Category: Critters

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 10, 20259:26 pm

Hey, Birdie

One of my neighbors puts out food for just about every kind of critter that lives in University Heights—the exception being coyotes. As such, she has possums, racoons, and skunks strutting into her yard at night. The day belongs to birds, butterflies, cats, and dogs, among others.

While we visited on Nov. 27, 2024, a white-crowned sparrow dropped by for a bite of breakfast. I easily captured the Featured Image, using Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 32, 1/125 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 9:51 a.m. PST. Composed as shot.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 8, 20259:16 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Tip and Tap

We break from the back of the queue to nearly the front. My wife and I passed this apparent bonded pair while walking home from Pizza Hut, Dec. 23, 2024. We fetched our Christmas pie a day earlier than we typically do. You want holiday ham? Fine. We’re Super Supreme lovers, without the black olives.

These two live just inside the neighborhood boundary (North Park starts on the next block). I used Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to capture the Featured Image. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 50, 1/120 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 12:49 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 5, 20259:24 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Blush

I warned you. A deluge of furballs is arriving, as we clear out the massive backlog of unpublished putty-tats. This frightened ginger is frequently seen in the same yard as Topcat. I don’t know if they’re residents or community cats who are fed and loved.

Similarly, I held back the feline, hoping to see the owner and ask for the real name. Well, that hasn’t happened, and the time for waiting longer ends today. I choose nickname Blush, for demeanor.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 4, 20258:59 pm

Afternoon Delight

San Diego’s three-summer season means squirrels, and lots of other wildlife, are active year-long. Why hibernate when foodstuffs continually grow, and the days are warm and lovely? The sounds of crows, and the occasional parrots, almost drown out the constant cacophony of residential construction (new builds are everywhere).

I spotted the subject of the Featured Image, clutching an afternoon snack, on Dec. 18, 2024. The portrait comes from Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 32, 1/60 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 2:37 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 3, 20259:40 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Topcat

Let’s reach into the backed-up queue to Oct. 26, 2023, and one of the first sightings of a glorious tux outside the home where lived “Herbie, the Love Bug” and “Sparky” (and they may still be). More than a year later looking for the owner to get the kitty’s real name, I surrender. We wait no more.

The Featured Image comes from Leica Q2, which I sold on Dec. 11, 2024. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/50 sec, 28mm; 9:34 a.m. PST. I used Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to capture the companion on Jan. 23, 2024. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 250, 1/60 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 12:44 p.m. I have seen the cat many times since and really should shoot something current.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 2, 20259:37 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Creamsicle

As promised, the parade of pussyfoots begins, with one encountered just a few months ago. You will later meet others that have languished in the queue since at least 2023.

This orange and white carries the distinction of being the one-hundred-fifth feline seen along Alabama Street, somewhere between boundaries Adams and Lincoln, since the series‘ start in October 2016. That’s out of 596 profiles, including this one.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 31, 20249:50 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Kitten

We close 2024 with what you will see too much of during January and February: Cats! The backlog of unpublished kitties is massive, so time is long past to dispatch them all. The first of the bunch jumps to the front of queue.

I used Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to capture the Featured Image on December 2 at 10:03 a.m. PST. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 200, 1/120 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom). Nickname: Kitten. Location: Somewhere along Georgia Street.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 4, 20248:40 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Red

What’s that saying about when it rains, it pours? This fine feline is the first shared since Oct. 20, 2024—and an enormous backlog is in the queue. So do expect this place becoming something of a cat blog for the foreseeable future. You’ve been informed; warned, if you prefer.

For today, meet Red, who my wife and I met with his owner on Nov. 27, 2024. Before the lady moved from rental to owned home, she kept Petri, who joined the series in January 2020. Amazingly, she stayed in the neighborhood, which was no easy feat during the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 housing bubble, when local real estate prices ballooned at alarming speed.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 23, 202410:06 pm

The Little Pecker

For about a month, I have been trying to get a good shot of a woodpecker going at one of the palms overlooking our apartment building’s parking lot. Yesterday, Cali came running from the bedroom, where she had been blissfully sleeping in sunlight, into my office. She climbed onto the desk to look out the window. To see what? I hadn’t opened up the thing, so sound penetration was minimal.

She stared out at that wily woodpecker, and I marveled at her ears, because I could see the pecking but not hear it. I pulled out Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, opened the camera app, set to 10x zoom, and shot the Featured Image through the glass (which could have been cleaner).

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 26, 20247:40 pm

Ten Years of Cali

On my twin sisters’ birthday, we pause for another commemoration—this one belated. A decade ago, on Oct. 20, 2014, we inherited Cali. I first met the tortoiseshell across the street from my daughter’s shared college residence on June 4 of that year. The kitten would crawl into our adult child’s bed later that night and come to be contested among coeds living in several houses. None of the women properly cared for the cat, but all of them claimed her.

After some pushing and pulling—with some women moving away and leaving Cali behind—she would become our daughter’s pet. But short-lived. School started and one of the students turned out to be allergic to cats. And so, the skinny, underfed, undernourished Cali came to live with my wife and me.

Photo by Joe WilcoxOct 20, 202410:02 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Gummy

Not only is the backlog of kitties backed up, but I ignored the series‘ eighth anniversary on October 17. Yeah, 2016. I started a few months after undergoing eye surgery for one ailment, while still being treated for another. Cat photography presented opportunity to break in my ocular implants and to improve sense of composition (okay, so the latter is awash).

This fine feline is the five-hundred-ninety-third profile and one-hundred-thirty-fourth found behind door or window. I used Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to capture the Featured Image, on Sept. 10, 2024. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 32, 1/160 sec, (synthetic) 230mm (digital and optical zoom); 8:22 a.m. PDT. Nickname: Gummy. Because, why not?

Photo by Joe WilcoxSep 18, 20248:44 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Oliver (the Fourth)

Finally, we start to seriously address the backlog, and this fine feline is by no means farthest back in the queue. Meet Oliver—and, yes, that’s his real name, which is surprisingly popular; three other Olivers precede him. Another distinction: He is the one-hundred-fourth kitty seen along Alabama Street, somewhere between boundaries Adams and Lincoln, since the series‘ start in October 2016; that’s out of 592 profiles, including this one.

I used Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to capture the Featured Image, on April 11, 2024. Vitals: f/3.4, ISO 64, 1/60 sec, 115mm (film equivalent); 3:27 p.m. PDT.