Ojai Naturalist

Antler Antics; The Herd Grows

17/08/17 at 11.44am / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

With having found the full rack of the second largest buck in our deer herd from 2016 (see my essay “Antler Antics”) I was really excited to see what 2017 would bring to me! The Spring started with six does roaming the area. Within a few weeks we started to see some fawns as well.

Within a month or so we could count three new youngsters along with the adult females. That would seem to be deemed good recruitment for the herd we have now.

With Summer arriving we were starting to see some of the males in the herd. The bucks and does form separate herds except for rutting season. One of the first bucks to show up was the big one from last year. And he was bigger and badder than last year! 2016 ended with me naming him Big Boy.

Before we start comparing the bucks, I want to go over some of the terms for the points, called tines, on a deer antler. First, there is the “main beam”. This is the part of the antler from the skull to the tips that continue outward in front of the deer. This is the longest part of the antler. The other points that come off the main beam upwards are called G1, G2 and so on. The G1 is the first and usually the biggest of the G series points. Sometimes the G’s have points develop on them and these points are called “kickers”. There are also two little points that come out forward, a few inches up from the base of the antler, and these are “eye guards”. To qualify as a point, and therefore countable as such, the point has to be at least an inch long. The last aspect of antler anatomy is called the “coronet” and it is the little circle of bumps and indentations around the base of the antler. These are much like a fingerprint and can link all the antlers a deer sheds as belonging to it. In the above photo of 2016, Big Boy has 3 points on his right antler and on his left antler his G2 is very small. It might not qualify as a point, regardless, it is very small. You can also see a notch in his right ear. Also note that on the right antler his G2 and main beam tip are very claw like, almost like a crab.

Here’s Big Boy in 2017 and he shows the same notch in the ear and claw like G2 on his right antler. This year his G2 on his left antler has lengthened considerably and he has kickers developing on both G1s. Notice how the tips of his G1s are misshaped just below the points. That’s kickers forming and once they reach an inch long they will be another point on his rack. Upon mating bucks will pass their genes to their offspring and this includes genes for the formation of their antlers. This will become more clear as I explain more about the bucks later.

I will start with the smallest 2 pointer that we had show up. It was a small buck and had his eye guards, which fork horns, also with 2 points, lack.

The thing about this buck is, notice the kickers on his G1s. He seems a little young to have kickers. However, that growth is caused mostly from the genes and a little from food resources. I have the feeling that he is a son of Big Boy. Can’t prove it though, for obvious reasons.

The next 2 pointer to show I believe is the 2 pointer whose antlers I gathered last year. It has the same proportions and shape as the antlers I possess. Only much larger this year.

Isn’t he a handsome boy? I never did give him a name and haven’t had any inspiration for one so he remains nameless. Please note that this buck has no indication of kickers. Just a nice smooth taper out to the tips. Keep that in mind.

This next buck has 3 points on his left antler and 2 on his right. Again, there is a nice taper to it’s points.

The last buck of 2 points or better was also a 3-2, however his 3 was on his right antler not the left. He also had a deformed G1 on his right antler.

Notice that the G2 0n his right makes that same kind of claw shape as Big Boy’s does. The left antler also has a G2 forming on it. The tip of the G1 on it’s left antler seems thick right at the end. It reminds me a whole lot of Big Boy. What do you think? What happened to it’s Gi on his right antler probably occurred when his antlers were growing and covered in velvet. It could have been caused by injury or infection or maybe genetic, who knows.

With only having two bucks in the 2+ Club last year, the five of this year astounds me! Add the six does, the three fawns and a fork horn to them and there was a total of fifteen deer in the herd we watched over the course of the year. They start showing up a lot towards the end of Summer for the acorns from the oaks, called mast. They are a primary source of protein for the herd at this time of year.

Another thing that brings the heard together in the fall is breeding season. The rut, as it is called, is the one time of the year that you can see lots of males with the females and they are very focoussed the females. It is quite interesting watching the males bothering the females who are actively in estrous. The males will bother them so much that they have a hard time getting space and time to eat the acorns.

The above buck is the one with the injured G1 on his right antler. In the photo below he is fleming, which is a rolling up of the upper lip so that he can “taste” the hormones from a female in estrous.

As the year winds down my thoughts turn to the first of the year for 2018. The bucks will be shedding their antlers, called castings, in January. Last year I had incredible luck in finding some sheds and this year the herd has more than doubled! I was looking forward with great anticipation as to what I might find this time.

The Thomas Fire, Ventura CA, December 2017. Taken from my yard.

Well, come December, nature played a dirty trick on me, the Thomas Fire! When it ended it was the largest forest fire California had ever had. Although now it is #2. Ojai was completely surrounded by fire. It was like two burning jaws on both sides of the Ojai Valley closing around us. I have seen many fires here and this was a whopper!

The fire on the south side of the Valley burned across Black Mountain and down to the edge of the city at Lion Canyon Ranch. That is where I believe most of the deer that we see hang out. It was a very destructive event to say the least. The fire was very disruptive to the herds normal habits. As 2018 started we were not seeing any deer. Part of the reason for not seeing the deer, besides the disturbance of the fire, is that within two weeks of a fire the chaparral is sprouting up new growth from their roots. This is great food for deer. You see, deer are browsers not grazers. They like leaves, soft, tender, young leaves and that is what they now had all around them. With the new food sources available they did not have to roam much and we saw very few deer in the first half of the year. I also found no antlers whatsoever! What a major disappointment that was! I was drooling on the bit waiting for the first of the year and my search for more antlers. Oh well, I can rejoice in the fact that the herd provided me with so much enjoyment during that year, it was incredible! The only constant in life is change and in time the deer will be around again for me to enjoy. There will not be an article on the herd for 2018 because they still haven’t returned in any numbers as I write this essay. That is OK though. I know that they will return sooner or later and I am a patient man. The herd prospered and grew and for that I am most thankful!

