Critters and wildlife in your area - post your pics

Early this morning we had some visitors. Of course they are back, hunting season just ended. It was still too dark for a pic so we have to settle for this.
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Cool! That would be awesome if I had that come up on my app LOL I'm excited enough when I hear great horned owl!
 
Nice to see you Bri! I'm so glad we don't have snakes off the ground here.
My first experience with the vine snake was when I was pulling dead small limbs out of the Key Lime tree. I grabbed it and it moved so fast that I let out a shout. 😂
They are only 4’ to 5’ long and very thin, about the circumference of a pencil but they have a nasty bite. Bacall found a Coral snake last week and I had to get her away fast. I herded it into the woods. It was a small young one but still it made me nervous having it so close to the house.
I am catching and relocating the Boas all the time. The largest one I caught was around 10’ but he had a pretty mellow personality. It’s so dry this year that they are coming around in search of water.
 
I'm amazed how different the birds are here compared to my old house.
Oh yeah! I noticed that each time we moved. And they got more and more interesting and plentiful as we get out to the country. I kept a log at my last house and the list is very long!
 
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Bonnie was ranging back and forth, surging into the surf following her nose until she found this in the waves...
Local biologist friends says its this:

"El Niño could also be to blame. During this climatic phenomenon which can last for several years, the eastern Pacific ocean warms up, and that generally means there’s less fish or prey. That means sea lion mothers have to swim farther and search longer. Since many of the pups were malnourished, researchers think the deaths could have been caused by a lack of food."

 
We have a squirrel with a docked tail hanging around. I can only assume a bird of prey or something else got a hold of it by the tail. I know it wasn't us or the dogs anyway.
Squirrel with short tail 2 June 5 24.webpSquirrel with short tail June 5 24.webp
 
My husband and I were sitting on the back deck for couple of hours enjoying our coffee and the early morning. Annie was playing with her toys and making noise so neither one of us heard this bird hit the window! Annie and I noticed it first, laying on its back. I grabbed Annie and handed her to my husband. I went over to take another look at it and it was still breathing. So we put a leash on Annie and just sat back to let it recover. About an hour later it flew away! I was so excited! It was a little nut hatch.
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So we found these things called Mosquito Dunks. Essentially, you create an intentionally attractive habitat for mosquitos to lay eggs in and the microbes in these "dunks" will kill the mosquito larvae but are harmless to plants, people, pets, wildlife, and other insects.

We took an unused small trash can, filled it with water, threw some organic materials in there along with a chunk of dunk and let it... Funk.

I was peeking in it the other day and found, what I'm fairly certain are, rat tailed maggots!!


They turn into hover flies which are harmless to people but very important pollinators!

They were really feasting on that cicada a few hours before this!

*Can't speak totally to the effectiveness of dunks killing mosquito larvae, yet, but haven't seen 'squito larvae in the bog.
 
So we found these things called Mosquito Dunks. Essentially, you create an intentionally attractive habitat for mosquitos to lay eggs in and the microbes in these "dunks" will kill the mosquito larvae but are harmless to plants, people, pets, wildlife, and other insects.

We took an unused small trash can, filled it with water, threw some organic materials in there along with a chunk of dunk and let it... Funk.

I was peeking in it the other day and found, what I'm fairly certain are, rat tailed maggots!!


They turn into hover flies which are harmless to people but very important pollinators!

They were really feasting on that cicada a few hours before this!

*Can't speak totally to the effectiveness of dunks killing mosquito larvae, yet, but haven't seen 'squito larvae in the bog.
I've heard of these but I've never looked into them. Is it sort of like the bags for Japanese beetles? Where it's just attracting them all to the one spot?
 
Screenshot_20240619_054500.webpThe first one is the one I've always seen and it looks like it gets really good reviews. But I really never had a spot to put them that I thought it would be useful. The bird bath gets rinsed out a lot so I don't know if there's anything that grows in there. When we get a lot of rain I do get water standing in the Corral. That might be a good spot. But I just always hesitated even though they say they're harmless to animals. So you'll have to continue your review! Will be curious to see what you think of them as time goes on.
 

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