Be A Good Neighbor...

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 26, 2008. Red Car Canyon between Corralitas and Lake View Ave. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

...always pick up after your dogs.

Corralitas Wildlife Drama

Photo: Todd H., 2008

A few weeks ago, neighbors witnessed a red tail hawk land on a telephone pole and drop snake to the street below. Evidently, the snake got a good bite out of the hawk since it still has a mouthful of feathers in the photo above. One of the neighbors snapped this photo with his cell phone. If you look closely, there are feathers in the snake's mouth. Another neighbor and her son, who recognized it immediately as a gopher snake, rescued the snake and later released it in their yard, hoping it will take care of their gopher problem.

Gopher snakes are not poisonous and are common to California. In the neighborhood, I've seen them large as 6 feet . A gopher snake will imitate a rattlesnake by coiling up, hissing and shaking it's tail at you, often rattling dry grass with its tail to further its charade. If you encounter a snake giving you such threat behavior, you should not approach it. You may not hear the rattle on a rattlesnake, as the rattle is not very loud. There are occasional rattlesnake sightings at the south end of the Red Car Property near the slope going down to the 2 Freeway.

www.CaliforniaHerps.com has a good photo index and everything you ever wanted to know about native snakes and other reptiles.

Corralitas Coyotes: Big & Healthy

Photos: Diane Edwardson, June 6, 2008, 11:12 AM. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

This morning, while making the turn onto Rosebud Ave. from Allesandro, I was greeted by a healthy looking coyote searching for a good place to jump down from the 2 Freeway and head toward the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. Unfortunately, there was a bit too much traffic and a good 8-10 foot drop to the sidewalk below. So the coyote headed back into the brush on the freeway to search for a shorter jump.

I'm always amazed by the number of neighbors who have never seen coyotes. Our neighborhood has some of the largest and healthiest looking coyotes I've ever seen. Perhaps their more natural diet of rats and gophers is only supplemented by trash and pets since we have the open space of the Red Car Property and Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract in our neighborhood. This one appeared much larger than my 40 lb dog. He also looked friendlier than my dog. It was definitely not the fox.

I've seen more coyotes after 9 AM, when the commute traffic calms down, than at night. I've often seen and followed coyotes across Allesandro from the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract, cross under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud, where they either turn right from Rosebud to the Red Car Property, or go up the stairs on Corralitas, then down the hidden stairs on the other side of Corralitas, travel north on the Red Car Property, cross Fletcher at the Red Car Viaduct Footings and head toward Griffith Park via the Menlo Property on Riverside north of Fletcher. Our neighborhood has quite an urban wildlife corridor.

Learn more about coyotes on the City of Los Angeles Animal Services website. For a photos of a really healthy looking coyote in Wyoming, see The Daily Coyote.

Corralitas Wildlife Update

Since the dry brush was cleared a few weeks ago, the Corralitas fox has gone into hiding. Although it appears she is still coming and going from the same area where she used to nap at the edge of the green brush. There have been fox sightings late at night by three different neighbors on the street near the top of the hill and near the first hairpin turn on the way up Corralitas.

The hummingbird who raised a chick successfully off our driveway in April is back in the same nest with three eggs this time around.

There have been no sightings this year of the albino skunk who used to frequent the area around the first hairpin turn. He was a big skunk; very pale grey with white stripes.

For the past few weeks, a young red tail hawk has been hanging out near the decks of the log cabins, learning to fly and waiting for the parents to bring him rats. On windy afternoons you can see the hawk will flying between the eucalyptus trees on Corralitas to the 2 Freeway and Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. Crows and mockingbirds have been harassing the young hawk.