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

A Western Bluebird Bonding: Continued…

17/07/23 at 2.26pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

I mentioned in a previous essay that the adult bluebirds, Bonnie and Clyde, had not pushed off their young from from spring of 2016 until late January of this year. By early spring Bonnie was begging Clyde for food with wing shakes and open mouth just like a fledgeling. She does this because she is growing eggs for the nest and needs the extra food. Once she lays the eggs Pops (the name I normally call Clyde) will feed her while she incubates them. We had been watching them as they refurbished the nesting cavity that they used last year (see essay ” A Western Bluebird Bonding”) and we were excited at the prospects! While incubating the eggs Bonnie will leave the nest from time to time and feed at the table. One thing is certain however: if she is stacking worms in her mouth, she has hatchlings!

Bonnie stacking worms for the hatchlings

They made countless journeys to the nest over the next three weeks or so to feed the little ones inside the hole in the tree. One morning it was different. The parents were not flying to the hole but up into the far reaches of the oaks. The young have fledged! The young will stay up in the leafy branches of the oaks for their safety until they become proficient flyers. We knew it would be only a matter of time before they were at the table.

Pops getting a worm for the fledgelings, 2017.

We were curious as to how many young have fledged this spring. The parents had been eating great since they got here over a year ago and we wondered if that would affect the clutch size this year. We only catch glimpses of the young when they are up in the oaks and it is very hard to determine just how many birds you are seeing. Once they start following their parents around on their search for food they will arrive closer and we will get an accurate account.

A first brood fledgeling gulping them down, 2017.

Arrive they did and soon they started feeding themselves at the table. It was still very hard to get a count of the young at first because they come in and out so quickly. Once they settled down we found that they had three fledgelings, the same as last year. As the fledgelings are maturing and feeding themselves, I notice that Bonnie is doing that little wing shake and open mouth that fledgelings do and Pops is feeding her.

Three fledgelings of the first brood, 2017.

That can mean only one thing, she is having a second brood! Within a few weeks the first brood has been dispersed from the area and Bonnie lays a second clutch of eggs. This was very different than last year, when they kept their young for several months. Last year they did not have a second brood, which is probably why the young got to stay around so long. I would have to say that Bonnie fed pretty well here since she is having a second clutch. Food resources play a big role in clutch size and number of broods that a bird has. As the bluebirds were feeding this second brood they received some help from one of their sons from the previous nesting effort of 2016.

Bonnie on the right, Clyde in the middle and one of their sons from 2016 top left

Year old bluebirds can sometimes end up with a part of their parents’ territory when they move out. If one of the young from the previous year have a nest failure or fail to nest they will sometimes help their parents to care for this years youngsters. One of the sons from 2016 showed up with a female to help out with the second brood. Probably because there was no genetic investment on her part the new female only stayed for a couple of weeks before she flew the coup, so to speak. The son, who I called junior, stayed the course.

The five fledglings from the second brood with the three adults that fed them.

As the young started to show up by our feeding area I tried to get a count on the youngsters. At times I would be able to count at least four fledgelings. That would be more than the previous broods that they have had with us. Wait, is that a fifth fledgeling that I just saw? Yes it is, Bonnie laid five eggs! Wow, Bonnie must be eating extremely well!

With having to feed five young this time I am sure that Bonnie and Clyde appreciated the help from their son. We felt that we had also played a dig part in the process. So much so that we really felt like grandparents! When the second brood started to feed more on their own I moved the feeding dishes up onto the table to bring them closer to us.

At the table the birds are feeding only three feet away from us. It’s up close and personal. It does take some time for the little ones to get used to us. Even with their parents flying to our hands for worms. The only time that the young birds would always come in without fear is when Pops comes in to the table. Then it is a bit like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. OK, OK, I exaggerate. However, it is so cute when all five youngsters fly in at once upon his arrival and immediately attack the food! What a dad!

At this point the young still have their streaky breast and upper back feathers. They are, however, showing the color blue that will show their individual sex as bluebirds. The males have more cobalt and the females are more of a sky blue. The problem is trying to get a clean look at them when they are all present. At first I was able to count two males and two females. Eventually I was able to recognize three male fledgelings feeding together at the table with us. OK then, three males and two females it is. The first brood this year was sent away so quickly that I never had a chance to determine their sex.

As the summer wore on and the young bluebirds became more accustomed to us at the table, I noticed that one of the male fledges seemed to be very interested in the mealworms that we were feeding to it’s parents. Which is a bit strange to me because the son, Junior, who came back to help the parents this year never showed any interest in taking a worm from our hand in the one year plus that he was with us.

So what the heck, I offered him a worm and by golly he took it! When I offer worms by hand at the table I start out by offering a worm while my arm is lying on the table so that they can just hop over to it rather than fly over. They seem a lot more open to approaching this way in the beginning. I decided to name him Bright Boy, since he had the sense to figure out what was happening. Within a day or two he was flying right to my hand! This feeding of Bright Boy went on for a couple of weeks when suddenly I noticed Pops chasing Bright Boy away from the feeding area! Within a few days Bright Boy was never to be seen again. Could this be a territorial dispute by Pops over food resources? I think so. Regardless, it was an interesting and informative breeding season with the bluebirds. I saw different behaviors and aspects of bluebird life that I had not observed previously. I will await the wonders of next years breeding season with much anticipation!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Antler Antics

17/02/24 at 1.45pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

Several years ago the city of Ojai had the culverts for San Antonio Creek, which runs under Grand Ave. and Ojai Ave, on it’s way south across the valley, changed from culverts to pilings, which are far more animal friendly. The result of that, as I stated in my essay “Predators and Prey”, was that the deer population grew.

As with the other animals around here, the deer pay us little attention. As a matter of fact, I wave to them. The reason I wave is because waving to them shows that I am not a predator trying to sneak up on them. I am showing myself and acknowledging their presence. They give me a bit of a stare and go on their way. Their way happens to be only fifty to seventy feet away from our house! That makes for some decent photos of the deer.

