Category Archives: Critters

The day got away from my quickly. Monday’s already showing signs of being “interesting.”

Have an adult squirrel.

It hasn’t been terribly warm yet this spring except for one or two days, but it’s been warm enough to bring the lizards out of their winter hibernation.

They’re climbers and clingers, and the cinder block wall warms up nicely first thing in the morning and then retains the heat all day long.

Up, down, sideways, it doesn’t matter. They’re relatively safe on the wall, hard to grab by a hawk or other bird while they’re vertical and flat against the surface.

They do stand out and are pretty visible against the brick, as opposed to how they were pretty well camoflouged on the bark covering the trunk of the big tree in our back yard at the old West Hills house. Nonetheless, this seems to be a good trade off for them.

They also like to climb up on top where they’re in full sunlight, but in our case that puts them in traffic. Those psycho squirrels run up and down the top of this fence all day long, like they’re drag racing. The psycho squirrels are oblivious to the lizards, but that doesn’t mean that the lizards won’t get run over and knocked off into the abyss. The interactions between the species seem to be coincidental and accidental, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not dangerous for the critter that’s an eighth the size of the high-speed psycho.

As I’ve mentioned, we have squirrels living under the pergola in our back yard. It was about a month after we moved in last summer before the first one showed up, probably coming from over the wall somewhere out where the tumbleweeds, brush, and weeds stretch all the way to Rancho Cucamonga. Then there were two, then three. It really was a big deal (to us!) when I saw five at once out there last weekend.

Today there were more. Many, MANY more.

This guy was out there this morning, along with four of the adults. I’m going strictly on size, but the “adult” squirrels are … squirrel-sized, like the size of a small cat, big bushy tails. This little dude is more like a third that size. My first, immediate thought was that we were experiencing the first day outside for a new litter of baby squirrels (called “kits”).

How many squirrels are typically in a squirrel litter? I don’t know at all (Google says 2 to 4 typically, but some species can do 8 to 15…), but less than a minute later, this one popped up.

Then another.

Then another.

It didn’t take long before the pergola turned into a freakin’ squirrel clown car! All day there were almost always at least five or six kits out frollicking and gallavanting around, climbing, falling, running, eating.

It was tough to get an accurate count because they rarely stopped moving, and they kept creeping around behind the pergola floor and then popping up someplace else, but at one point tonight I could positively ID eight different kits out at once. It could be as many as ten or eleven. We’ll see. Maybe.

Either way, this weekend I was thrilled to see FIVE squirrels at once in the yard – we’re suddenly up to thirteen at a minimum. Our backyard critters have been fruitful and multiplied!!!

The ravens came by to check out what all of the fuss was. By the time I got the camera out they were just up on the wall, but a minute prior to this they were hopping along the edge of the pergola floor and peeking down into the various entrance tunnels into the squirrel den underneath. They’re very obviously aware of where the squirrels are and that there are a gaggle of them that are small enough to carry off. Ravens are opportunists, they prefer road kill and carrion, but if a baby squirrel kit gets careless, well, it’s that whole “Circle of Life” thing. We’ve also got a few hawks around, as well as owls if anyone comes out at night.

Over in the corner, trying to peacefully soak up some sun and minding their own business, the local lizards were watching the kits and thinking that the neighborhood was going to Hell.

We’ll see.

Sun’s up, it’s a bit chilly (mid 50’s) but they’re up on top of the wall, asleep, sunning themselves. Presumably with a belly full of free bird seed, which seems to come from a magic, eternally refilling source, so no one’s missing any meals. Chubby, well fed, warm, comfy!

Later, after it warmed up, the three of them were splooting out on the cool cement in the shade on the porch. I’m sure it felt good on their bellies.

While I was spending all day in Zoom meetings, answering emails, generating and distributing reports, meeting deadlines, and coding and entering data so I can get my month-end close done and reports sent out.

Who’s the winner between these two scenarios? Who’s got it better? How do I get to be the squirrel for a while?

Insert standard semi-annual rant about how freakin’ stupid Daylight Savings Time is and how much I despise it.

Critters.

We of course have these squirrels (three, it seems) and tons of birds (finches, sparrows, scrub jays, hummingbirds, crows, owls, hawks). I’ve seen fence lizards three or four times in seven-plus months so I know they’re here, but we don’t have nearly as many as we had back in West Hills, which I find very surprising.

Rumored to be around (the neighbors have told us they’ve seen them, or I’ve heard them, or some local agency has pictures of them) but not yet seen are rabbits, coyotes (I hear them sounding off every few days), and bald eagles. The bald eagles would be spectacular to see! The Big Bear nest is only twenty-two miles away, up a couple thousand feet of elevation, so it’s not unreasonable to think there are more around.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are the odd deer, elk, bobcat, or even a bear or two out there, but probably much more likely to see them up in the mountains or at least NEXT TO the mountains. We’re three or four miles away, out on the valley floor, so the odds are against us.

I am surprised we don’t see more feral or neighborhood cats. We’ve seen the security cameras on the back porch turn on in the middle of the night a few times due to cats wandering around, but I would have bet on it happening more often than it does.

And bats! We should see more bats, particularly around sunset. I’ve seen them maybe twice – should be more.

I’ll keep my eyes open.

At first there was one, then two pretty regularly. For a couple of days there were definitely three.

They are usually on the wall, in the sun, first thing in the morning.

I’ve expressed some skepticism in the past about the safety of these locations given the presence of hawks and owls in the area.

But, there they were, pretty much every day. Often one, sometimes two on the wall at once with the third down on the ground eating leftover bird seed.

Sometimes I would see them in full “sploot” mode, spread eagled on top of the wall, soaking up photons.

Sometimes one of them would be off on the end of the wall, looking for activity in the neighbor’s yard.

But they were skittish. If they saw me at all in the window, taking pictures, they were down the trellis in a flash.

Down to the ground, then into their hidey hole under the pergola.

Proof that there were at least two – the third one was out but they never got close enough together for me to get all of them.

There must have been something different about the lighting on this occasion, with some overcast and the Sun higher, later in the day. They were in the planter just outside of the kitchen window, but didn’t spook at all when I came up to the glass to shoot pictures, seemed to not see me even through they were much closer than when they’re on the wall.

And then all of them have vanished. I have no clue what or why, but it’s been about ten days since I’ve seen any of them. Not three, or two, or one squirrel. For the last week and change, ZERO squirrels.

Hawk? They moved, temporarily or otherwise, to another yard or spot out in the empty lots surrounding us? They’re hibernating? (Do they do that?)

Circle of life? Who knows.

If/when they show back up, the camera is ready. The birdseed is everywhere. The pergola awaits.