Animals We Live With
When we moved here in 1983, there were just five houses on Pommel Drive, and we were surrounded by undeveloped land that was inhabited by many animals. Now there is hardly an open lot, but most of the animals are still here. They must be feeling the pressure, but they still have the deep ravines and the creek beds. Most of them are nocturnal, anyway. They are as follows, in descending order of size.
The largest wild animals are the deer. We see them in little herds at times, other times as families. The bucks wear handsome antlers, and the does lead spotted fawns.
Here they are, scooting around yet another thicket that has been invaded by bulldozers.
They are pretty hard on the landscapes. They rub their antler-fur off on trees and eat some plants right down to the ground. When I re-landscaped the front a couple of years back, they ate every other plant I tried to put in. But I persisted, and I've got a pretty dense bed now.
Seems they don't like pungent leaves. They have left alone the Copper Canyon daisy, salvia Greggii, rosemary, lavender, lantana, even parsley. I don't really care what they eat. They are beautiful, and I feel privileged every time they visit.
There are foxes and coyotes, too. Once on a long walk years ago, a gray fox discreetly followed us for quite a distance, interested, I suppose, in Pirate (who was unaware that we had company).
We still hear coyotes in the distance in the early, early morning, mainly in the winter. You can tell them from a pack of dogs because they all have the same voice. They send up wails and yips like smoke signals from one side of the valley to the other. My friend Kathy says it means they’ve killed something.
Continue: Not Animals
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