Ojai Naturalist

Failed Quail

14/04/28 at 2.39pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

Quail are flocking birds, except for when the ones that will be breeding pair up. Then there are a lot of deuces walking around together. Last spring I was noticing a pair that were hanging quite close to the yard even when we were at the “Birding Table-North Yard”. I didn’t think too much about that since we make this a very friendly place.

The Quail at the ground bird bath, north yard.

The California quail at the ground bird bath, north yard.

One morning I looked out the kitchen window and noticed a crow sitting on the fence at the north edge of our yard, with the quail acting very agitated close to the fence. Whoa, with that behavior going on, I’m thinking nest site! I am in full swing with the NestWatch program with Cornel Lab of Ornithology and would love to have a quail’s nest to monitor ( I had 8 nesting attempts from 6 different species in 2013, the quail being one of them). So I went out and checked the only thing possible to contain a quail’s nest in that immediate area, the Iris.

View of the north yard showing the iris, beyond and to the left of the lounge chairs. .

A few years previously we had some California towhees nest in it. I looked in it very well only to find nothing. I was a little disappointed. Well, the next morning I looked out to find the same scenario happening with the quail and crow. Something’s going on out there I missed! So back out I went to the iris.

The iris containing the quail’s nest, just above the middle of the photo.

Quails nest with seven eggs, spring 2013.It was tucked in under the side of the iris, not in it.

This time I looked around the iris, not just in it. Lo and behold, there it was! Over the next couple of days the eggs dwindled to five and then none. I had already figured out that the crow had been raiding the nest previous to my finding it. During that time the parents tried their best.

Mommy quail going into the nest.

The day I found it empty I also noticed some quail feathers a few feet away from the nest. I do not think a crow would attack a quail and kill it, it would only scare it away to get the eggs. At the time there was a feral cat in the vicinity and I wondered about him being the culprit. I’ll never know for sure.

Feathers from the quail.

All I know for sure is a mother quail gave her life for her eggs. There was lots of her feathers around, much more than in the picture. It’s sure not easy out there in Nature!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Fattening the Lizards for the Snakes

14/04/28 at 12.15pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

In my previous essay “Feeding the Wild Ones” I mentioned about making the snakes here very happy. This story tells of an inadvertent feeding. At our former residence I found that I could feed the Western fence lizards by hand. I started by throwing out live mealworms to them which quickly led to my feeding them by hand. The lizards will run over to you from several feet away to get a worm, great fun!

Male Western Fence Lizard. Darker bodied with blue spots and a regrown tail.

When we moved to our current residence I found another lizard that I could feed, the Southern alligator lizard. Where we live now is prime habitat for them and we have quite a few of them here. I started by tossing them worms and quickly segued into feeding them by hand. Alligator lizards are generally found in thick, low plants, all the better for hiding. They are not the quickest of lizards but do have a decent bolt from danger. There is also a lot of leaf duff from the oaks in their habitat.

I was concerned about feeding them in that habitat because of the possibility of losing the mealworms down in the leaves, as I often just toss a mealworm out to them. The new ones have to learn to feed by hand. I soon found out that they have excellent hearing. Any worm that got under the leaves was found and eaten! I have also fed one when it would be up in a jade tree. This happened on several occasions, see photo below.

Alligator Lizard in Jade tree. Notice the large ear hole.

Apparently they could hear the mealworms moving underneath the leaves! I lost absolutely no mealworms in the duff; they found them all! Another aspect of their natural history is that, like a lot of lizards, they can lose their tails.

This is a defensive mechanism to help them get away from predators. The predator gets the tail and the lizard gets to live…seems like a good deal to me. I believe they can also lose them in fights with other alligator lizards.

Both these lizards have re-grown tails. I believe that they are males fighting for territory. The lizard in the top is what I call tan and the lower one grey-brown.

The following photos will show some lizards with full tails and some with regrown tails. They will also show some of the three color patterns that I have noticed of them. I call one of them tan, one grey-brown and the last red, which is my favorite.

