Animals around your house...

Wow, so great photos of amazing animals! Wow! I love snapping turtle and I adore red wing blackbird, so beautiful
Thank You very much for sharing! And congratulations
Photos of heron eating fish are precious

Gosh ! SO many wonderful pictures of wonderful animals

Here is one more cutie that came to visit yesterday

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Isn`t it an amazing creature ?
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wow! congrats! the spider is famous! We have alot on our walls that are big!

SUSANNE wrote:

Gosh ! SO many wonderful pictures of wonderful animals

Here is one more cutie that came to visit yesterday

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Isn`t it an amazing creature ?
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Wow! Seems that you have a very similar spider to what we have here! Interesting
Neoscona crucifera- orb web spider
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paleoferroequine wrote:

Wow! Seems that you have a very similar spider to what we have here! Interesting
Neoscona crucifera- orb web spider

That is very surprising They look almost the same !
But Neoscona crucifera only live in America according to Wikipedia...it must be a very close cousin

Awww, what a lovely spider! Around where I live we have plenty of the crossbacked garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), some of which can grow ridiculously huge (I swear I've seen some as big as small grapes). Really fascinating creatures!

There aren't too many interesting creatures around here this fall - not like last year's lemming explosion. Hasn't been a lot of bugs around either (not one mosquito bite, so I guess cold summers have some perks).

On the other hand, there are corgis.
You see, living directly above me is 50% of the county's corgi population. Granted, that's just three dogs. They're very friendly and utterly ridiculous in a good way.

Sumo wrote:

Awww, what a lovely spider! Around where I live we have plenty of the crossbacked garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), some of which can grow ridiculously huge (I swear I've seen some as big as small grapes). Really fascinating creatures!

There aren't too many interesting creatures around here this fall - not like last year's lemming explosion. Hasn't been a lot of bugs around either (not one mosquito bite, so I guess cold summers have some perks).

On the other hand, there are corgis.
You see, living directly above me is 50% of the county's corgi population. Granted, that's just three dogs. They're very friendly and utterly ridiculous in a good way.

What!? You mean there are only about 6 Corgis in the whole ( did you mean county or country)? Is that only registered or all? There are probably more in my town than that. Is it for medical reasons (quarantine)or just that people don't like them?

Anywho, here are some more pics from around here. I am still trying to get photos of the black bears, armadillos, and roadrunners but no luck yet.
American Robin-Turdus migratorius
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Green Heron-Butorides virescens
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Mockingbird-Mimus polyglottos
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Woodchuck or groundhog-Marmota monax
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Cardinal-Cardinalis cardinalis
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Blue Jay-Cyanocitta cristata Common European Starling-Sturnus vulgaris Crow-Corvus brachyrhynchos
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Common Grackle-Quiscalus quiscula
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American Coot-Fulica americana
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Opossum-Didelphis virginiana
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Caspian Tern-Hydroprogne caspia
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Immature Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron-Nyctanassa violacea
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Turkey Vulture-Cathartes aura
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Painted turtle-Chrysemys picta
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Purple Martin-Progne subis The population of eastern Purple Martins is dependent on artificial martin houses of wood or aluminium and fake plastic gourds, supplied by individuals and organizations fond of the bird. This tradition was in place even before the population crash; Native Americans are said to have hollowed out gourds and erected them for this purpose.
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Beautiful photos of the spiders and birds! We have many black widow spiders where I live

animalluvr6 wrote:

Beautiful photos of the spiders and birds! We have many black widow spiders where I live

Yeah, we have a lot of them here too. But more of a problem are the brown recluse spiders Loxosceles reclusa, which can be more dangerous! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

WOW! Paleoferro. Your pictures are absolutely stunning
I have to scroll through them again and again, - thankyou for sharing

Yes! Stunning photos! Congratulations Paleoferro and thank You for sharing!
I love the photo of Tern. And I adore the diversity of species on Your photos. Wonderful!

I did mean county - and it's not a very densely populated one (Nordland, area 38 460,36 km², approx. pop. 239 000). All the same, they're relatively rare dogs judging by the number of registrations:
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As they're not hugely trendy dogs I don't think there's a lot of backyard breeding going on either - thank goodness.
As to why they're so rare, I dunno... maybe people are afraid they'll be mistaken for members of the British royal family?

paleoferroequine wrote:

Sumo wrote:

Awww, what a lovely spider! Around where I live we have plenty of the crossbacked garden spiders (Araneus diadematus), some of which can grow ridiculously huge (I swear I've seen some as big as small grapes). Really fascinating creatures!

There aren't too many interesting creatures around here this fall - not like last year's lemming explosion. Hasn't been a lot of bugs around either (not one mosquito bite, so I guess cold summers have some perks).

On the other hand, there are corgis.
You see, living directly above me is 50% of the county's corgi population. Granted, that's just three dogs. They're very friendly and utterly ridiculous in a good way.

What!? You mean there are only about 6 Corgis in the whole ( did you mean county or country)? Is that only registered or all? There are probably more in my town than that. Is it for medical reasons (quarantine)or just that people don't like them?

