What I've found on our property this month

I have to share with you all how excited I am about what we've been seeing on our property lately. We've always had our hawks, rabbits, coyotes, etc., but lately we're seeing more and more wildlife. Several years ago I saw a king snake *catch* a rabbit. I didn't know until then that they are *constrictors*. At first I felt horrified for the rabbit, then realized that I should be glad that our property was rather ecologically *balanced*. In the last month we've had a peregrine falcon take up residence and he's magnificent. Gray Thrashers are now regularly around. They're natural to our area, but in 23 years here I'd never seen one. They have a beautiful song, rather tropical sounding.This week I discovered layers of honeycomb hanging from one of the old avocado tree branches..this astounded me. I always thought they would be found in tree hollows or such. It's been abandoned, don't know why, still trying to get info on this. I've been planting more and more food for the monarch cats and now they're fluttering all over. It's all very rewarding since for the last many years here I've been trying to take the property to a more wild-like, diversified vegetation state. Now our local paper tells us that we have a mountain lion in the immediate area snacking on people's cats and all...gotta tell you,this doesn't thrill me much. I don't really want to hangout the welcome sign for this beautiful animal! And, Dovey,if you see that wolf again, don't tell him where I live. At this point I wouldn't doubt that what you saw was a wolf!
Sherry
edited to add that this week I've seen 2 baby king snakes, which is good news...they're the rattler's enemy and I've not seen many king snakes in the last few years.

This message was edited Jan 3, 2007 7:07 PM

Sherry, that is awesome! I don't see too much wildlife beyond deer, raccoons, and the occasional skunk here in suburbia! Seeing the snake eat the rabbit would have been pretty disturbing to see, but when you think about it the rabbit eats plants and the snake doesn't, so he was really doing you a favor!

We do have the hawks and owls eating the gophers, rabbits, etc. It's funny....everyone complains about the rabbits eating all of their plants and we have lots of rabbits, but other than trying a *taste* of something new, they don't cause any damage here. I have a lot of perennial morning glory and the gophers really love that and I think the rabbits do also, so perhaps they feast on that and leave my other plants alone. I see very few 'coonies which is too bad 'cause I love them, but thankfully, no deer. Love the deer also, but I've lived where they ate everything so I'm happy not to have them here. We do get the occasional bob cat, but this mountain lion thing is new. Department of fish and game says that we're prime mountain lion territory though. The king snakes can eat anything on my property that they want, I've learned to love them also because they're enemy to the rattler. My favorite thing, though was finding the honeycombs..that just amazed me!
Sherry

Ooohhh!!! Sherry, I know it's scarry having a mountain lion in your backyard, but I do love lions!

I'll have to come for a visit just so that I can catch a glance...lol

kanita

Kanita,
You're welcome to come down any time you like...make sure to time your arrival for daylight hours.!!...they're active from dusk through dawn and I won't even walk up to the mailbox at night now. I'm worried about my neighbor's horse and pony...she's just moved them down here and has no place to put them in at night...I read online that they're especially fond of horses and burros. We have one cat who'd been used to going out in the daytime and I worried enough about the coyotes, but with the mountain lion, he's become a definitely *inside dude*. Wish I could find a "pet psychic" to let him know why I'm doing this to him,he's soooo sad.
Sherry

I `d freak if i had a mountain lion around here especially because a guy I knew shot one that climbed into his dogs enclosure when the wind blew the roof off and killed his prized hunting dogs, they were teaching dogs and hunting rental dogs and one was pregnant, he had a business with them and had seen the lion poking around days before and reported it to fish and game but they did not come out. it is illegal to shoot them period unless it is attacking you personally. The lion was stuck in the pen and the guy shot it because if it got out it was next to his house and one dog was still somewhat alive , I recall. He got a huge fine, huge and was facing jail too. He ended up getting it dropped because he told them about the lion and they did nothing, they ended up paying him for his dogs and the litter of pups too but it is scary to think it is almost more protected than you are.

Well, I've been told that *they* do not trap and relocate them and will not kill them so......? I understand not wanting to kill them, but seems to me that's what happens once the lion kills a human and it's kinda sad that someone has to die first. I see both sides of it. I'm thinking that we probably got many critters being pushed in this direction from the 40, 000 acre Cabazon fire. We've always had bobcats around here, but I haven't heard of mountain lions before. It definitely changes you thinking patterns when you go outside at night.
Sherry

California is so greedy, there is so much unused land to build on but they push the boundaries until the animals turf is encroached on. There should be more green belt and department of land magment protected land because they do have to go somewhere, as you said.

Well, I think I'm glad that my bees abandoned their combs....Penn_pete over in the beekeeping forum has advised me that the africanized bees are notorious for making naked combs and if one sees a naked comb, assume they're the african bees. I realized that where I put a sprinkler on quite high is where it would have soaked their comb...felt bad about that....now I'm glad. Mountain lions and African bees, what next? We did have one rattler on the property this year, first I've ever encountered directly....our neighbors have had them, but not for quite a few years. All in all, I guess gophers aren't so bad.
Sherry

the bee thing is scary too. I beg to differ about gophers not being that bad, do you think the devil has gophers as pets? lol

Right now I think I'm friends with anything that isn't going to sting me or eat me!! I've never had problems with bees, but I'll probably be more careful about not angering any......apparently these guys really hold a grudge.
Sherry

lol amen

Well Sherry I got to see a coyote on my own, in Beverly Hills!!!!! A friend lives between Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills off of Beverly Glen Drive, and a pack (at least 3 that we saw) were strolling down the street. Animal control had to be called because when the LAPD canine unit came, (I thought they were stray german shepards) we were informed that those were coyotees, not dogs!

Kanita, I'm surprised that you haven't seen them before...they're everywhere. There's an interesting book titled "Coyote" (libraries have it) and it gets into talking about how they're now in areas previously not known to be coyote territory, like the northeast, and how well they adapt. Some years ago a friend in Iowa who did animal rescue was telling me about how endangered they are, all I could do was laugh. We have one cat who was allowed to go outside during the day and it worried me...our other cats are inside cats...but since the mountain lion news he's definitely an *insider* and now I can feel more kindly toward the coyotes. They're definitely bold and cunning...one locally went in through a small "doggy door", not once, but twice, and ate both small dogs. I *do* prefer them to mountain lions though!
Sherry

I`d hate to live where they come in your yard. I hate their howling, it scares me when it is near and you hear a pack. Here they are aloud to shoot them all year long. They have contests where you go out to see who can shoot the most. My DH told me that guys at his Mine do it all the time. I saw a dig hole outside my fence a few years ago. I was sure it was a coyote trying to get all the rabbits that come into my yard every night.

They've been known to go over an 8' fence. I guess I wouldn't mind if they killed quietly, and I have been told that when you hear them raising a ruckus they're *partying* and not after something....but I doubt that. I hate to hear them and think how terrified some animal must be. I don't know if there are any areas that don't have them now, but if we move, I'll be looking for some place without coyotes. When we lived in the northwest on an island there weren't any, but I hear that someone introduced coyotes to the island to control the rabbits....can't imagine who would do that...rather have the rabbits. We sleep with fans on for "white noise" so we aren't listening to coyotes all night.
Sherry

This message was edited Dec 5, 2006 1:17 PM

How funny, we sleep with white noise too. My DH use to hate it but I was raised with it so I can`t sleep without it, neither can he now. Ilike the sound of anything rythmiclike, trains or traffic passing on a nearby road, rain, fans etc. Atleast coyotes don`t eat all your grass and plants and poop all over your yard and your dogs don`t drop dead coyotes on your bed while your asleep. ooh

This is true!
Sherry