We had the dogs outside playing in the yard and a large bird flew overhead, awfully low, an osprey! We’ve seen them at a lake we kayak, but never near our home.
We have a pond with goldfish and a few koi.
Had?
Been opening up the allotment/community garden this last week. My tales of robins must be a bore, but it’s part of the rhythm of my year, and I love them - see post 1016 for a photo.
The reason I’m referring back to an old photo is that they’re still quite wary of me. At the moment, about two meters is as close as they’ll get - not easy to photograph on a phone; later in the year they’re so bold that I worry about accidentally stepping on one while I’m digging. On one occasion one misjudged slightly and flew into my face - that’s how close they get. So I was musing that there presumably are no chicks yet - otherwise they would be all over me. And I realized that yes, it is they - I have a pair of robins, working the allotment together. I don’t remember seeing that before. So I guess no eggs yet, either.
j
Note: you can tell it’s a pair because, delightful as they are, they’re vicious little bastards - if it wasn’t a pair they would have been a merciless brawl.
Heh. We occasionally see a kingfisher or great blue heron taking a goldfish from the pond (~ 1 acre). My gf dumped 2 dozen feeder goldfish in the pond 30 years ago, then a small koi every so often. There are hundreds of goldfish now, even with predation.
The osprey looked lost.
Out on the bike today, off-road, I managed to scare up a couple of roe deer. This happens from time to time, but today the deer were in a narrow strip of woodland between the trail I was riding and some fields, so that when I surprised them they didn’t really have anywhere obvious to go. Well, they could probably have pinged into the fields had they needed to, but instead they took off and ran parallel to the trail, so that for maybe fifteen seconds I was riding with running deer no more than five or so meters from me - fabulous!
Just as suddenly, I guess they thought to themselves, this isn’t working - what happens if we just stop? They stopped, and I rode on. Have a nice day, guys.
j
This morning, in my backward watched a huge crow hectoring a rabbit. Lots of pecking, then the crow would hop/fly over the bunny to peck at them from the other side. Bunny give up and dashed over to the scrubby bushes along side the alley to hide. Crow got bored and left. First time I’ve seen a crow pestering something live on the ground. It was like a ballet, with lots of aerials. Poor bunny didn’t have much of a part-looked landlocked and frozen.
Five minutes later the bunny hopped back into the yard, this time with reinforcement. Both of them made their way over nibble daffodil and tulip salad, which was probably their goal in the first place. The crow is no doubt off squabbling with other crows over roadkill squirrels in the street in front of the house.
A few days ago, as we were driving south on 101 early in the morning through the redwoods and intermittent large meadows, we saw a herd of elk who were proposing to cross the highway. We pulled to the side in order to let them cross. The herd consisted of a few males who had small velvet antlers just starting to grow, and a dozen or so cows. They took a step or two out onto the highway, looked at the slowing cars, and decided they weren’t going to venture. They turned around and trotted back through a big meadow towards the forest.
They were a gorgeous herd of big caramel-colored animals. I hadn’t seen any up close like that ever before.
Roosevelt elk? I’ve seen them up near Patrick’s Point.
Well, sad news. Some critter got to our duck nest. Smashed eggs on the sidewalk. Some sad bits of feathers. I want to cry.
We were thinking racoon (they come into our complex), but I’ve heard crows (which we also have in abundance) will eat duck eggs.
I so wanted baby ducks.
I’m so sorry. I was crushed last year when we had a similar incident with the wrens in our garage.
Yeah, the bloody circle of life.
I can handle it when nature kills nature. Now, the fawn I found in the woods shot and killed by some asshole with a bow and arrow?
Thank you for that information! There was an actual nest in there last year so I was worried about the lack this year.
This was so cool! Saw this box turtle while walking the dogs about a mile from our house.
A couple years ago I found a box turtle crossing the road in the late fall. I stopped and checked him out, he was in poor shape. It was unlikely he’d survive winter.
Contacted a wildlife rehabilitation center who put me in touch with a reptile rehabber. He treated it for a month, then we maintained him the rest of winter, releasing him in the spring near a creek in our yard.
This box turtle has the same shell pattern and the same shell defects. Our little guy is doing great!
Now that’s a feel-good story. 
It’s off-road biking season for me at the moment - trails have dried up but haven’t overgrown yet, so there are a couple of rides that are at their best right now, and I’ll be doing them a lot for the next couple of weeks. As close to the middle of nowhere as you can get round here. Thursday I rode with running deer; Friday I watched (for only the second time in my life, I think) a kestrel stoop. It amazes me how slow the process is, with constant readjustments - following the movements of the prey animal, I assume. I missed the strike itself as the bird disappeared behind a hedge. I snuck through a gap and saw the kestrel sitting on a pile of logs, clutching… nothing. Better luck next time, guy.
Today we took a walk along the boardwalk at Shoreham and saw wall lizards. That always cheers me up. First reptiles of the year.
j
Our first local Canada goslings. They’re super cute, but if you want to discover the fast way to lose your nose, try picking one up. Mama is being very protective. There are six, but google photos cropped the image again - click for the full photo.
Also, while I remember, this is from Friday - the Bluebells are nearing their best. Just for @carnut .
j
Thank you Treppenwitz, they are beautiful!
@kayaker, what a wonderful thing to discover ‘your’ turtle doing so well.
Here, despite warm temperatures today, we aren’t hearing much from the birds. No crows at all, and a lessening of many of the others due to avian flu. Despite that, the eaglets are huge, standing up to breast height on their parent, I expect to see real feathers popping out any day now.
This handsome fellow:
It’s not that rare to see foxes in daylight round here - I saw another one crossing Enfield Chase yesterday, but it is rare for one to pose for a photo. S/he was on the other side of a small river from me and clearly knew it, because it stood and stared at me for quite some time before ambling off.
Also in the gosling stakes:
These were greylag goslings, not the more common Canada, so while they were on land when I first spotted them, my appearance was greeted by considerable fluster as mommy goose herded the little 'uns back to the safety of the lake. The local Canada goose approach to people is more on the level of “aggressive panhandling”.
You’ve got that right!
Today included watching the male grouse (plural) put on a show for the ladies shortly after dawn. The ladies are looking for food or pretending to look for food and all the males are shaking their booties and getting into fights. Pretty entertaining.
OMG, that fox. They’re here in Florida, but it would be quite a rare sighting for me.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to successfully go back inside to get my phone without scaring him off so I didn’t get a picture, but early this evening a barred owl was perched on a dead tree in the middle of the vernal pool a few yards from my house.