On the Animals and Wildlife side -- (276 views)
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Post by beth on Jan 1, 2018 14:42:19 GMT -5
What wildlife or non-domestic animals do you enjoy watching, feeding, etc?
We have several bird feeders and get to watch a number of bird species and squirrels. Last year and this year, I have had rufous hummingbirds through the winter in addition to the usual woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, mockingbirds, woodpeckers, wrens, titmice and others. Still haven't managed to attract bluebirds to this house after having them maybe half a mile away. Christmas Day there was a bald eagle circling high overhead.
I have been planting milkweed and nectar flowers to attract birds and butterflies for years, but last year I started rearing monarch caterpillars in an enclosure to protect them after I realized the wasps in the yard were eating most of them. We started on the fly after seeing the wasps attacking them mid summer 2016 and released near 60. In 2017, I did more research and found a couple of groups that shared information -- we released nearly 600 this year. Way more than we had any idea of dealing with -- hoping 2018 will be a healthy year for them. DH says he doesn't want so many this coming year -- I don't know how you can tell the butterflies to not come. LOL
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Post by wallycat on Jan 1, 2018 16:50:28 GMT -5
We have various hummingbirds year-round; Steller's Jays vs. blue jays. I miss cardinals but they haven't made it over the rockies yet. The most excitement we have had are Cooper's Hawks that come to dine in our front yard. Also little red and black squirrels. LOVE them. Hate the 'run of the mill' gray squirrels we were used to in WI. TONS of eagles here. I do not like the sea gulls. Loud and messy.
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Post by beth on Jan 1, 2018 22:51:12 GMT -5
We get an occasional hawk, but I'm not always sure of the type. The cardinals appear to nest in my yard, so we see them year round. Our squirrels are the basic grey/brown.
At the last house -- the one with bluebirds, we also had a bunny who came to live in our back yard. He was pretty special, but that was in our pre-dog years. Now the dogs chase the squirrels -- the occasional possum that shows up at night. Haven't seen any raccoons in a long time. Oh -- that brings back memories. One year the dogs got skunked four time in one year. I have a friend who had four skunk episodes the same year -- at nearly the same times. One of them was her son rather than the dogs. He thought he was feeding a neighbor's cat when the rustling in the bush proved to be a skunk and got him right in the face. On one of ours, the dog ran inside and hid upstairs on my son's bed before we found her. That was pretty bad too, but wwe recovered. LOL Yeah. Critters.
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Post by PattiA on Jan 2, 2018 9:13:26 GMT -5
I am jealous of year round hummingbirds. Though that would be a hard life for a hummer in southern NH. Our ruby-throated hummingbirds are here May-late September. These are the visitors to our backyard: lots of woodpeckers (downy, hairy, red bellied, an occasional yellow bellied sapsucker, and a very elusive pileated), gold finches and chickadees, cardinals, tufted titmouse, nuthatches, blue birds mostly in the early spring and winter, Coopers Hawks. wild turkeys, an occasional turkey vulture, orioles during spring migration, red-winged blackbirds. deer, too many gray squirrels, red squirrels, chipmunks, occasional opossum, and some bunnies, an occasional gray fox. There are probably more that I have forgotten.
About an hour away from us at the NH seacoast, there are snowy owls which are such beautiful creatures. We spend the day after Christmas at the seacoast to see them. Wanted to spend more time birding in the week between Christmas and New Years but it has been just too cold to be outside. It was freezing the day we went, but that was the warmest day we've had in a while.
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Post by wallycat on Jan 2, 2018 11:01:02 GMT -5
I forgot about the Barred owl we saw through walk in the woods! And I do not like all the deer here, eating yards and gardens. There's supposed to be a Bobcat somewhere in the area, along with a cougar, but all we see are the coyotes. I'd love to see a Snowy Owl!
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Post by beth on Jan 3, 2018 12:17:56 GMT -5
We have spotted an owl once or twice and heard them a few other times. They are so elusive! But amazing creatures.
Seems like we have many of the same or similar sightings. I have ruby throated hummers in similar months -- maybe a little earlier and a month later, then the rufous hummingbirds arrive for the winter. I have them here now. They are more bashful and fly away quicker.
