Animals around your house...

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schleich61 wrote:

I haven't had the good fortune to spot a fox (or mountain lion, lynx, or black bear) here, but I have been seeing quite a few opossums and skunks recently.  I had to free an adult opossum who had managed to get himself stuck in our wooden fence and swerved wildly (but successfully) to avoid running over one last evening whilst driving.  

We also now have a wonderful deer family which hangs out in front of our house (and our neighbor's) in the wee hours of the morning (typically 0100-0200 hours).  They seem to like to stand right in front of the usually open living room window and peer into the house at times.  There is a robust little pile of deer pellets in this location.  

My father has seen an adult lynx at close range (100 feet or less) in El Dorado Hills.  I'm still hoping for a big event - a mountain lion or bear sighting, but the odds of that are astronomically tiny.

They are very rare to see. I spend almost two hours a day in the woods, and I have only seen one bear, and never a mountain lion.

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cattlecollector wrote:

The other night I was walking out of the woods because I had been fixing a roof on my deer blind and I saw a pair of eyes glowing in the light from my flashlight a little ways of the trail and in the swamp. They disappeared but the. Reappeared a little bit farther down the trail. They did this for about 20 minutes while I kept walking, and it was kind of spooky. Eventually, it ran in front of me and I saw it was a fox. It was so mangy that it's tail looked like a opposums. Unfortunately I did not have a camera, but I hope I never see it again.

Ohhh, poor critter ! I suppose it had Scabies

SUSANNE wrote:

cattlecollector wrote:

The other night I was walking out of the woods because I had been fixing a roof on my deer blind and I saw a pair of eyes glowing in the light from my flashlight a little ways of the trail and in the swamp. They disappeared but the. Reappeared a little bit farther down the trail. They did this for about 20 minutes while I kept walking, and it was kind of spooky. Eventually, it ran in front of me and I saw it was a fox. It was so mangy that it's tail looked like a opposums. Unfortunately I did not have a camera, but I hope I never see it again.

Ohhh, poor critter ! I suppose it had Scabies

I think it was mange. We have had a lot of that going around this year.

Schleich61, my cousin was hunting once in Oregon, and when he turned around, a cougar was ten feet behind him. I think it meant to attack him, but unfortunately my cousin had to shoot it. The DNR did an analysis on it and learned that it was a very old Tom whose teeth were worn down. I guess he was looking for some easier prey.

When it comes to real animals, I cannot skip the topic
So, let me show you the birds that live in around my block in Sofia (Bulgaria). Most of them are quite common, but I didn't know there were so many until I started noticing them (and there are many more, actually :) Sofia used to be a really green city in my childhood, but now is mostly a gray and dull gathering of buildings with only a few green patches (parks), so I was surprised that even in these conditions the little guys make their way and co-exist with us.
Pictures are taken from my kitchen window or at the nearby grass/tree-plot

My favorites - the woodpeckers:
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A few tits that love the our birdfeeders in the winter:
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Robin, nuthatch and chaffinch:
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And most common ones (but also nice) - sparrow, blackbird, crow and jay:
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Wonderful pictures!  I also have them around my house. But I've never seen a black woodpecker yet.

Wonderful pictures!

Wonderful photography!! Just wonderful!


Roger, is that some kind if sarcasm that pony? You changed from a croc to sweet uglie pony Or are you just a sweet man who's just liking these new ponies very much ? =D

All these birds are just fabulous! Great photography!
A real pleasure to look at all of them

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teardrop wrote:

When it comes to real animals, I cannot skip the topic
So, let me show you the birds that live in around my block in Sofia (Bulgaria). Most of them are quite common, but I didn't know there were so many until I started noticing them (and there are many more, actually :) Sofia used to be a really green city in my childhood, but now is mostly a gray and dull gathering of buildings with only a few green patches (parks), so I was surprised that even in these conditions the little guys make their way and co-exist with us.
Pictures are taken from my kitchen window or at the nearby grass/tree-plot

My favorites - the woodpeckers:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A few tits that love the our birdfeeders in the winter:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Robin, nuthatch and chaffinch:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And most common ones (but also nice) - sparrow, blackbird, crow and jay:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Beautieful birds, most of the i can also see when i work, this week i also saw a wren

Guys, thank you very much for the kind words about my photos
It was a great pleasure for me making them too :) and looking at the toy models at home I keep thinking how the Nature is the greatest artist there is

Maria

No photos this time, but I've recently rented a new flat with windows coming out to shared garden. It's quite green there, I've seen there various titmice, magpies, a squirrel (or two?), and even a fox once!
I'm planning to install some bird feeder in front of our windows to lure small birds I've already bought some feeding fat balls, just need to hang them on branches!

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Mangalarga wrote:

No photos this time, but I've recently rented a new flat with windows coming out to shared garden. It's quite green there, I've seen there various titmice, magpies, a squirrel (or two?), and even a fox once!
I'm planning to install some bird feeder in front of our windows to lure small birds I've already bought some feeding fat balls, just need to hang them on branches!

That sounds nice! I've already taken some food for little birds, magpies and squirrels too!    I'd love to see a fox

Fierce-looking owl there schleich61

schleich61 wrote:

Western Screech Owl

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Wow! How did you manage to spot it and make a picture too?

schleich61 wrote:

Western Screech Owl

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Wow Phil, what a pic!!!!

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I don't have any pictures and I know this thread has been a little inactive for a month or so, but here's what I regularly see around my house:

BIRDS:
- corellas
- sulfur-crested cockatoos
- galahs
- rainbow lorikeets
- eastern rosellas
- crows
- Indian mynahs
- white-backed magpies
- blackbirds
- wattlebirds
- honeyeaters
- occasionally, a laughing kookaburra
- even more occasionally, a tawny frogmouth
- crested pigeons
- Australian wood ducks

We have more interesting bird species about 15 minutes away, such as black cockatoos and superb lyrebirds.

SPIDERS AND INVERTEBRATES:
- daddy long-legs
- redback spiders
- white-tip spiders
- common house spiders
- huntsman spiders
- black ants
- red bull ants
- flies of all kinds!
- European honey bees
- European wasps

MAMMALS:
- Common ringtail possums
- Brushtail possums (common and/or mountain)
- Red foxes (although I haven't seen them in a while, I know they're there)
- Rats and mice (not sure of the species, but rats are either black rats or brown rats)

There are reports of wallabies/kangaroos near our area every so often, but generally they avoid the suburban areas. Swamp wallabies and short-beaked echidnas do live in parks and forests near here though.

REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS:
- Skink species
- Occasionally, blue-tongue skinks
- Peron's tree frogs
- Striped marsh frogs

Those are very interesting species for non Australian members, if you ever get some pictures please post.

Visited North Berwick again today.

Seen some Northern Fulmars:
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And some curlew (unable to identify exact species, it was too far away):
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I've also seen a group of 5 oystercatchers, but my camera had died before I could take some photos of them :/

Spring is very close - blackbirds are singing loudly in our backyard garden!

Spring is very far away here, not much to see except for some white tailed deer with snow halfway up their bodies

Here the birds are singing, the woodpeckers are hammering like crazy, - and the horses have begun to find a little bit of green stuff ! ON MARCH 6TH