Looks like 2025 is going to be wild

After taking New Year’s Day off from riding (50 mile per hour gusts just aren’t my cup of tea) I’ve been doing my best to get outside and ride. Yesterday I rode into a strong headwind to drop off some books at the Carpe Librum nonprofit bookstore in downtown DC. The ride utterly exhausted me. I always forget that riding in cold temperatures is much harder than riding in the summer. I think I get dehydrated because I tend not to drink enough water when I have a balaclava covering my mouth. Also I am wearing more layers than the kid in A Christmas Story.

During my rides I have noticed that the wildlife around here is very busy. I have seen evidence of beavers like never before. They cut down small trees and leave wee stumps that look like they’ve gone through a pencil sharpener. Today, the Friends of Dyke Marsh posted a picture of a new lodge in the marsh.

The other day The Mule and I came ripping down a hill at a bit over 30 miles per hour (did I mention that it was damned cold?) through a posh neighborhood along the GW Parkway. At the bottom there’s a chicane with a stop sign. Of course, I normally don’t look up because I routinely blow through the stop sign and swerve through the chicane. Sue me. Anyway, this one time I did look up to clear my eyes which had teared up during the descent. There to my left, high up in a mature tree in the backyard of a rather nice home, was a massive bald eagle nest. (For you locals, it’s at the corner of Park Terrace and Huntly.) When did that get there? I didn’t see any activity in the nest mostly because I was more concerned about surviving the chicane and such.

Last week I noticed that a nest near Tulane Drive on the Mount Vernon Trail in Dyke Marsh was no longer there. So I am guessing that the nest or its tree had somehow been compromised. Trees in Dyke Marsh have been succumbing to ever rising river water levels so perhaps this tree toppled. In any case, the backyard nest is approximately 200 yards west of the old Tulane nest.

This kind of nest relo happened about ten years ago a bit further north. Eagles had built a nest in a tree between the Parkway and the golf course at Belle Haven Country Club. The tree took a beating in several storms and the eagles moved about a half mile uphill into a backyard in the Belle View neighborhood. For some reason they abandoned that nest and moved to a light stanchion at the mixing bowl where Richmond Highway meets the Beltway.

Another development in local eagle real estate has happened at the nest in a tree on the trail near the intersection of Morningside Drive and the Parkway. There had long been a nest in this tree only 50 yards from the trail toward the river, but it was abandoned in recent years. The other day I was cruising north along the trail when I saw two people, one with binoculars, looking up at the tree. I craned my neck and saw the head of an eagle above the rim of the nest. Fast forward a couple of days. I was heading south along the trail and remembered to look up at the nest. To my shock, there were two nests in the tree! Multifamily housing has come to Mount Vernon. Do the authorities know?

Across the river in Oxon Hill, Maryland I recently rode past a sign warning of deer for the next 1/4 mile. I’d ridden this road scores of time but had never seen a deer. I scoffed as I followed the road 90 degrees to the right. And there, in the middle of the road, were four deer. Dang.

On the same ride, I was attacked by a dog. It was a nasty looking cur. Lucky for me it was territorial and stopped at the end of its driveway. This was one of two dog attacks in the last couple of weeks. The other was in Fort Hunt Park near home. A woman was walking her dog with her friend. They were chatting and the dog walker had dropped the leash. As I went past, the dog came after me with bad intent. I stopped and gave the dog and the walker a piece of my mind.

Back at the homestead we’ve had several interesting developments in the world of critters. Twice in two weeks, mourning doves have been evaporated on our lawn. There was nothing left but feathers. Harsh! We suspect ospreys from the nest in the light tower at the softball field down the street. Or maybe there is an owl in the woods nearby.

Raccoons come and go, often leaving their paw prints on our garbage cans.

Foxes stop by several times a week in the dead of night. They come close to the house, sometimes on our deck and make a racket. They have an eerie distinctive, deranged bark that sends shivers up your spine.

And finally we have become engaged in anti-squirrel warfare. We spend a ton of money on birdseed and other bird food. Our preferred seed is shelled and covered in red pepper. This is supposed to deter squirrels. The red pepper seed is expensive so we mix it with slightly cheaper un-peppered, shelled sunflower seeds. This mixture, and the removal of two nearby maple trees, has greatly reduced our seed loss to squirrels. Until recently.

A squirrel has figured out that if he shakes the otherwise squirrel-proof bird feeder he can loose some seeds to the ground. Our nemesis then hops down and eats his fill of the un-peppered seeds. My wife also puts out suet in a cage and some peanut butter in an artful little wooden house. The squirrel simply yanks them off the tree. The peanut butter house was recently found forty feet away. Khaaahnnnn!

I’d like to tell you more about the beasts of suburbia but I am in the process of panicking about an impending snowstorm. We had a squall the other day that featured a nasty micro burst, sideways snow, and thunder. It was good prep for the coming mayhem. We expect to get inches. INCHES! We have milk and toilet paper so no worries.