Animals roaming free

[Rhea]

The tree swallow chicks have hatched in one of our apple trees and mom and dad are DIVE BOMBING us in the yard. Hey! We live here, too! I think a couple of aunts and uncles are in on the game. They really come close. I consider sending the kids out with eye protection.

We run a 45-acre grassland bird habitat, so they are finishing up their nestling phases and I will cut the grass next month to keep the brush away so they can nest again next year. It's fun watching them flit up and down from the nests in teh grass, but I can't tell what they all are from so far away.

I haven't identified all of the birds we have, I'm slowly learning the calls. But we have a couple of protected species that I try to listen for and see if we have any yet. I'm slow at this - I just make sure the habitat is properly maintained.

This is our yard. The top half was mowed that year, the bottom half would be done the next year. There's an equal amount over the ridge into the mist that is out of sight. We mow about 1/3 of it each year so that any one piece is cut at least every three years, keeping the brush back and allowing the grassland birds to nest without predation from brush-sitting birds and animals.



this see it from the other direction (with boy flying kite)

 

[Angry Floof]

Daughter got a shot of the twins.

 

[crazyfingers]

The tree swallow chicks have hatched in one of our apple trees and mom and dad are DIVE BOMBING us in the yard. Hey! We live here, too! I think a couple of aunts and uncles are in on the game. They really come close. I consider sending the kids out with eye protection.

We run a 45-acre grassland bird habitat, so they are finishing up their nestling phases and I will cut the grass next month to keep the brush away so they can nest again next year. It's fun watching them flit up and down from the nests in teh grass, but I can't tell what they all are from so far away.

I haven't identified all of the birds we have, I'm slowly learning the calls. But we have a couple of protected species that I try to listen for and see if we have any yet. I'm slow at this - I just make sure the habitat is properly maintained.

This is our yard. The top half was mowed that year, the bottom half would be done the next year. There's an equal amount over the ridge into the mist that is out of sight. We mow about 1/3 of it each year so that any one piece is cut at least every three years, keeping the brush back and allowing the grassland birds to nest without predation from brush-sitting birds and animals.

Very neat. Take full advantage!

Last spring I accidentally walked into a tree swallow nest box area and was also dive bombed.

this see it from the other direction (with boy flying kite)

Looks like prime tick territory to me.

 

[Rhea]

Looks like prime tick territory to me.

We check for them all the time but have never seen one. Typically, their activity is highest fall and spring when they are sitting on grasses and hoping a host will go by, so we don't even go out there without full covering during early spring or late fall. But in the summer we have looked constantly on our bodies after being in the field and never seen one.

 

[credoconsolans]

I apologize if I've already posted here. I can't find my post.

I have raccoons, possums, feral cats, rats and snakes living in the area around my home...and sometimes closer.

The raccoon and rats got into my attic, though I think they've already moved on for the summer since it gets so hot up there. But during the fall and winter they bunked up there, the rats getting eaten by the raccoon, their piss and shit stinking up the place (at one point falling through the crawlspace door into my bathroom) and occasionally dying under the house or in the attic, leaving a decaying corpse smell, and a invasion of carrion flies and the occasional maggot casing falling into the bathroom through the attic door on windy days.

So now I will have to hire exterminators to go up into my attic in their haz mat suits to clean and disinfect and clear out anything still living up there. Then I have to hire someone to fix the roof where they got in.

As a result of this wildlife traipsing in and around and under my house, my cats now have to fight fleas year round.

As a result of this wildlife, I'm afraid to go under my house and check things like plumbing for fear of running across 6 foot rat snakes hanging out.

 

[fromderinside]

As a result of this wildlife, I'm afraid to go under my house and check things like plumbing for fear of running across 6 foot rat snakes hanging out.

Some people just shouldn't live in rural areas.

If ya can't plumb, tolerate beasts, carpenter, smith, farm, aren't prepared to die at any time for most any reason you certainly shouldn't live in rural areas.

As for other recent posts, birds have their own kind of which to be fearful. Magpies, blackbirds, crows, and others steal eggs and nests. Be careful Its a bug eat bug world out there (police story).

 

[credoconsolans]

As a result of this wildlife, I'm afraid to go under my house and check things like plumbing for fear of running across 6 foot rat snakes hanging out.

Some people just shouldn't live in rural areas.

If ya can't plumb, tolerate beasts, carpenter, smith, farm, aren't prepared to die at any time for most any reason you certainly shouldn't live in rural areas.

As for other recent posts, birds have their own kind of which to be fearful. Magpies, blackbirds, crows, and others steal eggs and nests. Be careful Its a bug eat bug world out there (police story).

Uh, rural areas? I can see the downtown skyline from my backyard.

 

[Rhea]

Some people just shouldn't live in rural areas.

If ya can't plumb, tolerate beasts, carpenter, smith, farm, aren't prepared to die at any time for most any reason you certainly shouldn't live in rural areas.

As for other recent posts, birds have their own kind of which to be fearful. Magpies, blackbirds, crows, and others steal eggs and nests. Be careful Its a bug eat bug world out there (police story).

Uh, rural areas? I can see the downtown skyline from my backyard.

I think there was some joking going on there.

My house has an actual cellar rather than just a space, but there are still sometimes snakes and other critturs down there. A rather large corn snake made me jump out of my skin (pun intended) until I was able to look it up and find it was not a bad guy with a venom and take it outside. The hole in the roof sounds awful. We've had squirrels up there and it causes a big mess!

 

[crazyfingers]

We have an old (150 year) homestead in Maine we go for vacation. Passed down to my wife and sister. Given that people only live in it a few weeks out of the year it has become home to certain critters.

