marmalade cat now
at last settled on the hearth
washing himself
— haiku by Don Delcollo, El Sobrante
Dear Gary:
I just had to tell you about the most amazing thing that I witnessed the other day.
I was stopped at a red light at a rather large intersection when I saw a car go through and unfortunately hit a small bird.
The bird began flailing around in the crosswalk when two other birds went down to him/her and their wings looked to be flailing as well.
A couple of seconds later, five or six other birds joined them and unbelievably got the injured bird over to the curb, where it seemed to recover and they all flew away.
All of this took a matter of seconds, thankfully, before another car went through.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Nature truly is amazing, isn’t it?
Sandy Leonard,
cyberspace
Dear Sandy:
Interestingly, most of the small songbirds have pretty strong support groups when one of them gets hurt.
It’s usually a species thing. Sparrows help sparrows, doves help doves, etc.
Like your thing with the little birds, I’ve observed doves trying to nudge an injured mate out of the center of the road.
And I once turned over a piece of plywood to find two dead California quail — a male and a female — snuggled up close together.
The female had an obvious broken wing, but the male showed no obvious signs of injury. This led me to believe (romantic that I am) that the male had followed the female under the plywood and pressed up next to his injured mate until she finally died from her injuries.
Then he appeared to have stayed there next to her for who knows how long until he finally died.
I examined both bodies very carefully. The female was pretty beat up but the male showed absolutely no signs of injury.
I really think the male quail didn’t want to leave his mate, so he stayed with her “… forever.
In certain cases, like when a hawk grabs a bird, it can become a major free-for-all with every kind of bird in sight diving in to scream and yell at the hawk.
That’s because all songbird species (prey) don’t like hawks for obvious reasons.
Usually, the hawk simply ignores its raucous audience, or flies away.
But occasionally, it gets distracted by all the harassment and its prey escapes.
If I were a bird, seems like it would be worth a shot.
Dear Gary:
I’ve lived in the area for 47 years and never have I seen so many gophers in places like Lamorinda, Martinez, etc., as in the past few years.
Over the years I’ve seen maybe two gophers in my parents’ Orinda yard. Now they thrive there.
My house in Lafayette is full of them despite constant trapping and hawk perches.
A friend’s house in Martinez is gopher central.
I see predators such as snakes, hawks, owls, cats, etc.
What do you suppose is to blame for the recent gopher explosion?
Kris Peterson,
Lafayette
Dear Kris:
Last year and this year (especially this year) have been pretty wet compared to previous years.
All that rain helps Mother Nature produce a large crop of grasses and other greenery. And this in turn causes the gophers and other rodents to have large families with high survival rates because of all the food that’s available to them.
You may or may not have noticed, but there’s also a corresponding increase in hawks, owls and other predators because of the increase in rodents.
There’s more food for them, too.
