Category Archives: Critters

Oh Deer

While there are deer in SoCal (the Pepperdine campus in Malibu is practically infested with them, as is the JPL site in La Canada-Flintridge, and I’ve almost hit them on the 405 Freeway through Sepulveda Pass) they’re uncommon. Whereas in Vermont…

When we stayed at my mom’s place in Barre (this was a few years ago, like twenty years) we would see them every morning.

That’s an apple tree, and they would raid it around dawn every day. The only down side to seeing them was getting up at dawn, which even then was not my strong suit, but hey, DEER!

Cool! (Except for the ones, probably these, that would wander out into the road at night and threaten to re-arrange your radiator and give you a free airbag check to see if they’re still working.)

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There Are THREE Rabbits

I guess it was the squirrels’ day off.

(You can still scream it in Picard’s voice if you want to.)

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Old White Guys, Am I RIGHT?!

With the Volvo back in the driveway and the daily temps hovering around 100 degrees, it’s normal to see a lizard or two hiding under the car (protected from birds) in the shade (the concrete’s plenty warm, but not TOO hot).

As I went out to get the mail today I noticed a couple hiding in the shade (not this guy – these pictures are from 2020.) and as is my wont, I started talking to them.

You know, the usual stuff. Complimenting them on their choice of a spot which was safe, warm, and with multiple escape routes. Warning them about any mockingbirds I had seen. Chatting about the weather and heat. And so on.

I thought it was a private conversation, but then the roofers working on the neighbor’s house spoke up. I didn’t understand so I just waved, but I’m sure it was whatever the Spanish phrase is for, “Look at that batshit crazy old white dude talking to lizards!”

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Happy Bastille Day

Not because I’m French, or speak French, or have ever even been to France. (Someday…) Nope, just looking for any reason to celebrate, and having peasants rise up, overthrow the monarchy, and start beheading nobility sounded like a perfectly good cause today.

I thought that the Tour de France was finishing today, but apparently it’s next week, on the 21st. But Wimbledon finished today, along with the Copa and Euro soccer tournaments. And MLB wrapped up the “first half” of its season, with the All-Star break and other festivities starting tomorrow. So that gave me lots of things to do other than pay attention to the news.

These guys made excellent role models for that plan, not caring one whit about the news and all of the stupid things that humans are doing. I suspect they would be happier if we would stop cooking the planet as we’re in the middle of another long summer heat wave, but even after we manage to destroy ourselves, they’ll do just fine I suspect.

They’ll miss the two-quart buffets that I keep putting up, but those will disappear when we move to our Forever Home. I have no idea if future inhabitants of this house will bother to feed the hummers, but I can only worry about so many things, and that’s outside of my pay grade. I’ll probably leave the feeders and if the next tenants/owners want to take up the task of refilling them periodically, great. I’ll be feeding a new group of avian minions about 100 miles to the northeast. I hope. Someday. Soon. Maybe.

 

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Mystery Neighbors

Literally overnight it looks like two new and strange bird nests have been assembled under the eaves of the roof outside of our front windows.

I’m guessing that they’re bird nests because they’re connected up underneath the eaves and I don’t know what other kind of critter might be doing that.

I’m guessing that the one on the right is more complete. It’s not 100% clear to me what they’re made of – some kind of grass, but I don’t recognize it as anything growing nearby.

The one on the left seems only partially finished, but it’s the same design structure. I didn’t see any birds (or any other critters) around either nest, even though I was looking for them once I noticed that these were there.

What’s so surprising is the speed with which they had to have been made. They’re not subtle, I saw the long strands hanging down from inside the house, and on the outside they’re ridiculously obvious. I didn’t see a thing on Wednesday, even when I came home from the gym about 19:00, so this ALL had to get done this morning, assuming they didn’t work at night.

