Coyotes, Bobcats and Eagles, Oh My!

Sunday, April 5th, 2020 – New Route

Today the temperature was a warmer 43°F without rain.  We have been thinking about trying a modified Wednesday route, so today we test-walked it on Sunday.

It’s close to our Safeway route, instead of backtracking down Juanita-Woodinville Way, we turned North on 100th/Waynita Way to 145th then East on 145th St.  Most if this route is covered on our Safeway Route except for the 100th/Waynita Way section.

The length of the route was a little over six miles which we normally cover in about two hours.  Today we were out three hours and picked up a lot of heavy litter along the new section of road.

When we were back on familiar ground, we came across a roadkill rabbit.  It had been partially eaten, probably by crows because the eyes were gone.  Eyes must be a delicacy for crows.  We removed it from the road and tossed it into some nearby bushes.  But it got hung up on some berry bushes so was still visible from the road.  At this point in our walk, we just didn’t have the energy to retrieve it and do a better job, but at least it was off the road.

Later, on the neighborhood blog site, someone posted a picture of the rabbit warning people that a coyote probably killed it and to watch out for their pets.  Another person chimed in that there are bobcats around also.

Lesson learned.  Next time we’ll do a better removal job.

As we started out on our walk, we found an Apple iPhone cable.  It appeared to be fine, but we haven’t tested it yet.  We’ll keep it a safe distance from our other Apple cables, because you know what they say about one bad apple spoiling the bunch, or exposing the Coronavirus.

Then we found a flashlight.  We didn’t even need to test it.  From the size, it only used AAA batteries which are useless.  Flashlight batteries should use rechargeable 18650 batteries, or better, with Cree LEDs.  Don’t get us started on flashlights, our second obsession.

At the KinderCare, we did find a ball outside the fence.  We tossed it back.  Apparently they are remaining open during the pandemic.  Kids can be little Typhoid Marys.  Yes, we are wearing gloves.

At the Safeway parking lot, someone dropped their reading glasses and some kind person placed them on the crossing sign.  We took ’em.

We found a glove.  This is a shoe glove.  Sorry, it doesn’t count in our weekly glove count.  Find someone else’s shoes to fill.  Or cover.

Okay, we are now on the new section of our route.  Whoa! The bus riders on this street actually use the trash receptacles, not just us.  This is totally uncharted territory for us. 

More personal lubricant. And, yes, we were wearing our gloves.  Eeew!

Another water bottle with yellow liquid.  And again, yes, we were wearing our gloves.

Arrgh!  Pet Peeve ahead.  At the normally, heavily-traveled intersection of Simonds Road and NE 145th, we found a bunch, seven to be exact, of abandoned signs.  Take note.  We will notify them, but don’t hold your breath.

We found more apparel today.  A yellow t-shirt.  It was pretty ratty and ended up in the trash.  Perhaps if the guy had ironed it for us…

Also a jacket caught up in the berry bushes.  Other than being dirty, it was in good condition, so we’ll wash it and drop it at Goodwill.

We got a great deal on this sign.  Good timing.

Monday, April 6th, 2020 – Safeway Route

On our walk this morning, we found a light amount of “normal” trash.

When we got to the place where we flubbed the rabbit removal yesterday, we retrieved the carcass and placed out of sight.  By the way, today another person implied it could have been an eagle.  It could have been if it had been flying at 400 feet and dropped it.

Okay, we know what happened.  The bobcat scared the rabbit out of the bushes, a coyote grabbed it and was running away when an eagle swooped down and grabbed it from the coyote.

No way, you say?  Watch this.

 

We picked up a paper bag.  Inside were two rubber gloves.  And inside them were a bunch of sunflower seed shells.  We don’t know.  Possible theories:

1. The person was eating sunflower seeds and following the new CDC guidelines wearing gloves and using the bag to cover his face?  So, you’re protecting yourself from the possible contamination when putting them in your mouth?
2. The person wore the mask and gloves then carefully opened each seed, sanitized it and ate it.  No, he’d have to have started before the virus started in Wuhan.
3. It was an extraterrestrial, the Sunflower-Seed Man and got hit by a car.  This makes the most sense to us. 

