Wildlife

Living in the city, you don’t expect to see certain animals just wandering, or flying, about. I thought I’d start a log of sorts of the ones that I’ve had the privilege of sighting lately…

Bats! In the evening, just after sundown and when the sky is still dusky, the bats are out, zooming about erratically as they cleanse the skies of skeeters One flew about four or five feet from my head, and I was proud of myself for not ducking it. Bats are pretty darned cool.

Woodpecker – flew across the road and landed on top of a telephone pole. At first I thought it might have been a flicker – we see lots of these around, especially at school under the builiding’s eaves. But when I got a good look at this one, with its black and white and red markings, and crest on its head, I knew his true identity.

Raccoons…damned raccoons! They make their occasional appearance on my porch, wreaking havoc at the kitty food dish. They’re sooooo cute, but also soooo huge and mean and scary! I toyed with the idea of shooting them with a pellet gun (to scare, not to kill), but all I could think of was that I would hit one in the eye, and I’d have a blind raccoon living out the rest of his days on my porch, feeding with the kitties…

My absolute favorite, and most frequent, sightings: barn owls. Yep, a mating pair and baby are currently inhabiting some trees at the end of my block. There has been a pair living there for years, not sure if these are the same or their offspring, but either way, it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve experienced as a city dweller. In the evenings, I’ll take Emma for a walk, and we’ll stop across the street from their trees and watch…tonight, I was treated to all three…first, the baby, perched atop the dead tree where they nest; then I heard the screech of a parent as he flew in to stand guard over the little one; parent number two then came in for a landing, sending parent number one scattering to another branch, after which the three just perched there and stared at me, probably sizing me up to decide if I was small enough to eat (not!)

More to follow, I’m sure…