Wildlife Report

Italian gecko


Squeak the cat

We were happy to see our kitty friends soon after we arrived. Both Squeak and her all black friend were soon at our kitchen door asking for a handout. As we had no cat food I gave them a little cheese until I was able to pick up some kibble. Now they show up almost every morning. In fact, Squeak is usually laying in the sunshine up on the knoll outside our house when we wake up. Then she hangs out around the house most of the day. Sometimes she follows me around when I am working around the patio or hanging laundry. Her plaintive meowing sounds like a squeaky wheel, hence her name.

The birds are in full throat every day. We hear the cuckoos but never see them. There are also lots of other birds chirping and chittering. The sparrows are nesting in a cavity in our neighbors' wall again. It is near one of their third floor windows. Often they sit on the edge of the windowsill or the copper gutter or the cable running from the television antenna on the roof chirping away. We also see lots of swallows this time of year. They swoop and dive around the patio often coming quite close to our heads! If we think about it we also hear a number of roosters although mostly they fade into the background. When we first had the house they would wake us up around 4:30-5 am. Now we hardly ever notice them.

There are a number of geckos running around on the stone walls and the cement patio. One climbed on a rock this afternoon and posed for the above picture. They have quite bright coloring this time of year--black with bright green diamonds. In the fall they are duller--a brownish grey color.

In the evening we can look out the windows and see a lot of fireflies. They still fascinate me since I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where they are not common. Last night there were so many of them they really looked like twinkle lights strung across the fields.

Can't say our life is terribly wild this week. It is mostly work and relaxing. Really, really nice!