Opposums, rats, pigeons, plus San Diego's geologist who hates roadside landscaping

Close look at San Diego's natural world

Author

By Geoff Bouvier, Jeannette DeWyze, Thomas Lux (RIP), Don McCullough

Publish Date

April 11, 2020

"The highest-priced bird sold here in the United States was a couple of years ago, sold for $32,000. The bird’s name was Senna.”

Our Panther
Our fair city does have one black jaguar resident, downtown, in Cat Canyon, near Sun Bear Forest, across from the Hunte Amphitheater, in the San Diego Zoo. He was born October 1992 at Wildlife World Zoo, in Litchfield, Arizona. He weighs as much as I do, about 165 pounds. His name is Orson.
By Geoff Bouvier, July 14, 2005

I started to mention Rilke's poem, but Noel gently cut me off. "That poem doesn't apply to Orson at all." (Derek Plank)

More or Less Sudden Mountains
Looking at the first of many instances of San Diego hydroseeding, across from Costco and Ikea along Friars Road, Deméré declared, "I don't mean to dis botany completely. I can appreciate plants." But more often along our trip he would indicate that roadside landscaping was, to a geologist, a kind of proliferating evil.
By Geoff Bouvier, Jan. 13, 2005

Tom Deméré: "I used to surf a lot. On bad surf days, I'd check out the terrific exposure on the sea cliffs." (Joe Klein)

Our friend, the opossum
Shawn Powell and I are driving south on Jackson Drive, carrying three opossums in Powell's Hyundai Santa Fe. Our mission is to liberate them. We could stop and dump them out on the sidewalk, but that would be injudicious.
By Jeannette DeWyze, Aug. 31, 2006

As an animal rescuer, "You're dealing with a lot of death."

Marathoners of the Sky
Today, Hamilton and his “grandson,” John Timmerman, have about 750 pigeons in Jamul, the largest collection in San Diego County. As we sat on the deck of their loft, amidst soft cooing and wafting feathers, Hamilton looked at his birds and smiled. “We’ve won every race there is. All the top races, top prizes, we’ve won.”
By Don McCullough, April 1, 2004

Virginia Kraft, lives in a big French chateau in Rancho Santa Fe and has some of the best birds in the county. (Sandy Huffaker, Jr.)

Frozen Drama
When you walk in the front door you enter another world. What was originally meant to be a living room is now his showroom/office and is filled with many mounted ducks and other birds, some fish, and three or four stunning tableaux/dioramas (as one might see in a natural history museum) combining sculpture and taxidermy.
By Thomas Lux, Jan. 1, 2004

Mounted wood duck. Even though 98 percent of the duck is hand-painted, the airbrush painting is crucial. (Ronnie Wilson)

Rats!
Call them what you will — roach-boys, rat-men, rat-catchers, terminators, pest technicians — the fact is that pest inspectors are professional killers.
By Geoff Bouvier, Sept. 22, 2005