The self-reliance skills of the animals are being tested during this latest rain, all are building nests, we need to be careful

  We're getting more rain, it's a really good thing, we're still below "normal", I wrote a blog about how misleading it is to refer to rainfall as "normal", actually it's an average. (follow this Link to the blog I wrote about "normal" rain.) I won't go into it, but it does bug me because normal and average rainfall is two completely different measurements. A steady breeze is present, those tall pointed cypress trees bend like they are ready to fold over. Turkeys roost for the night they will sometimes get under the tree they are going to perch in and fly straight up to the top like a slow moving rocket. They are not very good flyers and in their clumsy way, they struggle to gain altitude, reaching the top they grab onto the pointed top and hold on for dear life. That tree bends like a fishing pole with a huge fish on the line, I don't know how the big birds can hold on. Owls, Doves, and Blue Jays all spend a lot of time in those trees, I've always thought of them as being "Italian Cypress" trees. I think of them like that because I saw a documentary when I was very young and that type of tree was everywhere in Italy.

I guess they really are "Italian Cypress" trees. 

  I made this video of a Red Squirrel fooling around in the bay tree next to the house, I was on the deck, (My Office) with the video recording set up waiting for something to happen, well nothing did take place except that squirrel. The squirrel was building a nest for the spring, he and the misses are very busy, him fooling around and her giving him the old "let's get with it, Bob." He spends his time harassing Skunkpuppy, her nemesis, he will get on the deck early in the morning, Skunkpuppy stares him down while he's staring her down. (Video Link) I know the dog will never catch that squirrel so I will let her out, then the show begins. Rabbits, Squirrels, Turkeys, and Peacocks all know what that door sounds like. The sound is their alarm to get the dickens out of Dodge, They are all now building nests, gathering materials, and making all kinds of noises, all of the animals spend all day chasing and avoiding each other, depending which side of the street they are on I guess. There are a lot of Red Squirrels running around, every tree I look at has a nest in them, and man do they fight with each other. Squirrels are not all that coordinated either, 80% of the time they appear to be the flying Mumbetos, but that remaining 20% is something else. Animals fall, they fall out of trees, they run fast and smash into fences, they dive in the wrong holes to escape, and some try to perch in unreachable places. I spend a good amount of time sitting and looking, "if you understand the animals, you will understand humans." my dad would tell me that regularly, and it's true. We have some power lines overhead of our road, a number of them are in very poor condition, insulation hanging down, poles leaning over, that sort of thing. One day I was watching a squirrel across the road being foolish and harassing another squirrel when he took off across the power line. I have seen this squirrel before and I marveled at how clumsy he was, (yeh, was) he started across the line. Wobble Wobble he went, he slipped and did a complete 180-degree spin on the power line, ending in the same position he was before he spun around. He went a few more feet and it happened again, except he fell to the road, it was actually a very curious display. It appeared he bounced on the asphalt, shook himself off and ran into the trees, in the direction he came from. I've seen him attempt to jump from a fence to my apple tree and tumble to the ground as well, I wonder if he was blind in one eye or something. He would take a long time to make up his mind to jump, back up, go forward, chirp, wiggle his tail then do it all over again, 3 or more times. Cat's do the same thing, as I understand it has something to do with their eyesight, but I question that because a Cat is a predator and a squirrel is a prey. Their eye position is different, Cat's have the customary predator's eyes facing forward, and squirrels eves are on the side of their heads, prey style. Squirrels and most other prey can see almost 180 degrees, very nearly directly in back of them, whereas Cats must turn their heads. Now they are all building their nest, (I have gotten so far off the track of what I was writing this blog about I guess I will just continue down this road to see where it leads me.) Tree trimming season is behind us now, we must not take the chance of cutting down limbs when newborns may be in the foliage, so let's wait now until November.

Baby Squirrels,  (photo from youtube.)