The 3 pointer from 2016

During late winter in 2016 I noticed that the bucks had started to regrow their antlers. Deer drop their antlers every year around the start of the year and pretty much start to regrow them right away. Other than for mating season the males form their own little herd.

The 3 pointer in the middle, the 2 pointer on the right and 1 of the fork horns on the left

The 3 pointer

We had a herd of five bucks. There was a three pointer, a two pointer, two fork horns and a spike horn. As the weeks wore on we watched the antlers emerge from their skulls. By mid summer the deer had shed their velvet. The three pointer turned out to be a nice looking buck.

The 3 pointer

It was at this time that I began thinking about the possibility of finding the antler castings. That is the technical name for the deer losing their antlers. In the vernacular they are called sheds or drops.

The 2 pointer

The two pointer was also a fine buck. We really enjoyed watching the herd stroll on by from time to time. The closer January came the more I thought about the antler sheds. Come late January in 2017 a group of three deer come sauntering through. It consisted of the two fork horns and another deer not showing antlers. Upon closer inspection the deer without the antlers turns out to be a buck!

The 2 fork horns with the 2 pointer that dropped it’s antlers

I knew that it was not the three point buck because there is no notch in the right ear. That would leave it being the two pointer. That does it, now is the time. I have to go looking for the antlers that are being dropped. Because of the weather, it was a little over a week before we could get out to look. We decided to start looking by working the perimeter of the fence line around my neighbor’s yard to the south of us. Just beyond the west side of their property is a little barranca that the deer will use quite a bit. Deer have their own favorite trails and will pretty much keep to them. We walk west down the road to the barranca, which is about a hundred feet from our residence. I decide that I should first check out the fence line on the north side of the road before we do the southern part. Fence lines are good to check because the bucks will jump over the fence and when they land the shock of landing can sometimes cause the antlers to come off. The bucks shaking their heads can also snap them off, or even getting the antlers caught in some brush will do it. I turn and start towards where the barranca cuts under the fence on the north side of the road and immediately see an antler laying in the middle of the barranca! It has been like only a minute since we started looking! I pick up the antler and see that it is the left antler of the two point buck. Well, I’m thinking, that wasn’t so hard. My wife is in total shock! See cannot believe what she just witnessed. And, quite frankly, neither can I! We search our neighbors perimeter, both inside and out, only to find nothing else except a lot of deer trails. That is great though because that is where we will find the antlers, if we do find any more antlers. Heck, I’m going home happy, I just found my first antler shed!

I reckon that the parcel we have the access to look through is about ten or twelve acres. That is a lot of ground to cover so I decide to do it systematically in quadrants. A few days later we start in the southern part and work our way north through the property. We have spent a couple of days and a several hours of our time as we enter the last quadrant that we have to look through. We are walking through some thin patches of chaparral when I spy another antler on the ground. It looks big enough to be the match to the one I first found. The match has to also be a right antler. I go over and pick it up and yes it is a right antler, and yes, it matches the first one I found! Unbelievable, I found the two point buck’s set!

The fork horn I call Broke Tine

About a week later I look out of the kitchen to see the fork horn that I call Broke Tine jousting with a toyon shrub. He is doing that to get rid of his antlers. The big bucks have big antlers that have their weight to help them cast off. The fork horns don’t have that going for them. If you go back to the above photo of the two pointer which has dropped its antlers, the one on the left is Broke Tine. A tine is the name for any of the points of an antler and his left is broken. The other fork horn is in the middle of the photo. If you look closely his antlers are much taller than Broke Tine’s.

So with that I called him Longhorn. Alright, alright, that is a misnomer, it is an antler not a horn. But hey, I like the name. Also, the term fork horn is used for deer so why not? A week or so after seeing Broke Tine jousting with the shrub I am taking my good buddy Harvey on a tour of the area and the deer trails that I found. On our way back to the house from the northeast corner of the property I find Broke Tine’s broken left antler! It was only about twenty five feet away from where I found the second of the two point buck’s set!

The antlers on my coffee table

The photo above shows the difference between a two pointer and a fork horn, which would seem to have two points also. What the fork horns are lacking are the eye guards by the base and some mass to the antlers. After a buck is born he grows spike horns his first year and is a fork horn for his second one. The two pointers, and up, start after that and the size of the antlers will depend on a few factors such as available food resources and health of the buck.

I had really hoped that I would find the three pointer’s set; however, I am more than happy with my bounty. I was nice to the deer and the deer returned the favor, how sweet!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Winter Arrivals

16/11/24 at 1.43pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

As fall begins in 2016 we are still feeding the bluebird family of five (see essay “A Western Bluebird Bonding”), as well as all the other birds and lizards we normally feed, and I am thinking a lot about wether or not the Hermit thrushes, Patience and Agro ( see essay “Theatrical Thrush”), would return this year. Birds will return to the same area to nest and also to winter if things were good for them before. I was really looking forward to seeing them again–well Patience anyway. However, before the thrushes arrived, we had some return visitors from last winter. A small flock of five white-crowned sparrows and six dark-eyed juncos showed up for the winter. Hey, that’s why I live here, it is dam nice in the winter. I had fed small flocks of both the white-crowned and juncos last winter. The neat thing about both these species is that they are primarily seed eaters, which means that I could use pieces of walnut to entice them rather than live giant mealworms. It is a lot less expensive and the bluebirds would get all the mealworms anyway. The bluebirds pay no attention to the nuts. I have also been using dried mealworms for our year-round birds, however I wasn’t sure if the winter arrivals would be attracted to them. As the winter birds would forage around us in the yard I would toss out small pieces of walnut.

White-crowned sparrow (left corner) and a dark-eyed junco

white-crowned sparrow

The birds quickly focused on me tossing out the walnut pieces and came in closer. This led them to discover the dried mealworms we put out when we are outside, well at least the white-crowned sparrows noticed them. To my amazement the dark-eyed juncos never showed an interest in them at all. Maybe they were a little intimidated by all the action around the feeders.

