First Day

I think I'm going to start my next five posts with, "Moving is tougher and longer than I remember." :) Unbelievably, my husband wanted to move us in himself, maybe with a little help from the kids. Thankfully, he gave in to my teases about after-move hospital bills. It was hard enough watching the movers!

The first real day at my place, I got a glimpse of some of my new noisy neighbors. There was a huge chirping commotion outside the window, and lo and behold, there were about 3-4 chestnut backed chickadees in the pine tree right off the balcony.

They made the cutest, strangest call. One of my birding books describes it as a "buzzing" noise, which is fairly accurate, but the buzzing is accompanied by little, quick high notes.

Originally, I thought the buzzing sound was somehow made by the rapid flapping of their little wings, but I was wrong.

I also thought that maybe a parent was feeding a fledgling, but through some internet searching, it seems that this behavior might be a courtship ritual. One of the birds, presumably the female or baby, just sat on a branch and screamed at another bird that would fly out and bring back food. The bird being waited on hand and foot would focus their call directly at the foraging bird. The very specific direction of the calling, or screaming if you prefer, was what made me think it might have been a fledgling-parent relationship. The jury's still out on that, but if anyone knows for certain, give us the scoop!

How About A Kiss?

The flu knocked me out for a few weeks, but just in time for Valentine's week, it's mating season! Actually, this was taken shortly before the New Year.

The female squirrel was way out on the end of a very small limb. She was playing hard to get, and she also acted like she was scared, but she had no trouble getting away when she wanted.

They were vocalizing like crazy. He was making short grunt-like calls and she would scream at him every now and then. There were actually two males chasing her initally until she got out on that small limb. At that point, only one continued to chase her while the other waited at the trunk of the tree. The aggressive male then secured his position / pathway on the limb and chased away the other male.

This is the face she'd make when she screamed at him. Somtimes it was just because she felt like screaming, but sometimes he'd grab her tail and she wasn't having any of that!

This female isn't Preggers, but we definitely think Preggers is expecting. She's showing just the tiniest bit. I'll get pictures as weather allows.

Bad Kitty

I forgot to add a photo of this ornery kitty. It likes to stalk and hunt our squirrels. The squirrels don't seem too concerned about the cat, but they are awfully cavalier sometimes and let the cat get really close.

Usually, they stare at it when it's near them as if to say, "What do you think you're doing? You're not going to catch me."

It's hilarious when they finally jump onto a tree and bark at it, though.

Bird Brain

A female Downy Woodpecker...

doing what woodpeckers do.

Other birds seen in the yard:

American Goldfinch

American Crow

American Robin

Black Phoebe

Chestnut Backed Chickadee

Hermit Thrush

Scrub Jay

California Towhee

Some of these birds are incredibly small and incredibly skittish, like the Chestnut Backed Chickadee and Hermit Thrush. I'll post photos when I get some decent ones.

A Rainy Christmas

A squirrel shakes off the rain during a downpour.

Scamp (formerly "The Brave One") grabbing some nuts. A squirrel's still gotta eat!

Cast of Characters

We've been watching the squirrels in our backyard for a few months.  We have a lot of trees and thought they were just funny.  Then we started feeding them and naming them.  

It appears that there are several groups of squirrels that live in the trees in our yard.  Other squirrels come by now and again from neighboring yards, but these are the folks that seem to "own" our yard.

This is Preggers.

Well, this was her about 6 months ago. She's since had her litter of 3, but she still comes around and she's one of our favorites.

This is Preggers today. Her tail fur grew back, her nipples receded underneath fur on her belly that eventually grew back after being chewed off, but now she's got a notch in her ear.

Goliath just started coming around recently, and we think he has a litter mate that he still hangs out with that looks just like him in every way we've been able to tell.

We call him Goliath for obvious reasons. :) Also, he's just huge compared to all the other squirrels.

These are the "Little Ones". We think they're maybe just a few months old.

Yes, they're play humping eachother. We think that adult may be their mother, but we're not sure. She doesn't come around anymore.

This little one is "Spooky".

This little one is "The Brave One" because he lets us touch him... sort of.

Spooky's much more aggressive toward other squirrels though. He's always the one doing the humping and chasing.

Last but not least, Chucky, the scrub jay.

That's the major group. We can hand feed every one in this group, including the bird.