This is the inside of a paper-wasp nest
These wasps are very aggravating…. and scary-looking
they fly with long legs hanging down….we refer to them as ‘knuckle-draggers’
they remind me of some kind of war-helicopter
they eat meat. And any bit of meat left out will quickly be covered
they scrape wood fibers from trees and buildings,
and consolidate it with their spit into these beautifully geometric patterns.There’s a reason that the honeycomb pattern is built into aircraft
structures. It is very solid and durable yet lightweight.
It is the maximum qualities of both needs intersecting on a grid.
This particular wasp nest has been abandoned for a few years high in a tree.
It got knocked down during the storm last week.
This is the first I got a good look into it.
And I was a bit surprised to see little crawling creatures inside of it.
Some kind of larvae that must be living on detritus left from the wasps,
or perhaps some material that is growing on the paper.
I run to
whatever
is shiny,
find out about
anything
new.
I sniff
a gleaming mica chip
a feather that falls
from the sky,
a pale blue turquoise bead,
a button,
the top of an old tin can,
and the pipe
that a miner
smoked by his campfire
and left on the ground
while she slept.
I take it all.
I am a gatherer of treasure . . .
of leaves
and berries and roots,
mesquite beans,
sweet red summer cactus fruit,
and a piece of a clear glass bottle
turned purple by the sun.
I stay
close to home,
close to the trails I know,
close to the rocks where I was born,
close to the cholla cactus
I climb so easily.
Everything I want
is here.
In the cool evenings
I search,
darting from rock to rock,
out of sight of coyotes and owls.
I run back and forth
with my mouth full of treasures.
I go home at sunrise,
pushing
and pulling
and rolling
all the good things
back to my nest,
my pile of sticks and dirt
and cholla cactus thorns.
It holds me safe.
It hides my shining secrets
in the dust.
This is a pack-rat in an oak tree. Usually I never get a good look at one, they are such a quick blur running through the brush, that when I see them out of the corner of my eye and turn to them, they are already hidden away in the foliage. They usually stay on the ground also. I think this guy might have been chased into the tree by one of our cats. This tree is right in front of our house. My brother was visiting from North Carolina and saw it first… he saw the tail hanging down and thought it might be a possum….
This is a Packrat nest. They are a collection of twigs arranged on the ground under the oak trees. They quite often are built around a small tree for support. The twigs seem to be arranged something like a thatch roof, directing water away from the nest, keeping the little family dry, warm and cozy inside.
Packrats are very clean little animals. There is nothing messy, or creepy about them when you get to see them up close. But they are fast movers.
There is such a diversity of animals and plant life all over, the opportunities for learning are profound. To let the world pass before you without note is a shame, yet you cannot possess it. The world is for us to use not abuse, to steward, not to own. It is a trust gifted to us, and we are called to take care of all we are given to safeguard.
We live pretty remote… most folks here have dogs for property protection as well as companion animals, we also mostly have cats running around eating mice and gophers. A couple of months ago a massive fire raged out of control and destroyed tens of thousands of acres of oak woodland and chaparral environment. This drove a pack of coyotes into our canyon. With the rains, the burned-over areas of the La Brea Fire will green up again…. the prey species will return and the coyotes will be able to return to their own areas and have plenty of food again. Until then they have been wrecking destruction upon the dozens of small households in this canyon.
We have several neighbors who’ve had their animals carried off by coyotes. I saw our lead chihuahua ‘Whitey’ toe-to-toe with a coyote who was more intent on a deer in the brush than he was with Whitey. I chased the coyote away and then noticed another one forty yards away. They like to ‘tag-team’ deer. Deer tend to run in big circles, so a pack of coyote will team up and run the deer in big circles, each animal able to take a break when he’s chased the deer to another coyote. Around and around the poor deer will run, always with a refreshed coyote nipping at his heels. When the coyotes finally get the deer tired enough, they will jump on it en-mass ripping and tearing, biting, holding the nose and throat, slowly over a good long time the animal will die.
I’ve not seen a single deer now for a few weeks. There have been times I’ve seen a dozen or more on our hillside. But anytime a mountain lion moves in, the herd goes down in number. But now they are totally absent. Which is fine as far as the things we grow. I don’t have to worry as much about the deer getting into the fenced edible cactus area.
I’ve been seeing these sad little signs up and down the road… put up by people who’ve had dogs missing. I suppose the main blame can be put on the coyotes. In town it’s not considered to be good form to have your animals run loose. But here in the rural areas, most houses will have a few angry snarling vicious dogs. I kind of like it that way.
The dogs that are missing are mostly smaller dogs. Good prey for coyotes. Any predator animal is choosy about what it hunts and selects to kill. They have to reduce injury to themselves, an injured predator will likely die. Generally, any predator you see is in good health, when they are not they die.
Lost Dog Sign
Sometimes the rate of pet loss will rise in the months leading to a huge earthquake. Perhaps the ground makes some noises or produces energy that upsets animals, causing them to become lost or making them flee. But I think in this case the cause can be placed on the coyotes having to temporarily leave their wilderness area after being chased out by the La Brea Fire. Soon they will return home where there are fewer people angry at them.