Tan color alligator lizard with full tail.

Grey-brown color alligator lizard with full tail.

Red color alligator lizard juvenile with regrown tail.

Because the original tail is made of bone and the regrown tail is of cartilage, the regrown tail never returns to it’s former glory. There are also many blue-bellies, mostly males, that have stump tails. Another aspect of the alligator lizards natural history is that it gives live birth. Some locals call them snake lizards. I think that is because the alligator lizard puts its legs against the sides of it’s body when moving through dense brush and wiggles through just like a snake and it also sheds its skin in one piece, just like a snake. All our other lizards shed in patches of skin.

After a couple years of having fun feeding my new friends, the population of alligator lizards increased dramatically. One year, in early summer, I noticed a lot of small gopher and common king snakes. I’m thinking that’s pretty cool!

After about a month I noticed that I was not seeing any of my alligator lizards anymore. I started to realize what may have brought the snakes here, FOOD! King snakes eat other reptiles specifically. What’s a small gopher snake going to eat? Well, reptiles probably. Because I had raised the density of the alligator lizard population the snakes were here hunting!

A VERY young Gopher Snake. Notice the size of the head compared to the body.

They could smell/taste that there was a whole lot of food around here with their Jacobson’s organ (vomeronasal organ) located in their mouth, and they wanted some! They for sure had eaten some and maybe scared the others away, regardless, I never saw any where near the numbers of alligator lizards I had before the snakes showed up. I had inadvertently fed the snakes! Since the lizards had been eaten or dispersed I haven’t been feeding them as much and limited it to a few rather than every one that I see. As a result, I have not seen many snakes around now, at least not like I had that summer! I don’t know about the alligator lizards, but the snakes were dam happy for a while.

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Feeding the Wild Ones

14/04/23 at 11.35pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 2 Comments

I’m sure that most of us like feeding the animals. Heck, some of us have to feed the animals every day, our dogs, cats, horses and what have you. Then we have to pick up what comes out the other end, they being the animals they are. The feeding of wild animals possess different issues. Urban dwellers on the edge of open spaces are urged not to keep food for their pets out at night so as not to attract coyotes, raccoons or bobcats. There are regulations in our National Parks about food use and storage pertaining to black bears. Animals have three needs, food, shelter and water. And they will search for the most food for the least effort. Given this, if you wish to attract an animal or bird, put out food and they will come! Water helps a lot also. However we don’t always want, or should have, some critters real close. There is the ethical issue of the animal becoming dependent on a non-natural food source and losing touch with it’s normal habitat and habits. There is the issue of over population, creating more animals, through our feeding, than the habitat can sustain once the feeding stops. And here’s a twist, I’ll have a future blog on how I raised the numbers of alligator lizards, through feeding, much to the delight of the snakes. And there are other issues as well, as you will see further in my blog. This does not include all the other animals that I feed inadvertently. There are bunches of rabbits, fox squirrels, occasional deer, and mantled ground squirrels that forage in my yard on the plants that I put in the yard for decorative purposes! Oh well, they are nice to have around to watch and I can always replant. Well, here’s my thoughts on these issues and on how and what I feed.

Hooded Oriole at the north hummingbird feeder.

Hooded oriole at the north side hummingbird feeder.

Feeding birds does not seem to have these concerns. One thing I noticed is that for what we feed the birds they will always go off and forage on their own. The hummers all go to the flowers, the orioles go of after insects, the oak titmice, the house wrens and California towhees all go off foraging after feeding with us. And the squirrels do also. They all seem to have a drive to search for more food, remember the three needs? Because of that, I am not sure that birds would become dependent. Except for nectar feeders I do not put out any other full time feeders. In urban yards it’s a great thing to put out seed feeders for the birds. It helps make up for lost habitat from development. We can do things to help our yard be an urban oasis. In the winter that feeding can be crucial for the birds survival. However, my yard is a wild yard, not urban . There is food for everyone here. What I did was add lots of water. I have six bird baths! If you don’t think that helps bring things in! Hey, this is Southern California after all. For help making your yard more bird friendly please contact YardMap, http://www.yardmap.org/, Cornel Lab of Ornithology. Although I would like to, I don’t put out seed feeders or piles of seeds for one reason, scrub jays! The food attracts them. I try to shoo them away as much as I can and they have seemed to have taken the hint. They are little Velociraptors with wings! They are the primary reason for a lot of my nest failures with NestWatch, http://www.nestwatch.org, Cornel Lab of Ornithology. I feed by hand.

