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

dankind

We had a coyote here the other morning. Unfortunately, the bitch was inside. 

Also, I opened the back door to let the bitch out yesterday, and right there on the other side of the door was a little skunk. Little thing looked up at me as if to say “please, no,” so I kept the bitch inside until the little critter could make its way out of the yard. Sucker was cute, calm and collected—unlike the bitch; she was a wild idiot. 

blackhawks

brianlux said:

blackhawks said:

I didn't like lizards until I moved to AZ.  Now I really enjoy them like this horned lizard in our back yard.  We also have had 2 rattlesnakes in our yard this year but I removed them and placed them a quarter mile away in the desert.  They die if you place them more than 1/2 a mile is what the fish and game told us.

I love lizards!  We get a lot of western fence lizards and the occasional larger alligator lizard.  Live watching them do their push ups! 

When they do those push ups it is hilarious!  they are really entertaining.  

On the sad side of the snakes, there is a rare rattlesnake here in AZ that resides in one mountain range in the northern part of the state (we have 16 species of rattlers here).  This year so many poachers came in and took them to sell they closed the whole forest off to humans.  We humans are the worst I tell you.  It is very frustrating to have people take a wild creature to sell to some person as a pet.

blackhawks

I took this picture this summer where I knew a family of Whiskered screech Owls nested.  The fledgelings were bout and about at night and I had the whole mountain to myself!  

Fifthelement

blackhawks said:

brianlux said:

blackhawks said:

I didn't like lizards until I moved to AZ.  Now I really enjoy them like this horned lizard in our back yard.  We also have had 2 rattlesnakes in our yard this year but I removed them and placed them a quarter mile away in the desert.  They die if you place them more than 1/2 a mile is what the fish and game told us.

I love lizards!  We get a lot of western fence lizards and the occasional larger alligator lizard.  Live watching them do their push ups! 

When they do those push ups it is hilarious!  they are really entertaining.  

On the sad side of the snakes, there is a rare rattlesnake here in AZ that resides in one mountain range in the northern part of the state (we have 16 species of rattlers here).  This year so many poachers came in and took them to sell they closed the whole forest off to humans.  We humans are the worst I tell you.  It is very frustrating to have people take a wild creature to sell to some person as a pet.

Yeah, it’s disgusting.  The doc I was talking about stated that in some areas rattlers are losing their rattle because they’ve been so zealously over-hunted.  Makes me sick in my heart.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

blackhawks said:

I took this picture this summer where I knew a family of Whiskered screech Owls nested.  The fledgelings were bout and about at night and I had the whole mountain to myself!  

Good picture 

Fifthelement

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

blackhawks said:

I took this picture this summer where I knew a family of Whiskered screech Owls nested.  The fledgelings were bout and about at night and I had the whole mountain to myself!  

Good picture 

Sorry Blackhawks, it is a great picture.  How far away were you?  It looks like it was just sitting there waiting for you and your camera.

blackhawks

It was 12-15 feet away.  It was just chowing down on whatever those big bugs were that were around.  I have been using the Olympus system with the 300 f4 (which equals a 600mm) because of the close focus distance compared to my regular 600mm (3ft roughly vs 13 feet).  It is very handy for butterflies and larger insects too.  There are limitations with a 4/3 system but I manage using low ISO (high ISO is garbage with them).  

brianlux

blackhawks said:

It was 12-15 feet away.  It was just chowing down on whatever those big bugs were that were around.  I have been using the Olympus system with the 300 f4 (which equals a 600mm) because of the close focus distance compared to my regular 600mm (3ft roughly vs 13 feet).  It is very handy for butterflies and larger insects too.  There are limitations with a 4/3 system but I manage using low ISO (high ISO is garbage with them).  

Well done!

A few of the foxes we saw a while back have been coming around again.  One of them stole one of my wife's gardening shoes even though the were close to the sliding glass door.  Probably not a good idea for her to leave them out!

Fifthelement

wasa1971

My husband came home to this today on the front of our property.
We recently moved to an acreage and have seen 3 moose in the last month.

brianlux

wasa1971 said:

My husband came home to this today on the front of our property.
We recently moved to an acreage and have seen 3 moose in the last month.

