Wildlife in Your Life

Saw this guy while walking home last night (Red-Tailed Hawk):

Saw a rabbit in my back yard Sunday. First time ever. I guess the fact the dog is barred from there gives it a feeling of security.

that's pretty much what he looked like, except he was banded on only one claw, and he was putting the finishing touches on a squirrel.
we were maybe 20 feet away from him before he flapped off with his dinner...

you dont ever wanna let a squirrel in a house. They can do real damage and can even start fires by cheing on the plastic coating on wires (certain wire coatings have a sweet taste apparently).

I wack any squirrel that gets within sight of our place. THey have a 10 acre woodlot thats about 1/4 mile away and thats there for their enjoyment, rent free. I dont want any of them furry tailed rats in my place.

Too many sad tales to relate of kids getting chewed up by a squirrel that was living in an attic space, or a squirrel that had chewed out all the insulation and caused a leak in a house, or the "electrical fire thing.

get a pellet gun, they work best in a house .

Gosh, we have so many squirrels around here, despite a large coyote population - it's a real nuisance!

Fall time brings out your average garden spiders. They're harmless but so
big, you practically can throw a saddle on them. Here is one outside our
patio.

Now that's a spider!

The squirrel is long gone, persuaded out via broom. Perhaps the hawk got 'im. We'll never know.

oh CJ - sorry.... love animals and critters and bugs.... but that would give me the major heebie jeebies. How big was that... thing!!!!!

We saw one of these in a driveway a few doors down from my house the other day --

Ah! A roadrunner! How cool!

I've seen a few since I've been here, Jes - never fails to delight me.

They're good 1,5 to 2 inches long, Izzi. I hat insects with a passion but as long
as they're outside of the house, I am somewhat content.

That's a road runner? I've never seen one "live".

A manatee has been a long way from home for some time. He's in Falmouth and Dennis, MA for the last couple of weeks. I was there in Dennis last weekend, I wish I'd gone to check it out. Here's a link to a photo slide show: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/10_10_08_manatee/

If you saw this in the shallows, what would you think it was? I don't know that I'd think it was alive unless it was moving.

Yes, CJane - actually it was Dys that saw it - before I did - after he picked me up for a grocery store excursion. He has quicker eyes or more expansive vision, whatever. I think that was my third roadrunner... whereas he's lived in the southwest states for near infinity (snicker).

I'm right by the petroglyphs - so sort of nature adjacent.

Manatees. I have had a friend in my italian classes that was doing a lot of research on manatees, and she got me interested. Well, dang, I wish the manatee well.

Thinking anthropomorphically, wouldn't it be hard to be a lone manatee..

Excellent -- RP had sent me the article on the local manatee -- it (he? she?) was near where we go every Summer. I agree, I think it would be odd to think of it as living if I just saw it looking like that. Wacky.

They have captured it. They'll send it to Seaworld in Florida where it will be rehabilitated and released.

I went to Mt. Auburn Cemetery today. The place was packed and there were some serious camera people there. One of them asked if I'd seen any coyotes. I hadn't. He said there have been many around and people are seeing them all over the place. He showed me where one of last summers litters was raised. So, I kept wandering, hoping to come across a coyote. I drove passed the same guy on the way out and he told me to look for them on a certain road (this being evening, they were on the move). I parked the car and within moments, one coyote crossed the road ahead of me. I drove around to the next road parallel and saw it again. I got two really crappy pictures of it. Here's one....

Amazing -- but it makes sense. You got small rodents and birds, you'll have predators.

I understand the coyote was named Dennis.

The manatee was named Dennis.

The cemetery is also home to birds of prey. Quite a place, it is.