We found Belinda’s Debit Card. It was off in the bushes, so probably stolen and discarded.  We attempted to call the bank and as typical they want you to put in an account number, name, email, etc.  It got shredded.  If we had a card stolen, we’ed immediately cancel it.  In fact, we once did.

At the Shell station an the end of Juanita-Woodinville Way were these scenes.

Someone knocked over a gas pump.  For crying out loud, a credit card is a much easier way to obtain gasoline.  Oh, wait, perhaps it was Belinda?

 

Tuesday, April 7th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride Route

This morning was another crisp, clear morning and the moon was spectacular.  We found later that it is called a Super Pink Moon.  A full moon when the moon is closest to the earth.  Tomorrow is the official full moon.  We’ll see that happens tomorrow.

Janet was ahead of Chuck when he crossed paths with a female jogger.  After passing by at a socially-safe distance, she stopped and asked, “what size shoe do you wear?”  Chuck, flattered, thought “What kind of a pickup-line is that?”  She introduced herself as Liz and she works at a shoe store, wants to give us a discount on some shoes.  We, even Janet, can live with that.

When we got to the freeway, we decided to cross the off-ramp and clean up some of the litter between the off-ramp and the freeway.

There is often a guy playing a guitar at this location and we found his abandoned sign.  Judging by the times we see him, he must have a night job.

Near by, we uncovered a deteriorating baggie with some toiletries and other items, all unopened.  Some good Samaritan packaged these up and gave it to the guy.  Gratitude.  We picked it up and put it in the trash.  Wait, there was an unopened, pocket-sized bottle of Purell hand sanitizer.  Score!  We took it home and sanitized it.

A good environmental citizen dropped a used oil filter in the gutter.  Yeah, this is good for the environment.  Good job.  May the virus be with you.

Someone put a Zodiac scarf on a mailbox.  It’s unclear why, maybe we need to look to the stars to find out.

A newly-downed tree. Whoa!  That guy who’s been littering Norway Hill with Mike’s Harder Lemonade has one hell of an arm.  

We found some locked-down child’s art.  “Kill These GERMS.”  We’re with you kid, we’re ALL with you.

 

Wednesday, April 8th, 2020 – Safeway Route

The this morning was clear and colder and the Super Pink Moon was impressive again.   

We got waves and honks from a few people including two garbage truck drivers.  Guess they consider us kindred spirits.

We did find some money today.  One penny.  One really beat up penny.  Doubt the bank would even take it.

We found a couple of balls.  

The one on the left was by the KinderCare, so we tossed it back over the fence.  We really wish the kids wouldn’t toss their cigarette butts too.  The one on the right was in really bad condition.  So, yes we found two balls but neither made it into our found ball collection.

Yet another hubcap.  We should start keeping track of the hubcaps we find.  Hubcaps are a real pain to carry.  Fortunately, this one was near the 7-Eleven dumpster.  So the hubcap sleeps with the Slurpee cups.

 

At a bus stop on Juanita-Woodinville Way, someone left a shopping cart.  Normally we find Safeway Carts and end up pushing them back.  This was from Michael’s Craft Store about two miles from here.  We’ll see if it disappears on its own in a few days.  If not, we’ll call the store.

What are you so happy about? 

With the lock-down and the playgrounds closed, someone made their own.  

Someone hit a tree.  They knocked a big branch off the tree in the background then proceeded to scrape both the telephone pole and the small clump of trees.  The tracks continued back onto the road.  We picked up several of the larger pieces of the vehicle shed along its journey.  We’ll continue to pickup pieces on our walks until its clean.

 

Thursday, April 9th, 2020 – Park-and-Ride Route

This morning was a very pleasant walk with the temperature in the low forties, and clear skies.  Yet another garbage truck driver honked to us.  We may need to join their union.  This is also the time of year it is getting lighter and we can actually see folks wave back.

