My neighborhood is within the city limits of the District of Columbia but it has the distinct feel of an older suburb: single family houses with yards (albeit small ones), lots of big trees, and as it turns out, more wildlife than you might expect. This weekend, on my walk to CVS, I spotted this black vulture perched on the dumpster in the alley. There's a small, high-end grocer there which touts its butcher. I've never dropped any money there -- it's so expensive and my meat eating is modest -- but I'm guessing that the vultures value the scraps.
It got me to thinking about the wildlife in our midst. We have the usual squirrels (both gray and black), raccoons, opossums, and rabbits, plus lots of crows, starlings, robins, blue jays, and the occasional goldfinch. Since the pandemic, we've seen more and more red foxes walking boldly down the street in the early morning hours. I hear that there are coyotes in Rock Creek Park though I've never seen one. Nor have I been privy to the occasional black bear sitings; last summer there was one in the Brookland neighborhood in Northeast and another was captured in the northern reaches of Chevy Chase in the Maryland suburbs.
Still, it's always a bit jarring to see wild creatures in this setting, given the amount of people and cars. I caught this photo of a Cooper's hawk on our fence back in February 2021.
For more DC centric wild bird content, you should definitely check out
Popville (formerly known as the Prince of Petworth) and its intermittent feature, Hawks around Town.
I understand that deer like to live on the edge of the forest which has made them a bit of nuisance in many areas that abut the woods. I caught the photo of a big buck back in July 2020, just about a half a mile from my house in area where there is a small strip of woods between the road and a local park with soccer and baseball fields.
I will leave you with a pic of these very good boys patiently waiting while their owner filled a prescription.
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