Category Archives: Castle Willett

At the old house there was a growing population of California Alligator lizards, who I had collectively named “the Freds.” (See here, here, here, here, etc.)

It didn’t take too long to realize that there are lizards in the yard here at the new yard as well. Today was sunny and hot, so I got out the camera with the big lens (these lizards are a bit skittish, won’t let me get as close as the Freds did, but then again, the Freds knew that something was up as we were moving out) and did a quick survey of the back yard.

Some look a lot like the old Freds.

Some have similar body types, but much different colorations.

Some have significantly different body types, thicker through the body, shorter tails proportionately.

Look at this brute at the top! He’s built more like an iguana!

And his partner is much, much darker than all of the other lizards.

While some are almost sandy or a light green color.

Depending on the sun angle, some seem to almost be iridescent.

Some are possible hybrids, with thicker bodies than the original Freds but not like the brutes, but longer tails than the brutes while not being as long as the original Freds’ tails.

And they’re all very nervous, darting away and into the bushes at the drop of a hat. The presence of so many crows and hawks may up here may have something to do with that.

I’m figuring the thick-bodied, short-tailed lizards are related to the Freds, but some sort of different subspecies. I’m also figuring that we’ll call them Bubbas instead of Freds.

Finally, I’m figuring that neither the Freds nor the Bubbas will care what I call them, as long as I leave them alone. Which, other than taking pictures, I intend to do.

Long-term followers of this site will know that at our old house we had raccoons, lizards, coyotes, skunks, rabbits, hawks, and various other critters roaming about. We’ve only moved a mile away, so I’m not expecting a lot of difference at the new place.

We have seen rabbits, far more than at the old house. There I would often see two, very rarely see four at once – here I came home on Wednesday night and found seven or eight of them at once munching on the lawn.

But by far the most prominent wildlife to date at the new house are the crows. They’re loud, they’re active, there are a lot of them, and they most certainly seem to be territorial and aggressive. Quite often when we go out to the front yard, the pair in the nest across the street will start cawing loudly and fly over to the telephone pole in our yard and let us know they’re there.

Today things turned weird with the crows.

We were spending the day moving stuff from the old house to the new (as well as throwing out a ton of stuff from the old house) and shortly after noon, while being screamed at by the crows, we noticed one of them near the ground in the neighbor’s driveway across the street, sitting on top of their car. It was weird.

Just a few minutes later, as we were leaving the house, this guy appeared on our porch:

He isn’t aggressive at all – he actually appears to be very subdued and possibly injured. The neighbor across the street shouted that she thinks he’s a youngster who’s been hurt or sick, and all of the frantic activity by the other crows is over concern for him.

It was definitely not any kind of normal behavior that I’m aware of in a wild bird, allowing us to get this close to him without so much as a twitch.

We went off and picked up our next batch of stuff, and when we got home, we found him here:

Again, he doesn’t appear to be concerned at all about us, nor does he seem inclined to move or leave. Very, very odd behavior, again leading us to think that he might be sick or injured.

Being that I’m a critter-person and being concerned that this big, beautiful bird might be in distress, I put out a bowl of water and food. The internet says that fruit and whole grains are the best for crows, so a half apple chopped up into what I hope are bite-sized chunks and a handful of Cheerios is the best I’ve got on short notice.

When putting it out, I put a few Cheerios and a chunk of apple right next to him, with the rest on a plate next to the water on the bench seat. Edgar (for so we have named him) watched me, but never moved, never flinched, not even when I put an apple piece and a couple of Cheerios only an inch or so away from his feet.

Sadly, as of right now:

He’s still sitting there, shifting around from time to time, but it doesn’t look like he’s touched his food at all. And if he sits there, a not-so-friendly neighborhood cat could find him easy pickings.

Good luck, Edgar! Eat and drink if you can! Heal! Fly away! Go scream at us from the top of the telephone pole. Maybe you’ll be cussing us out, maybe you’ll be thanking us – we’re good with either.

Update regarding Edgar’s condition to follow as needed…