Wildlife

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TxCat
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Wildlife

Post by TxCat »

This thread has been created for in-depth discussion of wildlife, particularly for those of us who enjoy watching it, at the request of TNHawke. The guild upon which it is based is located HERE.

Discussion guidelines:

- Talk about creatures you have personally seen, observed, or have experience dealing with on some level. Zoos do not count. Rehabilitation work does.

- Talk about conservation news, interesting wildlife tidbits, or new animal discoveries but be ready to back up your views with multiple reliable sources (ie: citing one group known for its radical views like PETA is unacceptable. Citing a newspaper article, an encyclopedia article, and that particular source if they all tell the same story is acceptable).

- Accidents happen. If you want to talk about the deer you hit or the possum you ran over, that's all right. Just don't be graphic about it and if it's too messy, don't post photos (sometimes photos might be needed for identification purposes and we understand that the animal in question may be dead).

- Talk about the birds which come to your feeder, the tracks you saw in the yard or while camping, or the scat and other evidence of animals around your home.

- Suggest places to observe wildlife and the kinds of wildlife found there.

- Talk about your favorite sightings or finds.

- Equipment used to watch your wildlife. This could be anything from what digital camera and settings you use to which pair of binoculars works best to the type of bird seed and feeders in use and what sorts of animals they attract. It also includes any wildlife books you may use an sites which help identify animals.

- Tell us about how you record sightings, if you do, and what animals you hope to see personally. Mention sites which give information on animals and wildlife.

Of course, MS and HoS rules apply. Please re-read them both if you're not certain how to post here. Be intelligent, be in depth, and be courteous. If you consider yourself a professional, do give your credentials and explain what it is you do. We love hearing about people who actually work with wildlife! It goes without saying that this is NOT the place to discuss pets, unless you happen to have made one out of a wild animal. Use the Pets thread for that.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant. Harlan Ellison

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Re: Wildlife

Post by Pshawraven »

This is a "small" encounter, but one that made a distinct impression on me nonetheless.

I worked on the 2000 Census, based in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Our crew did such good work, we often got sent to other parishes to re-do their address listings or update their maps. In 2000 we were still using paper maps in the huge black binders and having to key everything into the computers back at the office. But anyway, I was sent up to Assumption Parish, to a small town called Vacherie. It's right on the water, and much of it was still old-fashioned looking and very Cajun. There was also a lot of very lush vegetation and many thriving gardens, so the place was alive with insects in the spring when I went.

I'd never seen so many dragonflies at once in my life. And I'd had no idea they came in so many colors - not just red and blue, but gold, purple, and all kinds of mixtures. I parked my car along a wall of hedges and got out, leaving my binder and stuff behind just to walk down this clamshell road and look at them. Eventually I reached out and, very carefully, caught one.

For a moment it was amazing - holding a living jewel in my hands. I just stood there hardly daring to breathe.

Then, it bit me. I yelped, the dragonfly escaped, and I beat a retreat back to my car. That HURT!

While I was driving around, I also carried binoculars in my car. They sent us all the way to Iberia Parish, and sometimes the bird watching was great. That's still all I use for wildlife watching aside from a digital camera. I had an ancient pair from K-Mart of all places, and about five years ago upgraded to a pair with these lab-grown ruby lenses. What I would really like is a good optical zoom lens for the camera.
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Re: Wildlife

Post by DreamingOfIslands »

Though the wildlife on campus is pretty mundane, it's still really cool. You can get REALLY close to those squirrels before they flip and run off. I saw two birds that looked like they were doing a mating courtship thing (or something- Sorry, I don't know the technical term). THAT was pretty cool. I don't know what kind they were, but they were mostly grey with some black and bright white patches on their wings and tails. They were really pretty. The squirrels are shockingly bold- I've been within a few feet of one before I decided I didn't want to get any closer. So many colors, too! It's always seemed to me that grey was the natural squirrel color, but there are some really cute red ones around, too. Sometimes I see rabbits at night, and they'e super cute. My friend always scares them off, though D: At home in VA, we have a serious buzzard problem. Like, these HUGE, black turkey vultures and DOZENS of them, too. The neighbor's taken to trying to scare them off with fireworks... Though he shoots squirrels, so he should know why they all come there >_>
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Re: Wildlife

Post by MistyoC »

