Just a lizard in the bathroom at work. I caught him and put him outside.
But yesterday, I saw a really vivid rainbow in my yard during a passing storm. I could make out almost the whole arc. I’m pretty sure there was a pot of gold in the bushes over by the fence, but didn’t go check because it was raining pretty hard.
And last week? A deer standing nearly at my doorstep! They are common here, but they don’t usually get so close. I saw him through the kitchen window, and then was able to go from room to room, watching him proceed slowly around the house.
There’s an adorable little Anna’s hummingbird who loves the orangey red flowers on my dragon tongue beans and she likes to come for breakfast when I’m outside watering everything. Once in a while she perches on the trellis to get a little shower action. I’m in love with her!
I see you’re all playing loose with that “today” criterion. How far back can we go? Three years?
About three years ago, I had the occasion to see a lightning bolt from a cloud to the ground – from the unique vantage point of a sailplane at 12000 feet!
I saw a skink, a green snake, a raccoon track or 40 down by the pond. Several birds eating on the ground under the bird feeders and a squirrel eating from the bird feeder. A wasp was in my bathroom. He’s dead and had a water burial.
I was sitting on the deck and saw about 30thousand mosquitoes.
We were at VooDoo Brewing in New Kensington this past weekend, enjoying their outdoor seating, beer, and food truck fare. Overhead, very high in the sky was a large bird with a white head. Bald Eagle; although making a comeback, still a fairly rare sighting around my area.
Yesterday morning I saw a doe and her spotted fawn in a yard as I drove by. In the evening there was a black bear in my backyard eating sunflower seeds out of the bird feeder. My husband and I were about 20 feet away, behind a fence. I’m sure he knew we were there, but he calmly ate and then plodded away.
We took an early morning walk in a nice neighborhood which has several English walnut trees (left over from orchard which was there previously). I guess some early walnuts were ready, as we saw grey squirrels bounding along power lines from the walnut trees to redwood trees, each with a nut in its mouth. Then we’d hear loud crackly gnawing noises from deep within the redwood branches.
That neighborhood has plenty of tall, mature redwoods. One yard in particular has a positive grove of them, and every morning, a dozen turkey vultures perch at the tops of these trees, because from there they can catch the first rays of the rising sun. That yard must have an icky accumulation of buzzard poop.
I had a nice wander round a prehistoric hill fort this afternoon. It was basically a set of concentric trenches, covered with flowering heather and other wild flowers, which were in turn covered with bees and butterflies, plus the odd dragonfly.
I spent some time sitting in the sun listening to the droning bees and a little group of stonechats, which were singing a far more elaborate song than any recording of them I’ve found online.
Mallards visit our pond every year and lay one or two clutches of eggs. Just now I watched a mallard hen traipse through the yard, right in front of the porch where I’m sitting with 11 ducklings, maybe 5 days old, following.
It’s cute and all, but over the next week we’ll see the size of her clutch decrease by one on average each day. Some are lost to predators, some to freaky accidents. Last year I witnessed a duckling disappear down the overflow pipe. I ran down to where the water enters a creek, and there was the duckling, shaken up just enough so I could grab it and return it to the pond.
In a few minutes our neighbor will let her dog out in the back yard (it’s just after 10 PM here). The dog will run around barking. At the first bark, foxes will start to gather by her front gate, because they know that after she has let the dog out, she will come and feed them. They are already scooting up and down the road impatiently. Pavlov would be proud.
It’s really stressful around this time of year regarding baby ducks. Two houses down from ours there’s a duck pond (we call the owner The Pond Lady). Every year there are 20-30 mallard ducks living there. In the early spring there are usually a couple of Canada goose pairs also. Every year there’s one mama duck that insists on taking her babies on a daily walkabout which involves crossing a busy street. If I happen to be walking down the sidewalk and see them crossing the street in the distance, I cover my eyes. I don’t think there’s ever been a fatality that I know of, but it stresses me out. One day years ago, my granddaughter (10 yo) was spending a week with us. I caught her out on the street directing traffic for the ducks! That was stressful too!
