I was out in the back yard, refilling the bird seed feeders, when I heard a commotion overhead.
Something like 40+ crows milling about!
I think that qualifies as a “murder!”
Category Archives: Critters
Hesperia Owl
As mentioned, I’ve seen an owl out on the cinder block wall in the back yard and on the pergola a couple of times, always when it’s dark or just getting there, but I’ve never gotten any pictures.
Not today!
It was after sunset and raining pretty hard, but not yet dark. There it was, and there it stayed for quite a while.
Lousy quality photo due to the low light and high magnification, but there was some nice video opportunities.
Welcome to the Forever Home, my Great Horned Owl friend! I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing you on a regular basis!
Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography, Video
Other Critter Neighbors
In addition to the squirrels (or whatever they are) burrowing under the pergola, and the flocks of wrens, finches, hummingbirds, and scrub jays all feeding at the feeders hanging from the top, we also have some bigger raptors that regularly roost on top of the pergola, particularly at night.
I haven’t caught any of them on camera yet (they spook easily) but I’ve seen the owl(s) several times.
Even if I can’t catch them live, it’s obvious where they like to roost when looking out over the back wall for dinner, or where they bring dinner to feast in peace. The little bits of rodents and small birds, and what appears to be a significant amount of (probably) rabbit fur indicate that the owls are well fed.
It’s sort of a mess – but that’s why we bought a power washer. Now I just need to find the time to assemble it…
Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography
A Pergola With A Lived-In Look
We like having neighbors and all, we want to be friendly, but I would really, REALLY prefer to not have our new neighbors be of the tunneling, rodent-like variety.
I noticed this tunnel under the side of the pergola decking a couple weeks ago and I’ve filled the rocks back in twice, only to have the hole open up again in a day or so. Behind the back yard shed there’s a stack of leftover bricks and paving stones – I guess they’re the next weapon in the fight. Let’s see if the little bugger is strong enough to move them.
I haven’t actually spotted the critter in question. It could be a number of species, but my money’s on it being Two-Tone, our resident squirrel. I don’t mind having it around, and I don’t mind it stealing a share of the bird seed hanging above this spot, but I really don’t want a secret lair under the porch. Secret lairs tend to attract evil, sort of by definition, and we seem to have more than enough of that around these days without inviting any more.
And yes, for those keeping track (which is likely only ME), there was no post yesterday. The 17th day in over eleven years when I didn’t have a post.
I blame gremlins. There was a heavy-duty attack which started on Wednesday afternoon and clobbered my ability to hit some key work deadlines for which I had been busting my ass for a week or more. (An information provider and database that we use at work was offline for 24+ hours, which meant I couldn’t get the data I needed to finish the reports due Thursday and Friday.) That sucked big time, caused a ton of stress, and then when the site came back up it started spitting out reports that were a bit garbage-like, which didn’t help. By the time I got my data and started to play catch up, my focus didn’t include yesterday’s posts. Usually I at least realize about 23:55 that time is fleeting and I can at least drop a “Proof Of Life” post, but this time it was closer to 02:30 before I came up for air.
Gremlins 1, Paul 0. But that’s just a battle, not the war. Carrying on…
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
Full Feeders
It’s one thing to “know” that the temperature & weather swings are more extreme in the desert – it’s quite another to live here for a while and feel it. While the summer was fairly mild (I think we only had a handful of days that got into triple digits instead of dozens and dozens), now it’s autumn and we’re getting that large and unusually cold storm moving in. The high temperature today was only 58ºF today, and as we speak it’s only 48ºF outside. Tomorrow’s high is only supposed to be about 51ºF, with an inch or more of rain.
In anticipation of there being a lot of cold, wet, miserable, and hungry birds tomorrow, I made sure that all of the feeders were topped off tonight, just as the front of the storm and the first rain started.
The Forever Home does as good of a job staying warm in the chill as it does staying chill in the heat. It’s nippy, but we haven’t had to turn on the heat yet. Which got me to thinking – where’s the furnace? I know that the two thermostats have “heat” settings as well as “cool” settings, and I know that there are two A/C units outside. Are those heat pumps? Are there furnace units built into the A/C units? Are there furnace units on the roof or in the attic? I know what the furnace looks like and where it was located in a closet-like enclosure in our last two houses, but I haven’t seen anything at all like that here.
