from the tooth wear. But Mother Nature doesn’t have any deer dentists to visit like Walt Disney could have invented.