Oak titmouse taking a piece of nut off my leg.

I have found that feeding by hand has a huge benefit. The animal makes a direct connection between you and the food. If you go out to replenish a pile of food, birds that are close by will fly away until you back off. If you come out with food to feed by hand, the birds come to YOU! Feeding by hand consist of gently tossing out the food to an animal close to you. After that the ones that will take directly from the hand will show themselves. The animals and birds lose their wariness of you. You are not a threat, you are a food source! What this means is that they do their thing closer to you even when they are not being fed. Instead of the squirrels, or birds, staying twenty feet away they are now at your feet. You can then see a lot more of their habits and antics. Their whole behavior with you changes. It is great fun to watch them close up!

The fox squirrels get the same treatment. What I also do with any animal that I feed is I try to feed them later in the day. I want them to be out foraging on their own so they don’t lose touch with their habitat. What we give them is a nice healthy snack as a supplement to their diet. Trying not to be a main food source. There is plenty of food around here for them. I just want them friendly.

My man, Mr. Pito

One thing about squirrels though, they can be a little aggressive at times. Especially if there are more than one feeding. And they have claws as sharp as a cats, with very sharp teeth. Believe me, we know! One morning I was at the kitchen table reading the paper when I heard this crash against the window. When I looked up there was nothing to be seen. Within a few seconds a paw came up grabbing the window frame and a head that soon followed! It was Precious. She had seen me from the oak that is about two and a half feet from the window and had tried to jump to the ledge. We at first thought this was very cute and we went out and fed her. WRONG! She started to make this a habit. She was training us! We stopped rewarding that habit and she quit. Thank God. I really thought she might break the window. I just think one has to be very aware when your feeding the wild animals.

Precious, begging at our kitchen window one morning.

The “other issue” that I referred to in my first paragraph is that the fox squirrels are an introduced species. They were introduced to the LA. area in 1904. By 1947 they were considered an agricultural pest. They are basically an invasive species. I knew this when we started feeding them. The problem for me was that I have not allowed us to have any pets. Cats are voracious killers and even dogs will keep the animals away. My wife has always had pets, especially cats. She really misses that and had focused on the squirrels. She was the one that first got them to feed by hand. I am not blaming her though, I’m right there with her feeding them. It’s a ton of fun and as I mentioned we get to observe them more. Dr. Alan Munchlinsky of California State University, Los Angeles has a Fox Squirrel Project going on so I plan to contact him to see what he thinks of all this. I would appreciate any comments anyone would have regarding this. All I know for sure is that one has to be careful feeding the Wild Ones.

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Our Squirrels, Mr. Pito

14/04/21 at 3.35pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

I thought I would get you caught up on our “Squirrel Sagas”. I was all wet on my thoughts about Sally and her young, as stated in my previous post. She has shown up with two youngsters. As I mentioned in my previous essay on “Our Squirrels,” Precious had shown up with three.

Sally's three offspring from Spring 2014

Precious’ three offspring from Spring, 2014, playing around in the oaks.

One of Precious's offspring taking a break.

One of Precious’ offspring taking a break from the play.

Sally did finally show with her two youngsters hanging around. Apparently she had kept them on the north side of our yard. Precious brought hers over from the south. The funny thing was, I expected the young to come over to feed with the moms just as Pito Boy (more on him in a bit) did with Sally last year. They saw us feeding their moms but have been too skittish to come close. Thank God! I did not want to be feeding eight squirrels! I think the mothers both had multiple young because of our feedings. They usually have one, sometimes two. The size of their litters may have contributed to their not bringing their young in. There would be too many mouths to feed for the given habitat. Last year Mr. Pito was Sally’s only offspring so I think she let him tag along. Precious brought no one. This year the young seem to be foraging on their own, which may be their normal thing.

