Category Archives: Critters

March 24, 2022 · 23:50

Close Encounter Of The Furred Kind

Before dinner I was taking a break for a few minutes, sitting out in the back yard in that white chair out toward the edge of the drop off down the hill.

The sun was warm, it was quite pleasant, probably about 70°F, the strong winds of the last several days gone. I sat for 15-20 minutes, skimming social media on my phone and enjoying the weather.

Sitting very still, apparently.

At the edge of the hill there’s a little terrace, about five feet down, with a set of steps over on the right, by the ice plant. Down the hill, along the outer edge of that terrace, there’s a chain link fence, that may or may not define the edge of the property. (There are a couple more chain link fences running parallel to it horizontally along the ridge, but no way to get down there and just ivy and weeds covering the hillside. I rent, so I don’t care where the property ends, but it could also be at one of those fences.)

I heard something hit the chain link fence and then wiggle it. I had my suspicions.

A few second later I saw movement at the edge of the yard, above the terrace and just four or five feet from me. Whatever it was had hit the top of the wall behind some of that tallish, decorative sage grass that grows there so I couldn’t see it and it couldn’t see me.

I stayed very still.

And around the corner of the clump of grass came my suspect.

(May or may not be the actual squirrel.)

I expected it to bolt, but noooooo! It started to creep forward toward the yard behind us, oblivious to my presence. For about three feet. Then it froze.

Probably no more than an inch or two from my sneakers, it didn’t even raise its head, just moved its eyes, almost in cartoon fashion.

Jurassic Park Remove Glasses GIF - Jurassic Park Remove Glasses So Intense GIFs(Yeah, that’s the attitude!)

I still hadn’t moved, but quietly said, “Something I can help you with?”

Friends, I will bet anyone $5 that if you go examine where that critter was standing you will find a little pile of squirrel shit.

The squirrel levitated at Warp Factor 8 over to the big tree back there and then sat about 15 feet up, clicking and chattering at me. Obviously, this was all my fault!

I couldn’t have caught or chased it to save my life. I was laughing too hard.

Gotta keep that chair there and spend more “quiet time” reading there. Who knows what or who might drop by next?

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Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Photography

March 3, 2022 · 23:04

The First ‘Hiding Under The Car’ Lizard Of The Spring

Do you see it?

I’ve been playing #FindThatLizard since long before it was a wonderful, Wednesday, Twitter phenomenon, so as soon as I stepped out of the door to get the mail, I spotted it.

It’s spring, a first encounter, and it was skittish, ready to bolt at any sudden movement. I kept well away, moved slowly, and used the telephoto abilities of my iPhone to get what pictures I could.

Event that didn’t do much good, since it was on a hair trigger. But it’s not one of the inch-long babies that are hatching and hypersensitive to perceived threats, so it eventually stuck around until I went back into the house, taking the long route. (It’s all good – the mail was all junk, tomorrow’s trash pickup day, so a detour down the sidewalk to dump the mail straight into the recycling bin was no biggie.)

Let the front yard lizard sightings begin! Any time spent lizard looking is less time spent doomscrolling, so it’s all good!

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February 14, 2022 · 22:39

What Does A Hummingbird Sound Like?

I don’t know about all of them, but the local male Anna’s Hummingbird sounds like this:

I tried to catch it once before, with minimal success, but tonight the little bastard (that’s actually what I call him, he’s VERY territorial and has chased off most of the other hummingbirds) was right outside the back door and going like crazy. I never did quite see him in the video – turns out he’s in those vines along the post on the left hand side.

I sort of hate what YouTube does to the audio, overly emphasizing the base and wiping out the higher frequencies where the hummingbird’s clicking away. But to me he sounds a bit like the mouse click on my old Logitech trackball, a really rapid staccato, like you were scrolling one page at a time, really fast, through a really long document.

But I might have just been sitting at the computer for way, way too many hours.

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Filed under Birds, Critters, Video

February 13, 2022 · 22:48

When The Crows Start Screaming

It was warm again so I was outside, Skyping with my son, watching the birds. There were a dozen or more juncos out there, along with finches, hummingbirds, towhees, and mourning doves.

Sort of all of a sudden, all of the birds on the ground vanished into the bushes and three or four crows up at top of the pines went nuts.

The problem was obvious.

While this red-tail hawk had perched and was facing off against two crows, its mate was circling above being chased by a couple more. After this one left and the two hawks met up they did a few passes overhead just over the top of the pines, maybe fifty or sixty feet up. It was STUNNING to see them right overhead, soaring so close.

They sailed off down the canyon with the crows following to make sure they stayed away. A looked like a win for the crows – but tomorrow’s another day. The hawks did not seem to be poorly fed.