Local lore has it that when the autumn is coming in, when you find tarantulas roaming it will rain within the next two or three weeks. Now, in most places, that would be an easy prediction as it might rain every week or two anyway. But here we are without rain for half the year, then we await the first rains in autumn, usually in November or December.
The tarantulas roam before the rains because they are males searching for a female… and there is something to do with the humidity and moisture of the rains that will benefit their young… so a few weeks before the first rains, they start their roaming….
The rain we got the last couple of days is very unusually early. It is the first major rainstorm to hit this area in October in the last forty five years. Yet it was foretold to me by a tarantula just a bit over two weeks ago….
This is part of our front yard. It’s pretty wild looking.. we live in the wilderness…. a formal garden would seem out-of-place.
The large bushes are a native called California Coffeeberry…..
There is a deer browsing in the bush.
There is a deer browsing in this photo
Having deer in this garden is a daily thing… right now the doe has a buck following along behind her…. it is mating season here.
We are in the far middle of the dry season here. We’ve been some five months with no appreciable rain, we’ve got another two before we can expect the big rainstorms that refill reservoirs and the groundwater in the California hills. So deer have their babies here in the winter, when the grasses are just sprouting, so the mother deer can have plenty of good food to stimulate her milk, and when the young start to forage, they will have the tender sprouts and forbes of spring to start their life of eating on their own off.
We don’t often water this section of garden…. such a large garden would require horrible amounts of water if planted to water-loving plants. And many of the California natives will rot if given regular water in the dry season. Their life-cycle requires a summertime ‘hibernation’ called aestivation. Tryting to keep them ‘alive’ in the summer when they naturally lose leaves to reduce transpiration and save water will actually lead to disease. It is better to let them get dry in the summer… they can get sparse, but with the winter rains, they will throw out a large amount of tender shoots and new green leaves. It’s actually much rpettier here in the winter in many respects.
There is a deer browsing in this photo
Here is the deer a bit closer-up. The patterning and coloration of deer enables pretty good camouflage.
Our Cactus fruits are just now starting to ripen. The scrub jays (a type of bird) like to tear the rind off and eat the sweet pulp inside. The yellow jacket wasps will then congregate and take the sweetness themselves. So we trap the yellow jackets, and try to shoo the jays away.
The jays are pretty birds, we occasionally find a fallen feather…. very striking and blue.
But the jays are a raucous nuisance… they steal the food from the cats…. the cats would like to catch them, but jays are very smart and know to watch for the cats.
Jays love peanuts also… I know people who leave peanuts out for their jays, they enjoy watching them take the peanuts and hide them in the ground. I suppose they probably disseminate the seeds of a great any plants in that way. When I see an oak seedling at the top of a hill… I know it was brought to the top by some creature, as the wind would not blow it there.
There are places you can see acorns stored in the bark of the oak trees. The jays will poke a hole into the bark, and then shove the acorn in to keep it out of the reach of other creatures, and also raise it safely from the ground so it will not rot or sprout. High off the ground, snug in the bark of the oak, the acorns will sit until the jay wants it again. Watching how animals store food in this way, it makes me think that ancient humans observed such behavior, and took it further, construcing methods to store foods for the off-season. This would give them more variety in their diet through the year.
Cactus Apple
These particular cactus fruits are from the species Opuntia robusta.
Back in May our son called us and told us of a litter of semi-feral kittens outside his apartment in Oceano.
The mother had gotten hit by a car, and he’d heard the little ones mewing in the bushes.
When he got them from the bushes, the majority were dead, and the two still alive were just barely hanging on.
We took them in and forced them to take ‘kitten milk replacer’.
We force-fed them as they were dehydrated and wanting to give up and die.
After a couple of days they were able to crawl around a bit, and their eyes had filled out again
(they were sunken into their skulls, they were so dehydrated).While feeding the striped one which the neighbors named ‘Tony’,
I would tell him of the great life he’d have if he lived,
of all the little creatures he could catch,
of the trees he could climb and the animals he could see
Gradually, they grew stronger,
and were adopted by our female Chihuahua Chica,
herself an orphan we rescued.
I hate to anthropomorphize animals, and ascribe human traits and compulsions to them,
but it seemed as though Chica received the ‘mothering’ she never got by giving it to the kittens
and the kittens had a nice warm tummy to snuggle to and knead with their paws.
I suppose in so many ways we give out what we never got but wanted
and it is in giving we receive what we need through substitution
Here’s photo of Tony and Chica a week or two after we introduced them
he’s her size now, just four months later.
And they are still close, it is touching to see the way they snuggle together.
Chica has some odd facial characteristics, she looks mean but is actually very sweet
That’s merely a cowlick on her face… not a scar
but I kid people that she got her head caught in a mechanical cactus-picker
but there is no such machine, we pick our cactus by hand
Alligator Lizard in the air
Tony seems to have learned a lot from our little ‘talks’
He’s been bringing lizards into the house now.
Here are two Alligator Lizards he has brought into the house in the last few weeks
We give the lizards a little talk, warning them to stay clear of the kittens
then we let them go back into the cactus garden from whence the kittens got them
I suspect lizards don’t taste good, our mature cats ignore them
the kittens play with them for the fun of it, but don’t eat them (as far as I know)
You can see that this lizard has already lost his tail.
