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Animals roaming free

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Philos said:
I’m interested to know what animals tend to roam free near your house or in the garden?
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I live in the suburbs of Connecticut.

Sometimes when I am driving home I come across an old man walking his little dog without a leash. When that happens the dog is usually 50 feet away from the old man and I don't notice the little dog until my car is very close to him. Most people keep their dogs leashed because it's a state law. Where I live in the woodsy area of the town, we also have deer, rabbits, cats, turtles, frogs, geese, ducks, an occasional heron, a rare fox, and at least one pack of coyotes. Recent study of the coyotes shows some interbreeding with wolves, too. A couple of years ago there was such a coyote wolf hybrid that killed a Great Dane puppy a couple of towns over from where I am. Last year there was a black bear that somehow made it into the downtown area of where I live and such bears probably haven't been spotted for decades here. He was hanging out by the Outback Steakhouse dumpster.

Last night my dogs were acting odd and I thought I heard noises close by, like in the basement or outside the house. I wondered if someone was inside the house or trying to break in. So I went downstairs. After I noticed the dogs were often close to the front foyer while acting weird, I decided to step out onto the porch. As I got out there I heard noises diagonally across the street from me, a snarl and something like an owl's hoo-hoo followed by a third hoo that was just short of a howl. And after that I heard two more of nearly the same combination of sounds responding from what seemed to be two other close-by locations, but further from my house. And there was rustling of leaves or branches around the corner of my porch but no howls from there.

I walked back and forth on my porch to try to get a clear picture of what kind of animal was diagonally across the street. There was a big bush in my front yard blocking my view and so I could not see. Every score of seconds the combination of snarl and hoo-howls would repeat as before from the initial source to the dual responses and rustling of leaves, branches and plants near my porch. I seriously wanted to walk to the center of my lawn so that I could see around the bush and maybe give the animals a scare. Reason, though, stopped me because I felt like I'd be surrounded by noises coming from animals hard to locate.

I think it was probably the coyote-wolf hybrids but I couldn't see any of them.
 
I have a hard time with blue jays. Always in the bushes or a twig in the way or in the shadows. Here are a few attempts that were semi-successful.







A Northern Cardinal. It was tweeting away but with it's head up and moving the tweeting photos have fuzzy heads. This photo is between tweets.



A red squirrel. I don't know what he like so much about the tree to be licking it. Maple sap?





 
Thanks!

I use a Canon Powershot SX50. It's basically an advanced point & shoot camera with a max lens provides 50x zoom and 100x when I go into digital zoom. Those are nearly all at 100x zoom which is arount 1400mm by 35mm camera standards. The key is Canon has amazing image stabelization to do that hand held.
 
Sometimes you just hit gold. I went down to the swan pond for 35-45 minutes on the way to the pharmacy at around 4pm today.

Two American toads doing it.


A red-wing blackbird looking at me.


I'm going to post a lot of photos of this critter. First confirmed photo of a muskrat and he stayed around a long time.


Eating something


Eating more


Must be very yummy










The muskrat is that blob by the mud in the center of the photo.


The pond's namesake.


Turtle


Osprey is back


Muskrat on it's way my way


Coming to shore and then vanished. Must have a hole there.


Common Grackle


Osprey again


Female Red-wing blackbird


Snapping turtle looking at me
 
Today I took the kids to Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA


I actually got a lifer! A Northern Rough-winged Swallow. They were going back and forth by the ship and would sit on the chains.






There were some huge jellyfish in the water. I think that these are lion's-mane jellyfish.






There are always cormorants at the cove.




A resident pair of mute swans also live in the cove.
 
Unfortunately, I don't have any wonderful images of animals to post here. What I am hoping for is camera recommendations from all of you wonderful photographers who are clearly more experienced and talented than I am.

I have been using a Nikon D5000 and also a Pentax point and shoot. I really like the Nikon; the Pentax is ok. I don't much like using the screen to frame my shots. I especially don't like it when bright light causes the viewing screen to go black. I'd rather not shoot blind, if I can help it.

What I am looking for is something that is relatively water proof. I am going to be doing some canoeing and I know from bitter experience that one can easily ruin a perfectly sweet little point and shoot if you get it wet. Like you might when you are canoeing.

So, waterproof is high priority. I realize if I drop it in the bottom of the lake, I'll never see it again, but I do want it to withstand a good splashing. So is ease of use. Portability is important--I want/need it to be small enough to not get in the way if I am doing things, quick and easy to pull out and use. I anticipate using while canoeing and hiking but also with squirmy difficult to photograph uncooperative family members. They don't realize it but they will thank me later. Eventually.

