Connecting people with wildlife to inspire responsibility and respect for the world we share. | Gary Bogue was the museum's Curator in the late 1960s and 1970s, and long-time wildlife columnist for the Contra Costa Times, recently retired. | Spread the WordIf you'd like to get monthly copies of Gary's "It's a Wild Life" delivered to your friends or family members for them to enjoy, get them a Lindsay Wildlife Museum membership! | Quick Links | Stay Connected | You are receiving this email from Lindsay Wildlife Museum because you are one of our supporters. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add socialmedia@wildlife-museum.org to your address book. |
| Have a very beastly Christmas Which wild animals mean Christmas to you? The arrival of migrating birds always puts me in the holiday spirit. The sound of a screaming red-shafted flicker announcing its presence from my backyard (see photo at left), along with the arrival of winter ... the faint honking of high-flying geese tickling my fancy ... white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows hopping around my backyard garden boxes, the bobbing of their heads against a background of dark, wet earth as they peck for seeds makes it look like their head-markings are winking on and off like little gold and white Christmas tree lights ... goldfinches clinging to the sides of my bird feeders all merry and bright ... Ho-ho-ho, have a very beastly Christmas everyone! | | Creatures of the Urban Wilderness (your backyard) :: Robins & red berries Do robins get "drunk" from eating pyracantha berries? They sometimes look that way. Stumbling around on the ground and bumping into things. Taking off in an explosion of orange breasts and wild wings and crashing into nearby windows and each other. But just because they look inebriated doesn't make it so. Fresh ripe red berries are a good food source for wild birds and other creatures, but they are full of sugar and other nutrients ... and NOT alcohol. When a flock of hungry robins lands in a pyracantha bush, they attack the berries in a feeding frenzy, competing with each other to see who can eat the most berries. They gorge and stuff their crops, getting a sudden sugar "high," and become completely top-heavy in the process. If something frightens them, forcing a sudden takeoff, they stagger into the air, off balance from their overloaded crops, smashing into things and wobbling around when they land. They may look drunk, but they're actually just suffering from the effects of eating too much, too fast. | | Hummingbird feeders in winter? Winter weather in the San Francisco Bay Area is relatively moderate, so if you have hummingbird feeders hanging in your backyard during spring, summer and fall, it's OK to leave them up during winter, too. Most of our local hummers stick around and don't migrate and I'm sure they'd like to keep getting those free eats. If a hummingbird in your backyard DOES decide to take off and migrate for some reason, a little free sugar water isn't going to stop it. | | Got unwanted visitors at night? It's always a bit of a shock, I suspect, to hear a noise in the middle of the night and jump out of bed to discover a raccoon prowling around your kitchen or living room. This is entirely possible if you have a cat door that lets your kitty can come and go as it pleases. Raccoons can learn how to use one of those cat doors faster than any cat, which means the raccoon can also come and go as IT pleases, especially if it is cold or raining. The solution is simple. Lock the cat door and keep your cat in at night. That means no raccoons in the house at night and your cat will also be a LOT safer. | | A FINAL NOTE ... Because we're enjoying the holidays, this seems like an appropriate spot to stop and wish everyone a VERY Happy New Year! It's been fun and the future promises to be even better. I'll see you next year! /Gary | |
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