With all of those trees you see in the back yard and down the hill in the neighborhood, it shouldn’t be any surprise that we have squirrels in the yard. Especially since we’re feeding the birds every day and the squirrels can mooch off of that bounty.
Normally we see one squirrel, sometimes two. But in the spring, like now, we often can see three or four, with two of them being noticeably smaller than the others.
I have a theory…
Filed under Critters, Photography
She hates me. It’s her nature.
Coco is a tiny dog, some sort of mutt with a lot of poodle or terrier if I had to guess. She belongs to our neighbors on the north side and Coco’s job is to defend our wonderful, kind, friendly neighbors from all sorts of evil terrors. ***I*** am the evil terror, just in case I was being too subtle.
There’s a 6′ chain link fence between our yards, covered in vines (I’m sure you can catch glimpses of it in any one of hundreds of photos from the past six years) so I don’t see Coco well and she doesn’t see me, but that doesn’t matter. She’s sound activated. Any sound from me and she is sounding the alarm.
Me taking the trash out is the absolute bane of her existence. The trash barrel is over along that fence and when I open the lid on the trash can or recycling bin it often bangs into the fence and rattles it. She’s often barking at me long before I get there, set off by my footsteps, but the sound of the trash bin being opened and closed is like throwing gasoline on a fire.
Even when I just go out to walk around the yard and stretch my legs, it’s anathama to Coco. This aggression will not stand. man!
I hear my neighbors trying to shush Coco, but she will not be silenced. She has a job to do and she’s going to do it!
I do not taunt her, ever. I don’t call her name. I don’t stand on my side of the fence and bark back at her. I don’t scream, “COME AT ME, COCO! GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT! LEAP THAT FENCE, COME OVER HERE AND GO FOR MY THROAT! TAKE ME DOWN AND PROVE YOUR DOMINANCE! SHOW ME WHO’S THE ALPHA CRITTER!!!” I don’t do any of that. I think about it… But I’ve been good.
So I understand my role, my part in this particular drama. I go outside, quietly, often with trash, minding my own business, and Coco goes berserk to make sure everyone knows I’m outside in the yard without supervision, footloose and fancy free, an obvious threat to the future of Western Civilization.
What kills me are the squirrels. We’ve got many of them (plus all of those birds!) and I’ve never once in six years heard Coco barking at the squirrels. Those little rat bastards scamper all over the yard and up one side of the tree and back down the other, along the top of the fence, in and out of all of the vines, and Coco ignores them completely. Isn’t THAT the EXACT sort of thing that terriers were originally bred for? Not for Coco, whose noble ancestors might be spinning in their graves at what their proud lineage has become. But god forbid that I should go out in my own yard with a camera to take pictures of a hawk.
Gee, it would be a pity if our juvenile red-shouldered hawk got a bit bigger and stronger and more capable and saw Coco as prey. Poor, poor, edible little Coco.
Time to start training and befriending hawks!
After seeing the woodpecker earlier and then getting distracted by the sleeping owl, there was another notable visitor at sunset, when I went out looking for the owl again.
Our resident young red-shouldered hawk was sitting just about 20 feet off the end of the back yared, eating something.
Given the feathers hanging from its beak, I’m guessing there was a mourning dove or some other bird that was today’s prey.
Yeah, I got the hairy eyeball after the first couple dozen photos. It’s a gorgeous bird.
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography
Yesterday, before I got distracted by the unknown object (sleeping great horned owl) up in the top of the pine tree down the block, what had I seen just off the end of our yard that had caused me to drop everything, grab the camera, and hustle across the yard to get some closeups?
This gal!
The Cornell University Merlin app can’t quite decide if it’s a female Nuttall’s Woodpecker or a female Ladder-backed Woodpecker…
…but I think it’s more likely a Nuttall’s Woodpecker. If you click on the pictures to blow them up to full sized, you’ll see a tiny patch of yellow by her beak, which isn’t mentioned as an identifying mark but which can be seen in Merlin’s pictures of other Nuttall’s Woodpeckers, but not in any of their pictures of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers.
I know it’s a female because males of both species have red heads, while females are just black and white.
Either way, it was a bad day to be a bug or a termite on that pine tree. Feast away!
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography
It was early afternoon (13:30) and out of the kitchen window I had spotted a rare feathered friend visitor (pictures later). I grabbed the camera and hustled on out, but when the bird I was photographing spooked and bugged out, I started looking around.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up high in one of the pine trees on the hilside below our yard there was a large brown object that I had never seen before.
Brown, some stripes and details, about the size of a backpack. My first thought was that it might be a hornet’s nest or something like that.
It was still there an hour later, and an hour after that. When I finally remembered to grab my binoculars and go out to get a closer look about 18:00, it was gone.
Looking at the couple of pictures that I got, the ears give it away. This would be a sleeping great horned owl.
We hear them almost every night, and I’ve seen a couple close up during the day, but this is the first time I’ve seen one all tucked in to sleep during the daytime.
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography
Some days it’s getting warm(er), when it’s not cool and foggy like it was on Saturday. When that happens, the fence lizards come out to sun themselves on the wall and on the sidewalk and wherever they can grab a sunny spot that’s just a quick dash from safety if/when danger (i.e., me or a hawk) appears.
They all seem to have their own little territories.
This dude hangs out either under these trees or on the side near the ground.
Several of them lounge along this wall at the back side of the yard. Here you can see his blue belly.
And again. These Western fence lizards are often known colloquially as “blue bellies” for obvious reasons.
They’re also big on giving me side eye.
This little goober has repeatedly sat here and will stand his ground instead of running off into the bushes.