I would like a decently good zoom. Wide angle would be a big bonus as I will most likely be using the camera mostly for landscape photos but also some candids of friends/family. If I am lucky, there will be wildlife but I will be traveling with a less than quiet group so I'm realistically not very optimistic. I'd love to get some good shots of wildlife but regardless, I am more set on good landscape and architectural photos as those things do not disappear when they hear noisy paddlers. Or hikers. Super bonus would be if I could use it at night or at least in low light.

Here are two that I am looking at:


http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-COOLPIX...rue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=AW8EZIPRQG80F

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Waterpr...F8&qid=1462814384&sr=8-5&keywords=nikon+1+aw1


There's obviously a big price differential but I am hoping for a 'forever' kind of camera, rather than a use it for a few years and then leave it in a drawer.


I'm open to other suggestions. Prefer not to go above the price of the more expensive camera if I can help it.

Many thanks in advance.
 
I'm in Japan again for a week. Business trip. Got here Friday night and have a weekend before works starts. Today I went to the same place I went last year. It's a jungle in the center of Tokyo called the Institute for Nature Study. Basically A tiny nature preserve.

On the way, what's common in any city. A rock pigeon.


A gray Heron I believe. Common here according to the sources I looked up. Looks a lot like the great blue but I guess smaller.


A Eurasian Kingfisher


Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker


Another gray heron


Turtle


A little lizard with an ant on it.


Brown eared Bulbul


Another turtle


Jungle crow. Tokyo is infested with these crows.They were making such a racket in the nature preserve.


Another turtle


Tree snake


Two of them
 
Day 2 in Tokyo.

I first went back to the same place as yesterday.

The Eurasian Kingfisher appears to live here. Light was bad.


Diving for the fish


Turtle Pig Pile!


Brown eared Bulbul again. They have a very loud and annoying call.


I got tired of not a lot going on at the nature preserve so I went to a regular city park.

This looks like an immature Asian Tree Sparrow


White cheeked starling. They behave almost exactly like American Robins stopping, watching, listening for food on the lawn.


Eastern Great Tit


Pretty sure this is an immature Eastern Great Tit.




Because the adult was bring it food


It wants MORE!


Adult and looks like an immature Eurasian Tree Sparrow.


On the way back to the hotel a pigeon poses for me.


A fluffy white pigeon
 
I didn't get any more photos in Japan after the weekend.

Here are some new photos from home.

An American Robin on the nest. The nest is in a cedar tree above my driveway


A great blue heron was at the swan pond and the redwing blackbirds were harassing it wherever it went.


Two mute swans coming in from across the pond. I'm told they had three chicks while I was away and all have been eaten by predators.




Same great blue flying off across the pond


Still being harassed by redwing blackbirds


A mouse in a crack by the side of the house and the stone wall.


 
I had to go to Cancun, Mexico for a conference last week. Arrived Wednesday afternoon and came home Friday. It was so hot and humid. I did get out the afternoon I arrived and saw some interesting stuff - at least for me as anything new to me is interesting.

But first for the boring, a young Rock Pigeon.


An adult Rock Pigeon. Funny that city pigeons are the same where ever I go.


A brown pelican out of the dock.


I believe that this is a great-tailed Grackle.


A Tropical Mockingbird


A Black Spiny-tailed Iguana. They were all over the place.






I did not get to see one of these


A Manificent Frigatebird, immature


Adult Magnificent Frigatebird


Green Heron


Mangrove Warbler (subspecies of yellow warbler)


The above were all in about an hour and a half walk outside. Being from Boston, MA, I am not used to the heat and humidity of the south gulf coast. I had to go in for a while.

Later as the sun was going down I went out again. Right by the concention center doors,

Hooded Oriole


I went down to the beach again.

More brown pelicans


Female Great-Tailed Grackle


Laughing Gull


A Great Kiskadee


Next day another Tropical Mockingbird


Overall I'm pretty pleased. That was all in less than 2 and a half hours of looking around and within walking distance from my hotel.
 
Thanks for these. I have long enjoyed your photos, now I'm involving the 5 and 6yo in the household. We just had a pleasant half hour in this thread.
 
Not a lot going on around here. I did get a new lifer yesterday. A Brown Snake in my driveway.



It was perhaps 12-14 inches long and hanging out at the bottom of the driveway were the rain pushes small rocks and sand down. It stayed there for a good half-hour and would have stayed longer if my boy had not decided to start poking it repeatedly.

Unlike a garter snake that leaves the moment it knows that it's being watched, this one just hung out while I took photos from 3 feet away and a boy on the other side. It only left when it finally was poked a few times.
 
crazyfingers said:
Not a lot going on around here. I did get a new lifer yesterday. A Brown Snake in my driveway.



