Feathers and Scales

Greetings from the everyday. Like most, when I get home, I want a house filled with warmth and music and smells (the odoriferous and the pleasant) and activity and calm, everything that comprises living. Creatures are a part of this vision. Today, a white crowned sparrow and western fence lizard greeted me as I exited my car and headed to the house.

WCS males learn to sing the first two weeks of life. WCS form song dialects and can learn the dialect of other WCS's (they're bilingual!). They share their territory with fox sparrows. They eat seeds and insects. Their handleless basket type nests are made of grass, small twigs, and hairs; think typical representation of "bird's nest."

Blue bellied and scaly, sleepy eyed and still, until disturbed, western fence lizards warming their bodies in the sun mean summer is near. Their presence means looking for "wizards" with the best and the curious of my collective unit. WFLs keep the time, and temperature decides the sex of a clutch. Insectivorous, and eaten by birds, snakes, and some mammals, they protect their lives with speed and agility. Where they live, they keep the occurrence of Lyme disease low. Ticks drink their blood, and a protein in it kills the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. WFL are cool.