No, not the kind of weasels you're thinking of. The animal kind.
This spring, while on a jaunt about town on Saxony north of the YMCA, we saw what we thought was an escaped pet ferret (which is irrationally illegal, by the way).
Upon further discussion with locals, I am told that the little fella was likely a long-tailed weasel, still native to this area, and that a colony has apparently been displace by the giant development between Saxony and Quail Gardens (wasn't that supposed to be agricultural land in perpetuity, by the way?).
There is also an orange weasel living near Cardiff elementary school. In the bushes along the RR tracks.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, my best friends and I would walk up Neptune to where the road ended, where there was a huge empty field my friend Roberto Franco named "the Desert Place". There were two long trails wide enough for one car. One along the bluff and the other at the crest of the hill. We'd hike all the way to the Noah's Ark's delapidated animals that were still standing, catching lizards, doodle bugs, horny toads and "glass snakes". An older kid was brave enough to catch the larger aligator lizards, but they fought back pretty hard. Around age 10 though I had an epiphany. Why take them home when we can enjoy them all where they are? Or were as it goes.
ReplyDeleteThe horny toads were the first to vanish from Leucadia. Glass snakes used to leave a distinct trail in the sand near a particular bush they liked. Haven't seen any of those since those days either. Lizards, once in while they still pop up. But Sea Bluffe condos relocated everything I imagine. Even the great smell the place used to have. (You can still smell that at the gardens at SRF when you stand on the bluff. Must be the same wild foliage mixed with sea breeze, but it brings back strong memories for me.)
Certainly, I'm guilty for a small part of these local extinctions. But I'm still not sorry I single handedly wiped out the scorpion population of coastal Leucadia. Sorry mother nature. After my older sister told me they liked to get under your sheets at night, that was it! It was them or me. I think they were fear number 4 in my early life, right after 1. the Russians taking over; 2. quicksand and 3. lock-jaw. I think the list is up to 1000 now. Make that 999, Prop A passed.
We see them very occasionally on the trails in Olivenhain. They are very shy and very quick!
ReplyDelete- The Sculpin
The Saxony/Quail Gardens property, owned by the Bahlmann family, was never zoned agricultural in perpetuity. The core of the Ecke ranch property, as part of the Development Agreement between the Carltas and the city, was made agricultural in perpetuity in 1994 when the land was annexed to the city. This allowed the rest of the property to be developed with 800+ residences, the golf course, and the shopping center.
ReplyDeleteWe named one Sad Sac.
ReplyDeleteHe has an enormous appetite for budget for staff salary and pension building.
That took longer than I thought it would.
ReplyDeleteExactly what I was thinking.
DeleteJust saw a red Long Tailed Weasel in Mozart Creek, Cardiff by the Sea!
ReplyDeleteTwo weasel sightings in my backyard and front driveway in Leucadia near Capri Elementary. They dart by very quickly!
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