One of Sally’s young at the ground birdbath.

It has been really interesting noticing the changes in their markings over time. As I stated in the captions of the previous blog of photos of Sally and Precious about one having a black stripe over its muzzle, I refer you to my previous post for those photos, things have changed. Precious now has no real markings now while Sally has some black markings on her forehead back to her ears, which started out as a crescent shape from the forehead to each eye. The one thing that has never changed has been their personalities. Sally and Pito Boy are very mellow, coming in to feed without much angst. Precious on the other hand comes in all skittish and jumpy. I am thinking that is because this was Sally’s territory. Although they are not suppose to be territorial there is a fair amount of chasing that goes on. Whatever the cause, their personalities do show.

Precious with no real markings on her face.

Notice the black markings on Sally’s head that go back to the ears and forward to the eyes.

It has been tough to keep them separated as to who’s who during the changes except for their personalities. But one we always knew was Pito Boy. As of this spring he is one year old! And now he is called Mr. Pito, I’m sure you’ll see why.

Pito Boy, Sally’s son. No balls yet. Spring 2013

Mr. Pito one year old Spring 2014

Happy Birthday Mr. Pito! Man, that’s a pair of cojones!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Roadrunner Surprise

14/04/14 at 11.01pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 7 Comments

About two and a half years ago I decided to start learning the calls of the birds that I have here around the house. I had never bothered to learn them previously for two reasons. The first was that when I started birding, 37 years ago, I always wanted to see the bird not just hear it. Not seeing the bird just seemed so unfulfilling. The second was that trying to find a songbird flittering around up in the oak canopy or down in the dense chaparral is a pain in the but. It just wasn’t worth the effort to me, besides, I wanted to see them. Now that I live here in Paradise, that’s what I call my place, I thought I had a better opportunity to achieve some success with that endeavor. I have a core of about 30 year round birds that I could start with. I knew a few bird calls, some besides the obvious crows, scrub jays, owls, etc, but I wanted to be more aware of what was around me. It wasn’t easy in the beginning, especially at springtime when besides my year-rounds I had the influx of the spring migrants nesting. Sometimes I could not even keep up with all the calls I was hearing. But it was fun and I learned. Now I do a lot of my birding by ear. As I’m sitting at my “Birding Table” reading my paper in the morning I can keep a mental note of where the birds are around me without looking. It also alerts me to new species in my yard or at least a new sound from an old bird. Here’s the thing, birds don’t just make one sound. They can have chip notes, calls and songs and sometimes they use incomplete calls. I believe the crows are suppose to have a vocabulary of over 50 calls, however they all sound like crow. Like anything though it gets easier the more you do it. While my wife and I were sitting at the “Birding Table-North Yard” about five weeks ago we were hearing a call/sound that we could not identify. It was kind of dove like but also sounded a bit like a small puppy whining. There were some new people using the north pasture and my wife was worried that maybe a dog they had was in trouble so we investigated. I was pretty sure it was a bird sound and wanted to know which one. After searching as best we could without trespassing and not finding the source we returned to the table. I went in for a few minutes and when I came out my wife tells me that a roadrunner has just come out of that area. So back in I go and get my bird guide. I had never thought about a roadrunner making calls. The book says ” a descending dove like call”. Now I go in and get on the computer and go to Macaulay Library (http://www.macaulaylibrary.org) which is a data base of bird calls from all over the globe, containing every bird that we are ever going to hear. I believe it is open to the public. It is connected to Cornel Lab of Ornithology. I have only been using this site for about a year and I sure wish I would have had them available when I started learning the calls. Anyway, the call we were hearing was definitely the roadrunner.

