Glued to the spot as protector of parrots, I have no photos, no wow science, just a short sketch from yesterday.
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
Lovely sunny warm day with a mild breeze. Had the parrots outside in the travel cages so they could make Vitamin D before the winter rains hit (the true California dreamin'). They were under a tree about 20 feet away as I sat on the porch eating lunch with a friend, keeping an eye on the parrots in case neighborhood cats or the bobcat I saw here a few months ago decided to stop by for their lunch. Across the field opposite my home, I caught a flash of large beige someone landing 40 feet up in a ponderosa pine tree. So did my friend and we both spoke at once "huh that was big!"
Binoculars were inside, lunch on my lap and I wasn't inclined to investigate, but I kept watching because Big Beige Bird = raptor in my mental gestalt. Other birds agreed as a murder of crows screamed loudly from behind me in the giant cedar tree. That set off the parrot alarm calls and my friend began making hawk calls because she's a troublemaker. I shushed her, saying please don't call in a hawk, their claws and talons could reach through the bars of the parrots' cages and shred them before I could race the 20 feet to the cages. Flash of beige again from the distant tree about 150 feet away had me up and running over to the parrots. The crows had called in their friends and now several trees around my home hosted murders screeching alarms.
I stood next to the parrots' cages ready to punch a swooping raptor and Big Beige lifted from the tree and flew overhead with a pathetic attempt at a red-tailed hawk call (clearly a juvenile now that we could see and hear him). He flew out of sight and the crows stirred from their perches, flew a few circuits around us, and resettled in different trees. I stayed on guard.
Rooted there next to the parrot cages my eyes to the sky, movement on the ground near me flitted across my peripheral vision. Oh, it is mama doe and her no-longer-spotted twin fawns come to eat the few chicory blooming in the field and the bits of corn I've tossed out to help mama fatten up a bit before winter. I was so still and quiet they came within a few feet of me until a loud snort startled everyone and there was Big Buck (8 point antlers!) hanging with mama and the yearling fawns. Was this papa? I've seen mama and fawns many times a week since spring, but never saw a buck with them.
So no photos - I had to stay guarding the parrots and the second I shifted my head down from raptor watch to look at the deer papa had snorted his "get outta here" warning and deer family silently jumped over the fence and vanished into the forest patch.
WHO ARE YOU SEEING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD? Comment below.
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