Ready and waiting
Wednesday October 19th 2011, 10:54 pm
Filed under: Life,Wildlife

I called first; George, the woman said, will be back in on Friday.

Ah, okay, then, thanks, I wanted to come back in and tell him thank you for how nice he was to me yesterday.

The receptionist’s surprise and delight sounded like a kid who wanted to know what was in that Christmas box: what was that all about? But she didn’t ask and I didn’t say.  And now at least one person who works there knows there’s a customer who was happy enough to be making the effort to say so. Always a good thing.

Come Saturday, meantime, I think we’re due to work on a little habitat destruction together: that morning scene of water intermittently spraying vigorously from the same spot on the roof has happened again two more days, and the rain is days gone. Fallen leaves or something must be providing grubs for something up there, or maybe they’re finding a birdbath effect; clearly there must be standing water. Not a good idea. It’s a mostly-flat roof, a  California fad of the 1950’s.

The first time, there was a towhee perched on the edge of the shed just below there, getting sprayed; it looked back over its shoulder, got doused again, and flew away from it.

Today it was a black squirrel, probably watching to see if there was anything worth raiding. Hey! It snorted and jerked away as it got it full in the face. HEY! And it took a big leap up onto that roof to show just who was boss here.  Cut that out!

End of waterfall.

I’d have loved to have seen the end of that. Although, don’t tell the squirrels that from the occasional audible mad dashes that have ended suddenly midpoint, it seems the hawks have learned that white roofs are great for picking off black squirrels. We have a lot fewer of the big oldtimers than we used to.

And for the first time, a few days ago I saw a hawk disappear into the upper branches of the big redwood whose limbs reach over our house. Right above that spot.


9 Comments so far
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Thank you for calling to tell George what his personal consideration meant, and for sharing that bit with the receptionist.

Comment by Channon 10.20.11 @ 6:32 am

I once had a visitor from Australia. She was fascinated by the squirrils in downtown DC, especially the ones that were tame enough to snatch granola bars from her hand. “We don’t have squirrils in Australia,” she said, “just stupid kangaroos.” Um, yeah.

So in the fight between the hawks and the squirrils, I’d say that it’s every critter for himself, and may the smartest one win.

Comment by LauraN 10.20.11 @ 6:52 am

And where possible, I like to catch a person’s supervisor to describe outstanding service. It doesn’t hurt for it to go into their file.

Comment by LauraN 10.20.11 @ 6:54 am

Have you tried to catch a fish up there?

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 10.20.11 @ 7:45 am

You mean you’re taking away the local swimming pool?

Comment by Don Meyer 10.20.11 @ 9:01 am

I love that you always take the time to be so kind to other people. It reminds me to do the same – thank you!

Comment by Genny 10.20.11 @ 9:35 am

We got a little dose of the birdbath effect the other day. Caught between here and there at lunchtime DH and I dashed into a famous little burger place where you place your order and wait outside to be called. I felt a few drops (it was a sunny day), moved a little further out and later watched as some others were sprayed by several small birds having a vigorous bath on the flat roof. Customers looked around very puzzled.

Loved your call to the service dept… George deserved it.

Comment by Joan 10.20.11 @ 12:05 pm

uh oh, I know about flat roofs — had one on part of our Los Gatos house — I hope you get better news on yours that we recently got on ours here!

Comment by Bev 10.20.11 @ 2:49 pm

It’s always nice to be the one saying “thanks.” People always remember to complain, but it seems that it’s surprisingly hard to say something good! Hope you managed to get through.

Comment by Erica 10.21.11 @ 6:41 pm



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