Happy prose
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Post by Happy prose on Jul 5, 2020 11:16:19 GMT -5
We were visiting my parents today - as I'm parking the car in their driveway DH pointed out the deer in the yard next door. It calmly watched us, munched on the neighbor's bushes, not spooked at all (as they'd be in our rural area). They are bold in the 'burbs. A few minutes later it was settled down across the street in a shady spot near the sidewalk. Apparently mom's neighborhood has had bear sightings in the last week, too. Our local wildlife are a bit different. A month or so ago a fox tried to make off with one of our chickens. We heard the squawking, DH ran out and yelled, the fox dropped her. She was a bit injured but she's mostly recovered, a bit gimpy. A few nights ago we were out roasting marshmallows in the fire pit and the chickens were wandering around the fringes of the back yard. A bunny bounced out of the treeline, spooked the chickens who skittered off, and the bunny got spooked too. It couldn't decide which way to turn - chickens, people, fire, oh my! It bolted off between the house and garage. Then another bunny came out, freaked by us and fire, but looking for something (mama?) and unsure where to go, too. They were immature rabbits, not babies, but not the full grown ones I'm used to seeing, either. A previous summer when we were again at the fire pit, a big snapping turtle came towards us. He moved surprisingly fast. We don't have any water on our property, we could only assume he wandered in from the culvert a ways down the road, so DH took him back there. We're all a little bold in the 'burbs!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2020 11:55:17 GMT -5
Someone in our Nextdoor group just posted a picture of bear scat. He also posted an internet picture of it. Yep, same thing.
Tigers showing up is probably next.
Oh, my!
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 5, 2020 12:43:36 GMT -5
Yikes!
(And yes, I sung the "Oh, my!".)
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jul 5, 2020 13:05:32 GMT -5
Someone in our Nextdoor group just posted a picture of bear scat. He also posted an internet picture of it. Yep, same thing. Tigers showing up is probably next. Oh, my! The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter. They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge. Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear's sensitive nose and it will run away. It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.
Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Jul 5, 2020 13:08:47 GMT -5
I live in the boonies, so wildlife is common here.
I have seen porcupines - closest one was about three feet away one morning when I was running by my house.
Always lots of deer (especially on the trail, they aren't afraid of anything), squirrels, chipmunks. Saw a raccoon on the tree beside me last well about 6:30am.
Saw a mink a few weeks ago when I was running - that was a first!
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Jul 5, 2020 13:35:31 GMT -5
We are on the edge of a large wooded area, so get the occasional cougar roaming through. There are frequently coyotes roaming down the road at dusk, and some bears. Ironically enough, deer seem to do the most local damage, both with pets and property.
I think that on this road alone, 3 dogs have been killed by deer over the last several years. If you have a dog on a leash, you want to take a wide birth around a mama and her fawn. Fawns are easy enough to miss, I took Harriet out for a walk and didn’t realize that there was one laying near a bush in our front yard. Mama was nearby and was quite agitated. I got my body between Harriet and mama and got the dog up the driveway and away before mama got more agitated.
We have had a couple of young trees we planted destroyed by deer, and many plantings. Seems about the only thing they won’t eat is lavender and herbs. The single remaining rose bush we have is caged. TD forgot to put the cage back after he mowed last time and the bush was eaten down to a twig. I think it has a few leaves on it now, but roses seem to be prime eating.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on Jul 6, 2020 8:58:45 GMT -5
I live in a suburb in New England. Have a fox in the neighborhood, bobcat in my yard as well on my walks with my dog, seen the bobcat with its kittens, have a bear that wanders through our yard. My dog has treed a bear. Had a bear playing with 3 cubs in our neighborhood. You would think we live in the country
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weltschmerz
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Post by weltschmerz on Jul 6, 2020 11:47:01 GMT -5
I live in a suburb in New England. Have a fox in the neighborhood, bobcat in my yard as well on my walks with my dog, seen the bobcat with its kittens, have a bear that wanders through our yard. My dog has treed a bear. Had a bear playing with 3 cubs in our neighborhood. You would think we live in the country I live in a city of millions. We had a fox in our subway station. The police put him on a bus instead, because the subway is no place for a fox. After getting stuck on Metro, fox takes bus to Île Sainte-Hélène www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/metro-fox-mcgill-ile-saint-helene-1.4237997
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irishpad
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Post by irishpad on Jul 6, 2020 11:56:52 GMT -5
One of the saddest days of my life growing up on a dairy farm was when I was mowing an alfalfa field (sickle mower) and as I was working in from the outside to the inside, there was a mother fox and some kits that gradually were working toward the center to stay hidden. I didn't see them at all since the alfalfa was about 2 1/2 feet high. Then as I was getting close to done with the field, I seriously clipped one of the kits and then saw the mother and other kits runs towards the woods. I had to do a mercy killing since the kit wasn't going to be able to survive. So cute, tears were rolling down my eyes.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jul 7, 2020 15:07:44 GMT -5
This area of AZ we get javelina and coyotes. Once in a while a bobcat will come into the back for water. About the only thing I chase out of the yard is a road runner. They are looking for gecko lunch and I like my geckos. All the birds disappear from the yard when our local friendly hawk comes by. Desert wildlife is interesting I love the pix of the bobcats sitting on the suguaros waiting for bunnies on the golf course. I keep thinking "Doesn't that hurt?"
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sesfw
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Post by sesfw on Jul 7, 2020 18:05:59 GMT -5
Another great picture here in AZ is the bald eagle nest protected in the arms of a mighty Saguaro .....