Bewick’s wren

Besides the five bluebirds, we are feeding two California towhees, two oak titmice and we picked up a Bewick’s wren recently! Add the eleven new visitors and that is a lot of birds vying for food. I decided to put out three dried mealworm dishes instead of the two I had been using in order to help out with the congestion around the feeders. I put two feeders on the ground and one on the table with us.

I must mention that we put out the dried mealworms slightly moistened. The reason for that is to make them less brittle and easier for the adults to pick up and feed to their young without them breaking up and falling out of their mouths. We actually call it bird kibble.

There is a pecking order as to who gets to eat first. The bluebirds are the most aggressive because of their flying ability and their numbers. However, one on one, the towhees tend to rule the roost, so to speak. Who I found to be pugnacious little birds were the white-crowned sparrows! They would stand up a little to the bluebirds and towhees. Not so with the titmice, they are scared of everyone! I make sure to toss the titmice food that they can get to when the feeders are busy.

California towhee

Part of the bluebird family

As all these birds are settling in with each other my thoughts turn to the hermit thrushes from the previous year, Patience and Agro (see essay “Theatrical Thrush”). If she even comes back, would Patience come flying to my hand again? After a few weeks of starting to feed the new arrivals, I spy a hermit thrush on the rocks next to me by the table. Could this be Patience? I pull out a live giant mealworm from the container and offer it to her by hand and she immediately flies over and takes it from my hand! “Patience” I cry loudly, “you’re back!”

Over the next couple of days Patience and I renew our friendship. Then one day I have a hermit thrush on the rocks by the table who won’t come to my hand. Could this be Agro? This bird was very familiar with the routine of me tossing worms out, however, he will not fly to my hand for one. That was the same pattern last year with the thrushes. Last year Agro would chase Patience to the southern side of the house and I would have to feed her there. I leave the table on the northern side and go around to the southern side of the house. Lo and behold, there’s Patience waiting to be fed! She flies to my hand for her worms and then goes on her birdie way. I knew in my heart that these were the same two birds from last year but I wanted more proof of that.

The only difference between the birds that I could discern last year, other than behavior, was that Agro showed a lot more white underneath his cheeks than Patience had. It was quite reliable as I always knew which one was which. I had taken many photos of them last year and I realized that I would be able to compare them to this years photos.

Patience, winter of 2016

Agro, winter of 2016

Patience winter of 2017

Agro winter of 2017

As you can see, the white on Agro below the cheek is far more prominent than on Patience. That clinches it, these are the same birds!

I find it so wondrous to be able to establish a relationship with any wild animal. My feeding by hand, either tossing out or by hand, has broken down most of the fear that these animals have for us. Even other animals that we do not directly act with see the behavior of the birds towards us and accept us a bit more also. Because of this lack of fear, even when I am not feeding them, the birds will come in extremely close looking for food. They will actually come in closer than when they are being fed. This lets me see their behavior up close and personal such as the time early one spring when two towhees were exchanging twigs while making some soft little calls to each other. That was obviously a bonding ritual for the towhees. I had witnessed it once before, many years ago, without being able to hear the calls because they were not close enough. Feeding by hand has proven to be a great way to establish a real bond with the animals here. I will go out in the morning and again in late afternoon to give them a feed. During the rest of the day the birds will come by while they are on their territorial excursions to check for food. Some of them seem to beg for food by singing to me or coming in very, very close. Tow Tow, our female towhee, will be up on the table, which is where she normally takes worms from my hand, right in front of me a foot and a half away! My wife and I have noticed that she has quite the stare. If there is no food available the birds go on about their foraging ways. Heck, I’ve even seen them walk away from food on the table and just start searching for more in the leaf litter.

Feeding the birds by hand has been such an incredible experience for me. It brings much joy and entertainment to my day. You should try it. I know you’ll like it!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

A Western Bluebird Bonding

16/06/26 at 4.40pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 1 Comment

Early spring of 2016 brought a mated pair of western bluebirds to our yard. Bluebirds eat insects by catching them in the air or by following the insects to a landing spot on a plant or on the ground. They often come to the ground when they spy insects from the perch they are on. Bluebirds are members of the Thrush family, which do happen to spend a lot of time on the ground. It was this behavior that showed me a way to get their attention with: “The Power of Mealworms!” My essays are full of my stories on feeding birds and reptiles and how that affects their behavior toward who is feeding them. They lose their fear of you. I start by throwing out large, live mealworms onto the ground where the animal can see them. The worms wriggle a little and the predator comes on over to snatch the worm up. Works every time. The most important things in an animal’s life are food, water and shelter. The birdbaths bring the birds into the yard and the worms bring them to me! The habitat was already here. So now, the birds are focussed on me after only a few worms–“Hey, these Homo sapiens are OK!” From there it was easy to get them to feed at the table.

The male bluebird snatching up a worm on the table.

The birds would alight on the chairs at the table and fly in for the worms that we would toss onto the table for them. What really surprised my wife and me was how quickly they learned to take a worm from our hands, in only three days! We have fed lots of birds but very few will take from our hand. It’s usually a toss out to them. Oh, I should mention that we also throw out pieces of walnut to the seed eaters, although they do love mealworms best. Previously we have had only a California towhee and a hermit thrush take worms from our hands (see essay ” Theatrical Thrush”). The lizards of all species run over to you like puppy dogs to take worms from your hand. They are a kick! The birds, they seem more wary.

Pops coming in for his worm.

When the bluebirds arrived as a pair I was trying to think of a famous couple from history that I could name them after. At this time we were also feeding two pairs of California towhees. One morning, when I was tossing worms to the towhees that lived east of us, the male bluebird flew down to land close to the towhee that had a worm in its’ mouth. He then hoped over and took the worm right out of the towhee’s mouth and flew off with it! I thought, “That’s it! I’ll call them Bonnie and Clyde!”, although, in all honesty, I usually just call the male Pops.

Bonnie leaving my hand.