I ran the pictures through Google Lens to see if it could ID anything, but came up blank. I also looked on a couple of bird sites, including on the Cornell site, but found nothing. In simply describing “basket-type bird’s nest made of grass” the main hit was for orioles, and I have seen the large black & yellow hooded orioles around, but I don’t see any way these nests, as big as they are, could accomodate them. They’re big birds, almost as big as crows or ravens.

I did get one site that said that possibility was a Black-headed Junco nest, and I know we have those in the yard and the size makes more sense, but that’s a tenuous clue at best.

I’ll keep my eyes open and see what happens.

Does anyone recognize the nest design or have any clues to share?

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What’s Missing?

Vermont has lots and lots of stone and it’s been used as a building material for a couple hundred years now. In Springfield, my old home town, you can find stone walls like this everywhere.

Look at all of those wonderful nooks and crannies! As you know if you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, around here anything like this would be filled with lizards! In Vermont, where it’s covered in snow and ice and sub-zero temperatures for big chunks of the year, there wasn’t a lizard to be seen.

But life will fill any ecosystem. I finally spotted an occupant – a chipmunk! Cuter than your average lizard I guess, especially since we humans do seem to be partial to mammals when judging “cute,” but I missed my little “Freds” and “Bubbas.”

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Bunny Bunny

There are several of these little critters around. Normally they’re not out until it’s dark, but I surprised this guy just after sunset.

He froze at first and I tried to be conversational, but as soon as I moved he was off like a bat outta Hell, under the car, through the roses, and into the neighbor’s yard.

The joke’s on Bunny Bunny – they have astroturf. Good luck getting dinner over there!

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No Context For You – June 28th

The trip to Vermont was a ton of fun, but it’s been a long, hard month in many ways.

I spent two hours in the dentist’s chair yesterday getting an old root canal  drilled out and re-done, with two more to come in July. That whole “minor discomfort” lie? I’m calling bullshit!

I’m trying to model my reactions based on the mockinbird. Nothing bothers him. Except for the squirrel. I don’t know what the squirrel did, but the mockingbird his harassing him mercilessly.

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A Rogue Beaver?

While walking through Springfield, I found this:

It’s a telephone pole near the town Commons (where the baseball field & park is) and across the street from the cemetary.

Did this get hit by a car or some piece of heavy equipment or is there a rogue beaver wandering around town?

Our old house was only about 200 yards down the hill – I’m about 99.999% sure there isn’t any water around that might be home to a beaver, so I’m going to go with something man-made or accidental. It was the only pole I saw with this sort of damage and it did leave me wondering.

A small town Vermont mystery!!

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Two Hawks

We have hawks all the time overhead, ususally red-tail hawks soaring overhead and sometimes getting closer, plus red-shouldered hawks in the pine trees on the hill below us, and the occasional Cooper’s hawk. Plus both great horned owls and barn owls.

The red-shouldered hawks seem to have taken over for the moment. There’s the one that can be seen or heard pretty much daily for the last several months. But since we got back home from our Vermont trip, the screeching of the red-shoulder hawks has been almost constant from before sunrise until after sunset. I do love the hawks, but it would be nice if they would shut up for a while every now and then.

There also seem to be more than just the one. Every day this week I’ve been able to hear at least two of them screeching from different directions, and once I could hear two while watching a third. I suspect there’s at least one nest being constructed somewhere in the neighborhood.

Tonight I saw one of them sitting in a tree just off of the edge of the hill, so I went to take pictures.

It was sitting in the shade (not stupid – it was HOT out there today) and about the time I started zooming in, I was surprised to see a second hawk sitting with it. Do you see it?

After making more racket, the one on the left, in the deep shadows near the tree trunk, flew off to perch on the other side of the canyon. This one stayed here as sunset progressed and its perch spot moved into the sunlight.

I don’t know if there are distinguishing features or patterns that might tell me if one is male and another female.

Given that there are at least three in the area, there may be some competition for a single female and that could explain some of the noise levels.

We also have our annual infestation of gophers or moles chewing the crap out of the hillside and lawn. All of the hawks are cordially invited to keep well fed on that particular food source!

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