First, this morning at 6am I went for a walk across the street to a subdivision that is being developed. There is only one house there now but a nice paved road and lots of lots with fresh grass and no houses yet. It is a nice place to walk.
One of the local police cars was parked there doing his paperwork before going off the night shift. I stopped and talked for a while. He said he just had seen a herd of wild pigs and a couple of turkeys. I mentioned that I ran into a herd of pigs in March while hiking nearby. I said there were about 12. He said the herd he saw had about 12 also and two were white with brown spots and the rest brown or black. It was exactly the same herd that I saw 3 months earlier. Interesting!
He drove off and I walked on. About a minute later I heard a loud sound that most people have never heard and would have no idea what it was...but I knew immediately. Years ago I bought a cassette tape of a "screaming rabbit" used to call in coyotes, fox, or bobcats for hunting. Most people don't know that rabbits can make an awful, loud deep, not high pitched, squealing sound, when they are in distress, such as when a predator catches them. I followed the sound about 100 yards and
over a hill and this is what I saw...A large Bobcat leaving the scene. Luckily I had my camera and got one shot before he melted into the underbrush. I don't think he saw me at all. Click on the picture for a larger (although grainier) view.
Next, I went to breakfast at the golf club and someone explained to me how copperheads are one of the 6 most venomous snakes in the world. Wrong! They are the least venomous of all the pit vipers in the U.S. I dropped off some articles to them later to get them the correct information. A lot of people have a lot of wrong information out there about a lot of stuff. Of course some folks probably think that way about me too.
Next I came home and turned on the Bluebird Cam and saw that Mrs. Bluebird laid a 5th egg. Then I checked my neighbor's bluebird box and saw that they have 4 eggs.
And finally, I noticed that there was a pair of bluebirds going in and out of one of the boxes in the back yard. That box is only about 100 feet from the one in the front yard and about 200 feet from my neighbor's bluebird box. Usually they need about 100 yards between boxes but maybe the large human houses between the three boxes provides some territory protection and allows 3 pairs to nest on adjacent lots. I checked the box tonight and after all that all day activity there is only about 10 strands of dry grass on the bottom of the box. But then that is how the nest in the front nest box started. It usually takes 5-7 days to complete a nest. Hopefully, this is the real thing and the nest will continue in the coming days.
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