Not long after we moved into the home we're in now we discovered we had moved
right in the middle of our own WILD KINGDOM.
We repeatedly heard from various neighbors that there were mountain lions that
roamed the neighborhoods around us.
We didn't believe them.....until we woke up one morning and saw THIS in
our back yard!!
Alright, that's really an African lion but we did see this bobcat lounging inour backyard when we came home from church one afternoon.
He was old, hard of hearing, and apparently lost his ability to hunt
sufficiently. He had striking blue eyes but his face was frightening; so
we named him Lucifer.
He got up and slunk away when he noticed us.
If you click on these pix and enlarge them, you will see a beautiful red tailed hawkperched on the bird feeder. We had a couple of baby hawks born in the trees just
below us and we listened to them squawk for weeks after mom and dad left them to
hunt for themselves. They have learned that bird hunting is very good in our back
yard when the quail, dove and blue jay are feeding.
Here they are when they were younger - one perched at the top of the tree and one perched on a limb lower down in another tree to the right of his sibling.
They sat there for hours waiting for mom or dad to come back.
One afternoon Mike was in the backyard and walked in to tell me hethought there was an alligator on our hillside. When he walked down
to get a better look, he discovered that it was an iguana; but it had died.
He felt very badly thinking that he may have contributed to it's death by
poisoning our "friendly neighborhood rats" (I will not include a picture
of the rats; they are too hideous).
After a proper funeral service he very gently picked it up.....
And heaved it further down the hillside.
May he rest in peace and decompose quickly so the smell will cease.
We do love our backyard wild kingdom.We have had roadrunners, woodpeckers, hummingbirds,
ground squirrels (blast them!),
cottontails (those waskeley wabbits that are so destructive),
coyotes, cooper hawks, kite hawks,
our red tail hawks, the bobcats and an occasional
sighting of racoons.
It's exciting to walk into the kitchen and anticipate what we might see today, tonight or tomorrow.
WE LOVE IT HERE.
6 comments:
LOVE the photo-journalistic-Bill Burrid-ish-bindi the jungle girlie-Livingston I presume - blog!!! You nearly had me on the lion.... Oh my, what if you DID look out and see Simba?!?! I wonder if the iguana was a pet?? I say to him ' yo ho, smell ya latah'.
Lon said; "He doesn't remember any funeral services."
I too had a small shock when I saw your mountain lion. ("You little snot") (That's something you'd hear Aunt Gaytha say.)
:)
Maybe you should send the squirrels my way I tend to hit them by accident. Almost hit one on the way to school this am. Felt bad but he was gone when I came back so maybe he was spared. They have black ones here. We have voles (look like chipmunks but do major damage like gophers so maurey poisons them. Love the pictures
I was DYING when you made me believe Mike was so gentle with the iguana and then he THREW it down the hill!!!!! hahahah!!! I LOVE Bennihana!! Lets all go sometime!
I was DYING when you made me believe Mike was so gentle with the iguana and then he THREW it down the hill!!!!! hahahah!!! I LOVE Bennihana!! Lets all go sometime!
The day after I posted this, Hannah ran into the house and had me go outside to see an eagrette - one of those white birds with the long necks. He was walking very slowly, stalking a lizard that was sunning himself. I must say - he was a VERY good hunter!
Later that evening we sighted a small hoot owel in the tree in the front yard.
There's no place like the country -in Anaheim Hills, CA.
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