Critters and wildlife in your area - post your pics

MyBuddy said:

All the colorful birds are back!

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For years I had to stop feeding the birds because a certain fawn girl just couldn't resist. OMG! She could catch them in flight! I got on top of that early with Rumor so the feeders are back up. It's been fun having the birds back in my yard.
I had a bunch of yarn that was part of a prize I won in a contest. I got it out and have been crocheting and putting the scrapes out for the birds. We have such colorful nests around. Our holly trees were just full of activity with nesting birds. We also had a nest built in a hanging basket on the front porch. It was a Cardinal family and sooooooooo much fun for me to watch the process. Been tying to get pics but Mom and Dad fly off when they see the camera.

My neighbor sent me this because she didn't know what it was. She was scared to death it was going to hurt her little ankle bitter.
I told her she was probably going to hurt her because she took a pic at the wrong time.

I'm surprised she didn't know what that was.

My dogs would be all over that spot, sniffing, peeing, sniffing, peeing, sniffing and peeing again!

I put this in the weather thread but I guess it's goes here too. After all the rain there are lots of flooded areas and all day and into the night we hear toads and frogs. This was last night.

I saw my first hummingbird yesterday! I was on the phone with my neighbor and she said she saw them a week ago! Well I guess I'm just not paying much attention LOL

Now I'm sitting on the deck and one of them came to our potted flowers that we are just starting to bring out. The only reason I noticed him was..... cuz Kali tried to catch him! I'm gonna have to watch her! Speed Demon Little Hunter!!!

Had a National Geographic moment on our front patio on Tuesday. Heard a bird going nuts after hitting our window, so I check to see if it was dying (we’ve had our fair share of that). Far from it, though. Apparently the bird was trying to intimidate a burrowing owl that had gotten a bit to close to its nest. The owl didn’t seem disturbed by it one bit, even though the bird was flying into it and swiping at the owl with its wings every so often. Owl was pretty much like, “What’s your problem, bro? I’m here for lizards.” LOL! And just as the bird left him alone and the owl stepped out into the sun, and just as I tried to take a photo of how pretty it was, a stupid cat stalking it from behind and the owl booked just as I snapped the pic. Ugh, so annoying...

A nice shot of the owl in flight! I'd be excited to see an owl. I hear them a lot but I have never seen one here. I did at my last house. I don't know what kind it was but it was freaking huge! We were all ( my family) watching as it was sitting on the peak of the roof and when it took off, everybody was like, oh. My. God.! The wingspan was awesome!!

Your bird sort of looks like a Mockingbird. I don't know if you have Mockingbirds in Florida but here in Illinois we do and I love that bird! I always get a kick out of listening to them and I actually think they're quite pretty.

With all the rain, toads and frogs are everywhere! LOL. Yesterday I saw this little guy and thought he was so well camouflaged! I showed my husband the picture and he's like, what are you showing me? I said, he blends in so well! Take another look!

Well, I bludgeoned a bat yesterday evening. Be mad at me if you will.

It was about time to get our daughters tucked in to bed and something caught my eye. At the top of the stone fireplace and peaking out from behind the wood trim was a brown furry thing that my eye initially interpreted as either a Tarantula or a bat.

I hastened the girls' exit on upstairs and took my wife aside to whisper to her and let her look across the rooms and see it. She had our older girl stay in her room until I gave the all clear but of course didn't tell her why. She has a pretty bad fear of bugs, critters and several other things like fires, storms, lightning, tornadoes and so forth. We DON'T need any further sleep problems!!!

Folks, it was us or the bat.

I was not going to try to mess around with catch and release. The last thing we needed is the thing escaping into the house!

The bat's physical position was perfect for us and too bad for the bat. Its head and wings were just right there – the rest of its body hidden tucked behind the trim. I donned the face mask I had been using to go grocery shopping, and some safety goggles (all in case there was any splatter) and I took a hammer, set up a stool, stepped up onto it and stalkingly moved toward the thing. I guess maybe "blind as a bat" is true. It never moved, but I was freaked out thinking any split second it would fly forth from its location. Got as close as I could with the hammer, then delivered the blow.

Yep, bats bleed red. Upon impact the freaky little thing's mouth opened like its initial reaction was going to be to bite. I followed up with several hammerings to the skull, then figured I'd break the wings which were the only other things exposed at the time. Can't be too safe.

So yeah, I probably committed a crime and, yeah yeah, I know bats eat mosquitos...

