Wildlife in Your Life

It's unfortunate. Certainly people don't want to hit them, even if not for altruistic motives then at least to not total their cars. Of course the deer could be more cooperative. :wink:

Re: Wildlife in Your Life

The other day, I was driving home from work when I saw a deer. And no, I didn't hit it with my car. I thought, actually, that it was a very large dog, but then it boinged straight up - jumped up - kind of like they do, and of course then I knew it was a deer. No antlers so it was a lady deer. And no hunters around, unless suddenly Route 2 is fair game for hunters (I'm thinking, eh, prolly not).

hey bone head a female deer is called a DOE and a male called a buck

Some ducks on their evening walk in our local park around the corner

Neat, was it a family of ducks, do you think?

Hiya, viper.

Four females - not only because they had this special look at me ...

They were checking you out?

Following me as if I was the Pied Piper of Hamelin!



Actually, when looking at another pic: they probably wanted to join the Steve's and us having lunch (glad no-one choose "duck breast"!).

I went out tonight to lock the gate and secure the windows on my wife's Corolla. It's close to bedtime and I have had too much sun, so I need to rest. I bypassed the car to lock the gate first, and noticed a bird resting just above the windshield. It sort of dodged its head when I went by, but did not otherwise move. It has the size and appearance of one that just left the nest today. Why would it harbor right there and not move when I rolled up the windows? May be sick. I want to call animal control, just in case, but will do it first thing in the AM, if it's still there. The area is fenced, to keep out the dogs, so they can't come in contact with it. I wish it were early in the day. It would be so much easier to handle the situation.

The bird was still there. I covered my hands and arms with plastic bags and even put a mask on my face. It did not seem aware of my presence, as I came up behind and grabbed it. It wriggled free, but lay still when I walked up to it and scooped it up and dropped it in a bag. It's in my truck tool box now. After I get to work, I will call on it.

I am currently working a plantation of timber on a 5000 ha farm.

they also run cattle



And sheep. These alpacas act as a deterrent to foxes.



Now this is unusual.
The plantation I am working is radiata pine (monteray Pine). Koalas usually stick pretty close to thair favorite food sources, eucalypts, So I got a real surprise when the pine i was pruning began to shake and wobble. This fine fellow is about the size and weight of a medium dog and the tree he is in is around 3 or 4 inches in diameter.







I have also discovered a nesting pair of Whistling eagles (I think thats what they are called) I hope to have photos in a week or so.

Wowsa! That koala looks huge! What do you figure it was doing up there?

I have had some runins with wildlife lately. On a hike on cape cod, we ran across this stubborn garter snake - he did NOT want to move from his sunspot on the slightly chilly day.



And these are the bunny babies (eastern cottontails) in my sister's back yard. They opened their eyes today. I stuck my finger in the frame for scale.

It's Canadian goose hunting season here in Michigan, but the Canadian Airforce seems to have gone into hiding.

Those shitaquarts have been all over up until the season started.

The bunnies are too sweet!

Kind of a jarring juxtaposition though -- snake, snake food.

Nice pics.

How big was the garter snake?

The garter snake was very small, not big enough to eat those bunnies, I'd guess. They are bigger and bigger every day. They will start hopping around the back yard soon. I dunno how that'll go down with the dogs. So far, the little nest fence have kept the dogs and bunnies separate.

CJ, we've had very few canadian geese here this summer, they seem to be here more during the other three seasons.

I don't think that's a garter snake.

And what kind of snake do you think it is?

So, the bunnies, er..... fledged? I went to check on them today and I swear they were twice the size they were yesterday. I looked closer and realized there were only 2 bunnies there. I looked around the yard hoping not to find a slaughtered bunny. No blood, no fur, no bones....... ok, so where did he go? I tried to look under the two remaining bunnies (sometimes they lay on each other. When I went to move them they moved - really moved. They sprung from the nest and started hoping around. I grabbed the dogs and brought them inside and went back to try to corral the bunbuns back into their nest. They wouldn't go. I did manage to reroute one from a mad dash to the fast and busy road on the other side of one section of the fence. So, one ended up in the brush pile inside the yard and one slipped under the fence and ended up in the neighbors' yard.

We're hoping they either leave for good, or that they get back in their nest. It'll be damned near impossible to keep the dogs on leashes in their own back yard for too long.

A Grey Fox in my back yard.

Re: Wildlife in Your Life


I was out in a tree stand with a bow and arrows saturday and saw the three biggest racoons in Maryland climbing down a tree 19 yards from me, and I do not think they ever saw me. Easy shot if I'd had any reason to want to shoot one of them. I saw four or five deer, but not shootable, 45 yards away and obstructions in between. Bowhunting is largely an engineering discipline involving getting a treestand in the right spot at the right time.

well, 26 pages and this is the first reference to hunting?