In the walls we hear or see:

Garter snakes
Mice
Red squirrels

Way back at the old board I likely posted these.

Flying squirrels. Here they are again watching me as I sit in my bedroom.

Bats flying about in my bedroom in the old shack.

 

[fromderinside]

I think there was some joking going on there.

... look it up and find it was not a bad guy with a venom and take it outside. The hole in the roof sounds awful. We've had squirrels up there and it causes a big mess!

I'm hoping your 'bad guys' was just humor since there isn't really anything bad about snakes if you are properly dressed and not about the size of a six year old.

Hell, I've even encountered most of the potentially harmful spiders, giant wooly spiders (common name in our neighborhood then), Tarantulas (not giant woolys) violin spiders, been bitten by black widows (awful name except that they eat their sexual partners), the order Araneae, that most makes me shudder. They're not 'bad guys', they're just things that make my neck hairs stand up and my skin creep. I've got the correct solution for them. A nice heavy shoe.

'Rural' in my above post refers to distance from intensive civilization that protects one from intercourse with stuff not human or a human unprepared to deal with such environments without engaging ones stress reactions.

 

[Angry Floof]

Crazyfingers, they're all wondering what the hell you are doing in their house!

 

[Rhea]

I think there was some joking going on there.

... look it up and find it was not a bad guy with a venom and take it outside. The hole in the roof sounds awful. We've had squirrels up there and it causes a big mess!

I'm hoping your 'bad guys' was just humor since there isn't really anything bad about snakes if you are properly dressed and not about the size of a six year old.

Well, once I determined it was NOT a Timber Rattler that was by definition "cornered" in my basement, I was quite sanguine. Reaching for a can of beans that it is sitting on means you're kind of attacking the poor crittur, in its eyes, so I have to be realistic about its potential reaction. Timber rattlers are the only dangerous snakes around here, so once that's ruled out, Ms. Corn Snake can curl up on my stack of canned beans for a while if she wants to. Although when she left her skin in my box of nails on the top shelf I again nearly jumped out of mine reaching in there.

But yes, I was using gun-nut terminology for fun, "bad guy with a venom."

 

[crazyfingers]

Crazyfingers, they're all wondering what the hell you are doing in their house!

Likely true. The Eastern Phoebes who nest in the rafters of the front deck each spring also don't like our being on their deck when we come. More then once at night I have walked too close under the nest and had a Phoebe flying about in the dark as a result.

 

[credoconsolans]

OK, maybe I took the guy too seriously, but still. Snakes are nothing to sneeze at.

I don't mind snakes doing their snake-y business. I appreciate them eating the rats and whatnots. But since snakes tend to follow their prey, I don't want snakes crawling up into the rafters and possibly ending up inside the house.

I do mind that we have some snakes in my area that are poisonous. I do mind that snakes scare the shit out of me, so much so, that I can't even go under my own house for fear of them - and brown recluses.

 

[crazyfingers]

I'm going to Maine tomorrow until probably July 14. Hope to get some nice wildlife photos. But I probably won't be using precious data-plan data to upload photos while I'm there. Will wait until I get back - unless I get something amazing.

 

[Bronzeage]

This is a pink gecko. It is actually an invasive species, but since they eat bugs, no one seems to mind. These were brought in to be pets by a local supplier, but in a few years, there were millions(no exaggeration) more living outside, than in. In the warm months, which is 9 or 10 months around here, they like to crawl across window panes and grab insects that are attracted to the light. We call it gecko theater.

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

OK, maybe I took the guy too seriously, but still. Snakes are nothing to sneeze at.

I don't mind snakes doing their snake-y business. I appreciate them eating the rats and whatnots. But since snakes tend to follow their prey, I don't want snakes crawling up into the rafters and possibly ending up inside the house.

I do mind that we have some snakes in my area that are poisonous. I do mind that snakes scare the shit out of me, so much so, that I can't even go under my own house for fear of them - and brown recluses.

Just remember, they're more afraid of you than you are of them. The only problem with that is that it means they'll strike out and bite the hell out of you before you know they're there. Then in the ER you can explain to the doctor that the bite need not be treated because there's a fear imbalance.

I understand that functionality of snakes but god, I fucking hate them.

 

[crazyfingers]

View attachment 599
This is a pink gecko. It is actually an invasive species, but since they eat bugs, no one seems to mind. These were brought in to be pets by a local supplier, but in a few years, there were millions(no exaggeration) more living outside, than in. In the warm months, which is 9 or 10 months around here, they like to crawl across window panes and grab insects that are attracted to the light. We call it gecko theater.

That's kinda neat. It would be interesting to see them on the window like that.

 

[gmbteach]

View attachment 599
This is a pink gecko. It is actually an invasive species, but since they eat bugs, no one seems to mind. These were brought in to be pets by a local supplier, but in a few years, there were millions(no exaggeration) more living outside, than in. In the warm months, which is 9 or 10 months around here, they like to crawl across window panes and grab insects that are attracted to the light. We call it gecko theater.

That's kinda neat. It would be interesting to see them on the window like that.

They 'bark' here and the cats love to chase them. They don't usually get them though.

 

[Philos]

Folks,

Don't know if this counts as 'animals' but we just got back from a camping holiday and I was bitten on the hand by a mystery insect. My hand swelled up like a balloon! Lady on the farm said that there have been mosquitos in her house which surprised me for the UK. Anyway, this critter got right inside my sleeping bag.

Anti-histamines sorted it.

Alex.