Wildlife, living next to nature

[Gravdigr]

Looks more like Adriaaaaaaaaaan.

[Gravdigr]

Osprey vs. high voltage:

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ouch!

[classicman]

[classicman]

Shovel lovin' 1-2-16 Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge

[fargon]

http://www.fws.gov/refuge/bombay_hook/

[classicman]

Yup, thats the place. A friend of mine and I went birding this morning. He is very good. I'm a relative beginner.

[fargon]

Looks like the place to go birding.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I look at this picture and think doesn't that Ibex(substitute sheep, goat, or any of the climbing critters), realize how dangerous that is. I know they have the feet and do it from birth, but shit happens. Doesn't he know if he slips, he dies? Then it dawned on me, no, he just may not. He may think if he slips it'll be a pain in the ass to climb back up, but who knows.
I'm sure he doesn't have any concept of internal injuries, fractured bones, long convalescence, or brain dead. That's what humans worry about, in addition to dying, so most of us don't do shit like hang out on the ledge... except glatt's sister and Griff.

[Griff]

Mine was more get wet lose a toe. Glatt's sister runs with the goats.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Carruthers talked about torn up lawns from, I think, hedgehogs. These folks have birds tearing up theirs.

Householders of Solihull in the West Midlands are at their wits' end over attacks on their lawns by starlings. Some plots, Yewhurst Road is a particular hotspot, have been totally ripped up as the flocks search for two starling delicacies: leatherjackets and chafer grubs. The result is desirable properties with gardens that resemble a muddy battlefield. Yewhurst Road resident Jean Stenson said: “Both our front and back lawns have been attacked by the birds in recent months.

“They have torn up the grass to leave large patches of soil. Each time we have replaced the patches with fresh grass the same thing has happened.” Pete Swingler, who lives in the same road, said: “Our garden is covered in bald patches. The birds descend in huge numbers and literally rip up the turf.” Buryfield Road has also been blitzed by hundreds of the little sods. And the turf times look set to be endured for some time to come.

[Gravdigr]

Photo safari, Sunday:







All maximum telephoto, handheld, just after sundown.

[Snakeadelic]

I'll have to do some serious archive surfing for pics I have of wildlife, but here in MT I have seen the following:

All 3 species of eagle native to North America--baldie, golden, and osprey, all seen from my balcony, and most photo'd at least once. I have photographed a female Northern Harrier hawk at least once, and a peregrine in one of my first favorite trees to get cut down not 2 months later . The tree where a baldie let me walk right up to the other side of the dirt road and take pics is now gone too, along with the trees where our kestrels and flickers used to nest. And we have a large owl in the neighborhood, but I haven't spotted it in daylight so I'm not sure if it's a barn or a great horned, the 2 most common locally.

Snow and Canada geese on migration, plus the occasional sandhill cranes and every few years we get swans flying by in October. Can't begin to ID the ducks. Oh, and cormorants! 700+ miles inland, and we have a breeding population of double-crested cormorants, normally a bird of coastlines and estuaries. Also American white pelicans, tho' I usually see those around about Kennewick, WA. I got a pic of the wild turkey hen that roamed through a couple of summers ago. I've seen and photographed brown pelicans on the Oregon coast, along with the highly localized Northwestern crow, smaller than the inland species. And we have ravens. They're camera-shy, but they don't know about the FujiFilm my dad just gave me, which has 32x zoom! And magpies...magpies will TOTALLY mess with you for fun.

I've seen foxes and heard coyotes. None of the something like 16 PACKS of wolves come in close to town so far. And I photographed bear cub tracks half a block from my front door.

We have whitetail deer, which certain factions of hunters are sure are being wiped out by our wolves. Funny thing, a fella not too far from where I live has been doing his own independent study of roadkill deer and found 2/3rds of the bucks have deformed boy bits in some way or another. Wolves do NOT cause birth defects in deer. I got a photo of my first wild elk, a female grazing summer pasture, up in Lost Trail Pass. Haven't seen a moose yet, dangit.

The pic I am including is from year before last if memory serves and is one of the more exotic animal shots I've gotten at home! Most years around October a Little Brown bat (the actual species name) will take a breather under the wooden planks that make up our front porch. The photo is quite a bit larger than life; I think the bolt in the foregrounds is a 3/8ths inch! If they hang around too long, I will often catch them (a lifetime watching nature documentaries taught me how to do so safely) and if a couple hours warming up is all they need I let them go when I hear them rustle in the dedicated container I keep. Otherwise I hand them off to the local wildlife rehabber, who has repeatedly complimented me on my handling of bat rescue. The management here knows to call me if someone finds a bat they want moved .

[xoxoxoBruce]

If you have a dearth of Eagles, build one.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Cute little bunnies, huh?