It's almost a clear day here in southern Oregon where we have been plagued by fires and smoke for the last 2 months. Years ago a day like today would have been considered smokey, today in The New Normal one would almost call it clear so I still have my mask on.
The animals and the trees are also responding 2 this new warmer climate and the gifts that it brings. Pigeons are moving into the area which is something we've never seen before. There's plenty of pigeons in the city even over in Medford but they seem just want to stick to that cityscape until now when they moved out here into the borderline of Wildland not really the suburbs. So it's funny to hear the pigeons call.
The trees have also been moving down the hill. When you see photographs from a long time ago 15 20 25 35 years you can see that there didn't used to be hardly any trees at all that mostly the land was Meadow and then over the years the Trees have slowly moved down scrub Oak, madrone, Manzanita, and then there's always the buck brush and poison oak. It's more of a gentle wooded area but as a caretaker of the land it's another area of Maintenance in clearing to lessen the fire danger.
And the wildlife seems to be changing to. there are still The Usual Suspects such as ground squirrels, Blue Jays, jack rabbits, dear, and coyotes. The way they're changing it seems is That You Don't See or here so many coyotes for instance at night as you used to, the jackrabbits would greet you in droves and hardly seemed afraid just a few months ago, and now there's only one or two.
Over the years there were some blue bellied lizards and to a great extent they've been replaced Now by a kind of a green more aggressive lizard and I think they eat the other ones. That's just rare speculation on my part and I don't really know what they're doing in their spare time and there's hardly been any fruit flies this year maybe it's still too early but I think the smoke kept the temperatures down so the yellow jackets and the fruit flies have been a little bit delayed.
**Flying Doors **