Away With You, Griffin!

On our late night walks, Jasper and I monitor the wildish animals in our neighborhood. I haven't seen skunks and possums for awhile. I'm thinking they must be in trouble. We've occasionally seen raccoons prowling the neighborhood at night, though. 

I've been using less and less bird seed at the bird feeding spot. The reason is that there are fewer pigeons now than ever, likely due to predation and disease. The remaining sparrows and doves just don't eat as much as the pigeons. 

Nevertheless, the bird seed has been a big source of trouble. I stored the bird seed in the pickup truck bed, where a rodent managed to raid it. This is the first time in eighteen years that a rodent was smart enough to figure out the system. So I moved the bird seed into the adjacent economy-car trunk. The rodent found that bird seed too, and incidentally feasted on electrical insulation, knocking out the right rear tail light and causing enough damage that $1,800 was required to repair it. Currently, the bird seed is under siege in the pickup truck cab, in hardened metal containers. 

Late at night, you can hear a variety of owls on the prowl. One night, an owl landed on a utility line just a short distance above us. The owl's shadow loomed over us. It hooted. Aha, a Great Horned Owl! But then it made a completely erroneous Canadian-Goose honk too. It started making a ruckus, alternating with hoots and honks. 

What kind of bird was this? Was it trying to escape being pigeonholed? Was it some sort of Gondwanaland experimental hybrid escaped from the lab? Later, I read that Great Horned Owls also make sounds beyond just hoots, so it must have been a Great Horned Owl. Still, I like the hybrid idea - owl head, goose body. Maybe it was a Griffin, like on some medieval map. Here there be Dragons. The Griffin then flew away, honking and hooting all the way. 

This evening (October 16th), I released Jasper from the house into the back yard, where he promptly surprised and killed a rodent. I've been hearing rodents in the back yard for months now. In Sacramento they like to live in palm trees and under ivy. Maybe - could it be? - was this the once-in-a-generation intelligent rodent that has been making my life miserable? One can hope!