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February 12, 2022 · 20:09

The Second Lizard Of 2022

I suspect that yesterday’s “first lizard” wasn’t one of the “tree lizards” from last year. For one, the tree lizards seemed to only be seen on the tree, where the ground lizards didn’t seem to ever be on the tree. But who knows? I never could get them to wear ID bracelets.

Today’s guest lizard was on the tree and looks to me to have different markings and be a bit smaller.

At the 0:17 mark, just after he moves, you can see him “doing push ups.” This is not an uncommon activity to see. I asked Dr. Earyn McGee (who runs the wonderful “Find That Lizard” contest on Twitter on Wednesday evenings) and she said that it was a territorial display, meant to warn off competitors. I didn’t want to harsh any lizard mellow, so I backed away and let this guy have his sun and tree.

Of course, as I backed away I almost stepped on the third lizard of 2022, a teeny, tiny little dude about an inch long who probably just hatched in the last day or two. We all survived, wiser for the experience.

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February 11, 2022 · 23:08

The First Lizard Of 2022

It’s been warm, above 80º every day this week, and I was wondering when the first yard lizard would wake up from their winter’s rest and come out for some photons.

I had spooked this one earlier when I was out in the back yard and it was extremely cautious and skittish, off into the bushes in a flash. However, as warm as it was, it didn’t take long for him to come back out, by which time I had grabbed the camera with the big lens.

I started walking cautiously across the yard, trying hard not to spook him again. (“SERPENTINE!!”) He wasn’t letting me out of his sight.

I did my best to look non-threatening. Plus, the sidewalk was nice and hot, so he had some incentive to stay there.

I don’t recognize this one from last year, but it may be one that has grown quite a bit. He’s very dark, and there was a pair of very dark lizards that were always on the big tree. Perhaps he’s one of that pair?

About eight feet away was as close as he was going to let me get, which was fine. I wasn’t there to harsh his mellow, he needed the energy and some ants or crickets to start rebuilding his strength.

The dark lizard and the bright white sidewalk made for some high contrast photos. A little Photoshop crop and work to bring out some detail shows some of the nice patterns on his back and tail!

Long live the lizards!

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December 19, 2021 · 22:53

A Four-Squirrel Day

Simple day – the most notable event was a “record” number of squirrels in the backyard. It was the first time I remember ever seeing four at once.

Sunday brunch for the little rat bastards. A fun time was had by all – so long as no one invites a hawk.

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December 14, 2021 · 23:33

Soaked Squirrel

That much needed rain arrived last night and it was a pretty good soaker. This morning when I got up, I saw this guy out feeding in the yard.

The image quality is poor because I was zoomed in to the max on my iPhone, but you can clearly see that he’s a bit bedraggled.

I didn’t feel too bad for him, he was feeding out in the area where I throw the “small critter” food (as opposed to the bird food) so he was getting a decent breakfast.

Then, in thanks for feeding him, thirty seconds later he was trying to climb the vine-covered porch post to get at the hummingbird feeder, AGAIN. The little rat bastard didn’t even have the courtesy to run away when I opened the back door, made me come out and take two or three steps in the cold before he decided I was really serious.

No gratitude. None!

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December 8, 2021 · 23:14

Fine Feathered Friends – December 08th

We’ve seen this guy before, back in April.

But while I’ve heard him once in a while, I haven’t seen him before early November.

It’s our friend the downy woodpecker, small, black and white with some spots.

I read something the other day that they’re the smallest North American woodpecker. This one’s not a whole lot bigger than a house finch.

While the bigger woodpeckers can make quite a racket, this little guy is pretty quiet. I could barely hear him from twenty feet away.

If you hear a loud, hammer-like sound around here, it’s probably one of the ravens, wanting to know when I’m going to feed the squirrels so that they can swoop in and steal dinner!

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November 28, 2021 · 23:29

Critter Tracks

While working on the Christmas lights this holiday weekend, it was immediately obvious Friday morning that some critter had been using my car as a perch of some sort. It’s been really, really dry and dusty and there were muddy tracks all over it.

Onto the hood…

…up onto the windshield…

…and then meandering all across the roof.

The critter had obviously just crossed through some mud, probably from the dirt around the roses next to the driveway. Given the tracks I’m guessing it was a raccoon, which are known to be around, although I guess it could also be a cat or an opossum. But my money’s on raccoon. I’ve seen one in the yard that was probably in the 30-40 pound range. I’m not sure what this dude was doing on the car, but no harm, no foul. Maybe he got spooked by the sprinklers turning on and was just trying to find a dry spot.

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