Sights of Spring

It's early May and spring is in full bloom...a warming sun awakens the soil...the winter rains have receded...and the plants once again begin their ancient cycle of growth: first come the new green shoots pushing out of the ground or bolting forth from a tiny leaf bud on a woody stem...this frenetic burst of green energy is just the opening act for the performance we identify most closely with the idea of spring...the profusion of blooms...and right on cue come the pollinators...leading to the seed-set...and eventual fruit production...and as all this plays out carefully and methodically...the birds begin to show up...chickadees...swallows...gross beaks...purple martins...nut hatches...vireos...pine siskins...varied thrushes...finches...stellar's jays...red shouldered hawks...quail...wild turkeys...red winged black birds...western tanagers...and warblers...all make their presence known.

And then there are the cougars...yes, cougars. We live in what you could call a minor corridor for the big cats. They come down from the forest just to the north of us which provides a well protected and food rich habitat. Even though the forest encompasses over 8,000 acres...cougars like to roam around quite a bit. For example, an adult male will typically enjoy a home range that covers between 50 and 150 square miles. An adult female will have a home range about half that size, which will often overlap with the home ranges of other females.

When these apex predators do spend a little time in and around the neighborhood we do take some extra precautions when walking at dawn or dusk or when our poodle-retriever, Shiva, needs to go out at night. We did have two juvenile cougars spend some time carousing around the area a few years ago, as evidenced by some photo and audio postings to our neighborhood blog.

The photos showed one of the cougars strolling through a neighbor's yard in the middle of the afternoon looking rather nonchalant. But the audio clip was something else altogether. The description attached to the audio said that a cougar was in a standoff with a large buck near a creek behind a neighbor's house. When you click on the audio file what you hear is startling and difficult to comprehend. The term "blood curdling" comes close...yet it doesn't quite capture how "other worldly" the sounds were.

Cougars are a fact of life in Western Oregon with official estimates placing their population somewhere between 6,600 and 7,600 big cats roaming wild across the state. And they are formidable predators. Male cats average around 140 pounds but can tip the scales at up to 180 pounds. Females can weigh up to 100 pounds at the upper limit. Deer and elk are the cougar's primary food source and an adult cougar will kill and consume one deer every week to ten days. Primarily an ambush predator, the big cats are well adapted to silently stalking and then leaping onto the backs of their target prey in an explosive attack. Adult cats can leap twenty feet forward from a standing start and up to forty five feet if given some running room. Their vertical leap can launch them up into the branches of a tree sixteen feet off the ground.

Other than taking a few extra precautions now and then...we generally live quite happily alongside of our forest friends here in the foothills of the Coast Range. And when spring is in full bloom we are reminded once again to take note and learn what we can from the ancient cycles that turn the wheel of life.