Cardinal Reflection

I started hearing periodic loud, sharp taps on one of the windows in our family room during the second summer in our current home.  The wall in that room is mostly a combination of several tall windows overlooking the pool in the back yard.  Since it’s the southern side of the house, we keep shades over most of the windows to keep out part of the summer heat.

Peeking out the shade covering that window, I saw a bight-red male cardinal standing on the back of a stack of outdoor chairs and pecking at the window’s glass.  Between the indoor darkening from the shades and the reflective film that I had added the previous summer to the interior side of the window, the window was turned into a mirror.  Male cardinals are highly territorial.  He thought that there was another cardinal there and was trying to peck it to drive it away.

During the remainder of that summer, I would periodically hear the pecking again while I was eating lunch.  And every time I looked, that cardinal would be standing on either that stack of chairs or on the pool box that was also below the window.

After the wave of hurricanes swept through later that year, I moved the stack of chairs to where they were not directly in front of the window.  And I placed a boogie-board behind the pool box so that the width of the board prevented the cardinal from seeing his reflection while standing on the pool box.  Every now and then, he’d actually balance on the edge of the board and see his reflection and try to peck it again.

Unfortunately for his beak, he also started visiting the two bedroom windows that face the back yard.  We had used a black plastic to cover the windows when the first hurricane came through that year, and luckily left the plastic up for a while – since we had several that year.  The black plastic covering the inside of the bedroom windows made new mirrors for him to spy that darn intruder.  ~lol~

Scaredy Squirrels

We have a good sized oak tree in our front yard – it’s almost equal distance from both sides of the yard.  I can see the tree plus a good amount of our front yard from my home office window.  We frequently have squirrels and birds visiting the yard and the oak tree.  Since I catch even the smallest movement through my peripheral eyesight, I frequently observe those animal visits – as well as people walking by, cars passing by, palm fronds blowing in the wind, etc.

A couple of years ago, I started noticing rapid squirrel runs into the oak tree from further out in the yard.  About a half minute later, a car would pass in front of the house.  After several related observations I realized that when the squirrels began the run to the tree, there would be a vehicle coming.  Now, the vehicle wasn’t at one of **our** property lines – the vehicle was always at the other end of the next-door neighbor’s yard.  ~lol~

And the silly squirrels would run to the tree no matter which side the vehicle was coming from.  It became quite comical when the squirrels would start to come back down out of the tree only to run right back up because another vehicle was coming down the street.

I had to figure that they were fairly young squirrels – they had probably recently come out of the nest and were definitely not used to the sound of motor engines.  It was at least several months that I noticed the scaredy squirrels – I’m not sure if they moved their home to a new location in order to soothe their nerves, or if they simply got used to the sound of vehicle engines passing by.

Devil Cat

While I was growing up, one of my grandmothers had a white, long-haired cat.  I’ve always loved cats and would pet them any opportunity I got.  This cat, though, was extremely particular about who it allowed to pet it.  And it was extremely sensitive to how **long** you could pet it.

If it actually did deign to let you touch it, it hissed madly at the very moment that it decided you had touched it long enough.  No moving away from you, no warning what so ever – just mad hissing and swiping of the claws.

It absolutely did not allow children to touch it.  Every summer at the end of our visit up there, I would have several scratches on my hands from attempting to pet it – because **surely** I was old enough now that it wouldn’t consider me a child.  Ha!  Even being in college wasn’t old enough for that cat.  That dang cat wouldn’t let me pet it until I was in my mid-twenties and both my children had been born!  Talk about an ego blow.  ~lol~

I can no longer remember its actual name, but that’s probably because I started calling it “Devil Cat” early on.  And it lived for a really long time, too.

Spazz The Squirrel

We moved into our current home in the beginning of 2003.  With all the oak trees in our yard and in the various neighbor yards, there were lots and lots of acorns all around the house.  And consequently, there were lots and lots of squirrels scampering around.

Since we had the bird feeder and I was trying to keep the squirrels out of it at first, I would scatter some roasted peanuts in the shell a little away from the feeder.  I was hoping that would keep the squirrels more on the ground.  Of course it ended up only being a temporary diversion for them, so I stopped after a few months.

Shortly after first putting out the peanuts in the shell, I began to particularly notice one specific squirrel.  He would frequently drink from the swimming pool in our backyard – the only wildlife I observed at the time drinking from the swimming pool.

He would also frequently pick up one of the peanuts in the shell to go bury it for his own little stash.  But instead of going to a patch of grass or dirt like all the other squirrels, Spazz would scamper about halfway down the yard to an area of the concrete bib surrounding the swimming pool.  He’d try digging in the concrete to bury his prize.  When that area didn’t yield, he’d move a couple of hops further down and try again.  He’d do this several times before giving up and scrambling up the fence with the peanut still clutched in his mouth.

This happened over and over until I stopped putting the peanuts out for them.  Not once did I ever see him try to dig in anything other than the concrete pool bib.  But even afterwards, our swimming pool was still his favorite watering hole.  I named him figuring it was drinking all that chlorine in the swimming pool that affected his mental health.  ~grin~

I also had to wonder – since he wasn’t able to bury the peanut before heading back home, did he have to give it up to one of the alpha squirrels?  Hmm...
 

Quick Introduction

I have always enjoyed watching animals, whether they were pets or wild.  Okay – some animals make me shudder (like snakes), and I have a very healthy respect for a number of other animals.  But as long as I’m safely separated from them, I still enjoy watching their antics.

This blog is a list of various observations that I’ve made over the years – some quite funny.  Join me as I share about once a week my observations of animal antics.