Wildlife Around Your Home (post pics if you've got 'em!)

BLACK35

lastexitlondon said:

What bird is that. I wish we had such beautiful birds. 
I did see a kestrel killing a mouse about 10 feet from me on a golf course last week

Pretty sure that is a BlueJay

lastexitlondon

Beautiful . We have a jay that is smaller and pretty. But only has one blue feather on each wing. That this looks great

BLACK35

lastexitlondon said:

Beautiful . We have a jay that is smaller and pretty. But only has one blue feather on each wing. That this looks great

They are beautiful looking birds, but they are very mean!

CROJAM95

lastexitlondon said:

What bird is that. I wish we had such beautiful birds. 
I did see a kestrel killing a mouse about 10 feet from me on a golf course last week

Blue jay, yes they can be super territorial … I learned the hard way cleaning my gutters… was up on the ladder and o guess near their nest without knowing a few buzzed me, real close… few inches from my noggin. They have some girth to them 😜

I live on the north shore of Long Island, just down the street we have a few American Bald Eagles that appeared a few years ago …. Photographers galore everyday, it’s majestic when I drive near the harbor and they take flight over the water… it’s beautiful . 

CROJAM95

A few pics
one is young, no white cap yet

ill look in my phone later for some flight shots, think I have a few

lastexitlondon

Birds of prey are my absolute favourite creature 

Loujoe

Wow..super pictures 

CarryTheZero

Those eagles are beautiful.

CROJAM95

There’s a beautiful road ( fort Salonga for you LIers) and I take it to my office, it’s treelined rd and some days if traffic slows, I see them fly over my car and it’s like holy shit did that just happen 

CROJAM95

The young one was taken at my boss house, right in front.

HughFreakingDillon

Blue Jays are absolutely, 100% assholes. 

brianlux

HughFreakingDillon said:

Blue Jays are absolutely, 100% assholes. 

Stellar jays are rather obnoxious, especially while camping.  I figured out a long time ago some of the jay/English translation.  The phrse they use most often around campers early in the morning is "Wake the f#ck up, asshole!"

On the other hand, scrub jays are a lot mellower and grey jays are just plain sweet birds!

Scrub jay:

Grey jay:

HughFreakingDillon

Blue Jays are known for killing other birds for absolutely no reason at all. 

Loujoe

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

McGruff

Loujoe

Awesome birds

HughFreakingDillon

Loujoe said:

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon said:

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

my understanding of nature is that animals kill for reasons, like territory, or food, or competition of some kind. I've read that Blue Jays basically do it for sport. Which seems like asshole-y behaviour to me. I haven't heard of other animals doing this. 

CarryTheZero

My mom used to have a couple of wrens build a nest every year and have some babies. A blue jay would always try to swoop in and either bother the babies or try to take food. Parents were pissed! My mom would tent the hanging flower pot in foil and sometimes sit out there on her patio to deter the blue jay. She did not like that bird!

brianlux

McGruff said:

Pileated Woodpeckers, marvelous!  I've only seen one ever.  How cool!

HughFreakingDillon

I saw some woodpeckers in Spruce Woods Provincial Park a few years back. No word of a lie they looked 2-3 feet tall. My wife and kids kept looking at them like "are we really seeing this?". We were far enough away that we thought maybe our perception was skewed somehow. We still aren't sure, as all my research suggests we were all seeing things.

edit: just looked it up again. the one I saw has an "average" size of a foot and a half. so I guess that's not far off. the pileated one pictured above. 

brianlux

HughFreakingDillon said:

I saw some woodpeckers in Spruce Woods Provincial Park a few years back. No word of a lie they looked 2-3 feet tall. My wife and kids kept looking at them like "are we really seeing this?". We were far enough away that we thought maybe our perception was skewed somehow. We still aren't sure, as all my research suggests we were all seeing things.

edit: just looked it up again. the one I saw has an "average" size of a foot and a half. so I guess that's not far off. the pileated one pictured above. 