The pups fall out of the nest on occasion, even though they are built very sturdy the winds here can still blow them out of the trees. Luckily we have a large number of animal rescue outfits in the area, my neighbor has a  rabbit rescue service, she always has rabbits with her. Two other ladies down the road rescue Cats, and me, I ride my scooter and pick up road kill, someone has to do it, the county is too far away and I don't want to let the animals lay in the road.

  A flock of Candian Honkers has flown in, I've been concerned we may not see any this year, for some reason the ducks, geese, and mudhens are not around this late winter. I have seen several flocks of ducks flying over, just flying over, I don't know what that's all about, and I've seen a large number of Pelican flocks that don't land as well. The Honkers are nesting in two places, both across the river, one to the North about 1/8th of a mile and the other pair about 1/4 mile to the South. There were three Geese, but yesterday I saw four, either the stray mate showed up or the single bird found a new one, they mate for life. I am hopeful they will return every year.

There are three in this picture, a fourth showed up yesterday. They
 are beautiful birds, and loud.

  Like the Salmon have done for the past few years, we are on a tributary so it's illegal to catch Salmon here, but we can certainly see them. In fact, there are two Salmon runs here, one in the fall and another in the Spring which will start in just a few weeks. I get up early and at the same time each morning the bait fish head South East in the slough, but not when it's cloudy. It appears the tide and the sun drive the baitfish, which arouse the bigger fish, which draws in the seabirds, and the Sea Lions, once all that activity begins it can get pretty noisy around here. The Sea Lions follow the migrating fish from the ocean outside the Golden Gate, Salmon, Stripers, and the big Sturgeon migrate to the calmer fresh water. Sea Lions like Catfish, I watch them sometimes for hours diving and coming up with them, sometimes they catch a fish that is so enormous I wonder how they can get it down the hatch. Size does not matter to the larger Seals, I've seen them catch stripers that appear to weigh 20 pounds or more, they slap them around and slurp right down they go.
  I took a video of another Egret, this one in the middle of the slough of a vegetation raft, doing what they do, standing motionless for a very long time. I started my video recorder up and let it go, it was a good thing, I caught a Mudhen landing right behind it, (Link to that very windy video) I am hopeful this is the beginning of a larger flock populating our little stretch of the Delta. I like the Coots, they are like real live Minions, sometimes they number in the thousands moving on the water much like those huge flocks of starlings (I think they are Starlings) moving as one through the air.

American Mudhens, Coots, I wonder where the name Coot came
from.

 I have a tendency to call them Starlins', kind of a slang, I heard a Texan say it once with his Texas drawl and I thought that's exactly how it should be pronounced, after all, they are invasive species.
  I see another Egret across the river, standing like a statue, motionless, they remind me of the U2 spy aircraft that would land on the flight deck of the ship I was on. They, like the Egrets, did not need much room to take off, in a breeze they are able to go aloft almost vertically, it's really cool looking. I'm not sure where the Egrets nest, most likely on the top of some huge tree somewhere, I wonder if they are a breed of birds that roost in large numbers on one of the islands here.
  Let's all be careful this time of year with the newborns popping up everywhere, it's fun to watch the new babies learning all of their self-reliance skills, theirs are a matter of life and death. We will see the Coyotes move in, most likely just after the fox do, as the population of rabbits increases they will be noticed by the larger predators. I have not seen a Mountain Lion around here, I often wonder if any are on one of the remote islands, the chance of there being one is most likely very remote. There are no large mammals like deer on most of them, there were some with Tule Elk as occupants, but I haven't heard of them in a long time.
  Then there are the Cormorants, they will wait for another day, they are always here along with the morning Doves and our resident Barn Owls.
  Thank you for reading and sharing, next time you are out and about take a few minutes to sit down in the silence and look around, every time I do I see something totally new to me, something I've never seen before. It could be anything from ants doing some weird deed, or as large as a Coyote, or Mountain Lion, keep the camera handy. Thanks again!
jacquesandkate  EmergencyKitsPlus.com