Our driveway is something of a backyard, but a very large concrete one. That doesn’t keep the critters away, though! It’s like Lorne Greene’s Wilderness out there, so I thought I’d share some of my recent driveway encounters.
The swarm of ants has arrived, and they’re quite a fiesty colony (or two). Don’t know what kind they are, but they have white spots on their backs and are relatively large and gangly. They seem to have a nest under the house, since they congregate in large numbers along the side wall - the foundation. We’re at war with them, and have set out an army of ant traps to keep them away from the porch so we can enjoy sitting out there without being pestered.
Surrounding the porch area, in addition to the ants, is a growing number of large furry black bees. Two have turned up dead on the stairs in the past week, in the exact same spot. I wonder now if the ants feast on their carcasses, but from what I can tell it doesn’t appear they do.
A welcome creature is the cardinal, of which I’ve seen a few. They have a signature ta-weet of an unusual pitch or tone, so when I hear it I hope a sighting will materialize. Cardinals seem to fly really fast and hide in foliage. Lots of birds are like that I guess. Anyhow, one cardinal perched on the porch railing for a minute or so and from my position inside I had the chance to admire its bright red beak and feathers.
How nice.
Last week, though, I witnessed a bird do a really bad thing: commit birdy murder. While I was sitting on the porch, basking in the warm sunshine, I heard a round of high-pitched animal screaming. It reminded me of a catfight, then I determined it was a couple of birds scrapping in the air. When at last they fell into the driveway about five feet from me I thought the big one was a kind of pigeon and the smaller one I don’t know. It was brown in colour and the size of a large robin.
What happened next literally took the breath out of me and got me feeling a bit sick; the pigeon placed its feet on the chest of the smaller one and stood there, continuously putting more pressure on, until the chirping squeal of the littler one got increasingly quiet. This lasted fully more than a few minutes. I was nervous about making any moves because that pigeon’s head was turning around in circles while this was happening, keeping a close eye for any threat of losing his conquest. Eventually he carried the limp bird body over the fence and into the neighbour’s yard.
Ahem.
Last night’s scenario involves a couple of those friendly beasts we love called bats! Two were flying in circles over that same part of the driveway, kind of crashing up against the house next door. It was dark enough that I coudn’t identify them by sight (except that their wings were more square-looking that a crow’s) but they made that bat sound. Perhaps we should get a bat detector?
Hey now - this is a common image to Ithacans, right:
Bridges such as this one might be used by bats
From the information provided by this bats.org.uk site though, bats don’t seem so alarming:
Many people discover they have a bat roost in their house whilst they are sitting outside on a mild summer evening!
Bats are clean and sociable animals and spend many hours grooming themselves. They prefer to live in clean, cobweb free areas where there are no draughts.
Like between your walls!
So for the most part it’s a winged-creature’s ‘paradise’ out there in the driveway. I’m almost certain we’ll spot raccoons and skunks out there again this summer. There are a few cats that pop by for a visit and when Matt’s around this makes him very happy. He names other people’s cats after mathematicians and scientists.
