Seems every year here in Northeast Pasadena we get a surprise or two. This summer it was deer. For the first time in our experience, we have had deer visit the yard. I have seen this buck maybe half a dozen times I have seen him on his own. I have also seen him with a smaller buck and, I think, have seen a doe with him too.
They are beautiful very graceful animals and seeing them has been fun. I think mostly they have chosen our yard as a shady spot to lie down under the trees. But, I have seen them move too and this guy can bound over our fence with no effort at all. Thus far they have done minimal damage. But, I have seen them eating the leaves off our fruit trees and our apple and young avocado have branches that the deer have stripped to the nub. So, as fun as they are to watch, I have taken to moving the deer along when I see them in the yard.
I would say bear activity in our neighborhood has been less than in recent years. Late spring we had a bear cub break through a screened vent and crawl under our porch. The bear eventually left and the screen was fixed. We haven't had any problem since.
Of course, when we first moved here, we did not have any bears around. We kept chickens, had a small apiary and enjoyed fresh eggs and honey. We took measures to protect the chickens from coyotes, but did not give bears a thought. I have posted here about our experience with bears, which reached a low point in 2012 when a bear got into the pen and ate our chickens. A year earlier, I watched as a bear took out our apiary. So, we do not have any bees or chickens now. But, we do think about getting chickens again.
Some other wildlife highlights from the summer:
Twice this summer, I saw a hawk swoop down not more than 10 yards away from me. I have had this happen here before. It is thrilling to see a hawk glide downward, ready to grab its prey, and then flap its wings and rocket right back up in the air.
About dusk one night, as I walked by a large bush in the yard, I heard a faint rustle of leaves. That's usually a lizard scurrying away, so I stopped and waited to see the lizard. But, there was no lizard. Instead, I watched as, on the opposite site of the bush from me, a bobcat very quietly exited from under the bush and calmly walked to the fence, jumped up on the fence and then disappeared into the neighbor's yard. We have seen bobcats here before, but it is rare and always super exciting.
I have posted before about alligator lizards, which I always find fun to watch. This summer's pandemic has put me in the yard a lot and I have a few new lizard experiences. The best was two days ago. I watched as an alligator lizard slithered out of some tall weeds and went nose down into a patch of freshly weeded dirt. The alligator flailed around in the dirt for a moment and emerged with an earthworm wiggling from both sides of its mouth. Naturally, when I got my phone out to take a picture, the camera-shy alligator scurried away.
We have also seen and heard from the usual wildlife. We've heard the owls and coyotes (but not seen either). I see a rabbit or two every morning and there are the squirrels, parrots and tons of doves we also see daily. But, the real news this summer is the deer.
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