Good morning, TSFers! It’s Thursday, which means it is almost Friday and that is a great thing. We’ve also got an Arsenal match today @ 3:00 pm away to Brentford. I’ll admit, I’m not feeling particularly great about the game. I’m usually more bullish on the team than most on any given matchday, but my vibes aren’t good. I’m probably just being a worrywart.
The topic ideas weren’t flowing for today’s CF. Sometimes that happens, and when it does, I usually use the morning dog walk with Gunner to help
get the juices flowing (we’re back below freezing this morning in D.C., for those of you keeping up with my weather bellyaching). I noted that the birds were much more present and talkative this morning — boom, topic.
What kind of local wildlife do y’all have in your neighborhood / that you see regularly?
Rabbits are the most common critter around here. We also get deer wandering the streets of our neighborhood, including a three or four year old male who wears a GPS monitor necklace that makes him easily identifiable. We have woodpeckers who sometimes will peck at the gutters, which is loud and annoying and I have to go chase them away. Semi-regularly, I see birds of prey — I’m not sure if it is a falcon or a hawk — it’s neat either way. Occasionally, I spot an owl in the big holly tree in our back yard.
For me, the neighborhood fox(es) are the most exciting. Last week, I saw one in our backyard for the first time. Our yard is fenced, so it must have gone up and over. I wasn’t aware foxes had ups until a couple months ago, when we saw one jump a six-foot fence elsewhere in the neighborhood. Gunner was resting in my office and must have smelled or heard it. He couldn’t possibly have seen it based on where he was, but he jumped up and ran to the door, which is what made me look out. Good thing he wasn’t in the yard at the time.
I think that about covers it. There are groundhogs in the area, but I’ve not seen them particularly close to home. Folks will spot a brown bear every few years but only up-county, closer to the more rural areas. The bears don’t make it this far down into the ‘burbs.
