I feel fortunate to live in a hillside neighborhood surrounded by wildlife that provides abundant entertainment and a few challenges.
The rose garden outside our kitchen window offers daily shows in addition to the beautiful blooms that flourish within. It hosts a bird feeder that draws a variety of winged creatures who stop by for a sip of water, a bath, or some bird seed. As I prepare a meal or clean up afterwards, I watch finches, sparrows, blue birds, ring-necked doves, and an assortment of colorful creatures arrive. At least four birds fed this morning, while others lined up in our olive trees, roses, lemon bushes, and along the fence. Some light on the bird bath and timidly sip or dip a foot in the water while others dive in, splashing about and claiming the bath as their own. Certain days I must fill it three or four times.
The birds’ dropped seeds form a feast for an errant squirrel who has begun stopping by. He stuffs his cheeks full of seed hulls, chomps away, and then rests atop a border wall, belly bulging in the morning sun. He doesn’t dally long because red-tailed hawks and turkey vultures often hover nearby.
The bird feeder draws more than birds and squirrels. We’ve moved it three times because it attracted rats, who have always lived in the hills but seem to have multiplied since the Thomas fire drove them out of the surrounding hillsides. Twice I’ve opened the barbecue cover to grill dinner and found a rat staring me in the face. I closed the barbecue, ran inside, turned on the oven, and called the exterminator. The rats have now migrated to our neighbors’ properties, where they’ve become food for the coyotes that have grown hungrier since the fire destroyed their habitat.
We find the rats and coyotes challenging and try to keep them at bay. We know that they lost their homes, as did many of our neighbors. Rabbits were also driven out by the flames. We’d spotted several in the neighborhood camped on front lawns in past months. That’s why we were delighted to see a bunny venture into the rose garden the other morning—at least until she discovered a nearby rose bush and began stripping its leaves off, one by one. Seeking breakfast, the rabbit seemed oblivious to my husband and me, who watched her through the window we’ve dubbed our “window on the world,” because of its great views. This bunny slowly entered the garden, deftly removed the rose leaves, and chewed them as we quietly viewed. She then stood on her hind legs and tore off a large branch, which she discovered she couldn’t take back to her den. We picked up the dead branch a few days later and haven’t seen her since. We did notice that the bush has a lot fewer leaves.
When we live in close proximity to nature, we never know what will appear next. We vote for birds and bunnies.