Another Visitor To The Garden

When Princess and I emerged from the back door for our afternoon walk yesterday, she started pulling me toward the steps up to the driveway.  I stopped suddenly and pulled her back when I saw this:

I held her back long enough to get a good look at the big snake stretched out along the bottom of the steps and make sure it was our friend the gopher snake and not a rattlesnake.  Sure enough, its head was narrow, not triangular, the body was slender rather than thick, and the tail was long and pointed without any rattles, so I determined that it was a gopher snake and let the cat proceed with her walk.

Princess jumped up on the garden wall beside the garage to get her daily ration of the wheat grass we've planted there for the cats to nosh on.  I'm not sure she had even seen the snake snoozing there in the shade of the steps, but I kept looking back over my shoulder to see whether it had finished its nap and started moving toward us.  I knew it was harmless to humans and cats, certainly a cat as big as Princess would not interest this snake, but thought I'd better keep an eye on it anyway.

I also kept a tight grip on the leash because I didn't want the cat to decide to mess with the snake, either.  These snakes are beneficial; they eat the mice and rats that devastated Cindy's lettuce crop last year, so I was happy to see later in the afternoon that the snake had finished its nap and gone about its business.

Here's a link to my blog post from last summer with a description of the differences between harmless gopher snakes and poisonous rattlesnakes:  http://plantagarden-itllgrowonyou.blogspot.com/2019/07/good-snakebad-snake.html.

What's For Dinner?

Our weather turned from "Rainy Season" to "Full Blown Summer" in the space of about two days, which you might think would suit Princess Fairweather Daintypaws down to the ground, but she seems to think that flopping down in the shade is the thing to do.  It must be due to that fur coat she insists on wearing all the time.  

So we were flopped down in the shade yesterday afternoon, Princess on the pathway, me on the wall beside the garage, idly watching for lizards in the lavender bushes and observing the Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches and Nutmeg Mannikins on the bird feeders.  

Lesser Gold Finches and Nutmeg Mannikins

Suddenly, there was a rush of feathers and flapping of wings and the little birds were all gone.  The cause of the commotion soon became apparent--a Cooper's Hawk had been looking for dinner, but fortunately hadn't caught any of the smaller birds.  

The hawk took up residence in our Chinaberry Tree and waited for the other birds to return.  

Cooper's Hawk in the Chinaberry Tree

They were evidently too freaked out by the sudden appearance of the hawk and didn't return until well after it had decided to go elsewhere to look for its dinner.  Or maybe it was the presence of the large furry predator and attendant human in the immediate vicinity.  Eventually the hawk flew off into the canyon to continue its hunt for prey.   

Back View of Cooper's Hawk  

And what did the Princess think of the Cooper's Hawk?  I don't think she even noticed it--she was too busy looking for those elusive lizards in the shrubbery.  

Yesterday's Culprit

My brother suggested that the reddish tree squirrel caught in the act of raiding our suet and seed feeders in yesterday's post was likely a Fox Squirrel, Scirus niger.  Although they're not native to Southern California, they were introduced in the early 1900s and are apparently thriving here.  The article in the link suggests that this may be so because they have adapted to an environment interrupted by human habitation, and will eat things that the native Western Gray Squirrels won't.  Here's the link again:  https://baynature.org/2019/05/28/are-fox-squirrels-replacing-gray-squirrels-in-california/.

Fox Squirrel

This is the time of year that Big Mama, the matriarch of the local California Ground Squirrel population, usually produces her latest litter, but we haven't seen her yet this year.  She may have reached the end of her normal life span, or the very handsome Gopher Snake that inhabits our canyon may have taken her out. Or they might just be late this year.

Ground Squirrel 

This was Big Mama in her heyday several years ago with some of her brood.  The Ground Squirrels are more gray than the Fox Squirrel and the juveniles have white spots on their backs.  Their tails are also skinnier than the fluffy plume the Fox Squirrel sports.

The Ground Squirrels are the main reason Cindy built the panel system around the raised beds; they like tomatoes and blue berries as well as bird seed.  The panel system has worked very well at keeping them away from the veggies, and we're hoping it will keep the Fox Squirrel out, too.

Mystery of the Disappearing Suet

We noticed that the cake of suet in the suet feeder on our bird feeder pole was disappearing at a rapid clip, but thought it was due to the combined efforts of the California Thrasher and the Scrub Jay that often visit the feeder.  The crows seem to have given up on it since we stopped putting a pillar with seeds, nuts and bugs embedded in it, but we know the Thrasher in particular likes the suet.  

