Animals at LMMM -- May 2012

It's been over a year since I did the last posting on this LMMM blog.  I've been very lazy and uninspired.  However, that changed recently when I noticed the large number of ground squirrels on the south side of the house -- especially the babies which I hadn't seen in the past.

Today (May 27, 2012) Cisco started going nuts staring out from the banco on that side of the living room and barking like crazy.  When I looked out I counted at least 9 ground squirrels totally out of their holes.  At one point there was also a jack rabbit out there.

Why you ask?  The mesquite tree there is almost done blooming and is already making fruit, i.e. bean pods.  The rabbits and ground squirrels love those, especially when they are young and tender.

Here Cisco has calmed down a bit after all the GS and JR excitement.  I didn't get the camera out fast enough to catch the jack rabbit, but you will see lots of ground squirrels below.

This is a young ground squirrel here.  See the hole to the right?  That may or may not be his/her hole.

Here s/he is joined by another young one.  They are probably about 4 inches tall standing up.

Something got these guys' attention.  They look so silly.  The one on the left is an adult.

Aw, forget it, let's play!

Hmm?  Maybe I should focus.  Not me, I'm getting back in my hole.

Even though ground squirrels like the heat, this one is hiding in the shade of a prickly pear.

Here are close ups of two different ones.

They couldn't seem to decide which way they should look.

These four are keeping tabs on two directions.  The one that went back into the hole is out now.

I took this picture because one guy was still in the shade and another appeared to the far left.  I didn't notice the one with its head out of the hole until I put the picture on my computer.

This is an adult.  Adults are probably 8-10 inches tall when fully standing up.  The stuff hanging down in the foreground of the picture is mesquite beans.

This is a pretty good close up of one standing watch and one just looking out of the hole.  Notice how the standing one uses his tail to help balance.  Look back over the pictures and you can see some standing all the way up like this and some just sitting up with their bottoms on the ground.

This is a different pair, same MO.

Many people hate these little guys and do their best to get rid of them.  They get most of their water and nourishment from plant roots.  In fact they munched their way through some lantana that I planted twice before I figured out what was happening.  I watered the lantana carefully and babied the plants and they still died.  When I removed the dead plants I discovered that the roots were gone.   

In spite of their gustatory habits, we  think they are adorable and swerve to avoid them when they cross the road in front of us.  Trout always say, "Run, little guy."

Cisco, being the vermin fixated terrier type that he is, would probably just want to eat them, although our next door neighbor's dog, a Yorkshire Terrier named Fancy,  only catches them and takes them to her mom as presents. 

So is this an LMMM blog breakthrough?  Probably not.  When something else inspires me, I might post again, but mostly I'll be like Cisco above.