Critters!

A couple days ago, The Big Guy spotted a large black bear on the east side of the property while he was out burning a big pile of yard debris. (And his face, but that's another story.) The bear was gone before I ever got a chance to see it, but over the years, I have seen several on our property. That got me to thinking about all the cool critters we get to see on a regular basis. It's why we love where we live. With that, let's open the gates to Crooked Cedar Wildlife Sanctuary.

We begin at the Amphibian & Reptile exhibits.

Salamander. I think it might be a long-toed salamander, but I'm just not sure. I think salamanders are cute with their roundy faces.

Garter Sssssnake. Or, as we like to call them, Ssssneaks. AKA "wrinklies." That comes from "wrigglies." Follow? As soon as the weather starts to warm up, we take daily "ssssneak walks," checking all the usual places we most commonly see them. Zuli is a master ssssneak-finder, pouncing ahead to the rock pile and the edge of the wetlands, with her nose down and ears forward. Fortunately, we don't have any poisonous sssneaks here.

Northern Alligator Lizard. We see these sunning themselves on the rocks, and occasionally I find one in the garden. Their tails come off and grow back if they're caught by a predator. Like a cat. Guess how I know...

Tree Frog. I'd say Green Tree Frog or Pacific Northwest Tree Frog, but if you Google those terms, you get a zillion kinds of frogs, all looking a bit different. Anyhow, this one is a tree frog from the Pacific Northwest, and it is mostly green. Works for me!

Snail. OK, this isn't a reptile or amphibian, but rather a mollusk. (yeah, I looked that up.) We get a ton of these with their pretty shells. Sometimes the shell colors are reversed, being predominately dark brown with a yellow stripe. Either kind will destroy your plants equally well.

Insects

Cinnabar Moth. I had no idea that was the name of this moth until I looked it up two seconds ago. I am thoroughly delighted that it has such a fabulous name. And now I also know what all those little tiger-striped caterpillars turn into.

Woolly Bear Caterpillar. American folklore says that woolly bears can predict the weather by the amount of black on them. The more black, the harsher the winter will be. Of course, they also come in yellow and all-black, so who knows what that means?

Dragonfly. When we first moved to this property, I was surprised at the number of dragonflies zipping around. I'd always associated them with water, which of course they depend on , they buzz around the fields far from the wetlands in the southeast corner. There are lots of flashy blue ones, too. They eat mosquitoes, so I love them.

Moth. I don't know what kind, do you? I wish I had a picture of the blue moths. I can't even find a good image online for one. They're small, and you can only see the blue when they're flying because when they land and fold up their wings, they're mostly white. Some things need to be seen in person, I guess.


To the Aviary!


Wild Turkeys. Say, how come the plural of turkey isn't turkies? The inclusion of these in this post is sketchy since we don't really have wild turkeys around here. These showed up one day in the neighbors field behind us. The Big Guy called the neighbors who said that the Department of Wildlife was experimentally trying to re-home wild turkeys on this side of the mountains. That was a complete lie, but we're not sure why they lied or why they got turkeys and let them loose in their field. They didn't last long, though, and the reason for that will be revealed shortly.

Golden-crowned Kinglet. Just cute.

Barn Owl. This one is in a crate because our animal control officer friend brought it to release here, but we see plenty of these out and about naturally. They sure do have the weird-spooky faces, don't they? We also get Barred Owls which look a lot like Spotted Owls, but we would never admit to having Spotted Owls because those are endangered, and the nice government people would probably make us move if they knew they lived here.

Red-headed Woodpecker. Head's all a-blur as is to be expected.

Allen's Hummingbird. There is only one kind of hummingbird here, much to my dismay. It's not one of the more beautiful ones typically, but it has a brilliant rust-colored morph that is stunning when it flashes by.

Now, my favorites, Mammals.


The seemingly ever-present elk. It's almost time for the calves to make an appearance. We love to watch them jump and race around. Last year, one of the herd's cows dropped her radio collar on our property, and the game warden came out with his big antenna to locate it, which we did at the edge of the wetlands. That was a fun adventure.

Bull elk having a little late-winter fun before they drop their antlers.

Beaver. Well, their den, anyway. We have seen them, though. Last week on one of our Ssssneak Walks, we heard a loud sploosh! in the wetlands when one of them slapped its tail on the water. Classic!

Bat. Probably sick, since it's out in the daylight. Like the dragonflies, they eat mosquitoes, so I love them, too. Occasionally the cats catch one, and I do NOT love that. I have had my pre-rabies vaccinations, though. Everyone should get those. It hurts, but not as much as rabies, which only hurts until you die.

Bobcat. Remember the turkeys? Yeah, so does the bobcat. Nom, nom, nom. I saw a bobcat chasing the turkeys one day. It was a picture-perfect Wild Kingdom scene with the cat leaping up in full-stretch to get the turkey that could only fly so high. I would've gotten a picture of it, too, if someone hadn't taken the memory card out of the camera and forgotten to put it back. He's sorry.

Black bear. A smallish one here, trit-trotting across the front yard only minutes after I'd come in from mowing that very grass. Scamp.

This is really only a sampling of all the critters around here, especially the insects and birds. Daily, a Great Blue Heron and an ever-increasing gaggle of Canada geese fly in and out of the wetlands. Yesterday, a momma mallard and her babies waddled across the backyard, also headed for the wetlands. This is the second time I've seen a duck do that, and I can't for the life of me figure out where they started from. There are often hawks and bald eagles soaring overhead, menacing my chickens, and all manner of songbirds flitting about. Good bugs and pesky bugs, big spiders and little spiders, deer, raccoons, possums, rabbits, mice, voles, slugs as long as your shoe -- too many creatures to count!

Some folks think of us as homebodies, and that suits me just fine.