WildLife

There was a time when this post might've been about the night we took a bottle of whiskey into our improvisation rehearsal.  [Does that sound like an oxymoron to you?  No, not the part about the whiskey,  although it did turn some of us into morons that night...I mean the part about rehearsing an improvisation.  You may think "improvisation" means "no rehearsal" but that's not actually the case.  Even those "Whose Line Is It?" guys rehearsed.]  Anyway, we were improvising a play we called Long Days Journey Into Hollywood (based on Eugene O'Neill's wonderful play), and we were rehearsing, that night, by improvising the past...specifically, the day our characters met.  I was playing the maid, and...       But wait.  That's a different story.

This post is about the wildlife found a few feet behind our backyard fence.  The pictures from my little motion-sensor infrared camera have been fascinating.  (Sorry about the quality...) 

NOTE: We live within the city limits.  Poppy Creek flows (when it rains) behind our house...but a lot of other houses march through the trees around us and on up the hill above us, so I never thought of our house as being "country."  But these animals live in our neighborhood.  Someone said they even saw a mountain lion in our area.  I'd love to capture one on film....

It's no wonder we sometimes feel watched, during our walks at dusk or dawn.  Occasionally the hair on the back of my neck stands up, and the dogs seem restless and worried.  That's when we veer into the middle of the street, and think about heading on home....
  


Raccoons have been photographed several times.

 

Unfortunately, we've seen a couple of skunks, too. 
These photos put a whole new spin on letting the dogs rush barking at the fence.

 

This little fox is my favorite.  And there are at least two! 
We got a photo of them chasing each other, but it's a very poor quality shot. 

 

Lots and lots of deer.  This one was curious about the camera.



We've seen a big buck napping under the redwood trees some mornings,
just behind our fence.  Maybe it was this fellow.



This is my least favorite critter.  Yuck!  I try to think of rats at "owl food." 
We do hear owls pretty often.  Thank goodness.

 

And I think this is also a raccoon.  Or is it??