Animals around your house...

Gasp ! So they are really really agile, mountain lins

It must be fun raising wild cats, - if you know what to do !!!!!

I once new an elderly couple in South Carolina. They raised cubs from tigers, bears, leopards...you name.For a local zoo. But the horror of this was, that when these poor beasts grew up, they had them "de-clawed" and the canine teeth pulled out.

These people were very, very nice people, I never understood how they could live with it !

Izzy wrote:

Our neighbors swear they have seen a mountain lion on their property several times. She has a lot of cats and for awhile something was killing and pretty much mutilating them! I would have suspected a bobcat, but the cat they described has a long tail!
Luckily no sightings of him in the last couple of years so hopefully whatever it was has moved on.

We have black bears travel through our farm now and again. They seem to be coming from the river and always seem to be going the same route. Lucky again, that they've never been right up close to my house. They cross the lower field.

A different neighbor who lives right on the river had a young black bear that kept getting into her trash. Then she started FEEDING it hotdogs! It would come up on her porch and play "paddycakes" through the front door with her daughter. She had a video and it was the freakiest thing I ever saw. Needless to say she created quite a danger to herself and family as the bear would be waiting for his hotdog when they would need to leave in the mornings to take her children to school. She finally lured the bear into her horse trailer and hauled him to the Blue Ridge Parkway (many, many miles away) and set him free. I know it to be the truth cause I saw it on video (yes she recorded it all!). Very ignorant and dangerous, but was very entertaining for me to watch. lol.

And her horses never would set foot in that trailer again.

-Kristie

Incredible story Kristie! Silly but really amazing.

If you do have a Puma/mountain lion where you live would it harm your horse?

I´m afraid I can´t post any pic... But I can see lots of animals:

bats
sparrows
doves
great tits
kingfishers
blackcaps
white storks
grey herons
common gulls
little egrets
great cormorants
European greenfinchs
collared doves
wood pidgeons
lesser kestrels
common swifts
barn swallows
blackbirds
robins
nightingales
white wagtails


And more...

That's a good question, Harriet, and one I hope never to have to find out the answer to!

I figure that if there are such big cats here, then the surrounding woods are plentiful with smaller animals such as rabbits, raccoons, possums (neighbors cats!) and such that it wouldn't bother my horses. At least I hope!

I have never heard of any horses around my area having been attacked by wild animals.

-Kristie

Mountain lions are very shy and usually don't try to take prey that is much heavier then they are. They are also are not very strong for their size compared to other cats. Don't get me wrong, they are a lot stronger then us, just compared to a leopard or other big cats of the same size they are the weakest.

As far as a horse is concerned, I am not really sure it would even try to take a horse, maybe a foal or a pony, but still they usually prefer things that tend to easily scare. If you are ever confronted by a mountain lion you should stand tall and move forward, towards the cat and almost always they turn and run, no matter what never turn your back on one, even a "tame" one.

Philter4 wrote:

Mountain lions are very shy and usually don't try to take prey that is much heavier then they are. They are also are not very strong for their size compared to other cats. Don't get me wrong, they are a lot stronger then us, just compared to a leopard or other big cats of the same size they are the weakest.

As far as a horse is concerned, I am not really sure it would even try to take a horse, maybe a foal or a pony, but still they usually prefer things that tend to easily scare. If you are ever confronted by a mountain lion you should stand tall and move forward, towards the cat and almost always they turn and run, no matter what never turn your back on one, even a "tame" one.

I hope I never come face to face with a Puma! Living in England, of course, that completely impossible
But saying that, a friend's friend, who lives in a mansion with rambling grounds - they had a black jaguar suddenly turn up, one of the women there used to feed it and watch it take food through her window. Then after weeks it disappeared, we think it must have escaped from somewhere, I think they reported it but I'm not sure what happened after that.

A black jaguar! Wow. I don't know what I'd do if I saw one of those!

The first time I saw the bear I was riding my horse Poncho down the driveway. I saw the bear ahead of me, walking the same direction I was going. I immediately without thinking turned the horse around. Well, curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to convince myself it was a dog, so I turned around for another look. It was a bear and we left.

But the horse was not bothered by it so I assume he had seen it before. Or perhaps he was also trying to believe it was a dog. :)

-Kristie

Last summer our family bought a summer place by the lake Näsijärvi and we soon found out that there were a couple of swans living in the neighborhood. Our neighbors told us that there are three of them, and these three have been living there for 10 years! I was lucky enough to catch a pic of two of them as they were swimming near our place. I had to use very much zoom to get a proper pic so that's why the quality isn't the best. To be specific, these swans are called whooper swans, "laulujoutsen" (= singing swan) in Finnish. The Finnish name is a bit funny because the noise these birds make isn't what I would call singing The whooper swan is the national bird of Finland and it can only be found in the northern parts of Europe and Russia. In the winter they migrate to Central Europe. I hope you like my pics :)

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SO beauuutyful Siobhan

Amazing, impressive large birds, and fantastic pictures.
It is fun to know they ave spent the summer there for 10 years.
It will be exiting to see if they nest and have ..chicks? swanlings ?

