I caught this little fellow red-handed munching away on our pumpkin.  It has become an annual feast for the squirrels. The photo was taken two days ago and this morning, the pumpkin is completely gone–he and his buddies ate the whole thing!

It's been 10 months since my last Wildlife post, but we've just witnessed a lovely event that has been in the making for several months.  We've been pleased to host a set of nesting mourning doves in the eaves right above where we sit on our patio.  It's a pretty safe spot although not that secluded.  The two of them came and went regularly all summer and now, just as summer ends, two fledglings have arrived.  Having sat only 10 feet from the nest waiting for the young'uns to appear for so long, their arrival brought a smile to our faces.  Here is the proud dad sitting watch over us as the little ones figure out how to fly–which happened yesterday.

EssEff is all about multiple mountain lion sighting in the city this week.  The Comicle led with the story yesterday including some cool video footage.  I you get the text notices from the County about traffic, weather and the like, you know there are mountain lion sightings down here all the time.  The last one I got was on Oct. 24th.  From the report, it sounds like this young male cougar will be coming back down to our neck of the woods

It was not clear whether the sleek feline was the same animal that created an uproar earlier in the week when one was seen lurking around mansions in the Presidio and Sea Cliff.

Fish and Wildlife officials initially thought Friday that the puma was a female, but Chris Wilmers, a wildlife ecologist at UC Santa Cruz and the head of the Puma Project, said it is “a typical young dispersal-age male who takes a wrong turn.”

“We’re pretty sure it’s from the Peninsula because otherwise it would have had to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge or swim across,” he said, “so we’re going to drop it off on the Peninsula, where it is most likely to have come from.”

I've seen deer in the flatlands of B'game on occasion so it's not inconceivable that a mountain lion would come down from Skyline as well.  Be on the lookout since this latest guy likes to roam and he's on his way back.

Dear Voice readers and commenters, I have a question.  B'game is well-stocked hummingbird territory–most of the time.  The Spring was buzzing with buzzing and then we had several months of nothing on the hummingbird front.  Now, all of a sudden, in the last week or two they are back with a fury.  They're buzzing about, feeding on nectar that has been sitting in feeders for weeks untouched and even fighting with each other for first sips.  Does anyone know what is going on in hummingland?

Yesterday, Iron Maiden's customized 747 got into a fender bender in Chile. Who was at the controls? Bruce Dickinson of course.