Category Archives: Critters

At the old house there was a growing population of California Alligator lizards, who I had collectively named “the Freds.” (See here, here, here, here, etc.)

It didn’t take too long to realize that there are lizards in the yard here at the new yard as well. Today was sunny and hot, so I got out the camera with the big lens (these lizards are a bit skittish, won’t let me get as close as the Freds did, but then again, the Freds knew that something was up as we were moving out) and did a quick survey of the back yard.

Some look a lot like the old Freds.

Some have similar body types, but much different colorations.

Some have significantly different body types, thicker through the body, shorter tails proportionately.

Look at this brute at the top! He’s built more like an iguana!

And his partner is much, much darker than all of the other lizards.

While some are almost sandy or a light green color.

Depending on the sun angle, some seem to almost be iridescent.

Some are possible hybrids, with thicker bodies than the original Freds but not like the brutes, but longer tails than the brutes while not being as long as the original Freds’ tails.

And they’re all very nervous, darting away and into the bushes at the drop of a hat. The presence of so many crows and hawks may up here may have something to do with that.

I’m figuring the thick-bodied, short-tailed lizards are related to the Freds, but some sort of different subspecies. I’m also figuring that we’ll call them Bubbas instead of Freds.

Finally, I’m figuring that neither the Freds nor the Bubbas will care what I call them, as long as I leave them alone. Which, other than taking pictures, I intend to do.

Long-term followers of this site will know that at our old house we had raccoons, lizards, coyotes, skunks, rabbits, hawks, and various other critters roaming about. We’ve only moved a mile away, so I’m not expecting a lot of difference at the new place.

We have seen rabbits, far more than at the old house. There I would often see two, very rarely see four at once – here I came home on Wednesday night and found seven or eight of them at once munching on the lawn.

But by far the most prominent wildlife to date at the new house are the crows. They’re loud, they’re active, there are a lot of them, and they most certainly seem to be territorial and aggressive. Quite often when we go out to the front yard, the pair in the nest across the street will start cawing loudly and fly over to the telephone pole in our yard and let us know they’re there.

Today things turned weird with the crows.

We were spending the day moving stuff from the old house to the new (as well as throwing out a ton of stuff from the old house) and shortly after noon, while being screamed at by the crows, we noticed one of them near the ground in the neighbor’s driveway across the street, sitting on top of their car. It was weird.

Just a few minutes later, as we were leaving the house, this guy appeared on our porch:

He isn’t aggressive at all – he actually appears to be very subdued and possibly injured. The neighbor across the street shouted that she thinks he’s a youngster who’s been hurt or sick, and all of the frantic activity by the other crows is over concern for him.

It was definitely not any kind of normal behavior that I’m aware of in a wild bird, allowing us to get this close to him without so much as a twitch.

We went off and picked up our next batch of stuff, and when we got home, we found him here:

Again, he doesn’t appear to be concerned at all about us, nor does he seem inclined to move or leave. Very, very odd behavior, again leading us to think that he might be sick or injured.

Being that I’m a critter-person and being concerned that this big, beautiful bird might be in distress, I put out a bowl of water and food. The internet says that fruit and whole grains are the best for crows, so a half apple chopped up into what I hope are bite-sized chunks and a handful of Cheerios is the best I’ve got on short notice.

When putting it out, I put a few Cheerios and a chunk of apple right next to him, with the rest on a plate next to the water on the bench seat. Edgar (for so we have named him) watched me, but never moved, never flinched, not even when I put an apple piece and a couple of Cheerios only an inch or so away from his feet.

Sadly, as of right now:

He’s still sitting there, shifting around from time to time, but it doesn’t look like he’s touched his food at all. And if he sits there, a not-so-friendly neighborhood cat could find him easy pickings.

Good luck, Edgar! Eat and drink if you can! Heal! Fly away! Go scream at us from the top of the telephone pole. Maybe you’ll be cussing us out, maybe you’ll be thanking us – we’re good with either.

Update regarding Edgar’s condition to follow as needed…

The latest and greatest additions to the urban menagerie (coyotes, hawks, hummingbirds, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, rats, peacocks, mountain lions) are these guys:

Shortly after this picture, these two bolted for the street to cross over into the neighbor’s hedge. They were closely followed by two more who I had been totally unaware of, lurking in the bushes.

I’m just going to assume there are actually more than four, pending today’s response by the coyote contingent.

While packing and loading and so on, “the Freds” continue to act bizarre and to multiply. We’ve seen them in the yard for a few years now, but you’ll see one here, one there. I think the most I’ve ever seen at one time is three.

Now I see four and five and six at a time, and over the course of the day at different spots in the yard I’ll see twelve to fifteen of them. They’re not wearing name tags, but they appear to all be different just based on size, shape, and some color differences.

I’ve seen a couple of the “back yard Freds” hanging onto the stucco, but up until today I’ve never seen any of the “front yard Freds” doing it. I guess they’ve been comparing notes and taking lessons from each other.

I’m also seeing them where I haven’t seen them before. There was one of them way out by the curb, nearly getting stepped on when I was loading the van for a trip to storage.

And there’s another thing. ALWAYS in the past if I got within eight to ten feet, they were gone! Into the bushes, into the tree, under the porch, wherever. I never before got within about five feet of one – except of course for the one that ended up in our toilet. Now? I got within about six inches of this guy and he ignored me.

Ditto for this guy. That’s not a shining example of the iPhone’s amazing telephoto lens – that’s a wide angle shot from about three inches. This guy never moved, except to turn his head and swivel his eyeballs to keep an eye on me.

The lizards know something is up!

I managed to snap a couple of quick pictures of my two new friends from the other day:

Here’s Fearless Fred when he charged up near me, just a couple of feet away.

A good way to get yourself stepped on!

A few minutes later, Foolish Fred followed me around to the other side of the car.

Bizarre behavior for these little dudes – I hope it doesn’t lead to them being eaten by a crow!

It’s been rainy here off and on for several weeks now, an odd weather pattern for this time of year. Given the gray and gloom, we haven’t seen a lot of “the Freds.” But today was sunnier if not much warmer, and at least one of the larger lizards was out to catch a few rays.

Not the biggest one I’ve seen by any means – I suspect it’s one of the handful of little ones that I first saw about two months ago, now with a bit of growth.

Some of the online references (San Diego Zoo, for example) say that this species can live 10-15 years. I don’t think we’re seeing the same lizards for that long since I suspect that the local bird population (crows and mockingbirds, primarily) have been seen catching the hatchlings.

It was a nice day to be out sunning, especially with shelter and a hidey-hole just inches away.

Yes, that is the, “Why are you bothering me and if you move one inch closer I’m going to vanish under this patio!” look.

In the cool, damp morning light, the humongous organism living under our yard poked up a few scouts to see if it had really, really rained the other day.

When I first saw the yard covered with mushrooms decades ago after we had first moved in, I did the usual all-American thing and tried to figure out how to kill them. After all, they destroyed that putting green look that I wanted for my yard!

I found out that all of the various fungi and similar fauna and flora are interconnected underground and it’s almost like one huge organism that’s far larger than any elephant or whale. I also found out that my yard looks just fine when it more closely resembles a salad than a carpet.

And, yes… That makes it the humongous fungus among us!