Tag Archives: animals

Backyard Bobcat Bliss

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More magic!

I can’t post video any other way on WordPress so I hope you’ll be able to view this spectacular bobcat that came to my garden DURING THE DAY with a RAT in his mouth!

Here’s how the story unfolds: Yesterday morning around 6:30 a.m., I saw something on the lawn. I went out to look and it was a mangled rat. Hmmm, I said to myself, that’s gross, but I bet a hawk or owl dropped it. A little later, I walked up the stairs and took the SD card out of my wildlife camera that’s situated on the lower half of the hill and brought it inside to check, like I do on a weekly basis.

I was absolutely blown away by this video!

Bobcats (and coyotes) visit most nights, but this is the very first time I’ve captured video of a daytime stroll through here — with the added bonus of a meal.

It might look as if he walks away, but keep watching for his return along with an early dinner. As he makes his way down the steps, I realize the bobcat is the reason for the rodent remains I found on the lawn. This bobkitty is so jawdroppingly beautiful, I’ve watched the video at least a dozen times.

Bobcats are incredibly elusive animals and a bobcat sighting is a rare occurrence. Although bobcats are primarily nocturnal, they may be seen during the day while hunting/foraging for food, especially between April and July when they are most likely to have dependent young.

The only part of this momentous event that makes me a little sad is that I was HERE at that exact time and didn’t have a clue that I should have looked out the window that faces the garden as it would have been the greatest day in my life, right up there with seeing wolves in the Lamar Valley at Yellowstone, (although the temptation to want to run outside and say “here kitty, kitty” and pet him is strong.)

I am beyond grateful that these creatures feel that my garden (and me) are a safe haven to explore.

What might it mean? Seeing a bobcat carries a powerful spiritual message. It could be a sign that we need to tap into our inner strength and independence. The bobcat embodies resilience, encouraging us to stand our ground in the face of challenges.

Additionally, the presence of a bobcat might be a call to explore the mysteries of our life. It’s an invitation to delve deeper into our personal spirituality and uncover truths that may be hidden or suppressed. A bobcat can indeed be seen as a good luck spiritual symbol. https://lifeadventurously.com/spiritual-meaning-of-bob-cat/

This is a good time to remind us all about the horrors of using poison to control rodents:

Rat poisons don’t just kill rats; they kill wildlife too. Wildlife species are exposed to anticoagulant rat poisons when the poisons are used in urban and agricultural areas to target species such as rodents. But those who consume the poisons do not die immediately of the internal bleeding they are intended to cause. It can take more than a week for a poisoned rodent to die. In the meantime, the poisoned animal may be vulnerable to predators, and if a predator such as a bobcat preys on the poisoned rodent, the bobcat becomes poisoned too. Thus, poisons enter local food webs and become especially harmful to animals at the top of the food chain. Through a process called bioaccumulation, animals at the top of the food chain absorb toxins from eating lots of different prey animals, but their organs cannot filter out the toxins, causing the poisons to accumulate in their systems. As a result, some of the most iconic species in California – bobcats, coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, owls – are the most vulnerable to this indirect poisoning.  https://panthera.org/blog-post/surprising-effects-rat-poison-bobcats

Let’s Play Ball! (Lizard-style)

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This isn’t the greatest photo; the sun kind of distorted the sharp lines and colors, but I was lucky enough to capture my lizard friend sunning himself on an orange tennis ball

This other guy visits every day; I can always tell who it is by his sort of mutilated tail. He seems to know when I’m in the garden and runs over to greet me.

Hello, handsome! They might be referred to as cold-blooded, but still have their own distinctive personalities.

Lizards like to snack on mealworms, but I never seem to remember to buy them at the pet store. I know they have enough to eat because they’re doing a great job cleaning the garden of unwanted grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles.

Garden Visitor: Red-shouldered Hawk

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This Red-Shouldered Hawk is perched on a palm tree just over the fence in the open space.

I often see these majestic birds of prey soar high overhead or perch like this on tree branches. Its rising, whistled kee-rah is a distinctive sound. They hunt small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.

I hope he’s looking for his next meal…he’s the very real definition of hawk-eye!

On a side note, could the sky BE any bluer? I think not.

(PS All photo credit to Enchanted Seashells)

Ocean Magic

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Let her be
For her heart is filled with stardust
Her soul is as wild and free
As the wind

Have you ever witnessed something so exquisitely beautiful it almost made you cry?

I saw more dolphins yesterday! I watched three of them surf the big waves until they were too far away to see without binocs, and then I exhaled a big sigh. It was only then that I realized that I had been holding my breath.

How IwishIwishIwish I was a mermaid.

From Pinterest

A Little Poem written by Athey Thompson
Art unknown from Pinterest

Two Coyotes and Three Dolphins

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Coyotes were in the garden last night! I was awakened at midnight by at least two extremely conversational coyotes; yipping and howling for a few minutes. I went back to sleep with a smile on my face.

This morning I went on a beach walk (did NOT almost get run over by a crazy driver this time) and was lucky enough to see three dolphins! I’m sorry the photos aren’t great, but I only had my phone.

Here they are in the middle of the photo, to the right of the little boat. They’re moving south.

In this photo, the dolphins are directly to the left of the paddleboarders, who are actually watching them swim by.

Dolphins represent a bond between mankind and Mother Nature, in part due to their emotional connection with humans while they remain firmly part of the animal kingdom. Dolphins are representative of both the Air and Water elements as they are warm-blooded, air-breathing mammals, yet they reside in the depths of the ocean. 

For me, hearing coyotes last night and seeing dolphins this morning are two positive indicators that December is starting out to be an amazing way to end 2023!