I would love that but I also know they are tough customers- I would be a bit nervous.  Very cool though anyway!

Annafalk

https://www.expressen.se/tv/nyheter/gt/duellen-mellan-den-vita-algen-och-grasklipparen/

I saw this funny clip in today's newspaper it's a moose attacking a lawnmower. Thought it was very funny

Fifthelement

wasa1971 said:

My husband came home to this today on the front of our property.
We recently moved to an acreage and have seen 3 moose in the last month.

Awesome!

darwinstheory

wasa1971 said:

My husband came home to this today on the front of our property.
We recently moved to an acreage and have seen 3 moose in the last month.

That is stunningly beautiful! Great for you! Love the landscaping too. And the puppers in your profile pic is also cute.

bbiggs

This guy is a monster. Hard to really tell the size from the picture, but it is a very large spider. Glad it’s not a brown recluse...

brianlux

bbiggs said:

This guy is a monster. Hard to really tell the size from the picture, but it is a very large spider. Glad it’s not a brown recluse...

Does look big!

darwinstheory

bbiggs said:

This guy is a monster. Hard to really tell the size from the picture, but it is a very large spider. Glad it’s not a brown recluse...

Wolf spider I think they are called. I had one of those fuckers spinning a web from my couch cushion to my head as I lay there sleeping. Homie don't need to wake up to that shit!

darwinstheory

Here's one from my yard last summer. Harmless, but still made me jump back about 5 feet.

brianlux

darwinstheory said:

Here's one from my yard last summer. Harmless, but still made me jump back about 5 feet.

Yeah, looks like a wolf spider.  I had one land with thump, right on the middle of my my chest one time while I was lying in bed reading.  Freaked me right out!

madtowndave

I haven't been able to get a good picture, but we have a pileated woodpecker in the neighborhood. Also 9 wild turkeys, and a ton of deer. Had a 12 point eating out of my birdfeeder.

dankind

madtowndave said:

I haven't been able to get a good picture, but we have a pileated woodpecker in the neighborhood. Also 9 wild turkeys, and a ton of deer. Had a 12 point eating of my birdfeeder.

We had eight turkeys milling about yesterday. I'd like to see them come back a few days before Thanksgiving. 

blackhawks

bbiggs said:

This guy is a monster. Hard to really tell the size from the picture, but it is a very large spider. Glad it’s not a brown recluse...

Burn your house down!!!!!  I hate spiders..

blackhawks

I about stepped on it but it was nice and said hey, don’t crush me.  Never new I had a 6ft vertical leap......

dankind

^^^Western Diamondback?

darwinstheory

^^^FUCK THAT!!!

blackhawks

dankind said:

^^^Western Diamondback?

Yeah.  I saw three that morning last week and said....done!

blackhawks

darwinstheory said:

^^^FUCK THAT!!!

I actually don’t mind snakes.  We have 16 species in AZ at different elevations and some are pretty.  It is the paying attention part when hiking Instruggle with.  I am always looking around and forget to look down.

PJ_Soul

blackhawks said:

bbiggs said:

This guy is a monster. Hard to really tell the size from the picture, but it is a very large spider. Glad it’s not a brown recluse...

Burn your house down!!!!!  I hate spiders..

Me too!!! I don't mind seeing them outside unless they are on me or something, but if that thing was actually inside my home I'd go completely bananas.

dankind

Being from Florida, I'm usually cool with most snakes just doing their thing, but I'd be more than tempted to kill any rattlers slinking through my yard, especially if I had a dog to protect. I'd hope that before I actually did the deed, I'd think to call someone to take care of the problem in a more humane fashion, but I'd likely already have the hoe in hand ready for the chop. I think that the lizard brain natural instinct to protect my family and pets would take precedence over my better nature in a case such as this.

Two of my uncles were bitten by rattlers in Florida, and that shit was fucking gross. They eventually healed and were fine, but they were fucked up for a while after being bitten.

blackhawks

A neighbor was bitten a couple months ago and it took 17 vials to turn her around.  She was walking at night with sandals on and no flashlight so she kinda had it coming lol!  They are pretty much hibernating now which is nice. I am getting used to the tarantulas too.  Those things freak me out the most.  They are slow and gentle but fuck me....they are huge!