As nesting season draws near, Clyde is compelled to start feeding Bonnie. He will also be feeding her when she finally has eggs in the nest. He will actually fly in from further away to get to a worm before Bonnie does, only to end up giving it to her. That’s testosterone for you; it makes males do some crazy things. Anyway, come nesting season they chose a hole in a tree, being the cavity nesters they are. The particular cavity they chose was one that our oak titmice used in 2015 to fledge three young.

Titmouse peering out from the hole in spring of 2015

Titmouse entering with a load of worms in 2015.

This is way cool because I can view them from where we sit at the table. At this point we added some dried mealworms to their diet. We put out the dried mealworms in a container on the table and they quickly learned to take the worms from there, not that we stopped feeding them live ones by hand.

Pops bringing worms to the hatchlings in 2016

Soon they were taking worms to the hatchlings in the nest. This went on for a few weeks until the hatchlings fledged. At first the parents kept the young up in the foliage of the oaks for safety until they could fly better. When they gained some flying competency they began to follow their parents around.

Mom with one of her young.

The young would follow the adults in, closer and closer to the table, until they were being fed by the adults at the chairs. As the time for the fledgelings to feed on their own arrived, they had become very accustomed to the situation.

Mom feeding dried mealworms.

We were really happy about our decision to include dried mealworms in their diet. It makes it a lot easier to feed them all. The parents had fledged three young consisting of a female and two males, so there were more mouths to be fed and we were still feeding all the other birds, as well as the lizards. Soon we were all a big happy family at the table!

The Bluebird family in spring of 2016.

We fed the family all through the summer and as fall approached I wondered when they would push off the young to other territories, as is the case with most birds. They had their adult coloration now and it was getting hard to tell them apart, although Pops showed a little more cobalt to his color. Since I am writing this essay way after the fact, I can tell you that the adults did not chase off the young until late January the following year. It was incredibly fun and interesting to be interacting with such a fine family of bluebirds! However, it can get pretty crazy here at feeding time! There are a lot of mouths to feed and timing is crucial in the feeding sequence so as to keep the more aggressive ones from getting all the food. And that means between the different species also. I would have to feed the bluebirds first, since they are bold and aggressive and would take the worms before the others would get them. Then I would quickly give handouts to the other birds while the bluebirds were occupied. I have had times when I was holding a worm for another bird and Pops would fly in and snatch it from my hand before I could react. I really had to pay attention as to where all the birds were. I leave you with a photo of little Bonnie that I thought was nicely done. Tribute must also be paid to Clyde for all the bugs he found and fed to Bonnie and their youngsters–what a Dad he was!

Sweet Bonnie the Bluebird.

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Brawling Bluebellies

16/03/23 at 8.49am / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

During a very long hot spell in February of 2016 that had the lizards out of their usual winter torpor, I came out of the house to rejoin my wife and backpacking friend Harvey at the table in our north yard. As I approached the table Harvey pointed out two western fence lizards that he presumed to be mating. Many years back, while on a backpacking trip together in Los Padres National Forest, I had made note of two alligator lizards we came across who were mating. The male grabs the female behind the head to keep her from getting away while mating. I looked over to the Bluebellies, the common name for western fence lizards in these parts, and saw that it was actually two males and they were fighting each other! Male western fence lizards maintain territories and will defend them vigorously. The males will send signals from a distance that consist of doing push-ups with their body puffed up and showing their gular sack under their throat from a high spot in their territory. These displays do a couple of things, first they advertise to males to stay away and they also show them to any females who might be around and willing to mate. If there is to be a dispute between two males, they will start approaching each other sideways, standing as tall as they can, puffing out their bodies and gular sacks while curving their tails up and over their backs, if they still have a tail. Of note here is that western fence lizards can release their tails in order to get away from predators. When the tail is released it is regrown with cartilage rather than bone, as the original was. Because of that, the tail never fully regrows to its former size.

This is Stumpy, one of the brawlers.

Lizards can also lose their tails in their fights with each other. As a matter of fact, I have seen dislocated shoulders and missing digits from their feet because of the battles they have. As they approach each other sideways, they will switch which side is facing their opponent so their heads face in opposite directions. Sometimes these encounters last only a minute or less as one of the combatants will sense that it is not big enough or bad enough to win and will run away. Other times it turns to hand to hand fighting. Usually these last just a few minutes with the smaller,weaker one running away. This particular encounter was going to prove to be epic!

Stumpy and his opponent moving in!

I had wanted to wash my car, but the two males were fighting around where the hose was laying, so I decided to give them a little time to work things out. I didn’t want to roll the hose over them washing the car. Well, the fight went on for about fifteen minutes and I really needed to wash my car so I went over to them in order to break up the fight. We had been feeding these lizards by hand for a long time and they were quite comfortable around us (one of the benefits of feeding by hand). My approach to the lizards did nothing to quell their battle.

The long tailed one seems to have Stumpy’s rear leg in its’ mouth.

With the lizards at my feet, I reached down and picked up Stumpy. To my amazement he was very warm in my hand. Reptiles are of course cold blooded and I had never handled a warm reptile. I was somewhat worried that they would succumb to heat exhaustion. I returned Stumpy to the ground, and they resumed their contest. At this point I realized that I should be getting photos of the action, so I went in and grabbed the camera. Sometimes the lizards will bite on the sides of each other and sometimes they try and grab a leg. When they have a good hold on their opponent they will often roll and flip much like an alligator does with its’ prey.

Stumpy doing an alligator roll!

I ended up taking 61 photos of the lizards battling it out. This process took about another fifteen minutes and that, added to the original fifteen minutes, had them fighting for a full half hour! I have witnessed many, many Bluebelly fights and never has one gone on longer than a few minutes at best. This encounter was incredible and truly epic! What was most incredible though was holding a warm reptile! I doubt that I will ever experience that again, but hey… who knows?

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

A Gopher Snake Saga

16/03/07 at 12.16pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 3 Comments

In a previous essay, “Predators and Prey,” I mentioned some of the mammal predators that we have and in this post I will focus on snakes, specifically gopher snakes. There are no vegetarian snakes, all are predators. And just like the other predators they focus on the ground squirrels. While the smaller gopher snakes will eat reptiles ( see “Fattening Lizards for the Snakes”) and mice the larger ones want larger prey.

