The two great horned owls who lived in the ficus tree. We’d watch them take off every night at dusk and then we would come back to make sure they had safely returned each morning.
Even though they are kind of vicious (eating eggs and nestlings!), the scrub jays are so smart. I also feel quite close to the redtail hawk couple that monitors our area.
How to choose? Most recently, a pair of owls calling to each other in the evenings as we’re reading after dinner. They nest in Woodlawn Cemetery where the Eternal Meadow is a generous native plant garden.
The alligator lizard is a real thrill because you never know when you are going to run into him/her/them. Also it was a thrill to discover the ugliest larvae ever was that of a swallowtail. Thank goodness I didn’t destroy it out of fear.
Not a single creature but every fall the migratory warblers, finches, and sparrows return to the food, water, shelter, and nesting materials and cover that our garden provides.
We have so many! The western burrowing owl, Blainville’s horned lizard, the California legless lizard, the El Segundo blue butterfly, and the loggerhead shrike to name a few.
The neighbors’ cat really loves to hunt between the tall sages, but the dependable return of gulf fritillary and sand wasps marks the changing of the seasons in a very poignant way.