Life in the hills
07/06/16 05:35
Yesterday, as I was leaving the lake after my morning paddle, I was surprised to see a magnificent bighorn ram strut across the road. After standing for a brief moment, he trotted off into the trees out of sight. It was a place where I have never before seen bighorn sheep, though it was about half way between two areas where we have seen the animals many times before. A lone ram could easily have been traveling between two bands.
One of the deep joys of living in the hills is being able to frequently see wildlife. I’m not sure that the deer and turkeys who visit our yard every day are quite fully wild. The turkeys show signs of regular visits to sources of food that have a decidedly human origin. I’ve decreased my feeding of the birds, but when I did so, the turkeys would scour the ground underneath the feeders, picking up every seed that had been dropped by birds who are more adept at flying - or at least at landing on a precise point. I once watched a turkey make an attempt to glide from the roof of the house to a bird feeder that wouldn’t have supported its weight. The turkey, however, missed its goal and went tumbling in the grass. Comic relief aside, I’m pretty sure that the wild turkeys get their share of food from human sources.
The deer in our neighborhood have become urbanized as more and more homes spring up in the area. Twenty years ago, the deer were definitely more flighty. If I noticed deer in the yard and turned on my porch light, they would scatter and run. These days the neighbor’s motion-activated light stays on all night long as the deer peacefully graze under its glow, almost as if they appreciate the light to see what they are eating. When I go out to get the newspaper in the morning the deer in our front yard might raise their heads and look at me, but they won’t run even when I approach within 25 or 30 feet. When I do come too close, they simply take a few steps, knowing that I’m unlikely to quicken my pace or actually pursue them.
Yesterday I saw a sight that would have made a good photograph. A doe was grazing right at the back bumper of a camping trailer parked alongside the highway a mile or so from our house. The scene wasn’t remarkable. The grass hadn’t been mown under the camper and the deer was reaching beneath the bumper to get a bit of the lush green grass. What made the picture was that the camp trailer was a Coyote model. I commented to my wife was we drove past, “It isn’t often that you see a coyote and a deer so close to each other in the wild.”
Our animals are excellent neighbors. They are fun to watch, but never get involved in our business. They are quiet, except for occasional turkey outbursts. There have been times when we would regularly hear the coyotes singing at night, but at present we don’t seem to have many in our area. It might be due to the increase in the mountain lion population in the hills. I don’t know how many lions there are out there. I’ve only seen one in the wild in 21 years of living here, but there are lots of sightings reported by others. The last coyote I caught a glimpse of running across the meadow probably was suffering from mange. Its coat was pretty rough. Animal populations rise and fall in their natural settings and I suspect that we’ve experienced a decline in the number of coyotes.
Coyotes are, however, very adaptable animals and I suspect that the population will return to higher levels as the years pass.
The bighorn sheep population has really undergone swings in number. At one time they were eliminated from the hills and had to be reintroduced by transporting animals from other parts of the country. Fortunately, the reintroduction of the animals has gone well. It has not, however, ben without ups and downs. The sheep are susceptible to a variety of diseases. I don’t know much about the diseases that affect the sheep. I don’t think they can get chronic wasting disease from deer or elk, but I think there is a related disease, similar to scrapie in domestic sheep. At any rate, the numbers of bighorn sheep seem to rise and fall on a regular basis in the hills.
We used to joke that it appeared that the bighorn sheep are catholic. The Cleghorn band that hung out around the fish hatchery on the west side of town could often be seen grazing in the lawn of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. However, our church regularly has deer grazing in our lawn and we haven’t noticed any inclinations toward worship or other religious activities.
It is good to pause occasionally and give thanks for simply being able to live in such a beautiful place so rich in resources and life. In an increasingly urbanized world with the crush of expanding human populations the luxury of living with a bit of space and a few non human neighbors is a good fortune that many don’t experience. I read the news of the extensive gun violence in Chicago over the weekend and my heart aches for the grieving families and for children who grow up where the sound of gunfire in the streets is a regular punctuation to their lives. I don’t know if city dwellers would feel lonely and isolated in the hills, but I do know that feel closed in and claustrophobic when I spend too much time in a city. Sleeping with my windows open and no bars on them seems to be preferable from constant vigilance and fear.
Yesterday was a special treat for me. I got to paddle for a while in the very early morning and then we returned to the lake in the late afternoon for an additional paddle and a picnic along the shore before paddling back to the parking area. How fortunate we are to live in this place.