Could be that's what you saw- the Pileated.  They are BIG!  They sound cool as well.

lastexitlondon

We have green woodpeckers at the golf course beautiful birds

Loujoe

HughFreakingDillon said:

Loujoe said:

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon said:

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

my understanding of nature is that animals kill for reasons, like territory, or food, or competition of some kind. I've read that Blue Jays basically do it for sport. Which seems like asshole-y behaviour to me. I haven't heard of other animals doing this. 

❤️ u HFD. F..k those blue Jay bullies

Loujoe

Lot's of fawns, baby deer, wandering around now. 
I have vocal barred owls by my house. One morning I heard a woodpecker making repetitive chirps. It flew across the road I was walking on followed by the owl. I'm guessing the owl was a juvenile and just following the woodpecker. I saw the owl in a tree. It kept after the other bird. I know they would eat them, but this seemed more like practice or play. I'd guess if it was going to eat t, it would be more stealthy and whamo.

Loujoe

Kind of a bad picture but early morning with two dogs!
 

brianlux

Loujoe said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Loujoe said:

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon said:

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

my understanding of nature is that animals kill for reasons, like territory, or food, or competition of some kind. I've read that Blue Jays basically do it for sport. Which seems like asshole-y behaviour to me. I haven't heard of other animals doing this. 

❤️ u HFD. F..k those blue Jay bullies

There are few things that make camping less fun that stellar jays getting your day off to a bad start by having them squawk obnoxiously at 5 in the morning while you're trying to sleep.  That said, one of the things that has added to the problem is people in campgrounds, parks and other places feeding jays.  I've seen it done a million times.  They are super accustomed to humans feeding them which is probably the main reason they are so obnoxious as well as over populated. 

Also, I don't recall hearing or reading about those bad habits with more reclusive scrub jays, or the oh-so sweet grey jays who generally live at higher altitudes. 

Fifthelement

HughFreakingDillon said:

Loujoe said:

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon said:

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

my understanding of nature is that animals kill for reasons, like territory, or food, or competition of some kind. I've read that Blue Jays basically do it for sport. Which seems like asshole-y behaviour to me. I haven't heard of other animals doing this. 

Foxes, spotted hyenas, felines (domestic and wild), and honey badgers have all been observed surplus killing, often just for the pleasure of the kill. I remember watching one of the bbc documentaries, Planet Earth I think, showing hyenas killing baby seals along the coast of Namibia just for fun.

brianlux

Fifthelement said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Loujoe said:

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon said:

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

my understanding of nature is that animals kill for reasons, like territory, or food, or competition of some kind. I've read that Blue Jays basically do it for sport. Which seems like asshole-y behaviour to me. I haven't heard of other animals doing this. 

Foxes, spotted hyenas, felines (domestic and wild), and honey badgers have all been observed surplus killing, often just for the pleasure of the kill. I remember watching one of the bbc documentaries, Planet Earth I think, showing hyenas killing baby seals along the coast of Namibia just for fun.

Seems to me I've heard some humans exhibit similar traits.  I could be wrong.  

Fifthelement

brianlux said:

Fifthelement said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

Loujoe said:

Darwins theory. I know nature seems cruel to us for sure. The idea is the stronger sneaky ones get away and live to breed other smarty pants birds. Ya know.
Something like that. 

lastexitlondon said:

Circle of life . Lots of birds kill other birds and steal eggs all sorts of mischief.  Nature is a mutha F

my understanding of nature is that animals kill for reasons, like territory, or food, or competition of some kind. I've read that Blue Jays basically do it for sport. Which seems like asshole-y behaviour to me. I haven't heard of other animals doing this. 

Foxes, spotted hyenas, felines (domestic and wild), and honey badgers have all been observed surplus killing, often just for the pleasure of the kill. I remember watching one of the bbc documentaries, Planet Earth I think, showing hyenas killing baby seals along the coast of Namibia just for fun.

Seems to me I've heard some humans exhibit similar traits.  I could be wrong.  

I’ve heard that rumour too 🤔😳☹️