I just step over him, of course, and then he runs – I wonder if he’s capable of learning that I’m really not a threat. I remember that some of the larger and presumably older lizards at the Pomelo house seemed to finally learn that I was safe and they wouldn’t run when I walked over. But that might be more of a perception issue on my part rather than actual behavorial modification.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Being back home and having it warming up means it’s time to re-aquaint myself with the fence lizards that live in the back yard.
They were not as happy to see me as I was to see them.
I kept my distance and backed off. Let them enjoy their sunny, warm day.
Then I found this guy basking in the shade on the hot concrete next to the recycling bin. That’s NOT a Western fence lizard like the others.
I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s an alligator lizard. This one’s just under a foot long and has beautiful markings along its back.
You’ll see the obvious differences in the body shape, head shape, and the length and shape of the tail. Alligator lizard.
In the years we’ve been here I’ve seen one bigger one, usually in the garage. That one is well over eighteen inches long and I suspect this one’s probably its offspring.
Happy Spring from LizardLand!!
Filed under Critters, Photography
First off, as a side note, I’m currently on a consecutive days posting streak here of 786 days.
I give that streak a 50/50 chance at best of making it to 800 days at the end of next week. What will kill it, accidentally, will be A) a horribly long day of driving and adventuring at which point I get back to the hotel and crash and burn and sleep for 12 hours, B) not knowing what time zone I’m in to begin with and having midnight click by when I think it’s still 22:00 or 23:00, or C) both.
Eleven hours on the road today to do 8.5 hours of driving. That leaves a little less than 11 hours of driving remaining to get to Kerrville, TX on Friday.
Arizona rest stops have issues.
Are scorpions actually classified as insects? Who knew?
I did not see any, but there are a lot of tall cacti on those hills. I did not get any closer because, well, jeeze Louise, SEE ABOVE!
I did see this guy (and a small flock of his family & friends) who were sounding off just before sunset at the rest stop.
The Cornell Labs ID’d it as a great-tailed grackle. (I think I messed up the title on the Youtube upload. My bad!) That’s a new one for me!
Tonight I’m back in Benson, AZ for the night. (Cue all of the appropriate “Dark Star” 🚀👽🛸 jokes.) Tomorrow it’s on to Texas (4 hours, 271 miles to El Paso) and we’ll see where I end up for the night.
It’s an adventure! It’s awesome!!😎
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography, Travel
The juvenile red-shouldered hawk that I saw up close and personal three weeks ago has apparently made itself at home in the small grove of a half dozen pine trees that cover the hill below our yard.
Usually it’s either flying around or it goes up into the canopy higher up in these trees, but sometimes it will come down into the open on the lower branches. Whether sitting or flying, it’s become quite vocal and loud, leaving no doubt of its species.
While it was sitting up there a trio of ducks flew by. I could hear them quite a ways off – and so could the hawk. I saw them coming up from the canyon off on the left and doing a big “bananna pass” (an airshow term, but it applies here) right over our heads. I noticed that the hawk was watching them intently…like, you know…a hawk! I could see the little thought bubble over its head. “I’m small now, but give me a year or so! Thems are good eatin’!”
In the meantime, if it wants to keep well fed and grow up big and strong, this is a good area. (No doubt the reason we have other red-shouldered hawks, Coopers hawks, night hawks, and red-tailed hawks in abundance.) There are plenty of squirrels, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, and other small critters to feast on, not to mention the mourning doves and twenty or thirty other types of birds. And lizards.
I don’t mind most of those critters, but we get the odd rat in the yard from the ivy that the neighbors love to have growing all over their fences. If our hawk pal wants to feast on rats, he’ll have my undying support.
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography
What a pleasant surprise today! I was taking a quick break and grabbing a soda in the kitchen when I saw something large-ish going through the pine trees on the slope beyond the back yard. It wasn’t any mourning dove, much larger, some sort of raptor. I grabbed a camera and headed out into the rain.
I figured that it had just been passing through and I might see it circling over the canyon someplace. It was rainy and starting to close in so I didn’t see anything in the sky. Suddenly my pattern recognition kicked in and I realized that this guy was sitting right there, staring at me.
After I got a couple of pictures from the back yard, I decided to see if the hawk would sit still while I went down the stairs to the “lower level.” To my surprise and delight, it did! Although it was giving me some serious stink eye.
I was still maybe 20-25 feet away and about even with it, although if I had tried to go over to the tree it was in I would have been 30 feet below it. That hill is steep. I guess it decided that I was mostly harmless. (I am! Mostly…)
By this point the rain was coming down steadily and while the hawk was looking all over, it didn’t seem too happy about the meteorological conditions.
What kind of hawk is it? It’s a mystery, sort of. I ran four different pictures through the Merlin Bird ID app (from Cornell Lap, get it!) and all four said it might be a Cooper’s Hawk or a Red-shouldered Hawk. In either case it’s probably a juvenile, but that’s more likely if it’s a Red-shouldered Hawk. That’s my bet, simply because the Cooper’s Hawks that I’ve seen up close have solid brown or tan chests, where these patterns are more like the Red-shouldered Hawks. I could have positively ID it if it had sounded off, their calls are much different. But not a peep was heard.
I expected it to fly off any second, but it just sat there. After about fifteen minutes I was more wet than I really liked, and I had the option of going inside. I came back out an hour later and it was still sitting there, which I found really surprising. But it was gone a half-hour after that.
I shot a couple minutes of video while waiting and hoping it would either sound off, fly away, or both. No joy on all counts, but it’s a gorgeous creature!
Filed under Birds, Critters, Photography, Video, Weather
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