Western tanagers come calling

This past week, we've been seeing some beautiful bright yellow birds with black jackets and a red face mask (appropriate given that we're all wearing masks now). Here's our pic and a stock photo. We finally identified them as western tanagers. It's always fun when we see new birds enjoying our fountain and birdbath. There are the birds we see all the time, like lesser goldfinch, house finch, mourning dove, mockingbird, sparrow, scrub jay, and ruby-throated hummingbirds. There are the ones we see occasionally but regularly, like the towhee and the redtail hawk. On rarer occasions, we've seen orioles. It's fun to see something new right in our backyard.

Painted lady butterflies come through

Last year we had an unusual swarm of Painted Lady butterflies migrate through LA, and this year they have returned. Last time, they were all over our orange tree in front, but this year, it's our Pride of Madeira that they're loving. It's a popular flower, as the bees are all over it too. (Air traffic may be down in general due to Covid-19, but not here!) They've been regulars in the garden since the last week of March, and this appears to be the last stragglers. I think they're coming out of Mexico, but not certain, and they don't seem to have a regular migratory pattern. In any case, they're fun to watch when we have so many.

More local news stations come to our house to talk to George about the coyote

As the coyote story got more legs, both KTLA Channel 5 and NBC Channel 4 brought cameras to our house to interview George about the coyote, and he was on the nightly news on both those stations. Friends, co-workers, and others were telling George they had seen him on the news, including one friend in Sacramento who saw it on her local news station up there.

Meanwhile, a bobcat

Meanwhile, while George is waiting for the KTLA News folks to show up about the coyote, he looks out the kitchen window and there's a bobcat drinking out of our fountain!

Coyote goes viral, George at 11

Several neighbors had been sighting that coyote with the "kong" stuck on its jaw, and were becoming concerned, sharing conversations on NextDoor.com, where I had posted George's video. When George came home this evening, Channel 7 news was at the door and wanting to talk to him about the coyote. He ended up on the 11 o'clock news on Channel 7. Around 10:30 that night, CBS News called and they wanted permission to run the video too. Our coyote was going viral.

Coyote in distress

On Tuesday morning, George saw this coyote trying to drink out of our fountain. At first, he thought it was playing with a big dog chew toy, but he realized that the kong was actually stuck on the poor coyote's jaw and he couldn't get it off. After filming for a couple minutes, George went out to see if he could help, but the coyote ran off.

Raccoon invasion

Late this evening, George was awakened hearing noises outside. We went to investigate and discovered that a whole family of raccoons was traipsing across our barbecue and side wall, clambering carelessly over potted plants, using them as stepladders. In addition to a few adults, there were two sets of youngsters, three or four very young ones, and three or four more somewhat older juveniles. Mom was trying to help the little ones climb up the wall. In the large photo, look closely and you'll see, in addition to the group to the right of the crape myrtle tree, there's another group to the left by the chimney looking on.

Early morning skunk visit

Very early this morning, when George came down for breakfast, he found this visitor in our backyard. Skunks are around a lot. We've had times when we've seen the evidence of them digging in the yard, and we certainly smell them on occasion, and we've seen them mostly running around at night. But this was a rare daylight sighting.

Early morning rabbit visit

As George was eating breakfast, he saw out the window this unusual visitor to our yard. We'd seen a lot of other wildlife, but this was the first time we'd seen a rabbit.

Orioles and scrub jays

Here's a scrub jay enjoying the bird bath. If you click into Flickr and look at adjacent photos, you'll see a couple short videos of the scrub jay, and another of some orioles and finches in the fountain.

Coyote

(Or click here to see a video.)

Dos coyotes

Bobcat in our backyard!

George had caught a brief glimpse of this kitty near the grapes a few days earlier, but this morning, he got a good look and confirmed it. We'd never seen a bobcat in our yard before! Must be the heat or drought or something bringing it around. Check out the video!

Hawk drops by for a visit

Red-tailed hawks live behind our house, and they have grown accustomed to visiting the stone bench in our backyard, and using our fountain as a birdbath. George captured this shot of the majestic creature just taking off after a visit.