MagiStream

Poor birds.

In the parking lot of my workplace, we have a nesting pair of Canadian Geese. The male wanders around while the female broods...but you must question their thought process...there is no water. Nothing but parking lot and large grass patches. You would think they would be a bit more...but then again, maybe they have no choice. There are some other water areas and most of them do have geese...who knows.

Man, the talk of doves reminds me of seeing a hawk take one out.

My dad and I were walking in the backyard(southern louisiana), and I feel like we kinda made it happen. Us walking too close to the tree must have startled it out and as soon as it flew off, we heard this sound, like a pillow hitting a wall. Apparently a hawk had been sitting in our neighbor's tree and as soon as the dove took off, the hawk nailed it. It was still alive and struggling though, cause the hawk dropped it against the fence and left (I guess because it saw people too close and thought DANGER).

The dove had died by the time we crossed the yard to it. It was one of the mourning doves that had been around our house for months. I know it probably would've gotten caught regardless seeing as that hawk was watching it that close, but I still feel bad about spooking it.

Ouch, that sounds terrible. But also kind of nice, not everyday that you can watch a bird of prey hunting.

We have a lot of hawks and falcons where I live. Usually they are just soaring in the sky, but occasionally you may see one perched in a tree or on something.

Your tale about the geese made me laugh - we also have a goose who has been hanging around, alone, at work, though there is water nearby. It has been named after our recently departed MD who so deeply insulted a good third of the staff with an ill conceived comment that his position became untenable.

More interestingly the other morning when I went up to do the horses I saw a reddish blot (my eyesight ain't what it used to be!) on the ramp up to the top field, a good 40 yards away. It turned to look at me and I realised it was a fox, but sitting oddly. When she got up I saw that she had been sitting suckling a cub. Just the one, but lovely to see.

We've had a raccoon around lately, nothing too unusual. They come and go around here. This one, though, was starting to become a bit of a pest. She had stopped being concerned with my presence - she used to scurry up a tree whenever I'd come outside and now she just looks at me like "Oh it's just you" and carries on with her business.

Wellllllll yesterday I found out why she had become so bold. She has babies. She climbed into the loft of the old barn that my roommate converted into an art studio and had them under the steps.

I saw her yesterday dragging the babies out of the tiny upstairs ventilation window onto the roof but she quickly retreated back into the loft with them when she saw me and the dogs outside. At least she still has a good sense of fear with the dogs.

@kiwi - that's lovely, I hope she managed to rear them with enough respect for creatures that might harm them for them to survive.

I've seen our vixen a few more times, there are actually two cubs, and a couple of times I've seen them playing before they realised I was there and scarpered.

We were sitting in the back garden at home late in the evening last week and heard an almightly scuffling at the bottom of the garden - it backs onto a drainage ditch and a field and it is all very overgrown with brambles. All three cats and the rabbit were around and on alert. The scuffling went on for some time before a young badger appeared out of the brambles, wandered along inside the fenceline and disappeared again. I assume it had a way out (though if it can get into and out of the garden I need to be looking at our rabbit-proofing I think!) I didn't know we had badgers so close - I know they are at the kennels, but not down here. I'm guessing it must have been one of this year's babies, it was quite small. I must check whether they'd catch and eat newts, I think it is only the protected newts in the pond in the field that is stopping the council allowing it to be built on

My whole family likes to camp,hunt, and fish so needless to say we have had a lot of encounters with the wildlife but these two encounters were some of the most memorable:

Encounter 1:
We had just left a cabin we were staying at and were slowly stopping to fish while we headed home and we had had an encounter previously with a rattlesnake earlier but this time was an interesting occurrence. We were driving along and all of the sudden we heard a rattle (we had our windows rolled down) coming from the road and we hit a bump. My dad looked out the window after stopping and saw he had hit a rattlesnake. I then cautiously looked out my window to see it. Needless to say I felt pretty bad after that.


Encounter 2:
My family and I were camping up by a lake when this happened. We drove up to the site and set up our tent and then we decided to fish a little at the lake. We saw a lot of fish rising in one spot so we went there. We spotted some moose tracks but thought nothing of it. We wrapped up our fishing and started a fire. We ate dinner and by the time we were done it was dark. All of the sudden my sister started freaking out. We all asked her what was wrong and she just pointed to the lake and said she heard something. There were trees partially blocking the lake. That happened to be were she pointed. We stopping and listened. We heard loud splashing coming from the lake. Me and my dad grabbed flashlights and went over to see what it was. My sister thought it was a bear but nope, we shined our lights and there we saw........ a mama moose and her baby playing in the water. It really was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

That's all.

I guess that a bunch of the critters I have seen are more on the mundane side for east-coasters, but I would like to share a few favorite encounters I have had.
* One time my church youth group went on a hike. It was very pretty, but the best parts were probably seeing a black (rat?) snake in a tree and a turtle of some sort near the path.
* Last year at youth camp, we were packing up to get ready to leave. We put our endeavors on pause to eat breakfast, but when I returned I found a weird bug on one of the flattened tents.
I coaxed the critter onto my lanyard and dropped him off away from the tents. A little bit later, the same bug reappeared, this time on a tent people were trying to take down!
During the entire event I called him a Dinosaur bug, only to discover later that he was a Wheel Bug. I am glad I didn't try to move him with my hands!
* I have also seen a lot of other bugs, too.

Spring is here and I found that we have a new neighbor. A rabbit that I have seen quite a few times already, once was at night when taking my dog out. I think it is planning on making a nest near the daycare...why I am not sure. Animals can be so strange, you know, they have a natural fear of humans but yet choose to make their homes near humans.

I live near a wooded area, we see opossums, raccoons, ravens, owls, and deer(if your lucky) around. Nothing to special, though they're still cool to look at.
Then a few summers ago I wake up way to early and glance outside only to see a fox trotting down the road. It eventually just went back into the wooded area, but it was still pretty cool.
Last summer I was walking near the woods (There's a path through it I like to go down, and also a park on the other side of that has a path right next to woods which I was walking on) when I see three baby foxes. They were pretty cute, and I stopped to stare at them for a bit until they ran back behind the tree's and bushes.
Honestly I hope to see more around, since usually I'll just get to see a stray cat climb out of the sewers or have a opossum get stuck in my window well.