Green MONSTER

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Have you ever seen a Green Lynx spider? I hadn’t until this morning when I saw this Godzilla-sized bright green monster watching me through the patio doors.

I took a photo and then calmly moved him to a safer (for him) location. Peucetia viridans, the Green Lynx spider, is bright green and usually found on green plants. That makes sense since he was right next to a young orange tree I have on the deck. It’s the largest North American species in the family Oxyopidae. The body was about and inch in length and the legs were more than THREE inches long. It was HUGE.

Green Lynx spiders are non-poisonous and rarely bite humans but the bite can be painful. Females, when threatened, are known to spit venom from their fangs (up to 8 inches). If venom enters the eye, it may cause irritation.

My DIL is deathly afraid of spiders, more so than anyone I’ve ever known. On a recent visit, my son and I were enjoying a quiet cuppa and some morning chat about the kids when we heard her screaming, I mean like blood-curdling screams, the kind that, if they heard, neighbors would call 911.

My Angel Boy ran up to see what was going on and I followed. Apparently, she had been on a Zoom call in AB 2.0’s bedroom when she noticed a VERY VERY large spider on his bedspread.

After we ushered her to another room so she could calm down and resume her call, we then searched high and low for the offending arachnid and couldn’t find a thing. I thought her screams might have scared him off, but my son said he actually had seen it before scurrying away and it was literally four inches in size.

We needed to keep looking because if there WAS still a spider in the little guy’s room, we needed to find and relocate it before bedtime.

I stripped the sheets off the bed, shook them out, and found nothing. We removed the top mattress and then the box springs and OMG, there it was, trying to make itself as small as possible in the corner of the bed frame. I didn’t have my phone to take a photo but you can trust me that it was one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen.

We ushered it into a box, clamped on the lid, and my son took it outside as far away from the house as he could, while I remade the bed and checked to make sure DIL hadn’t had a heart attack from fright.

I wonder what she would have thought of my Green Lynx with those scary, hairy legs watching her through the window?

A Very Very LONG Lizard

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I didn’t have time to grab a ruler or measuring tape but this lizard was LONG. I actually first thought it was a snake, but my gaze followed the tail all the way to its body. I see these guys every so often, but they’re not as common around here as the smaller ones.

The California Alligator Lizard was named after its large head and big jaws. The alligator lizard really looks like a mix-up between a lizard and a snake with a body twelve inches long or more and most of its size made up of its tail. They’re yellowish-tan with black stripes and a gray belly.

Alligator lizards are carnivores that eat insects, ground beetles, crickets, hornworms, and grasshoppers. They are opportunistic feeders that take advantage of any resource they can find, including cannibalizing their own kind if that’s the most convenient food source. Whatever they catch and can swallow whole is considered fair game, from tiny flies to baby mice.

I read that they bite when cornered, so I’m glad I didn’t get too close. I was once bitten by a smaller lizard that I tried to rescue and that hurt a LOT. I can’t possibly imagine how I’d get this big one off if he latched on to my hand. You can read about that other time HERE.

Save a Life 🐝

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Since I was fortunate enough to NOT die last week and still slightly anxious from that near-death event, I stayed home this morning.

As I was taking out the trash, I saw a single bee on the deck. I crouched down to get a better look at the little guy and while he was still moving, he seemed lethargic and tired, but not dead, thank goodness.

I ran inside to get a shallow plate which I filled with sugar water, placed a rock in the center, and brought out a toothpick. I set the plate near the little bee and watched as he took a couple of sips from the drops hovering at the end of the toothpick.

I scooped him up with a seashell and placed him on the rock in the plate. After the thirsty little guy drank a bit more of the sweetness, he gathered enough energy to buzz away.

There are no pics of that miracle because I was too intensely focused on bee rescue, but I felt really good about the outcome especially since I’m allergic to bees and have always been afraid of them.

Bees are incredibly hard workers and if you do find a bee on the ground for an extended period of time, then in most cases there is nothing wrong with the bee. It simply needs a little rest. It’s pretty easy to revive tired and exhausted bees. A simple solution of white sugar and water can work wonders to give them the energy they need to fly away. 🐝

Monkey? Owl? Monkey Owl?

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What in the world did I just hear?

It was a warm night and the patio doors were open…

I’m used to hearing coyotes and the occasional hoot of a pair of Great Horned Owls that live in the ‘hood, but last night I heard what could only be described as a MONKEY — but that’s crazy, right?

I turned off the TV, grabbed my phone, and pointed it outside.

You can hear it too, the monkey sounds in tandem with very faint owl hoots. The hoots didn’t get picked up as I was recording though the screen door, so you might not catch it. Definitely turn up the volume.

I did some research: What is a bird that sounds like a monkey — and thanks to the brilliance of Google, a zillion results popped up.

It turns out that I might have been lucky enough to hear a Barred Owl, which is more rare here. Or it’s another vocalization from the Great Horned Owl, one I’ve never before heard.

Barred Owls are huge, between 16 to 25 inches long, with a broad wingspan of up to 60 inches. Since I’m five feet tall, I cannot even fathom that.

Whoever it was, I’m overjoyed! It’s one more animal friend helping to rid my garden of disease-ridden rodents. Bon apetit!

Barred Owl

Apologies again for the crappy video, as this was my screen door and I couldn’t turn off the flash because I didn’t want to mess around and lose the capture.

So what is it? Monkey? Owl? Monkey Owl? Or something else?

Colorful Coyote

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I hardly ever see my backyard friends during the day so this was a huge surprise, even more so because I was actually outside at the time.

I have no idea how I missed observing this beauty in real time, but it was such a treat to check the camera and discover my silent visitor up on the hill.

Isn’t his coloring beyond beautiful? I can’t wait to see him again…

Morning Coyote Visit