My wife with a snake full of baby ground squirrel.

My wife with a snake full of ground squirrel. It’s probably 4 feet long.

We all know that snakes can swallow prey much larger than its head. Mostly because of its stretchy skin and dislocating jaw. However, I find it pretty amazing just how far that can take them. In the photo on the left my wife is gazing at a good sized gopher snake, close to four feet probably, with a baby ground squirrel in it. We had a preponderance of baby ground squirrels the spring of 2013. They were jumping all around their burrows when they first started to emerge and that lump in the middle of the snake is the perfect size to be one of them.

Most animals have a certain size limit they will achieve based on their species. Snakes however can continue to grow their entire lives. This is the saga of the largest gopher snake that I have had the good fortune to see.

The largest gopher snake I have seen at a full five and a half feet.

I came upon this snake when I returned from errands one day in spring of 2009. It was out in my driveway headed for my neighbor’s driveway. My neighbors were out at the time and I did not want the snake to be run over so I moved it to the east side of my north yard along the fence and sat down at my table there.

I fully expected the snake to head off into the east pasture, especially because of my handling it when it was moved. Instead it came right down the fence line, inside the fence line! Even my walking around him for photos did not deter it. He seemed extremely determined in his quest and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him come through the yard, not to mention all the great photos that I was getting.

The chair gives good scale.

The snake was extremely focused in its endeavors and moved along to the edge of the patio. As the snake came through it was moving its head back and forth and flicking out its tongue checking out the scents with its Jacobson’s organ.

Using its tongue and Jacobson’s organ.

The photo below shows him stretched out. I used this photo to get an accurate estimate of its length. It was surely tracking something. Right after this photo he makes a bee line for an area where we had some things stored outside. The bicycle tire gives good scale for the size of this snake.

A full five and a half feet of gopher snake.

After the snake went into the junk pile, I went into the house happy with my photos. About twenty minutes later I came out to check on things. I went out without my camera as the junk pile was not good photographic material and I already had lots of great photos. As I went to check on the pile I noticed a motion down to my right. It was a baby bush cottontail rabbit squirming around in the clutter. The snake had been following the trail of the baby rabbit! Instinctively I picked up the rabbit since it was so small and helpless. It immediately started squealing for its life! I let it go outside of the yard. There was no sign of the snake so I went back in. After about another twenty minutes I went back out to check, again without my camera. Low and behold there is the snake all coiled up right where the baby rabbit had been! And I, without my camera! Oh well, I had a good story. However, it does not end there. Five years later, in 2014, I believe that he was here again. I have really nothing to go on but for his size, which is enormous!

The big boy by our cars in 2014.

One day last November, 2015, there was a turkey vulture sitting on a small electrical pole eyeing the field below. It had been flying around very low, searching. Turkey vultures are one of the few birds with a sense of smell and locate what they eat with it. Condors, which cannot smell, will look for turkey vultures circling around food.

It had been flying around here for a couple of days. It eventually dropped down into the field southeast of me. After a bit I saw it dragging something so I went in to get my spotting scope which is just inside the door ready to go. It was obviously pulling on something very large! The scope showed it to be a snake, a very large gopher snake!

Turkey vulture with a very large gopher snake.

It is surely big enough to be the one that I had seen before. In the photo to the right the head of the snake is closer to us on the right. Turkey vultures are very large birds which again shows how big that snake was. I have no idea how that snake died, except that it probably was not a predator because they would have eaten it, not the vulture.

Turkey vulture with gopher snake. The snake’s head is the short end.

I would expect that the snake had a long and happy life, given its size and the area it lived. All things in our natural world have an expiration date, including the planet. That is surely a big part of our desire to explore space. Of course that’s if we don’t destroy our planet first!

Yours in Nature,

Bacwoods Bruce

Rare Reptiles

16/03/01 at 6.32pm / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

In a previous post, “Fattening Lizards for the Snakes,” I talked about a few of the reptiles that we have including the western fence lizard, southern alligator lizard, gopher snake and common king snake. I have also had the good fortune to have a couple of first sightings of reptiles here in my little paradise. One day, while I was raking up oak leaves at the edge of the driveway, what looked to be the lost tail of a lizard wiggling about on the ground (some can shed them to get away from predators) turned out to be something else! I had thought that I had caught a lizard with the rake and its tail was squirming around. One problem though, what would be the broken end kept moving around trying to get under something! Further inspection showed that it was a baby California legless lizard!

My wife holding a baby California legless lizard.

Adult legless lizards are between 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches. The first I ever saw was here when we first moved in and it was a full blown adult about as fat as my pinkie. I have seen one other at this location and it was between the previous two in size, and it was dead. They slither around in soft sand and leaf litter in moister areas around us.

The other first sighting was of a western whiptail juvenile. I was very aware of the California whiptail and when I first saw this lizard I think I may have written him off as a western skink juvenile, due to the blue tail. I was editing and cataloging some reptile photos one day when I came across this photo below.

Juvenile western whiptail. Notice the blue tail.

Whoa, that is just way too many stripes down its back for a skink I thought. So to my reference manuals I go.

Juvenile western skink with blue tail.

See the difference? And it is surely not a California whiptail. Bingo, new reptile, western whiptail! I don’t recall ever noticing this lizard before anywhere else.

One species that I have seen very little of before and have had sightings of here of is the brightly colored ringneck snake.

A ringneck snake adult.

Ringneck snakes forage in the leaf litter and under logs for salamanders and other small reptiles and large insects. They are not often seen. They grow to 10 to 30 inches, although the few that I have seen have been less than two feet long, as is this one.

My favorite lizard by far is the California whiptail, for a few reasons. First, they are very active and easy to observe. They are also very bold and aggressive. And last, they move with a gait that is very different from the other lizards, it is kind of slinky. It also is one of our largest lizards.

A California whiptail.