Anywho, here are some more pics from around here. I am still trying to get photos of the black bears, armadillos, and roadrunners but no luck yet.
American Robin-Turdus migratorius
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Green Heron-Butorides virescens
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Mockingbird-Mimus polyglottos
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Woodchuck or groundhog-Marmota monax
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Cardinal-Cardinalis cardinalis
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Blue Jay-Cyanocitta cristata Common European Starling-Sturnus vulgaris Crow-Corvus brachyrhynchos
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Common Grackle-Quiscalus quiscula
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American Coot-Fulica americana
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Opossum-Didelphis virginiana
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Caspian Tern-Hydroprogne caspia
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Immature Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron-Nyctanassa violacea
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Turkey Vulture-Cathartes aura
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Painted turtle-Chrysemys picta
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Purple Martin-Progne subis The population of eastern Purple Martins is dependent on artificial martin houses of wood or aluminium and fake plastic gourds, supplied by individuals and organizations fond of the bird. This tradition was in place even before the population crash; Native Americans are said to have hollowed out gourds and erected them for this purpose.
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Forgot to say holy crap, those are some amazing photos! You're so lucky to have all these fantastic creatures in your neighborhood.

SUSANNE wrote:

WOW! Paleoferro. Your pictures are absolutely stunning
I have to scroll through them again and again, - thankyou for sharing

Sumo wrote:

Forgot to say holy crap, those are some amazing photos! You're so lucky to have all these fantastic creatures in your neighborhood.

Ditto, ditto! more! more!

woooohoooo!!!!!!!!! My Mantis is a female!!!!!! That is, one of them is- the other is a male and they're being very friendly with each other, if you get my drift. Yay! that means i'll have baby Mantids! Any gardener will surely understand my happiness!

Mastiffcat wrote:

woooohoooo!!!!!!!!! My Mantis is a female!!!!!! That is, one of them is- the other is a male and they're being very friendly with each other, if you get my drift. Yay! that means i'll have baby Mantids! Any gardener will surely understand my happiness!

Yeyyy, you'll soon have a female and beheaded male

I am happy to report that i spied Mr Mantid this morning, head intact.

Actually, my bug book says that females' eating the males has only been observed in captive specimens. i thought that was interesting. it also gives a reference to a Mantid eating a mouse.

more excitement in the Mantid world: Saturday afternoon i was surprised and thrilled to see a second female on another bush in my yard! i found Mr Mantid on the first bush and cut the sprig he was on and carefully carried him on it to the second bush. I put Mr Mantid and the sprig close enough to Mrs Mantid 2 that he could find her, but far enough away in case he needed to run away because she hadn't read my bug book! I am happy to report that Mr Mantid and Mrs Mantid 2 got along just fine and so I am expecting a second family of baby Mantids! I am a very happy organic gardener! but i haven't seen Mr Mantid lately, so I hope he ran away instead of letting her prove my bug book wrong.

i hope to spy out the two egg cases and then i will do everything i can to guard them carefully. one of my favorite things about my garden is that it is teeming with life. so many kinds of bees and wasps that i never knew anything about and now i sit quietly next to a buzzing bush and watch them come and go. or gardening in a cloud of bees; i just pretend i'm a cow and they don't bother me at all. i'm building a snag of dead branches to encourage native bees who nest in little holes in dead wood. the native bees in my area do not live in groups and do not build hives. and hummingbirds galore! they are so happy with the native plants that they are swooping in and out all day. i know i have lizards and am hoping to get even more lizards -- the poor lizard who commited suicide last summer by sunning on the driveway -- by building more little lizard caves of bricks under bushes. piles of bricks are favorite places for beetles and where you have beetles, you have lizards.
i envy all my STS friends who live in the countryside, but i am building my little bit of wilderness in Los Angeles.
it is time to get busy and start planting, since this is the beginning of our gardening season.

bugs and lizards and birds!

Mastiffcat wrote:

bugs and lizards and birds!

Carolynn, it sounds like you are having a garden of Eden

You describe it so well, I can almost feel the heat and the buzzing, - an I am very exited about your mantid family with the dangerous and exiting family liffe

If only more people did like you and made living room for the insects , lizzards and other small wild life in their gardens, - and accepted that a garden is not made of "perfect" plastic -there would be use almost no pesticides !

And so much fun and exiting observations...who would dream of sprying poison on Mr Mantid and mrs Mantid 1 and 2 ?

HURRAAAY for the joy and common sence of organic gardening (o)): (o)): (o)): (o)): (o)):

Heres some photos!

This little guy was happy enough to pose for the camera! He was munching on a green caterpillar. I think he is an anole lizard

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Hummingbirds!
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I hope you enjoyed :)

Such a cool picture!

Beautyful creatures Beautyful pictures

Imagine having hummingbirds at your feeder and green lizzards in the bushes

Fantastic pictures

Good photos. Yes, it is an anole Anolis carolinensis and the hummingbird is a female Ruby-Throated Archilochus colubris.

That is a beautiful anole! We had one until recently, a pet, but he passed away. He was very rarely a bright, vibrant, happy green like that specimen! Ours was always brown... Great pics of the hummingbird too!