It’s pretty rare to find a mature one with an original tail….
but when you do, they are impressive
Alligator Lizard in the air
The animals here like this place as much as we do.
Here’s a video of Chica and Tony together.
It’s cute, but has no audio….
If anyone owns the rights to some nice music you’d like us to put into the video,
let us know
We’re interested in making our videos more appealing by having nice music
We have a pretty big Internet presence… links to animal sites, nature sites and produce sites mean we get a fair amount of e-mails trying to sell us anything from pots and pans to animals. We don’t do any animal trading, but since we supply browse/feed materials to people in the animal trades business, we tend to follow it, and we get e-mails regarding aspects of that trade.
Today I got an e-mail offering to sell us reptiles from Egypt. Now, while Egypt is interesting, and has a glorious history and environment, I’m not interested in buying any animals from Egypt or anywhere else. Regardless, I got an offer of animals today….
Dear Sir,
My Name (name withheld for posting) From Egypt,
We have best price, good quality of
reptiles,mammals,scorpions and insects,tortoise,CITES…etc,
We can give you shipments asap,
if you interest please contact us,
thank you very much
Best regards,
Well, he seems legit enough… he mentions CITES which is an endangered species agreement. In general, people with the license are going to be pros (we possess CITES licenses that we use on occasion for plants). So I wrote back that we don’t buy or sell animals nor trade in them, thanks anyway.
He wrote another e-mail offering me scorpions….
Dear John,
How are you doing?If you are interested in scorpions ,
I can send you them in toys through post.
inform me about the numbers you need.
I send the scorpions in good
health and I hope to do business with you.
I wait for your reply.
we wait your answer.
Well now, what part of “I don’t trade in animals” did he not understand?
Then I got to thinking about the part where he says…. “I can send you them in toys through post”
Eh, does this mean he will put the scorpions into dolls, balls and play cattle-calls? Huh? Anyone who’s shipping legally is going to put the animal into a proper container, with a hot or cold pack, shipped by overnight delivery and with proper documentation and permits. The shipping company must also be notified that they are transporting live animals, and any poisonous creature is covered under special requirements.
No Virginia, you cannot just stuff a bunch of animals into toys and ship them… and anyone who is doing such needs to be stopped. Any authorities who wish copies of the e-mails, can contact me…. upon proper verification, I am interested in passing them on.
But yet… maybe there was a language barrier, maybe when he wrote it in English, it came out wrong… so I asked him if he sends them in toys,
Hello, Thanks for the offer. I do like scorpions but we don’t sell any
animals… nor do we collect them. We have native scorpions here… not
exotic like yours, although I suppose to you, ours would be exotic also.
When you say you send them in toys… you mean,
it is a good way to get them
through the Post without being confiscated? Thanks,
John
He wrote back….
Dear John,
this way has no problem .If you need ,inform me.I wait for your reply
Yeah, usually I let others go about their own way, as long as they are not directly harming anyone or critters, leave it be….
But this guy IS harming animals…. shipping animals in toys to the USA is not the proper way to go about this…. So in this instance, even though I feel a bit like a ’snitch’, I can’t sit on this one…. this is wrong on so many levels. So I post this so folks will know that this does go on…. don’t participate in anything that hurts people or animals.
There’s another level of problems with shipping animals around without the licenses…. the licenses are to ensure that the animals are shipped humanely and with as little risk of injury as possible… but they are also to make sure we don’t have animals shipped around the world to be introduced into environments where they may have no natural predators and eventually take over an environment…. we have instances over the entire world where some introduced organism ends up causing all kinds of environmental destruction and has to be hunted down and killed at great cost before it displaces native species.
Please, don’t buy animals or plants from unlicensed people. The licenses are hard to get and expensive, and the ‘under the table guys’ can supply cheaper, but we all pay when a species goes berserk in a new environment.
There is a species of yellow jacket wasp that gives our cactus fruits some real problems. The wasp is a predatory creature that enjoys meat for the protein while raising young. The insect also needs a lot of sugars for the energy. In the spring, the wasp larvae secrete a waste product high in sugars. This high carbohydrate source is eagerly taken up by the adults who tend the young, feeding them the meat they have prepared for them through mastication.
In the late summer the wasps have no more young, so they aren’t getting the sugars they need. This is also the time our cactus fruits start to ripen. The wasps will cut holes through the rind of the fruit, and a dozen wasps will sometimes occupy it to gorge on the sweet juice of the cactus fruit. Needless to say, this bothers me considerably. So I start a trapping program whenever I see the wasp population swell. I like to reduce their numbers before the fruits ripen. I use various lures depending on the season. In the spring and summer, they like meat, and they seem to have a special liking for the odors of some of the canned cat and dog foods we feed our animals. Once the cactus fruits start ripening, I’ll take any that become pierced by wasps, and use them for bait.
Most of the traps come with a pheromone lure. I’ve found that the pheromone combined with cat food or cactus fruit works best.
We can catch some large numbers of wasps pretty fast here.
