The ecosystem around my house has been getting intense lately. In the past year I’ve seen a coyote in the open space behind my fence, heard a bobcat in the open space at night, had owls and hawks swoop down to try and grab my 100lb dog and at the last minute realize he’s too big to catch. The squirrel population has exploded due to volunteer oak trees in the area. The neighbors oak volunteered on my fence-line 25 years ago. We tried to get the previous two owners take it down but it is now 16” wide at the trunk and pushing the fence over. Gophers have taken over the open space and in the past 3 year invaded the yard, also we’ve had a rat explosion from the open space for the last 2 years. They like our garden veggies and the acorn meat the squirrels drop from the oak tree. There was so much food around until this week that the rats wouldn’t eat the poison bait, now that the garden is done and the squirrels have finished the acorns the rats are finally eating the bait. We had mourning doves in our trees but a cooper’s hawk killed them in our courtyard. I’ve got the tail feather of the hawk and chest down of mourning doves, and no more dove calls as forensic evidence.

I’m wondering how long until the scorpions, rattlesnakes, and mountain lions show up.