Wildlife Visitors

Our California heat wave has abated.  It is tolerable now to go outside.  We do have a breeze, but up here in the foothills it is a warm breeze, not like the delta breezes we used to get when we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area that offered some respite to the summer heat.  But, I won't trade places anymore. 

It is nice to sit outside on the patio and not hear traffic and sirens all day long.  Our music is the bird chatter in the morning when all is still and the forest echos like an atrium, then in the evening the sounds of night life critters.  In the Spring, when the trees and lawns are green, and the ground still moist from the winter rains, and the water is running in the seasonal creek, the din is almost deafening.  During the day and evening we are treated to visits from our local deer and turkey, the occasional rabbit and many squirrels that live in the trees, sometimes a fox or skunk.  We are becoming accustomed to the cycle of life the seasons bring.  Spring is mating time for the turkey, quail, hummingbirds and other little critters.  Fall is mating for the deer.  It is such a nice surprise to see the young ones come around in the summer.  Each day offers a different surprise.

We don't always see large bucks.  Our deer are the smaller white tails.  This shot was taken some time during October.

They became tired of looking at me and returned to their sparring business.  We watched them for quite a while.

 

 

 

Mama and baby don't usually stay around very long when we want to take pictures.  I managed to get a pretty good shot here, although the trees provided a lot of shade.

And then the baby decided to run off.

Another little baby.

I don't know what the fox was looking at, but this picture came out pretty good, too.

Didn't get too close here.  Had to use the zoom on the camera.  This skunk was out during the day, which is unusual. 

We have quite a few tom turkeys strutting their stuff in the Spring.  The largest flock we counted around 40 turkeys in the yard.

This year we were treated to an albino robin. 

Last year we had a young bear in the area and many times we hear about the mountain lion feasting on domesticated animals.  We saw the bear ambling down our driveway, but have yet to see a mountain lion on our property.  I think these predatory animals stay closer to the river where there is more plentiful food supply. 

I saw some ripe blackberries today.  In a couple more weeks, I will have to go picking.  Time to watch for the rattlesnakes.