Over the next week the roadrunner is calling off and on all day. It’s a male and he’s looking for a mate. We see him make his calls as he crosses the pasture but a lot of his calls seem to come from three distinct angles a lot of the time. The trippy part is, I can never see him. So I reread the guide and it talks about the roadrunner being on the tops of mesas or cactus or shrubs when it calls. OK, so next time I hear him calling from his southwest position I raise my gaze and there he is, 30 feet up on the top of a dead sycamore snag cooing away with a western skink in it’s mouth as a food offering! I was a split second from getting a photo when he swooped down from his perch. I did manage this one a few days later.

Greater roadrunner calling for a mate up on a Sycamore snag

A few days after that I heard him calling from the East and I started looking for him up in the oaks. It took a little bit but I found him about 35 feet up in a valley oak! We see roadrunners a lot here and they always seem so reluctant to fly. A section of pasture fence that the roadrunners can’t go through seems to baffle them. They will look up at it walking back and forth and then finally fly up over it, immediately returning to the ground having barely cleared the fence. To see them at the top of an oak really surprised me!

Greater roadrunner cooing away up in a Valley Oak

The roadrunner ruffles out his throat feathers and bends his head down when it calls. That would explain why his calls did not seem to be coming from up high. A little ventriloquism there! Anyway, I sure didn’t expect to be looking for a roadrunner in places I would be looking for a warbler!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Healing House Wren

14/04/10 at 12.28pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

Last spring, while doing my NestWatch, http://nestwatch.org, we had a lot of action with our house wrens that nest under the eave of our roof right over our bedroom window. They had a first brood of six and the young would start their calling at about 6:30 in the morning and squawk all day. The parents were so busy constantly flying back and forth with insects.

A parent feeding the first brood of six

I was lucky enough to be at my “Birding Table-North Yard” the day they fledged. The photo below was taken that day. Over the course of the next few weeks we watched an amazing show of the 6 fledges following mom and dad around the house looking for insects, which the parents dutifully brought them. After awhile the parents back off feeding them and soon the fledges are gone, although one did try to stay a little while longer. The parents quickly started to remodel the old nest and another clutch was laid.

A fledgling from the first brood

The second brood had three young. The male abandoned the female, which they sometimes do, and I felt sorry for the female being all alone. So I started feeding her mealworms. This led to my also feeding the fledgelings. One of the fledgelings had a growth on the tip of its upper beak which kept it from fully closing it’s mouth. I was very concerned about the bird’s ability to forage for the insects it had to catch. Fortunately in a few days the growth broke off. That left it with a bit of an underbite (under beak?) that will grow out again as their beaks are made of keratin just like our fingernails. I was quite relieved.

Fledgeling with the growth on it’s beak

All gone! Notice the underbite?

The wrens had nested in this spot two years in a row. This year they have checked out the nest site but have not seemed to have selected it. Maybe for their second clutch if I’m lucky!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Our Squirrels

14/04/08 at 12.51pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

These are eastern fox squirrels that my wife Alexi and I have been feeding for about a year. Sally and her son Pito Boy would come down from a nest in the oak just east of the house, and Precious, another female, would come from the south of our yard. Pito Boy is only a few months old in this photo. His balls have not dropped yet. His penis always sticks out so he can scent mark as he moves about. I’ll have some future postings showing why he is now called Mr. Pito. Sally and Precious both seemed to have litters this spring, however, we never saw any young with Sally while Precious had three ( photos of them will be in a future post ). Sally does seem to be nursing again so I’m thinking that her first ones had been taken by a predator (boy do we have them around here) and she went back into estrus and had a quick second litter that put her behind Precious in breeding. We’ll see if she shows with any young in the near future.

Sally, Pito Boy’s mom. Notice she has no black stripe over her muzzle.

Pito Boy, Sally’s offspring. Speaks for himself.

Precious, the other female squirrel. Notice she has a black stripe over her muzzle.

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Ojai Naturalist

Failed Quail

Fattening the Lizards for the Snakes

Feeding the Wild Ones

Our Squirrels, Mr. Pito

Roadrunner Surprise

Healing House Wren

Our Squirrels

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