Wildlife in Your Life

Yeah, Izzie posted a picture of a "robin" at some point and it didn't look at all like a robin to me. The guys you posted are what I think of when I think of robins.

The baby robins in the nest just outside one of my doors seem to be doing well. They're getting bigger at an alarming pace, anyway, though their eyes still aren't open and they look incredibly pitiful. Sozlet and E.G. assure me that they don't make noise, but to me they look like they're saying, "AHHHHhhhhhhhh....!" <beak closes> "Maaaaa maAAAAAAAH!!!" They alternate between craning their necks upwards, maws open wide, and waiting for someone to drop something in already, and drooping disconsolately. Sozlet wants to dig up a bunch of worms and put them in a bucket under the nest to save the mama robin some work. She looks stressed.

Re: bears, are you wondering whether you should worry about whether you'll run into a bear at all (how common they are where you plan to walk), or about whether they're a threat if you do run into them? I don't know much about the former, but you really don't want to run into a bear if that's what you're wondering. I went on hikes in Colorado with extremely experienced, non-alarmist folks -- former Eagle Scouts and the like -- and they did NOT want to go up against a bear.

I live in NY City (Queens).
Last summer, I was surprized to find a racoon stomping on my left foot,
in my back yard, about 10 PM. I have also found opossums,
gray squirrels, cardinals, bluejays, sparrows, robbins.





David

found a tiny rabbit in our front yard today.
it was basking in the sun, but crawled under some tiger lilly leaves when we approached it.
didn't seem afraid, just cautious.

we could see it was still on the premises a few minutes later, so i grabbed a few baby carrots from the fridge.
it was indeed hungry, crunching 'em right up.

we've decided to name it Little 'bit.
first pet we've had in ~ 8 years...

we've got a few bunnies living in a stand of evergreens across the road, early in the morning we'll see them in the neighbours yard munching on grass and various green leafy things



not a very good pic taken this spring

One semi-recent observation about American wildlife: I had no idea chipmunks were so small. We don't have them in Germany, so I never observed them in nature until recently. But I had learned a lot about them as a child, when I was an avid student of Walt Disney comics. One particular thing Disney taught me about chipmunks was their size: They're about half the size of their enemy Donald Duck -- who himself is, obviously, the size of a duck.

So imagine how I felt when I saw something microscopic hopping across our street and hear my neighbor exclaim: "Oh, look Thomas, a chipmunk!" I was shocked. That wasn't even close to one-third the size of a duck! Once again, I stood confronted with proof that America's wildlife gets it all wrong.

ha, i'd never thought of that, using the disney ratio they'd have been more likely to be squirrels than chipmunks

Please get your ass down to Brigantine or some other duck preserve. You will see that "duckness" does not coonote a stock size. There are several species of ducks (eg the "Bufflehead" ) which are small and rather compact AND , as it was told me, were the prototype for Donald and Scrooge.

here is a bufflehead for your admiration. They are cute little duckies that are rather camera shy unless in biggler clots .

Little fella that we found between our yard and the woods.

I am not a hiker. Hence, in NYC I need have little concern of bears.
Hikers who expose themselves to the hazzard of encountering bears (or cougars ?)
need to be adequately prepared for the experience.
That is no joke. Very serious injuries (including death) have resulted
to helpless hikers or fishermen. I prefer to remain away from them completely,
but for those who insist upon entering the wild territory of major predators,
I believe that not less than a .44 magnum revolver
(automatics are unreliable, in my experience)
shoud be available to swift access on an emergeny basis.



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I have an empty wooded lot on the North side of my house and 3 neighbors took about 8 cats away when their homes foreclosed.

So suddenly critters are coming out of the woods and gamboling around, free from being hunted all the time.
The most impressive is a hawk that has taken up residence in a pine tree.

The other day he swooped down and carried off a huge frog from the garden. Sat up on a tree limb and ate it. I passed on breakfast that day.

Thay r descended of the raptor dinosaurs.

Some paleontologists say that thay ARE the raptor dinosaurs.

We were walking home from the bus last night (around 6:30 PM or so) and saw a critter run from one side of the street to the other. Fast. Eluded an express bus.

Had a big tale and the streetlight revealed a bit of a golden sort of color.

'Twas a red fox.

This is red fox mating and they are all over the place. A mating ritual for nubile fox , is for the male to take some offering as a treat to his intended fiance (or is that the way we spell fancy pottery?). The fox guy usually tries to capture something slow witted and tasty. Which brings us to my chickens.

Im waiting for an article upcoming in the ATlantic, in which the author celebrates ownership of Guinea Hens and the attendant responsibilities at trying to keep the dumbest bird on the planet, aliive, depite all their efforts to reverse that condition.


Ive also noticed that here in Pa, the Deer are starting to wander out onto public roads in direct proportion to their rising dam of sex hormones. This is usually bad for all the idiots who drive BMW's at warp speeds on back country roads.
Our friends up in Meddybemps Maine have e-mailed us that the moosen are now acting like a bunch of pissed off Volkswagens and challenging cars and trucks to the right of way. In Maine, this time of year ushers in the "good time" for auto body repairmen,

we saw a large turkey hop off a hilled lawn and waddle across a busy street yesterday.

do they get antsy this time of year, i wonder...