For only the second time in the 15 years we have lived here, I spotted bluebirds at my feeders yesterday. We used to have them nesting in our yard of our last house --- maybe half a mile away, but I have not been able to attract them here. We are putting up a house today and will try again. I have missed them.
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traildoggie
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Post by traildoggie on Jan 6, 2018 16:24:59 GMT -5
We get two kinds of hummingbirds here. rufous that arrive in spring and leave in about September, and anna's that now stay all year. I used to record the arrival and departure of the hummers, but with similar birds around all year now, I gave up. also barred and great horned owls. sometimes very obvious and other times not so much. tohees, chickadees, nuthatches, pileated wood peckers, flickers, downy woodpeckers. black headed and evening grosbeaks. stellers jays. varied thrushes. in spring and summer swainsons thrush. most lovely song! western tanagers. We have a resident bobcat we've seen several times. also occasional coyotes. lots of hawks although they seem to move on quickly.
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Post by soupandstew on Jan 9, 2018 21:02:45 GMT -5
Because we live in an old subdivision with a lot of trees and close access to the bayou system we have pretty much "all of the above". In the mammal family we have coyotes, skunks, possums, raccoon, and squirrels. Bird wise we have all the usual suspects like sparrows, starlings, etc. plus boat-tailed grackles, white-wing dove, cardinals, blue jays, assorted wrens, chickadee, robins, house finch, downy and red bellied woodpeckers, turkey vultures, hawks of every variety, ditto on the owls including the little screech owls who are so adorable. We also have nests of yellow-crowned night herons. For migratory species we have more hawks plus cedar waxwings, numerous hummingbirds, and a whole lot of "what was that?". We also have huge populations of non-native species like Eurasian collared dove and Monk's parrot that have naturalized in the area. I've seen far more "wildlife" here in the middle of a very large urban area than I ever saw in the country.
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Post by swedishcook on Jan 25, 2018 13:56:41 GMT -5
I'm very impressed with everyone's knowledge of birds. I can recognize a few: blue jays, red cardinals and mockingbirds. I'm sure they all have problems reproducing here with all the gray squirrels who can feast on eggs when they run out of pecans and acorns. Last week a raccoon strolled peacefully through our yard in broad daylight. I've found out that opossum babies are great swimmers. Still decided to fish it out of the pool where it was dog paddling ferociously. Seeing the size of the claws I kept my distance. We used to have lots of lizards - Texas horny toads, green anoles and "small gray lizards". Wondering what is diminishing their population 😞
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Post by soupandstew on Jan 27, 2018 18:53:32 GMT -5
We have had multiple reports of guinea hens (and cocks too, of course) running around our subdivision. www.ksat.com/news/-the-bird-causes-traffic-buildup-on-beechnut-near-gessner-in-sw-houston These are definitely not wild, but cage birds that have fled the coop so to speak. They are probably being raised for the trade in the nearby Asian restaurant district. And possibly connected to the complaint the HOA just received about an unauthorized structure in a residential backyard and an unauthorized goose in their front yard. One very strange phenomenon around Houston is multiple sightings of large owls hunting during daylight hours. Our subdivision security patrol spotted a big owl on a fence about 3 p.m. yesterday, and the news media has reported attacks on small backyard dogs. Why have nocturnal hunters suddenly gone to daylight hunts? No shortage of juvenile possums, rats, feral cats, etc. at night???? Has anyone heard of this in their part of the country? Swedish Cook, thank you for saving the possum baby - they are reviled by many but an essential part of our ecology. As a gardener I love their snail-eating ways. We've experienced a loss of the lizard population too, especially the green ones. Some attribute it to the grey/brown anoles, some to pesticide use reducing their insect diet. I had to slam on the brakes today to avoid a hawk swooping across the road about a block from the house. Fortunately, I also missed the squirrel who was crossing the road at record speed to escape the hawk.
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Post by wallycat on Jan 28, 2018 23:09:37 GMT -5
I agree, love how educated some of you are on all those birds! Yellow-crowned night heron...never even heard of them!! We have your run of the mill blue herons here and see them when we go clamming or if they fly up to one of the pine trees. We spotted a pheasant pecking by the side of the road, driving in to town yesterday. WOW...such explosive color on that boy!
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