Given their boldness they are easily trained to take meal worms from my hand. Although all the lizards learn very quickly to do so, the whiptails seem to come over and beg for food.

Me feeding a California whiptail.

Last summer we had a whiptail coming around a lot to feed which I named Slinker, for the way the whiptails walk. Slinker was down at my feet where I was sitting, ” Birding Table-North Yard” where I always sit, begging for more food. I had the thought that Slinker might be aggressive enough to jump for his meal! Holding a meal worm up so he had to leap to get it, he did!

A California whiptail leaping for a mealworm. It knocked it off and picked it up off the ground. You can see the worm between his arms.

A California whiptail on my wife’s hand.

Once we all got our timing down Slinker became extremely adept at snatching the meal worm from our hands. It became a great game for us, well me anyway, and he got some great food so I’m sure he was happy!

A Cal. whiptail dropping off with a worm in its mouth.

A California whiptail dropping off with a worm in its mouth.

After feeding him for several weeks he was gone. I do see California whiptails from time to time so I will be sure to try this again!

A southern alligator lizard I named Big Red once ran about 15 feet over to me for a worm and western fence lizards will also often run up to you for one, however, Slinker has really amazed me! I had the odd thought that I could change Slinker’s name to “Leo the Leaping Lizard” and take him on tour but he wouldn’t sign a contract. Can you believe that! After all those meal worms, he has to be kidding,right?

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Theatrical Thrush

16/02/21 at 10.45am / by Backwoods Bruce / 0 Comment

All through my blogs you have seen my delight for feeding the critters around here. In my blog, “Feeding the Wild Ones ,” I stated my preferences and fears for feeding the “wild” animals. I do not put out piles of food for indiscriminate feeding. It attracts some non-wanted animals. I feed by hand, not just from my hand but also in a gentile toss out to them of their favorite food. This does two very important things, first, I know who I am feeding in order to keep out the riffraff and second, it creates a whole different bond than just putting out a pile of food for them. They make a very distinct connection as to where all this food is coming from, me! I become an animal that sheds meal worms and walnuts, although I am not sure about the quality of that distinction yet. I don’t want to be just a walking food bag! With feeding by hand all the animals then lose their fear of us, my wife and friends feed also. Because of this, even when we are not feeding them, they will come by us very close or pop up on the table to check us out a little bit before going on their merry little foraging rounds. We get to see very natural behavior up close and personal!

Dark-eyed juncos foraging.

This winter we had a couple of winter visitors take the bait! We had a small flock of three dark-eyed juncos arrive, normal winter visitors, hopping around us. They forage on the ground searching for things to eat. I actually got their attention with meal worms, more visible and they wiggle. I then switched over to walnut pieces which are less expensive. Today I had one of them up on the table with me. However the real star was a hermit thrush.

Hermit thrush.

I had tried to get its attention last year, presuming it is the same one. They do go to the same nesting areas so why not wintering grounds? Only one time last year did it ever pick up any worms so it never focused on me. This year I got to toss a few worms out to it with her focused on where they were coming from! Bingo!

She, I call her she because I want her to have maximum double clutches when she goes north to breed, proved to be fearless and bold. By the morning of the fourth day she was flying over and taking worms from our hands! She is the first bird to do that for us.

Patience patiently waiting on one leg.

Unlike other birds she would hang close by us on the rocks for long periods of time, standing like a shore bird on one leg. The other birds would go off to forage and come back later. She stayed tight to us and I named her Patience.

My view of Patience on the rock.

I was at the table one day peering at Patience through the opening in the arm rest and I had the odd thought, I have many of those, would she fly through that opening in the chair? Hey, I got Slinker, aka Leo the Leaping Lizard ( see “Rare Reptiles”), to jump for his worms. Besides, I do not want to be known for just being a walking food bag. I want some more bang for my buck… er, worms!

Coming on through.

I positioned a worm so she could see it through the chair and to my amazement here she comes, right through the opening! I had to use my flash to try and stop her movement, which resulted in her having a somewhat ghostly look.

Patience flying through the arm.

Sometimes she would go back through the arm chair opening after taking the worm, showing some fine flying skills. I had the same odd thought that I had about Slinker, the whiptail ( see essay “Rare Reptiles”). Would she go on tour? Some times she would flutter around in our face as we got the meal worms out. She was amazing!

A bird on the hand is worth two in the bush… or something like that.

We were having a fabulous time with Patience until Agro, another hermit thrush, showed up. First, however, I will have to backtrack some. A few weeks after we had started feeding Patience another hermit thrush showed up while we were feeding her. Patience immediately drove it off. I was talking to another birder during the Christmas Bird Count and she said that she has three in her yard and they get along just fine.

Agro the hermit thrush.

On the day Agro shows up I think, “cool one more hermit thrush,” so I attempt to feed him the first couple of days by tossing him worms, which he eats heartily. The third day of Agro’s arrival I am feeding Patience with the “fly to my hand” technique. While Patience is taking a worm from my hand Agro swoops in, right at my hand, and chases her off! I immediately stopped feeding Agro, mostly because I hate bullies, but also because Patience was first and takes from my hand.

However, since Agro had already gotten some meal worms he has unfortunately stuck around . He also sees the other birds feeding and I’m sure he feels left out. Agro does not bother the seed eating birds because I am feeding them nuts, which he doesn’t eat. If I was throwing out meal worms to them it would be a different story. He would challenge for them. Regardless, he continues to chase Patience off when he finds her here. I do, however, still throw Agro a few worms. Where are those friendly thrushes like my birding friend? Patience has been able to continue to come by, although she really has to choose her spots. All of a sudden she is there and able to eat a few worms before Agro chases her off. I can also feed her on the southern side of my house without Agro seeing. For a better understanding of this phenomena read Konrad Lorenz’s seminal work “On Aggression”. I am sure we also have that aggression hard wired in us, at least from what I am seeing of the world. After all, we are nothing but another animal on this planet. Within a few weeks the birds will be leaving to go up to breed in the forest of the North. We have not had a sighting of Patience for a few days as of this posting. My main thought now is that, will she return here? Birds return to the same spots to breed, why not feed? I fully expect, barring catastrophe, to have her fluttering in my face next fall. She was clearly the star of the show this winter!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Predators and Prey

16/02/16 at 10.09am / by Backwoods Bruce / 2 Comments

While we have always had an abundance of mammals going up and down our wildlife corridor, a few years back the city of Ojai installed new bridges with animal friendly pilings rather than culverts for San Antonio creek that really made a difference. The bobcats and coyotes have always come through here as they do not mind the culverts, however, the more animal friendly pilings have really helped the dear population grow.