New home ownership! It’s an adventure! I guess when the time comes I’ll switch the thermostat on and see if hot air comes out of the vents. Assuming it will, I can listen for new sounds to see if I can identify the source.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography, Weather
Nocturnal Visitor
The Forever Home came already equipped with a half dozen solar powered, motion activated security lights around the roofline. Last night I just happened to be wandering around a little after 4:00 (I’m an old dude with a history of kidney stones so I stay very well hydrated – you do the math!) when one of the lights outside in the back turned on.
I didn’t see anything out there and I wasn’t going to go get dressed to go out and investigate. Given the temps in the low 50’s, I wasn’t wandering out naked, either. So I was going to ignore it until a second light came on. I still didn’t see anything out there, so I made a note of the time to remind me to check the security cameras.
This is just after that first security light turned on – along the wall on the left you can see a pair of ***eyes*** strolling this way. Not that spooky, just what I expected. Possum? Raccoon? Something more domestic?
Three minutes later, just before the second security light activated on the right, the cat started investigating something around the treadmill that’s stored out on the porch. Big surprise!
It only took a couple minutes to see that the critter in question (I’m assuming it’s just the one, hard to tell with the low light, infrared images) is out there a couple of times a week. There’s nothing for it to eat other than bird seed, but if it should catch a rodent of some sort, so much the better.
Oh, and while I had seen a large owl perched out on the pergola at sunset, I was surprised that I hadn’t heard one. The ones in West Hills were quite noisy. Well, there were at least a couple hooting it up on Friday night, so that might be another hazard for the stray cat. One of those full sized Great Horned Owls will make a stray cat a meal in a heartbeat!
Filed under Critters
Equinox Monster
In celebration of the equinox today, we had a visit from a monster!
The house’s outer defenses were holding and the vicious killer hadn’t yet made it into the interior to rip our throats out.
I cautiously approached the alien-like monstrosity, ready for it to fly off into my face and go for my eyes. (Honestly, if it had taken flight when I was getting close, I swear I would have screamed and cried and needed a change of underwear.)
The reality was that it was probably asleep. I did notice later in the day that it had moved to the screen on the next window over, but I never found a need to call 9-1-1 or the National Guard.
Is this the same one that we saw on the front lawn about a month ago? I have no idea, but I doubt it. I suspect it’s just a sign that these tiny killing critters are ever so slightly more common here than in Los Angeles.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
Two-Tone Squirrel
The pictures, when viewed in detail, show a slightly different picture (literally), but to the naked eye, the squirrel stealing bird food this morning seemed to be decidedly two-toned, with a light brown, almost “dirty blonde” coloration accompanied by a white collar around his neck and forward shoulders.
You can see the basic pattern as described in this thumbnail above, but if you click on it and view the full-sized picture, you’ll see a lot more detail that is lost at first. I particularly like the white polka dot or speckled pattern on the back 2/3 of its body.
Not the sharpest picture I’ve ever taken, but the only one where I caught it more head on, proving that it wasn’t eating the bird seed from the ground, but was instead filling his cheeks with it.
Hilarious. Then it got in trouble and pissed me off.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
New Little Lizard Friend
Being the desert and all, I was expecting more lizards up here than at our old houses in West Hills. God knows you can find enough pictures on her from the last ten years of both fence lizards, large, small, and tiny, and the occasional alligator lizard (good sized critters, especially the ones that came up through the toilets). But through the first six weeks, it’s been slim pickings.
When I was taking the trash bins out to the curb last Thursday evening, this tiny dude was chilling on the curb. I figure the west-facing concrete was probably still warm after sundown and it was sucking up every photon it could get.
It didn’t move until I got really close, then it scooted under that big bush. The markings are noticably different than all of those we had in West Hills – they were more scaly and “granulated” with the classic blue bellies and throats. While I didn’t get super close and I didn’t get to look at it at length, it seems that this one is more striped than spotted.
I’ll keep my eyes (and camera) open to watch for more of the area lizards and get more data.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
TEENSY TINY MONSTER!
This little dude was chilling in the astroturf just before sunset yesterday.
Maybe an inch long.
Remember to be grateful every day that they don’t grow to human-sized. They would rule the planet like xenomorphs or Predators, so fast, so viscious.
Filed under Critters, Forever Home, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 