Wildlife in Your Life

Oops, shows where my head is.

Well, there are a hell of a lot fewer manatees in massachusetts than coyotes!

This morning, I saw an opossum.

I was walking to the bus stop, maybe 30 feet from my home (cross the street and onto the long block, maybe 3 or 4 houses in), when I saw what looked like a huge white and grey house cat. Then I noticed it had a fox-like face and a rat tail. It was behind a chain link fence and just kinda hanging out. Did not appear either rabid or afraid of me, looked more like it hadn't had its coffee yet.

I said hi and it waddled through a hole in the chain link near the back, and went to the back of the house in question. Probably looking for French Roast.

I saw a robin this morning.

It was maybe 16 degrees F outside and I saw a robin.

A stupid, clueless robin, but a robin just the same.

Poor thing.

Yeah - I thought I saw one the other day as well! I figured nah, it must be another type of bird that looks similar.

I stared at it and, sure enough, it had an orangey-red breast.

Maybe we show the same damn stupid robin.

The whole robin thing is a myth, y'all.

This one had mittens on.

Heehee.

Seriously. Remember that nasty, bitter, dry, wind-chaffed winter we had a few years ago? I used to see veritable FLOCKS of robins then. Granted - it was unusual enough that I remember it. At the time I looked into it. Some robins always stay, it seems.

robins, like canada geese, used to migrate fairly distant, like S Carolina. Now, since the 80s, theyve become a year round resident of latitudes like Pa and Md. I was not aware that MAss was on their list. Actually, I guess that the coastal area of MAss is very similar to USDA zone 5 and 6 where robins now winter over. Same thing with Canada geese , were up to our asses in geeses.

How odd -- is the migrating less thing a function of global warming? You'd think they'd know enough to leave the cold, but maybe right now they don't have the fat stores to make the trip?

Robins in my life -
in Chicago in the spring
in the fifties;
no robins in southern california for me;
a single robin in Washington DC in May.

And then - kaaboooom, robins galore around
the berryfull cotoneaster parneyi tree
in the humboldt seaport.
Robin happiness.

I can't help it, I think squirrels are adorable (can't figure out how to post a video any other way....).
http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/Gigipix/videos/?action=view&current=DSCF7415.flv

I can't help it either, littlek.

I'll add a video (which I posted on the beautiful animals thread) that only relates to me in that it is my old workplace for decades/campus on which the squirrels work out their problem.
No squirrels yet, or if so I don't know about it, in Albuquerque. Roadrunners though..

Lilk -
put [youtube] in front of the URL and [/youtube] directly after.

Osso, it's not a youtube video - it's one of mine. Can you see the video if you click the link?

It works, lil'K...

love the squirrels

the canada geese that hang out in the field behind the house



this is a crappy video, but i shot it mainly because of the tune, this robin kept this up for about an hour or more, wish i knew what he was talking about



click the image to launch the video

Sorry, duh moment. I tried doing [photobucket] followed by [/photobucket], and no dice re imbedding. Embedding? Enbedding?