MagiStream

*SNERK* Tx, I think you edited my post instead of quoted it.

BBkat wrote:The Mallards however are very smart. Down by the river downtown I saw one walk up to the crosswalk, stop, wait for the light to change and walked across when the sign turned to walk. The duck actually used the crosswalk at the bust intersection rather than simply crossing in the middle of the road and causing everyone to stop and wait. It was so weird.

In Helena, MT, the deer have learned to use the crosswalks and signals too. The city has the kind of signals for visually impaired folk where they whistle or chirp, and the deer have learned which chirp means which direction is safe to go. It was crazy seeing a group of 5 deer standing on a corner, and then cross the street all together when it was safe, and then spread out to go which ever way they wanted!


As to Grackles and sleeping? No. No they don't. Just like the kingbirds around here who start singing at 3am!

TNHawke wrote:*SNERK* Tx, I think you edited my post instead of quoted it.

BBkat wrote:The Mallards however are very smart. Down by the river downtown I saw one walk up to the crosswalk, stop, wait for the light to change and walked across when the sign turned to walk. The duck actually used the crosswalk at the bust intersection rather than simply crossing in the middle of the road and causing everyone to stop and wait. It was so weird.

In Helena, MT, the deer have learned to use the crosswalks and signals too. The city has the kind of signals for visually impaired folk where they whistle or chirp, and the deer have learned which chirp means which direction is safe to go. It was crazy seeing a group of 5 deer standing on a corner, and then cross the street all together when it was safe, and then spread out to go which ever way they wanted!


As to Grackles and sleeping? No. No they don't. Just like the kingbirds around here who start singing at 3am!

Ouch, and I thought a flock of 20 Grackles squawking and puffing at each other at 6 am was bad. When they do that we're assuming they're trying to either show off for the ladies or scare away other males. It's funny watch though as the puff and squawk at each other.
Of course, if I open the window really fast they all fly away(for all of, maybe 10 minutes before they come back)

I once saw a pair of Kingbirds dive-bombing a seagull for being close to the nest, despite the fact the gull much bigger than they were.

I've seen lone kingbirds take on hunting eagles and drive them away. I've seen pairs harry hawks, owls, crows, ravens AND humans. there's a reason they're referred to as "tyrant birds".

TNHawke wrote:I've seen lone kingbirds take on hunting eagles and drive them away. I've seen pairs harry hawks, owls, crows, ravens AND humans. there's a reason they're referred to as "tyrant birds".

They are fearless little things when their nests/young are in danger.

Heh, the mourning doves like to sit down in the square feeder we have and puff themselves out, essentially taking up the whole thing. I've seen Grackles and Blue Jays fly at them to try and get them to move and the dove just sits there. They do not move at all (and they're pigs too).

French fries can't possibly be good for mongooses! (or would that be mongeese? lol)

On my bike ride yesterday, my dog almost stepped on an adorable baby garter snake. Problem is, every time I try to get off the bike to snag them, they're gone before I can do it! And then Rosco tried to join me and yanked the bike over, which scared the raven half to death... Maybe I should stop trying to catch the baby snakes?

TNHawke wrote:French fries can't possibly be good for mongooses! (or would that be mongeese? lol)

On my bike ride yesterday, my dog almost stepped on an adorable baby garter snake. Problem is, every time I try to get off the bike to snag them, they're gone before I can do it! And then Rosco tried to join me and yanked the bike over, which scared the raven half to death... Maybe I should stop trying to catch the baby snakes?

Maybe. They make it look so easy on tv to catch snakes, but it's not.
I tried to catch an Eastern Milksnake one year at the cabin. I finally caught it after it went across the small road, through the sand box, around the base tree... I managed to not get bitten either. Once it relaxed it wrapped it's tail around my arm and just lay there. I got some pictures of it before releasing it.
A lady looked at me like I was nuts when she saw me carrying this snake.

This year I tried to catch a watersnake-I wanted to catch it to move it to safety because some kids insisted that it was super dangerous and aggressive and would bite you if you got to close and wanted to catch it so they could smash its head in with a rock-and the excitement with which they talked about what they were going to do to it, was unsettling, especially for kids their age(I dunno, 12ish at the most?). I got in the water only a few feet from it and it swam away from me/ignored me.
Yeah, real aggressive /sarcasm
But it got away, thank goodness, by swimming into a small hole and, poofing.

The thing to know, the watersnakes here are Northern Watersnakes. They are not venomous and are more prone to bite when handled than say, Gartersnakes or Milksnakes. However, they will also urinate and deficate on you as well if you try to handle them. Plus, their bites probably look worse than they are they have an anticoagulant in their spit keeping the blood from clotting immediately, so even shallow bite on the hand would bleed a lot. They are not "aggressive" in the sense of attacking unprovoked. As I proved, they would rather swim away from you than swim at you and bite you.

TNHawke wrote:French fries can't possibly be good for mongooses! (or would that be mongeese? lol)

On my bike ride yesterday, my dog almost stepped on an adorable baby garter snake. Problem is, every time I try to get off the bike to snag them, they're gone before I can do it! And then Rosco tried to join me and yanked the bike over, which scared the raven half to death... Maybe I should stop trying to catch the baby snakes?

My cat caught a baby garter snake for me. Thankfully, I managed to get it away from him before he truly hurt it. The little thing was adorable

A couple of nights ago, I heard the distinct sound of hooting. I went out, it was dark, but I finally saw not just one, but TWO Great Horned Owls in a nearby dead tree. I'm assuming one was male and the other female, because one had much deeper hoots than the other.

Then, the very next night, I was letting Rosco out to pee, and I heard the even more distinctive- and rather creepy- sound of a barn owl! I looked up and around and finally saw it flying over. It didn't call again, but if it hadn't called the once, I never would have seen it at all.

THEN, two days ago, I had the dog and raven out with me on a bike ride... and low and behold, we come across yet ANOTHER baby garter snake. And... apparently having NOT learned the lesson from every other snake sighting before... I stopped the bike and got off- this time successfully, AND I managed to catch the little guy! Of course he promptly musked all over me. UGH. That is the single worst part about garter snakes. EW. He was all cold, which is probably why I was able to catch him, and.... I decided to bring him home. I dumped the water out of my water jug and popped him into it. Now, he's in a ten gal tank with the tree frog, Xanth, that the cats brought me a couple weeks ago. If the snake was bigger, he'd quite happily eat Xanth, but right now I don't think the snake could even get his mouth around more than one of Xanth's legs. He's just a little bitty garter.

Now I need to get my hands on some small worms or fish so he'll eat. Although I think his eyes looked a tad cloudy last night, like he's about to shed, and I've never met a snake who wanted to eat when they were about to shed.

Autumn means owl weather. We have a great horned owl who has frequented the area since we moved out here. I heard him for the first time last night, no mistaking that sound! Also, we saw a weird looking spider outside when we sat down to dinner. Took pictures of it and identified it as a tropical orb weaver. He's a little far north and thus rare for the area, but an interesting find. This afternoon, we found two of the golden orb weavers sharing a web near the ramp. At sunset, we interrupted a flight of dragonflies. I'd never seen that many in one place before. Our juvenile red shouldered hawk has grown his adult plumage and is hunting a mate. We can hear him doing the mating cry and flying over the house. There's a murder of crows harrying him though.

There seem to be a lot of albino moths around (and I mean albino, not white). I wonder what's causing it.