Today at the wreck we described yesterday, we picked up more vehicle pieces, including this.  

After some research, it appears to belong to a 1994-2001 Dodge Ram V8 Magnum Truck.

So if you know someone who has one of these with front end damage and scrapes down both sides, let him know we have one of his emblems.

At the top of the Tolt Pipeline, we found another ball.  We figured that a dog was playing fetch with its owner and forgot the ball.  We left it on a fence post so it can be easily seen.

As we’ve said, traffic is still very light.  So light that at a normally-busy intersection, a motorcyclist went through doing a wheelie.

 

Friday, April 10th, 2020 – Safeway Route

Another relatively good day for walking.  Because of our timing, we saw a few garbage trucks, but they ignored us.  No honks.  Janet didn’t pay our union dues.

So, this is probably a record day.  We found above average dog poop bags (4) and gloves (6), as expected.  We may have broken the record for the number of found balls. We found six balls.  The first two were outside the KinderCare and were tossed back.  As we passed Safeway, we saw some trash up a side alley.  Bottom line, we ended up behind the Countryside Montessori School in Kirkland, WA.  One ball had been flattened by a vehicle, the rest were in good condition but none ended up in our ball collection.

Okay, really guy? 

Another pair of glasses making a spectacle of themselves.  These were prescription glasses on the sidewalk.  Someone must have stepped on them pretty hard to smash them like this.

Near Safeway we found a sealed jar of peanut butter.  It had been there a while.  Unopened peanut butter is supposed to last about 2 years, but this may have been here longer than that.  No, we didn’t try it.

 

Saturday, April 11th, 2020 – Riverside Drive

This was another pleasant walk with the temperature in the mid forties and light trash.  We did remove another roadkill rabbit.  Given our recent track record with rabbits, we were very careful to place it out of sight.

We did find some money.  Someone dumped a large bin with some minor trash and coins around it – a quarter, two dimes a nickel and a penny.  That covers the coins generally in circulation.  Once we found these, we started searching and ended up with sixty four cents.  Not bad for a four-hour walk.

We also found another sandal.  This one is a flop.  We know the difference between a flip and a flop for a pair of flip-flops.

More painted rocks!  We’ll be so glad when the pandemic is over so folks can get to on to less stressful activities.  These left us between a rock and a hard spot.  Actually, between a rock and a rock.

We almost stepped on this guy crossing the street.  We tried to nudge it along but it just looked at us like a deer in the headlights.  Or a frog in our flashlights.  We let it be.  Or maybe we shouldn’t have.  Hunting frogs with flashlights is legal.  At least in Michigan.

Okay, this is the end of our walk week, so time for the dog poop bag and glove tally.  Eleven poop bags and twenty-seven gloves.  The number of gloves matches a recent weekly record.  The bags is lower than we expected.  We thought the warmer weather would result in a higher number.  We’re not complaining.

We found what looked like a folded pair of socks.  When we unwrapped it, it was a pair of Calvin Klein designer gloves.  They were dirty and had some holes in them, so we tossed them in our designer garbage can.

Someone’s doing their own morale boosting program.  Good for them.  We won’t and yes, we will.

What the…   And we’ve been blaming people for all the trash.

White claw trash.  Guess those claws must get caught in your teeth.

We found a cup setting by the side of the road.  This is not unusual.  Really, it isn’t.

However, across the street someone set off a block of fire crackers atop a car.  You can see the cup across the street.  We don’t know the story here, but someone got on the bad side of someone.  As we came through this area, we saw several police cars cruising or waiting.  Perhaps that had something to do the firecrackers.

We found some clothes from a black plastic bag in a gully.  When we got it home, it appeared to be a mixture of men’s and women’s apparel.  The weird thing is there were five socks and none matched.

Someone had pizza and tossed the box.  “Triple Pig.”  We don’t know if that is the name of the pizza or the name of the ass**** who tossed it out the window.