Two young ones on the left and their mothers on the right, 2013.

The past several months we have had a herd of three females that have been sticking around and they have recently added a fourth. Unfortunately I have been unable to get all four in the same photo.

Three of the four females this spring, 2016

As you can see from the photos the deer are shedding. That is what all those clumps are in their coats. It has been unseasonably warm here this winter and the hair is starting to itch them a bit from shedding, making them rub themselves a lot.

The fourth female rubbing off its winter coat.

As the heard came through they all stopped and ate on the nutritious oak sproutings from the limbs. The ground squirrels even climb up to get a meal this time of year. The band-tailed pigeons also get into the act going out on even the smallest limbs, flapping away!

Mule deer eating the tender and nutritious oak sprouts.

I expect to have some photos of a larger herd this coming summer if breeding goes well for them! Of course to have offspring you have to have a male and we have two. There was a little fork horn last year, I wonder how big he will be this year, and this studly guy!

Our big male, 2015.

The only serious predator of deer here are mountain lion. Unfortunately I have not had a sighting yet from my yard, although there are plenty of lions around the valley. Fortunately we do get to watch many of the smaller predators do a lot of hunting around here. What was most common were the coyotes. We used to have very large packs that would wake you up at night with their yipping and howling. A very wondrous sound! They are also extremely active during the day.

Coyote strolling by the North fence.

Taking it easy on the East side.

The coyote population was decimated several years back by Parvo and has not rebounded that much yet.

The smallest mammal predator that we have had here would be the long-tailed weasel, which would also be the neatest predator that I have had the pleasure to see from my yard. I have only seen one other and that was back in the mountains on the Sespe about thirty years ago! They can be a good indicator of a healthy habitat. Sorry it’s a bit blurred but they are quick! I managed to see it because of the small birds that were following it squawking out their predator warning calls. Be alert!

Long-tailed weasel sprinting by.

However, the most enjoyable have been the bobcats. Normally they would seem to be very secretive animals, here they don’t seem to mind us at all and will hunt around us while we are sitting at the table! They seem to be as diurnal as the coyotes. One thing that I do at times with the bobcats is purr to them loudly. Yes, I purr to them! I do this primarily to put them at ease and it seems to work quite well, plus it’s the only cat I speak other than meow. All the animals here see us feeding birds and squirrels and lizards by hand and know not to fear us. If all the other prey animals are around us, we must be safe! The purring to the bobcats though really seems to help calm them even more. Recently a juvenile bobcat (I wonder if it’s not from the litter of three that’s posted below) calmed down at my purring and came back to hunt with three of us at the table!

Bobcat hunting mantled ground squirrels just outside the North fence.

I have watched them stalk their prey many times and my wife has seen a capture of a ground squirrel not 25 feet from where she was sitting! Beyond that is the mothers with kits that we get to see! Last spring we had this mom with three kits.

A very pale female. Check her markings with the one hunting above. I called her Faded. 2015.

I flushed this bobcat, which I named Faded for the lack of sharp, dark spotting in her coat, when I went out to fill one of the bird baths one day. She was hiding in the large Opuntia cactus in my south yard about 10 feet away when I picked up her movement. I immediately started purring and backed off to get my camera as she slinked a little out of the cactus. As I returned, purring of course, she was still there and I got this photo! A few days later I got this photo of two of the three kits that she came by with. I swear that the purring helps! Unfortunately, I was never able to get all three kits in a good photo.

Two of the three kits of Faded, 2015.

Three years ago we had a mother with one juvenile that hunted the area for about three months. Great fun!

Juvenile bobcat outside our kitchen door, 2013

The same bobcat underneath our swing.

We watched this juvenile grow up in the months it was here. Needless to say that was awesome!

All the predatory mammals here seem to really focus on the ground squirrels. That little weasel can go right down the burrow after them! According to anthropologists the local Native Americans also consumed quite a lot of ground squirrel in their diet. The mantled ground squirrel in the foreground below is a blond phase, quite uncommon.

Mantled ground squirrels, blond phase in front.

With all the fields around us the ground squirrels are the most numerous prey available. Next would be tasty bush cottontail rabbits.

A bush cottontail.

One day I was outside when a bobcat had come through and a little later I heard a rabbit squealing for it’s life. It is a very distinct sound. So while I may not have seen the encounter I am sure the bobcat had a tasty meal that day!

Another prey animal would be our eastern fox squirrels that we feed by hand. One day I had just finished feeding Precious, our remaining breeding female that we have been feeding by hand. Sally, the other female we had been feeding, stopped showing up October of 2014, I am sure from predation. Precious had left going over the roof of our house to the south side of the yard. A few minutes later a bobcat came out of the South yard with a squirrel in it’s mouth. I was immediately worried that it was Precious but did not get a good look at the squirrel as the bobcat moved away to eat. The next day I was quite relieved to have Precious show up for her feeding! Whew!

One of the eastern fox squirrels we feed.

With all the action around here I feel that I can not go out of the house without my camera and binoculars for fear of not capturing or seeing something special! It can be a very strenuous job, but somebody has to do it! LOL

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

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Antler Antics; The Herd Grows

A Western Bluebird Bonding: Continued…

Antler Antics

Winter Arrivals

A Western Bluebird Bonding

Brawling Bluebellies

A Gopher Snake Saga

Rare Reptiles

Theatrical Thrush

Predators and Prey

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