I live in a small town and see all kinds of wildlife. There are the usual urban scavengers like raccoons and opossums, but we've even had deer in our backyard. (Thankfully, the dog has never gotten close to them. lol) I've seen coyotes and foxes on the outskirts of town. There was a coyote sighted in a yard I pass on my way to work, but that was rare enough to warrant his picture in the paper. Hawks and vultures are all over the place and we see Bald Eagles at times too. I got a funny picture of some vultures:
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Imposibibble »

We have chickens (from one of my old High school experiments). Last summer, they started screaming in the night. Me and my dad rushed over and found a big fat oppossum sitting in their nesting basket. I found a stick and was trying to poke him out of the basket when my dad came back with a hammer.
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He basically just whacked the poor thing in the head with the hammer. It played possum and I tried to stop my dad by saying its already dead (I knew it wasn't yet). But he said to make sure, he hit him some more. After it actually died, he put the creature in a black bag and put him in the dumpster. :sulk:
I know it could probably have hurt my chickens and other bad things (like carry rabies). But what makes me upset is that I had tube fed several baby opossums at the Wildlife Center I had volunteered at that summer. We have a spare carrier. We could have put him there until we can take him to the hills and release him.
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Re: Wildlife

Post by ryer »

A few years ago at our old apartment, a mourning dove made a nest in a tree right under my window. I watched it the whole season as the egg hatched, the chick grew, the mammy fed it, etc. The chick was hella ugly at first, in a cute way (looked like an old man with cute little beady black eyes! xD) but I looked it up and saw that dove hatchies are naturally like that but they grow beautiful.

Eventually both of them left, and I was really sad. The nest was abandoned for a while then the next year, a mourning dove came back to it. It sat there and kept returning for several days but eventually left. I have a feeling it was the baby come to visit home a last time.
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Kestrad »

I worked for a month or so at the USGS's whooping crane rehabilitation center. The crane chicks are adorable! But those adult birds are vicious and enjoy pecking at you. Since we were working with easily imprintable birds, we had to don white crane suits every time we went to do anything with them. That included walking them and weighing them and shooing them outside so that we could clean their pens. Fortunately cleaning the pens themselves didn't require wearing the suits, but oh my god those birds poop a lot.

All in all, it was quite possibly one of the most unique experiences I ever had.
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Pshawraven »

The photo is of an ant lion trap in the driveway. We've noticed a lot of these around lately, and this one is particularly large. My hand is in the pic for a sense of proportions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antlion They are really the larva stage of another insect, and I didn't realize these are the famous doodle-bugs. In grade school the kids would try to get them out by chanting, "Doodle-bug, doodle-bug, your house is on fire," but obviously that doesn't work very well.

Pretty much anything that eats ants is cool with me. Keep the destructive little creeps out of my lettuces!
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Batty »

On a recent trip to Sydney I had to stop every few miles to turn over dead kangaroos, wallaroos, wombats, wallabies and echidnas so I could check the pouches* for joeys. I didn't find any, luckily, but the sheer number of motor vehicle victims was depressing. I counted 3 eastern grey kangaroos, 1 wallaroo/euro, 2 red-necked wallabies, 1 swamp wallaby, 1 yellow-tailed wallaby, 3 wombats, and 3 echidnas. Hitting any one of these marsupials will do serious damage to a car, and running over an echidna is like running over a natural Stinger tyre puncture barrier. It's not that hard to avoid hitting them, and yet people drive at maximum speed at dusk.

I had a box of latex gloves in the... glove box, so handling the bodies wasn't an issue. I must have thought something was coming because I'd loaded my car with rescue boxes and blankets. I didn't need them as it turned out.

There was nothing I could have done for any of the animals and yet I felt like I'd let them down.


*Echidnas don't have pouches, but they young do cling underneath.
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Re: Wildlife

Post by Batty »

Imposibibble wrote: We have a spare carrier. We could have put him there until we can take him to the hills and release him.
Is there a territorial issue with North American opossums?

The possums here (Australia) are highly territorial, and you can't just catch and relocate. Doing that is effectively a death sentence for the possum you relocate, because the owners of the territory will attack the stranger.

The best you can do is possum-proof the structures, remove food sources, and wait for the possum to move on. Aussie possums are mostly herbivores and won't attack chickens. I think your opossums are omnivores.
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