One aspect of moving out here, away from the sparkling clean Irvine “movie set” and venturing into the rough rugged woods of Virginia, means encountering unexpected visitors everywhere we go. As in, live creatures of all kinds, crossing your path and worst of all invading your living space! We couldn’t help but keep track of all the animals and insects we've come across since living here. There always seems to be something new and peculiar. Its both cool (when you spot these something looking out from your car window)… and NOT! (when its something you come across in the house). Let the list begin…
Deer:
Something you are guaranteed to see tons of when driving on base. Bambi sure does loves it out here…although you can hunt on base so they still need to watch out.
Turtles:
After a rainy night, we were leaving to drive Danno to work at “Dark-thirty”, I nearly stepped on this little guy parked right next to our car. “Snappy” was our first pet…kept him in the recycling bin in the back yard and eventually let him go back into the wild. I wouldn’t know what to feed him anyway. Once we got rid of him, another one came to greet us in the church parking lot…and of course weeks later Danno saw another during land nav. Maybe Snappy sent word to his buddies that we’re cool people.
Beavers:
I didn’t even know what I was looking at when it was crossing the road. Its not every day you see beavers…but seeing two in one day is enough for me to identify them just fine now.
Vulcers:
So I thought these only soar around the vast dry deserts like the movies portray — apparently not. While driving on base, I see something ahead near the sidewalk and think, “Wow those are two really humongous birds on the grass”….”Ew, that’s a bloody mess they’ve got there”…”Wait a second, those are 2 vulcers feasting on a dead carcass” Woah!
Frog:
“Hip Hop” came to visit while we were tidying up the backyard patio. He favored hanging out near the BBQ grill, and eventually decided to skateboard out of there.
Porcupine:
It was a big guy...thats not fur, its spikes! Saw him just before he disappeared into the woods.
Skunks:
Back in the I.E. (Inland Empire) they are scattered everywhere, but dead and stinky on the road. We were driving on a narrow street toward base, all we see is 2 bright white fluffy tails pointing straight at us…caught a quick glimpse as we drive by…and those aren’t black n white cats, we just about missed hitting 2 LIVE skunks. I did notice some sprinkles of moisture on my window and didn’t want to smell it in case we actually did scare them.
Snakes:
Danno has come across a few already during land nav, no surprise being that they are deep in the woods. Here is where you do not want to see a snake...Our neighbor comes to our door, “Just letting you know, last night my husband saw a huge 5ft black snake on our porch, and this morning it was curled up in your front bushes just right there...Oh and you might also want to check your backyard cuz two weeks ago we had a different one in our backyard, and saw it go into yours.” Ah yes, I was wonderfully paranoid exiting our place either direction!
Mice:
Our neighbors had a problem with one recently, and we’re lucky to have one too somewhere in our kitchen! Dan saw it scurry across the kitchen floor once, and the hole in our bag of chips was a sure sign of the little guy rummaging through our pantry. For some reason they like chips?! Now we’ve got everything in storage bins, traps are set, and we’re keeping and eye out, but haven’t caught anything yet.
Insects:
Currently we have the extremely loud sounds of cicadas in the surrounding trees. I never heard of them until Dan identified them. Good thing we dont sleep with the windows open, cuz they are very noisy all night long. Other encounters...a huge 1” pincher bug crawling out of my laptop...a spider with a metallic gold butt (seriously, it was shiny metallic)...tons of moths, some even the size of my palm...a huge centipede looking thing crawling on our ceiling (I’ve never seen anything like it and still don’t know what it was)…and I must say the only insect I’ve been happy to see are fireflies! Those are very cool to see at night. Our most recent visitor was a wasp in the house! Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners. If we don’t have the courage to smash it, we suck it up! So of course when it comes to emptying the vacuum..I leave that up to Dan!
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