Thankyou very much for the great pictures
Finland is such a lovely country, clean, green (when it is not white), and all the lakes and forests and frriendly people.

Izzy wrote:

A black jaguar! Wow. I don't know what I'd do if I saw one of those!

The first time I saw the bear I was riding my horse Poncho down the driveway. I saw the bear ahead of me, walking the same direction I was going. I immediately without thinking turned the horse around. Well, curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to convince myself it was a dog, so I turned around for another look. It was a bear and we left.

But the horse was not bothered by it so I assume he had seen it before. Or perhaps he was also trying to believe it was a dog. :)

-Kristie

WOW, Kristie ! I did not see this before !
What a great horse, - I suppose most horses would have run like crazy
But you are probably right, they had seen each other befoe.
I would have been scared stiff

Matilda they are gorgeous pictures!! Beautiful birds I saw a pair fly over my house a few months ago, a real treat for the eye.
This morning we had five or six mute swans fly over, the noise their wings make when they're flying is incredible, have you ever listened? It's such a lovely sound.

Of course we love your pictures, thanks, these birds are fantastic!

So I've been playing with my new camera and am finally able to take decent photos of all the deer around our house. This makes me hate them just a little less.

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And also a groundhog. He has resided under one of our storage buildings. I'm trying to catch him so I can relocate him off of my farm. But he's pretty crafty.
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-Kristie

Wonderful, beautyful photoes

Your Groundhog looks as if he thinks " I am the king here, and this is my castle !!!"

I am happy you hate the deer a little less, - they are so pretty.
I can imagine it can be too much of a good thing, but it seems Ollie and Hotdog has lots of fun with them

Oh the groundhog is adorable - and your photos of the deer are amazing! I love the one of the two doe side by side - great action shot of the buck too!!

Do the deer damage things, why don't you like them?

Thank you Susanne and Harriet!
I missed a bunch of AMAZING shots of those two does grooming on each other. It was my first time trying to use the telefoto lens and I had the camera on the incorrect setting. I was just snapping away thinking of all the cute photos I was getting only for nearly all of them to be blurry. But I'm learning!

Harriet, the deer eat my flowers. They love to eat my lilies and that make me MAD. And there are SO many. It's nothing to look out in the evening to see a dozen or more grazing in the field. It's hard to take the pony out for a hack without being startled by jumping deer at least once during the ride. Makes me learn to keep my seat though!

-Kristie

Izzy wrote:

Thank you Susanne and Harriet!
I missed a bunch of AMAZING shots of those two does grooming on each other. It was my first time trying to use the telefoto lens and I had the camera on the incorrect setting. I was just snapping away thinking of all the cute photos I was getting only for nearly all of them to be blurry. But I'm learning!

Harriet, the deer eat my flowers. They love to eat my lilies and that make me MAD. And there are SO many. It's nothing to look out in the evening to see a dozen or more grazing in the field. It's hard to take the pony out for a hack without being startled by jumping deer at least once during the ride. Makes me learn to keep my seat though!

-Kristie

Ah, I can imagine how annoying that would be, such a shame they eat your flowers. We only get roe deer here and they're very timid, never come near the house.

These are not so timid. lol. This summer we did fence in a garden area specifically for a veggie garden and flowers to keep deer (and dogs) out. So far, so good. :)

-Kristie

Oh, I love your photos and I love a lot deers! They are wonderful, It's a shame brands be not allowed to make these beautiful legs! :)
I understand why you don't like deers, humans arrived first in our planet, then deers started invading our territory! Bad antlered boys! Ah, unfortunately they are vegetarian and eat flowers! ... I hope you continue sharing with us this wonderful white tails flowers eaters! Thanks!

Haha! You're very funny Roger.

The deer and I will live together in peace so long as they stay out of my fenced garden. 25 acres in exchange for one tiny plot is more than fair.

We don't allow hunting on our farm so I'm sure the deer have told all their friends and family that ours is a safe haven!

-Kristie

Izzy wrote:

Haha! You're very funny Roger.

The deer and I will live together in peace so long as they stay out of my fenced garden. 25 acres in exchange for one tiny plot is more than fair.

We don't allow hunting on our farm so I'm sure the deer have told all their friends and family that ours is a safe haven!

-Kristie

Oh, Kristie,! Nice to read it! Is exatly what I expect from you!
It looks the deers love you and your flowers, they are only arriving for a party!
They look very happy in your pictures!

Oh Izzie! Your deer pics are awesome! Lucky you... I wish I could live in a place like this!

More animals from my house!

BEAUTIFUL male hummingbird. I shot this from about 2 feet away. They are NOT shy.
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And his mate
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Baby box turtle. I played with him for a little while and then set him free at the edge of the woods. :)
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-Kristie

Incredibly wonderful!!! You live in a wonderful place! I love these animals! :)
The pictures are beautiful and nice to know that you played with the turtle, have you any doubled?

Thank you Roger!

I don't under understand "have you any doubled?" What do you mean?

-Kristie