Critters and wildlife in your area - post your pics

So this morning my husband finds this dead bat outside my barn door. We're wondering if he hit the door or something? Kind of odd to just find a dead one, isn't it?

So I showed it to my daughter-in-law, the homeschooler, and she's like, I'd kind of like to take that for school! :wideyed: I'm like okaaaaaay lol I don't know if that's safe? But being a homeschooling teacher, she takes every opportunity for a lesson! I don't know what she's going to do with it besides show it and explain it maybe? But do y'all think it's safe?

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But it looks like a different kind of snake than I've ever seen.
It looks like a type of garter snake. Eeew...
So this morning my husband finds this dead bat outside my barn door. We're wondering if he hit the door or something? Kind of odd to just find a dead one, isn't it?
I wonder if it's like many of them around here that are dying of some sort of fungus that they can't figure out. I'd be very careful of it.
There’s a bat apocalypse unfolding. Can science stop it?
 
Probably late on this... but no, I wouldn’t do anything with that bat besides dispose of it. Then scrub my hands to the bone after touching it. Lol!

Jasper and I went for a walk in the woods. I almost stepped on this little guy. Jasper didn’t even notice it was in our path. Even after I pointed it out he didn’t care (maybe he is broken, aren’t dogs supposed to have natural instinct to be wary of snakes?)

Anyways, I picked him up and removed him from the path. Poor thing would have gotten squished!

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^^^^^ Pretty snake, and Jasper must be broken! Jazz would have caught it's scent before we got anywhere near it and be bellowing and roaring that a SNAKE was there!

For the first time last night a whole bunch of Galahs decided to roost right at the camp. They are screechy, restless parrots and Jazz was going nuts at the sound of them. It was late dusk so the pics aren't too good but I enhanced a closeup as much as possible.anim0216x2.webp anim0215x2.webp
So with Jazz barking around the base of the tree I decided to use my spotlight to get a better pic of a couple of them. Well, they just exploded out of the tree, screaming their heads off with Jazz racing around in glee, thinking her barking had done the job. I was on my knees laughing at the sight of it all. And these are not super clever birds as they wheeled around and chose another tree on the other side, so we got to do it all over again! :rofl: They went elsewhere then!
 
We got our first rack of fresh hay the other day from my friend's husband down the road. Just 85 bales but its a start. :D
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Hubby and I started stacking that night by ourselves. Our son came the next day to help finish. But we got 52 stacked ourselves that night. I'm always quite amazed at how strong hubby is to carry and lift these darn things! They are heavy! And he is 70!! Sounds weird saying that out loud! :D We're both old! :bag: But I was up on the hayrack ,(yes, I'm afraid of heights! But did okay!) and lifting the bales to the edge where I rolled them off and let them drop down to him! I was pretty leery of droppinga bale of hay on him, hay dropping all over him, but he kept saying, its fine! I'm fine! Sigh. And he did great. We both did. And then I turned around to grab this bale of hay.

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Oh my God scared the crap out of me and kind of gross me out. I'm not afraid of snakes, you know that, but that was gross and it was starting to smell.:green: I had to put that one aside. I'm glad I didn't throw that one down in his face!! :eek: LOL

After we got done I had him take that one outside for the night. P U! It smelled! The next day I took it apart to throw that area away. Kali was very interested even though she's a bit afraid of snakes! If she hears a hiss, she's gone! LOL. It looked like a good size bull snake. The part under the string is not the whole snake. If you look closer, you can see more of the body.
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Yum, Mama! I'd like to roll in whatever's dead in there!
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The 52 we stacked. I'm standing on the hay wagon taking pictures!
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And since I was up there LOL I thought I'd take a picture from a different angle at the horse stalls!
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The next day our son came over to help finish. There still another rack down there hopefully we can get that today or tomorrow.
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In 18 years of owning horses I've never come across a snake or anything else baled in a bale of hay. I've seen a bunch of other things but never a dead animal.:wtf3:
 
How late do they stay up screeching?
It's really only while they settle at dusk, so about 1/2 hr. Problem is that Jazz would have been alerting to them all night anyway..............just because she knew they were there!

And that snake in the bale was amazing! I suppose it does happen but like you I can't remember ever seeing an animal baled up.
 
Another 118 stacked on the back wall! No snakes but I find a dead mouse by the hayrack yesterday morning. :scratch: I don't know where he came from. Hubby and I stacked 39 of these bales the night before and our son came to help with the rest. Maybe the mouse was in the hay? We'll never know.
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Remember the snake in the hay? Well I took it out to the back of our property and dumped it in some brush. This morning the dogs and I went for a walk and they were investigating something. I always go to look. When I saw this I was amazed! Some creature took that dead snake and stripped him clean! What an amazing feat! To do that and leave everything intact! That's amazing. And that snake was dead for at least 2 days. I wouldn't think it would be appealing anymore. So what do you think did it? Raccoon?

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Some creature took that dead snake and stripped him clean! What an amazing feat! To do that and leave everything intact! That's amazing. And that snake was dead for at least 2 days. I wouldn't think it would be appealing anymore. So what do you think did it?
Ravens and eagles are notorious for doing that with any kill around here; regardless of how long it's been dead.
 
Ravens and eagles are notorious for doing that with any kill around here; regardless of how long it's been dead.
Actually, a bird makes a lot of sense since I can see them picking it clean like that easier with their beaks. :thumbsup2:
 
I would say a bird too. Maybe a turkey buzzard. That’s how they pick them clean. I have friends that can pick a chicken clean to the bone and suck the marrow.:rofl:
 
^ Funny I just came here to post up a little toad I found this morning near a wood pile. I figured I would get him moved before Jasper found him. I actually think he's cute. Nothing like the toad above. But he looks pretty unhappy!

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We have a bunch of frogs around here and many of them hang out in my bamboo wind chimes.
The twins don’t show much interest in them thank goodness.
I always look for the Canes after a rain though just to be safe.
 

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