Thanks

I really appreciate the comments from all the folks who rushed to assure me that I am not going crazy, that moving stress is normal, and that I just need to slow down and it will (eventually) all get done. I like to be settled so I know where to find everything but the process is just going to have to take some time this go-around.

This morning, I sat on the porch while the dogs sniffed around the yard and I watched the birds. Be sure to keep an eye on the Yard List I am posting. I just updated it with sightings from the past week. Some things are not identified to species yet, either because I have not gotten a good enough look at the critter or because my field guides are still in a box somewhere.

We'd thought that a round-tailed ground squirrel was digging around in our front yard. A couple of mornings back, I discovered it was something else. As the dogs wandered in another part of the yard, I saw something gray poke out of a hole for a split second, so quickly I thought I might have imagined it. I kept watching and sure enough, a little gray head peeked out again after a minute or so. I've had experience with packrats in this area and this critter didn't quite look right to be a packrat. It had tiny ears practically plastered to its head. The nose was wrong, too. And there was no evidence of a packrat midden anywhere nearby. (A midden is a big pile of cactus and brush made into a safe home - think really messy beaver dam on land with all the stuff cemented together with stinky urine).

After some research online (since my mammal field guide is still in a box), I decided I must have seen my first vole. This is not the one I saw, but a photo to show you what a vole looks like. Voles are constantly active and essentially vegetarian. They are one more threat to a successful garden out here. It looks like we're gonna have to garden in a cage...with four sides, a roof, and a bottom!