Wildlife in Your Life

AHa! Gracias.

Some critter walked off with a suet filled cage which was hanging from the chain supporting the bird feeders on a hook make out of a cheap wire coat hanger. The hook supporting the suet cage was still crooked and still attached to the main chain.

None of the other feeders were disturbed. A suet cage on the south side of the house had been emptied, but wasn't carried away.

Raccoons?

Its a juvenile bald eagle - they don't get the white cap and other adult markings 'til somewhere around their 4th year - the one in the pic appears to be entering molt, but hard to say since the pic was shot on a was very cold and windy day - cold just be fluffed up against the weather. The snack was prolly roadkill, and closer examination indicated it had been a smallish red fox, mebbe a yearling, though there wasn't enough left to allow an amateur to make a real solid ID of the deceased's age or gender.

the squirrels are starting to build their nests even though it's still well below freezing overnight and the daytime temperature isn't going above freezing .
i put a large piece of gardening cloth around our front-yard spruce tree and covered it with pine bark to keep the weeds down .
around noon i saw a squirrel trying to pull the cloth out from under the bark and up the tree !
about two feet up the tree he had to give up and let go of it .
i better weigh the cloth down with some rocks our the gardening cloth will make a nice nest for a squirrel family .
hbg

Raptor heaven!

Just spend a long time watching this guy eat a small fluffy thing (couldn't quite tell if it was a rodent or a bird):



Really cool. Sozlet spotted the shadow first, at the park, right after I pulled in. She thought the shadow (flying) might be a turkey vulture. We searched, couldn't see anything, then as I started to open the door I saw that he'd (OK maybe she, I dunno) had alit in a nearby tree. We snuck out of the car (leaving doors open and everything) and went to get a closer look. He was utterly unperturbed. Saw us, heard us, just "you are tiny and insignificant and I don't care one whit if you watch me eat." So we stood about 20 feet away from the base of the tree, he was about 20 feet up. Sozlet got bored before I did (maybe 10 minutes) and went off to play, I watched him eat the whole meal. Sooooo cool.

(Red-tailed hawk by the way. Again, not my picture -- took a mental snapshot, came home, opened my trusty bird book to the red-tailed hawk entry, exclaimed "that's IT!" [I'd thought so but wasn't sure], and then Googled a picture of a red-tailed hawk.)

The local woodpeckers have started drumming their territories.

Meat Ants


domestic chook we get cackle berries from this one

Does the chook have a name (do you name chickens?)?

And dare I ask what cackle berries are?

Eggs because Chooks "cackle" and produce "berries"

We do not name our chooks any thing apart from chook. It saves energy when calling them. Heeeerrrrrre chook chook chook.

We used to have a rooster named William though. When my daughter was about 4 he attacked her in the yard. (BAD decision rooster) (wanna see an enraged father protect his child?) so that was the end of him. Actually we ate him, my daughter sat up at the table and said "William tasted yummy Mum" without blinking an eye

cute little carnivore

A squirrel (not 'Rocky') in neighbour's garden, 200 yards away, photographed down from our balcony

With a scope like that you could have picked him off easily Walt.

I use the training for my marksman qualification since more than 30 years only for camera shootings.

Can I borrow your "camera"? There's a squirrel over there that needs killing.

Lovely photo, Walter.

jespah wrote :



those "cute" german sqirrels are one thing , our black ones are not nearly as cute !
there seem to be several families of sqirrels that have decided to make a home in the spruce tree in our frontyard . they've started to cut up a load of branches for building their neats and keep throwing half of them on the ground !
it's time bailey comes for a visit and does a bit of barking , growling and jumping - of course , he won't catch them but at least it makes life a little more entertaining for everyone . cleo , on the other hand doesn't seem to care how many sqirrels there are - she doesn't give a fig .
hbg

Black squirrels in the Black Forest?

I want a squirrel for Christmas. (or a bumble bee)