Thursday, June 23, 2016

Bluejays and Bobcats and Bears, oh my!


lake arrowhead, squirrel
Squirrel eating upside while his buddy spots him below.  

One of my favorite things of living up here in Lake Arrowhead is the wildlife.  I have set up a veritable buffet in one of my trees of 3 bird feeders, a hummingbird sugar water feeder and a bird bath.  I love watching all the different furry and feathered critters that come to visit.    When I first moved up here I got the book Birds of the San Bernardino Mountains which has helped me identify all the different birds.   Ideally I would have loved to put photos I took myself but being able to get the shot in time without scaring them away has proved impossible.    So I've pulled the photos from The Cornell Lab website, All About Birds.   These are all the different kinds of birds I've seen at my feeders, so far.  

american robin, lake arrowhead, bird watching
American Robin
lake arrowhead, hummingbirds, bird watching
Anna's Hummingbird
 I initially neglected the hummingbirds until one got it my face
"Where's MY feeder?" so I added one with sugar water. 
lake arrowhead, birdwatching, grosbeak
Black-headed Grosbeak
lake arrowhead, birdwatching, dark eyed junco
Dark Eyed Junco
lake arrowhead, finch, birdwatching
House Finch
bluebird, lake arrowhead, birdwatching
Mountain Bluebird
My favorite!   I only saw it once.  It flew up to my
   tree looked at me for a moment and then flew away.   
mourning dove, lake arrowhead, birdwatching
Mourning Dove
 The dove looks at me mournfully as it's a
little too big to easily eat at the feeder.
purple finch, lake arrowhead, birdwatching
Purple Finch
Not sure why they're called that.  Clearly not purple.
spotted towhee, lake arrowhead, birdwatching
Spotted Towhee
scrub jay, lake arrowhead, bird watching
Western Scrub Jay
I just saw this one yesterday at my feeder for the first time!
stellar jay, lake arrowhead, bird watching
Stellar Jay
These birds get a bad rap but I like them.  One day I was leaning
 against a tree trunk feel emo and one started dropping bits of bark
on my head.  Not sure why but I found it amusing.
acorn woodpecker, lake arrowhead, birdwatching
Acorn Woodpecker
I love these birds.  I have seen them around but they
only recently started coming to my feeders.  
mountain chickadee, birdwatching, lake arrowhead
Mountain Chickadee
  I love these tiny birds.  
nuthatch, lake arrowhead, bird watching
White-breasted Nuthatch
northern flicker, lake arrowhead, woodpecker, bird watching
Northern Flicker
This is another variety of woodpecker.  
He's pretty big but is managing to feed at my feeders.
western tanager, lake arrowhead, bird watching
Western Tanager
Another favorite and I've only seen it once!
Chipmunk (not a bird) 
The cutest!  They also love to feed at my bird feeders.  
I had to chase one out of my house before my dog ate it.

I use Tommy's Bird Watches Deluxe bird seed.  It comes in a 20 pound bag for about $25.  I buy it at Tommy's Pet Studio in Blue Jay.   The birds easily go through 2 pounds of bird seed a day.  I once tried to buy some cheaper bird seed that ran about $8 for 20 pounds.   I was surprised the first day as all the seed was gone!   How could they eat it that fast?  They hadn't.  My squirrels were so mad at the cheap seed that they dumped it all over the ground.   So back to the fancy seed...   

Snow Squirrel
I gave him his own feeder so he wouldn't have to do acrobatics
hanging from the branches upside down.  It doesn't stop him.  

As we all know birds attract cats...  One day I opened my front door to one of these:   

Bobcat

I quickly picked up my dog and followed the cat as it ran off and we watched each other for a few moments (safely from a distance).  I decided that the Bobcat was my spirit animal. :)   I was mesmerized by it and that experience is one of the highlights of my time here. 

Otherwise I've seen plenty of coyotes which I'm less excited by as I have little dogs.   They're also much bigger up in the mountains than the scrawny coyotes I was used to seeing in Los Angeles.   I've seen lots of raccoon tracks in the snow around my house.   I've yet to see a bear, sadly.  However my neighbor Maegan has seen them in her trash and here's a link to her blog post about it.   I can't wait to see one!  (safely from a distance)  :)  Mountain lions...not so much.   

Stellar Jays in my tree.  

lake arrowhead realtor, lake arrowhead real estate


Please "like" my Lake Arrowhead Living Facebook page to follow all my mountain lake adventures.  If you're interested in learning more about the real estate opportunities up here send me an email at lassezfair@gmail.com  I'll be happy to show you around and I can even take you out on the lake kayaking!  
Sarah Lassez
Realtor® at Keller Williams Lake Arrowhead
CalBRE #02004414

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