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 18:05:18 GMT -5
I finally got a picture of my "mountain lion." The coloring is wrong for any type of wild cat so it is probably an extremely large feral domestic cat. And I do mean extremely large. My previous dog was a 35 pound cocker spaniel, and it is larger than she was. It was resting itself in the shade of a large magnolia in my backyard. The picture is from the deck and slightly enlarged to see the shape of the face, etc. It isn't close, but I'm not good enough with distance to tell how far I was from it. I initially saw it from the front yard, grabbed my 10-lb dog, and rushed inside. Anyway, here it is.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jul 17, 2020 18:10:06 GMT -5
That's a cat, SouthernSusana.
Because I only see him at night when he comes to eat the backyard cats' food, it is tough to get a good picture of him. He's a possum and near the size of a pot-bellied pig. He is huge forxa possum. No confusing him though for a pig.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 18:26:53 GMT -5
That's a cat, SouthernSusana. Because I only see him at night when he comes to eat the backyard cats' food, it is tough to get a good picture of him. He's a possum and near the size of a pot-bellied pig. He is huge forxa possum. No confusing him though for a pig. I always knew it was some sort of cat. Mountain lions are a type of cat, too. Remember I first saw this very large cat running behind a row of cedars. So I wasn't sure what I saw except that it looked like a cat. I am fairly sure that it is feral. Its size still bothers me, but that is because my new dog is a 10-pounder. She's got a lot of hunting instinct for such a small dog (a lot of min-pin in her) so I want to make sure she doesn't try to take it on.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jul 17, 2020 18:38:08 GMT -5
That's a cat, SouthernSusana. Because I only see him at night when he comes to eat the backyard cats' food, it is tough to get a good picture of him. He's a possum and near the size of a pot-bellied pig. He is huge forxa possum. No confusing him though for a pig. I always knew it was some sort of cat. Mountain lions are a type of cat, too. Remember I first saw this very large cat running behind a row of cedars. So I wasn't sure what I saw except that it looked like a cat. I am fairly sure that it is feral. Its size still bothers me, but that is because my new dog is a 10-pounder. She's got a lot of hunting instinct for such a small dog (a lot of min-pin in her) so I want to make sure she doesn't try to take it on. I wonder if it's at least partially a Maine Coon. They get pretty big but no one would confuse a 20lb domestic cat for a 160lb mountain lion. Here's a link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon#Size
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Jul 17, 2020 18:47:36 GMT -5
That's a cat, SouthernSusana. Because I only see him at night when he comes to eat the backyard cats' food, it is tough to get a good picture of him. He's a possum and near the size of a pot-bellied pig. He is huge forxa possum. No confusing him though for a pig. I always knew it was some sort of cat. Mountain lions are a type of cat, too. Remember I first saw this very large cat running behind a row of cedars. So I wasn't sure what I saw except that it looked like a cat. I am fairly sure that it is feral. Its size still bothers me, but that is because my new dog is a 10-pounder. She's got a lot of hunting instinct for such a small dog (a lot of min-pin in her) so I want to make sure she doesn't try to take it on. I have three 15-year-old sister cats in my home. Two are thin as rails and the third is chubby. Ferals are usually pretty thin-I take care of a bunch of them. You might have a cat whichcwas well cared for and which somehow got out of its home.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2020 19:28:24 GMT -5
I always knew it was some sort of cat. Mountain lions are a type of cat, too. Remember I first saw this very large cat running behind a row of cedars. So I wasn't sure what I saw except that it looked like a cat. I am fairly sure that it is feral. Its size still bothers me, but that is because my new dog is a 10-pounder. She's got a lot of hunting instinct for such a small dog (a lot of min-pin in her) so I want to make sure she doesn't try to take it on. I wonder if it's at least partially a Maine Coon. They get pretty big but no one would confuse a 20lb domestic cat for a 160lb mountain lion. Here's a link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon#Size You are right, but female mountain lions can weigh as little as 64 pounds according to Wikipedia. And there is nothing to say that it is full-grown. I just know that it is larger than a 35 pound dog. However, it isn't a mountain lion. The coloring is all wrong for any type of wild cat. It is a short hair white domestic cat, probably feral. There is great hunting around my yard . . . a 15 acre field in back, rabbits on the side, and deer, raccoons, chipmunks, and squirrels all over the place. My neighbor wants to make friends with it, thinking that it is a previously domesticated cat that is now homeless. I think she is nuts personally.
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Bonny
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Post by Bonny on Jul 18, 2020 10:19:56 GMT -5
I wonder if it's at least partially a Maine Coon. They get pretty big but no one would confuse a 20lb domestic cat for a 160lb mountain lion. Here's a link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon#Size You are right, but female mountain lions can weigh as little as 64 pounds according to Wikipedia. And there is nothing to say that it is full-grown. I just know that it is larger than a 35 pound dog. However, it isn't a mountain lion. The coloring is all wrong for any type of wild cat. It is a short hair white domestic cat, probably feral. There is great hunting around my yard . . . a 15 acre field in back, rabbits on the side, and deer, raccoons, chipmunks, and squirrels all over the place. My neighbor wants to make friends with it, thinking that it is a previously domesticated cat that is now homeless. I think she is nuts personally. Oh I would try too. Most of my cats were pound purries. You have/participate in a neighborhood app called Next Door? I'm wondering if it isn't a neighborhood cat. Looks too clean and well fed for a feral.
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