...But "not in my house!"

Oh Little Oji said:

I bludgeoned a bat yesterday evening. Be mad at me if you will.

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I would never do it myself, but I understand when you have a family that you're trying to protect.

I was driving home through a state forest along a lakeside road and saw this Northern Water Snake sunning himself in the middle of the road. I did my manly duty, stopped the car, and said, "Shoo, snake." He wasn't intimidated by me at all.

I never picked one up and wasn't about to start now. They're not poisonous, but have a nasty temper and even nastier scent glands. I've seen them catch and swim with fish so big, I wonder how they could possibly eat them. So their reputation for painful bites must be well deserved. One attacked my kayak as I was paddling by it. I heard thump, thump, thump, thump... as it repeatedly struck my kayak. I didn't hang around to take that one's picture.

OMG, a Scarlet Tanager!! I think this is the first one I've seen one here!





Obviously, he's the boss! Chasing away a Baltimore Oriole and a sparrow.

I have a couple friends who are artists living in the woods and do nature photography. They use their photos for calendars and sell photos at galleries. If you're interested in photos of wildlife in northwest NJ and northeast PA, follow their page on Facebook, Paulinskill River Photography. There's also an occasional photo of their BMW motorcycle.

They took these pictures of a mink making a dash across their lawn from the woods to the river.

obbanner said:

sunning himself in the middle of the road. I did my manly duty, stopped the car, and said, "Shoo, snake." He wasn't intimidated by me at all

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I did the same thing with a bull snake in the road. But I got out of the vehicle. I tried to shoo it but it just coiled and spit at me. They're not poisonous either but probably would bite. At home, I have a snake grabber that I use to pick them up to relocate. But with nothing to use on this one, I just tried to shoo him with my voice and hand motions. When he continually struck out at me, I gave up and said,

MyBuddy said:

OMG, a Scarlet Tanager!! I think this is the first one I've seen one here!

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Fifty years ago I they were fairly common. Not like robins, but not rare enough to remark about if I saw one. I haven't seen one in a loooong time!

PS - How do you upload gifs? Every time I try, the gif is frozen on the first frame.

obbanner said:

PS - How do you upload gifs? Every time I try, the gif is frozen on the first frame.

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Make sure when you save the file, the filename ends with .gif and not .png. or .jpg otherwise your computer or phone is only saving the still image.

obbanner said:

They took these pictures of a mink making a dash across their lawn from the woods to the river.

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My daughter-in-law was telling me the other day that she was sitting down by their Creek with her coffee and being very still. She said there's so much wildlife to enjoy if you can be quiet. She has three boys under 10 years old. That should tell you something LOL so she was by herself and happened to see a mink! She said it just scurried on by her and went into the creek! I was so excited! I said I want to sit down there with you one day!

obbanner said:

PS - How do you upload gifs? Every time I try, the gif is frozen on the first frame.

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I just click on add photos and click on my gif and it loads like a picture.

I want one of these.

Everybody knows I am an animal lover, as are most of the people on this board. But the one thing I don't want are birds in my horse barn. Love the birds! I feed the birds! I give them a bird bath! I take pictures of them! I can sit and watch them for hours. But I don't want them in my barn. Mainly because I don't want crap all over my hay, my horses, my tack, everything!!

So I discourage any birds flying in my barn. We had a starling that made a nest in the soffit of the barn. She got in from the inside of the barn but got through to the outside soffit. It was actually a good spot for her. Protected from the rain and predators. But she was making a mess up there. 2 years ago my husband installed some boards on the inside to close up the area getting to the outside soffits. It really helped close off winter winds blowing in from the West and it also kept that bird from getting through.
Only she found the smallest spot and still got through last yearRight at the peak, right over the door. So last year all the babies came out of the nest and fell to the concrete and died. It was horrible!

So my husband went back up there and put up another board over that opening. Yesterday I watched as that starling was going up in that spot again! I texted my husband and said, Get your ladder out again LOL I couldn't believe she got up there again. But when he went up there he saw one small spot that he missed. So he cut another board and installed it and today I will keep an eye out to make sure she can
no longer get in there. I am not going through dead babies on the ground again!



I really wanted to go up there to see where she was going in. My husband was surprised since I'm afraid of heights. He said, go for it. I don't think you'll get very far. I didn't. I think I went up 4 rungs and looked down and said, Nope, too high!


Bye, Bye Birdie! ( okay you have to be my age to know that movie )