May 9, 2021
Spring is here and so are the animals! There's a hummingbird nest in our carrotwood tree that's been there in prior years. Currently the bird is sitting on the nest. It is very hard to notice unless you look carefully, which I did yesterday when I was considering trimming the branch. So glad I saw it!
We've seen a lot of snakes recently. We've been working methodically to reduce the shrubs on our back slope to reduce our fire risk. Yesterday, at the start of our work, DH spotted this rattlesnake, which we caught and relocated. It had been sitting docilly under a shrub that we were walking past repeatedly. When we started to catch it, it woke right up and moved fast! Growing up in Arizona and spending a lot of time outdoors (including actively looking for reptiles), I'm surprised how few rattlesnakes I saw there. Not so here in San Diego! We see more rattlesnakes here than all of the other snake types combined. I'm pretty certain the ones we see most regularly are Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes. (Another Link) Here is the one we found yesterday, once it was caught and in the trash can.
My neighbor sent this picture to me of the rattlesnake curled up outside her front door last week.
This season we've seen more non-rattlesnakes than usual for our San Diego experience. I've only seen a few
Ring-necked Snakes before. This one was in the yard 2 weeks ago.
Last weekend, while walking in the park we spotted another but didn't get a picture. It was fast! At first I thought it was a
Garter Snake but now I think it was a
California Striped Racer. We did not see its belly, but the stripes were vivid like the Racer and it was very slim.
A neighbor also sent this picture of a
California Kingsnake outsider her garage this week. I have a soft spot for these snakes, as we had them as pets growing up. About 8-10 years ago, I caught one of these in a neighbor's yard that she was alarmed to find and did not want. We kept it for a few weeks before letting it go. I wonder if this one is the same one or related. They can live 40 years!
The lizards are also plentiful. I've seen more
Whiptails this year than in prior ones. Plus we have many of the usual
Western Fence Lizards, which are the same genus as the Spiny Lizards that I saw more of in my youth in Arizona. This is a Fence Lizard, right?
Most evenings for years we hear an
owl hooting, although I've not heard it as much lately. I don't know where it lives during the day, but rarely we've seen it in the carrotwood tree or on the back fence. More often, we find owl pellets on the back patio or in the yard. It likes to sit on the peak of our roof when depositing them on the patio. Gross, yet interesting. Some years, I've gathered the owl pellets and brought them to the elementary school for a class to dissect.
Also, most nights we hear packs of coyotes yipping in the canyon. Very rarely do we see them, so I have no picture to attach hear.
Deer are common in the canyon. Most years, I feel like we see them rarely, mostly at dusk. This year are they more populous? We've seen them several times on the trails, ridges, or relaxing in the shade near the creek. We hiked this afternoon and saw one crossing the trail. Can you see them in these photos?
We see many
hawks like these ones often.
In prior years, we've seen an occasional Bobcat. In the last month, we've seen the same one repeatedly. In the afternoons or evenings, it strolls out from our side yard, right past our back window and out the back gate, including this evening (DH says he arranged for it to walk through the yard this evening as part of our Mother's Day Celebration!). In the mornings, it reverses it's path. I've looked in the side yard for its day spot, but have not found it. Likely, it just walks through and beds down elsewhere.
I've been enjoying the wildlife so much this year and wanted to put together a blog post about it. This is my Mother's Day gift to myself and to you! Happy Mother's Day!
6/5/2021 Since posting this last month, one evening when we were eating dinner, the bobcat hopped up from the canyon and through the gate. It strolled toward us quite happily with a good sized rat in its mouth for dinner! It took its usual route and went to the east side of the house with its prize.
Also, now I've got a better picture of the very common lizard we see. Western Fence Lizard, I think. I'm not sure how it differs from a Spiny.
We keep seeing these very cute, fuzzy, reddish ant-like things. It turns out they're wasps.
Red-haired Velvet Ants: "
Velvet Ants – What appear to be small wingless bumblebees having reddish to whitish hair are sometimes seen wandering about on the trails. While called velvet ants (see also Sacken’s Velvet Ant below) because of their appearance, they are actually female wasps in one wasp family. The males, which have wings, are seldom seen. Don’t handle these insects, for they can give a painful sting."
