Urban Wildlife Siting

Are Not All in The Zoo

Photos and text by Gordon Burhop

Living in the metropolitan area of Phoenix, with a population exceeding three million, I am often astounded by how adaptable certain wild creatures have become to the urban environment. To our delight, my wife, Judy, and I have observed numerous animals, large and small, right in our streets, most often, early in the morning, when we usually walk a couple or three miles. Perhaps we see more than our share of urban wildlife because our house is located within a city block of a large open area, and our sub-division has some open common areas. Of course, we’re still not likely to see bighorn sheep, antelope, bald eagles, elk, lynx, condors, wolves, ringtails, coatimundis, desert tortoises and others, but we seem to find plenty of other wildlife.

One morning, we were following a trail created by kids on bicycles through one of our common areas. I happened to be in the lead. I spotted at the immediate right side of the trail what at first appeared to be a cow pie. (We do have wandering domestic cattle in our area, but that’s another story.) I stopped and whispered to Judy, “Step to your left about four feet and walk forward quietly about 10 feet or more, then wait for me.” For what seems like the first time in 35 years of marriage, she did exactly as I told her. I then stepped to my left about four feet and walked forward quietly about 10 feet and joined her. Now at a safe distance, I told her what we almost stepped on, a four-foot diamondback rattlesnake, which might have gotten a bit cranky if trod upon. Snakes like Judy, although she doesn’t seem to like them. I can camp, hike and explore for years and not see a single snake, but if I want to get up close and personal with one, I just take Judy along.

 

My son and his family live in the same neighborhood. I received a call from him telling me he had a skunk under his storage shed. I knew that a neighbor had tried to remove a family of skunks from his back yard. There had been five young ones, and the local critter catcher could only corral two. One more had been killed on the road. I figured my son had one of the remaining two. The shed rested on bricks and provided only three inches of ground clearance. We tried to flood the underneath in order to drive the polecat out so we could capture it. Forget that. The skunk wasn’t budging. We quit for the day. The following night the youngster escaped and immediately ran into the open garage. Not good. We found him behind the clothes dryer. Now, the question was how to get him out without harming him or having an odorous mess in the garage. We built a raceway-labyrinth out of boxes and things and guided the animal out with a broom. He straightaway ran between the houses. My grandson and I waited as my son went around back and made noise to scare the polecat toward the front of the houses. As the skunk approached the front, we jumped out to frighten him and then quickly retreated to avoid getting sprayed. Fortunately, skunks are normally reluctant to spray. The contrary animal ran two doors down, into another garage. We spoke to the owner who seemed annoyed we interrupted his TV basketball game. My son said he’d call Skunk Busters the next time.

Sometimes other kinds of excitement occur. A swarm of bees landed in one of our trees forming a ball the shape and size of a pineapple. They spent the night and left suddenly the following day. Thank goodness. We’ll never know whether they were killer bees, a dangerous, invasive species which has been in Arizona for several years now.

Arizona is in the midst of a multi-year drought. This brings javelina into the city in search of water and food. Our irrigation and green plants are attractive to normally reclusive animals. We have seen mule deer in the city, which, unlike white tail deer, prefer the desert to higher altitudes. Bears and lions also occasionally wander into the city now that food and water are scarce.

Where you see prey animals there will be predators. We have the ubiquitous cottontails, jackrabbits, roadrunners and lizards. Our commons areas are filled with the small burrowing creatures. It follows that we have raptors, roadrunners, snakes and coyotes. Harris hawks are fairly tolerant of human encroachment. I’ve seen their active five-foot tall nests built of sticks right along the freeway. Judy and I have seen a pair of owls perching on light poles searching for food. Our neighbors lose their cats on a regular basis, presumably to a coyote or an owl.

I saw a coyote carrying what I think was a crow in his mouth across a busy street. Raccoons, ducks and geese also gravitate towards consistent water sources.

Woodpeckers drum rhythmical tunes on the metal cover of a streetlight. They may even be attracted to wood siding. The Gila Woodpecker and Gilded Flicker make nests in the front yard saguaro. The Arizona state bird, the cactus wren, makes himself perfectly comfortable in the city cholla and trees. Many different species of other birds are seen, including turkey vultures and various hummingbirds. Judy and I have enjoyed watching mourning doves hatch and raise their young in a tree in our front yard, just 10 feet from the street. Presently we have a hummingbird hatching two jellybean-sized eggs in a nest built of spider webs and tree down on a set of decorative lights on our patio.

What I like best is that we can enjoy wildlife by simply looking out our window no matter how urban the surroundings.

 

 

 

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