But this morning I looked out and saw another prime suspect at work on the suet.  Yep, it's a squirrel.  

Caught In The Act!

This one doesn't seem to be the usual California Ground Squirrel; this one looks more like a tree squirrel of some sort, with a bigger, fluffier tail than the Ground Squirrels have.  

You Lookin' At Me?

And, not satisfied with plundering the suet block, the furry acrobat moved on to investigate the seed feeder and the Nyger seed, too.  We had fun watching him getting to the goodies.

Squirrel Acrobatics

So how did the squirrel get past the baffle?  Easy--the Grevillea next to the feeder pole has grown to the size that any self-respecting tree squirrel can easily use as a stairway to paradise, or at least as a launching pad to get to the goodies.  

Overgrown Grevillea

I'm guessing there may be some pruning in the future of that shrub.  

Providing Sport For The Neighbors

Since "walking" cats involves prolonged periods of stopping to stare into the shrubbery waiting for invisible lizards to appear, I've been doing my Tai Chi Chih movements while I'm waiting for Princess to move on to something else.

I'm sure this has provided great amusement for our neighbors; we know they're already entertained by seeing cats walking around our yard on leashes, but seeing me doing the slow arm movements of Tai Chi Chih probably has them wondering about our sanity, too.

But I don't care what anyone thinks.  Since we've been walking the cats, both my back and my knees have been feeling much better, so I'm happy about that.

As Mr. Bennett says in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn."

Cat Walking

It may sound like a strange thing to do, but we've been taking two of our five cats for walks in the garden every day.

Ansel is our only male cat, and at about 15 years old, he's also our most senior cat.  When our newest female cat, Princess Fairweather Daintypaws, came into the household about two years ago, Ansel took decided exception to her presence, and began "marking" things with his own special scent.  Many things--furniture, rugs, walls, floors, doors, you name it, it was all HIS, and he wanted Princess, and the rest of the world to know it.  Princess, not one to shrink from a challenge, began her own counter marking campaign to let Ansel, and the rest of the world, know it was really all HERS.

We did the best we could with the situation, instantly deploying paper towels and solutions designed to eliminate the stains and distinctive odors of cat pee throughout the house, but it certainly didn't make life any fun.  We also made sure the Feliway Multicat dispenser was filled up and tried various other potions that were supposed to reduce tensions between competing felines, but those didn't seem to have much effect.

Several months ago Cindy proposed that we try taking them for walks outside and see if that would help.  I was reluctant to do that because my prior experience with attempting to walk cats with harnesses and leashes was not good; usually the cat would just hunker down and refuse to budge at all.  The best I could hope for was to drag the cat a couple of steps.  The only time it seemed to succeed was once when I was stationed in Berlin and took my cat Bilbo out to try to walk him.  Unlike the other times we had tried it, this time he took off running across the parking lot, practically dragging me behind him.  I thought this was a good sign that he was finally getting the idea, until I realized that what he was actually doing was chasing a rabbit into the Grunewald forest .  Whoa, Nellie, not going in there.

But this time, even if we had to drag them along, it seemed like just about the only thing that might make a difference to the situation, so we got a Come With Me Kitty harness and leash for each of them and started walking them twice a day for half an hour each time.  That is, it's half an hour unless it's raining (Princess Fairweather does NOT like to get her dainty paws wet), or the big scary garbage truck is rampaging up and down the street, or the neighbor is mowing the lawn, or the human boredom limits have been exceeded.

On the whole, though, it's gone fairly well.  Ansel loves to roll in the dirt and pretend he's a young macho dude again.

Love That Dirt Bath!

The Warm Driveway Is Great, Too!

Princess loves to hunt lizards and birds.  Fortunately, the harness and leash prevent her from getting too close to them--mostly.  She actually got her paws on one of the lizards the other day, but I managed to get it away from her before she did any real damage to it.  We saw it several times after that, so it apparently survived its close encounter with the large furry predator.

Is There A Lizard In the Raised Bed?

Or Behind The Trash Can?

Or In The Hedge?

Several good things have come from this:  first, the indoor potty contest has calmed down considerably; second, the cats aren't fighting as much inside; and third, it gets us outside and into the garden twice a day, so Cindy can plan her future garden projects and I can gather fodder for the blog.

Perfect Location To Watch Birds