It was perhaps 12-14 inches long and hanging out at the bottom of the driveway were the rain pushes small rocks and sand down. It stayed there for a good half-hour and would have stayed longer if my boy had not decided to start poking it repeatedly.

Unlike a garter snake that leaves the moment it knows that it's being watched, this one just hung out while I took photos from 3 feet away and a boy on the other side. It only left when it finally was poked a few times.
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Evidently your Brown Snakes are very different from ours - poking at an Australian Brown Snake is not a good survival strategy.
 
bilby said:
Evidently your Brown Snakes are very different from ours - poking at an Australian Brown Snake is not a good survival strategy.
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I guess so. On your mention I did some Googling. http://www.livescience.com/53580-brown-snakes.html

The name brown snake refers to two different genera of snakes, found on two different continents. If you are in North America, brown snake is the common name for Storeria, a small, shy, nonvenomous snake. If you are in Australia, Papua New Guinea or West Papua, brown snake is the common name for Pseudonaja, a genus of highly venomous snakes that includes the Eastern brown snake, considered the second most venomous land snake in the world, according to Australia’s Billabong Sanctuary.


It's fun to learn this stuff. Happens a lot with birds. The Robin in North America is totally different than the Robin in Europe. I find that example especially fun because of you watch the old Disney movie Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews, she's singing a song about a Robin and the Robin that lands on her finger is the American Robin but in the heart of London. I have wondered what people in Europe thought of that.
 
Can you spot the leopard?

13217529_10153708046633763_62158266449443800_o.jpg
 
We went to the place in Maine for vacation June 27 to July 8. We go to an old homestead that's owned by my wife's mother and will be ours some day. 150 years old. It's where we go every summer.

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It has a great view across the street Frenchman Bay and Acadia National Park. Unfortunately the rich people own the field across the street. We hope that they never build there.

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But we are allowed to use the field and go down to the shore.

Down at the shore a lobster washed ashore and is in the seaweed. Dead.
3

The next day was overcast at the shore but I went over to the Schoodic section of Acadia. A great blue heron with lunch.

4

It was clear inland. The Osprey are at their same nest at Mud Creek.

5

Next day overcast again. A herring gull with an invasive green crab at the harbor.
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An Eastern Phoebe. They are constantly on the wires in front of the house. This one appears to have a snack.

7

There is a bald eagle nest somewhere near the house. They frequently fly by. They sometimes sit in the trees in view from the shore in front of the house. Not sunny but this appears to be a juvenile bald eagle.

8

I took the photo from here. It's in the trees in the center of the photo. I'm on the rock we use to get down to the shore from the field.

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Song Sparrows are all over the place. Here is one with food probably for the chicks.
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Cedar Waxwing back at Bud Creek

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Also at Mud Creek, today the Osprey chicks showed themselves.
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Back at the house, a Loon in breeding plumage just off shore.
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On the wire in front of the house, an Eastern Phoebe with a snack.
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Back at the Schoodic Section of Acadia, an American Robin looking for bugs in the dried seaweed.
15

A Horse Fly bit me on the hand. I swatted it.

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Back at the house at the shore, a Loon in non-breeding plumage.

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On the way past Mud Creek on the way to Mount Desert Island, a wild turkey chick. There were a bunch but out the car window I didn't get many good shorts. Didn't try hard.

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On Eagle Lake, a mother Common Merganser and some chicks on a rock.
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Back at the house, a young red squirrel in a tree.
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End part 1 of 2
 
I went to Petit Manan National Wildlife Sanctuary up the coast. A common Yellowthroat in bad lighting. It has a snack.

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Out on the rocks, 4 double crested cormorants.
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Song sparrow
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I think a common tern
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Laughing Gull
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Myrtle Yellow-Rumped Warbler
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Next day I went to Seawall/Wonderland at Acadia. Two Mallards nosing around in some extremely stinky seaweed.
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I have never seen common Eider chicks before. The families mix with each other in groups. I wonder if they even know whose are whose.
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A crow crowing
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A black capped chickadee with a snack.

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I think that this may be a juvenile Golden-Crowned Kinglet. Not sure.
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Looks like a female Goldfinch.
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Common yellowthroat
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Yellow Warbler
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Back at the house I was down at the shore an an adult bald eagle went by.
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On the wire at Mud Creek a belted kingfisher.
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That's it on the wire. Love the zoom I get.
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Last full day of vacation and back at Schoodic. A great blue heron in a tree.
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Once again, can you see it on the top of the tree in the center of the photo? This is where I took the photo.
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Finally our animals love to look out the screen door of the house.
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End part 2 of 2
 
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