A fascinating thing happened in our backyard last week. We live in a house slightly in the hills that overlooks the San Fernando Valley and we often get some good views. We also sometimes see some interesting wildlife, including, unfortunately, coyotes—which I like, but not too close to our dogs. We also have parrots flying over and talking, squirrels in the yard, large murders of crows flying overhead, hawks hanging out on a tall tree beyond our backyard, doves cooing and other smaller birds chirping around us—not to mention the many hummingbirds that visit the feeders we have on the back porch. Always fun.
But I was astounded last week when I
looked toward the tree where hawks sometimes visit and saw, instead, a blue
heron perched on top—tall, thin, and lovely! I told my husband and he managed
to take a picture before it flew away. We’re not near any lakes or waterways,
and it’s pretty dry here in L.A. anyway, so why a heron would be here I’ve no
idea. I was thrilled to have seen it, though.
An idea for a story? I hope so. I’m
already considering something with more animals than the dogs I most often
write about, so we’ll see.
And then, the next day, a small bird
whose type I can’t tell you was flying through our house! We often leave the
front door open these days for air in the house, and because our dogs like to
watch the world outside through the locked mesh fence. We get occasional flies—but
a bird? Yes! It fortunately flew to our back window through which we’d seen the
heron, and I managed to gently convince it to stay there till my husband
removed the screen and we scooted it out. The dogs were fascinated and I had to
keep them away from the scared bird.
More story material? Again, I hope
so!
7 comments:
You have quite a menagerie around -- herons are, indeed, beautiful birds. I've seen a coyote trotting down the sidewalk in my condo complex, and a bobcat in the back driveway. My son lives near a busy road but has numerous raccoons and fox roaming around -- they show up on the Ring camera.
Dana continues to have great fun with her dogs, Neo and Elliott. She bounces a ball off the wall of the storage shed and Neo leaps into the air to catch it. She's trying to get him to catch a frisbee. Elliott is the more laid-back of the two -- a couple catches of the ball and he goes to the porch to lay down.
Summer has definitely arrived here -- 114 predicted for tomorrow. I just had my a/c serviced so it's ready to keep me cool.
I'm doing my usual crocheting -- always fun for me.
Enjoy your day and whatever wildlife shows up!!
We've got coyotes in our neighborhood too, Patty, and I've heard about someone seeing a bobcat recently too. How fun that wildlife shows up as visitors on your son's Ring camera, as if they're coming to visit!
Neo and Elliott sound adorable, and they clearly have different personalities like my pups. I just need to get busy writing to get Roxie to decide it's time for me to start throwing her squeaky balls to chase. Cari occasionally jumps in too for a minute but not long.
Yikes! Stay cool. It's getting hot here in the afternoon too. I had to take Roxie outside to a different area so she could walk on the surface she usually does without her paws getting too hot.
Haven't seen any wildlife here today, but it's been enjoyable anyway. Hope yours is too.
Maybe the blue heron was attracted by Lake Hollywood. I love watching birds. It is so amazing how they just fly.
How fun! I do love a bit of wildlife. Here in our Central Florida neighborhood we have blue herons (which try to eat our pond fish), very skinny squirrels, hawks, owls, and the occasional bear. I really felt bad for the bear because it was displaced by all the new building in the area. We also had two monkeys running around. That was actually hilarious. There are wild monkeys about an hour north. Somehow, they came to our town. They were humanely caught thank goodness.
That's possible, Betty. Hopefully there's some water in Lake Hollywood now. And I love watching birds too!
All that wildlife sounds wonderful, Sally! Would love to see them all, including the bear. And monkeys? Wow!
My friend lives in the hills and sees a lot of wildlife in person and on her ring camera. Sometimes I see a bird that looks different from all the usual birds that hang around. I discovered that I can email a description or a picture of the bird to the Audubon Society and someone will identify it for me.
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