OUR ROWDY ALLIES

When I came home yesterday evening, Savage Kitten immediately mentioned that she couldn’t tell what it was, maybe a cat or a.........

"It was a raccoon", I said. A raccoon.

See, that's what happens when two people live together for a long time, even if they aren't lovers (anymore). They automatically finish each other's sentences.

Especially if the other person is talking about some sheerly fascinating roadkill at the intersection up the street.

Scientific curiosity - just one of those charming characteristics we have in common.

I think we both grieved for the raccoon.
It's sad when one of your neighbors dies.


THE BEASTS

There is a surprisingly large animal population in the San Francisco.
In addition to raccoons, we also have the occasional grinning possum, a multitude of hungry cats - ladies, do NOT leave your baby out all night, you'll never see him again - and visiting coyotes.

Plus birds.

The birds are the most obvious local animals.

Pigeons, starlings, crows.

Pigeons are flying poo, starlings are belligerently territorial and attack pedestrians during the breeding season, and crows treat humans as equals, which is very tolerant of them.
We may be bigger than the crows, but we can't fly nearly as well. So it all balances out.

Peregrine falcons - a sparse population in the Financial District, where they compete with savage suburbanites for small creatures to kill and eat.


We also have parrots.

I hardly see the parrots - they live in the park further down the road - but I can hear them. They often congregate behind the building in the morning, or fly overhead when I'm shaving.
Loud, raucous, gregarious.
Nature's little thugs.

Birds and humans are very similar.

Pigeons are like shoppers at a bargain outlet.
Starlings are feisty and inquisitive urbanites.
Crows are scam-artists, opportunists, good neighbors.

And parrots are a gang of rowdy schoolkids when the teacher isn't looking.

These parrots are a relatively new flock.

The famous Telegraph Hill flock has been around for over a decade, as has the lesser-known Dolores Street Palms gang. This bunch is probably a satellite of Telegraph Hill, establishing a new territory for themselves.

The scrappy little buggers are increasing, boruch Hashem.


FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Red-masked Parakeets average about 33 cm (13 in) long, of which half is the tail. They are bright green with a mostly red head on which the elongated pale eye-ring is conspicuous; the nape is green. Also, the lesser and median underwing coverts are red, and there is some red on the neck, the thighs, and the leading edge of the wings. Juveniles have green plumage, until their first red feathers appear at around the age of four months. Its call is two-syllabled, harsh and loud.

[SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-masked_Parakeet ]

Good thing they're vegetarians.
That means they won't compete with the crows.
San Francisco NEEDS more, many more, intelligent animals.

The raccoons and falcons by themselves just aren't enough to keep the suburbanites at bay.

And while the starlings do yeoman service savaging pedestrians, they're just too cheeky to be much use.

I've given up on the cats entirely. Useless.
They're furry and they meow.
That's just not enough.


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