I'm jealous, we're lucky to have a few deer in suburbia where I live.
I need to move off this island and onto the main land of the USA someday.

I best guess is that its from a round-tailed muskrat (Neofiber alleni) better known as a Water Rat...
oh it looks like this, Hey that's an Avatar!

WiseOldOwl wrote:

jimmyjam wrote:

I can't tell what that is , kinda looks like rabbit fur, I see that once in a while when a raptor has grabbed one. I also have been seeing a lot of coyote hair on the trail.

I best guess is that its from a round-tailed muskrat (Neofiber alleni) better known as a Water Rat...
oh it looks like this, Hey that's an Avatar!

That looks nothing like me! Those things are kind of short and stumpy looking...

Yea - I tried I could't figure out how to get the pink water wings on the picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mlIfT_GHZmc

I saw this video about a year ago.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNqhi2ka9k

TrafficJam wrote:

I saw this video about a year ago.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNqhi2ka9k

Quite a sight. They are not welcome at my place though. They compete with a bird I love much more. I have not seen this bird this year yet.

http://www.bluebirdnut.com/Competitors.htm

The Common Starling should not be common here. It is sad what man does.

http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/biogeog/COOK1928.htm

That's funny. These guys are my neighbors.

http://www.today.com/entertainment/actor-who-created-bunny-rabbit-mr-moose-captain-kangaroo-dies-6C10871652

I remember Bob Keeshan from when I was a little kid. He lived down the street from my grandmother in West Babylon.

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Last night, I got to witness synchronous fireflies. It's only the second time I've seen them. It was perfect sleeping weather so I decided to sleep with the rain fly open. I was drifting off to sleep when I noticed a few flashes so popped my head out of the tent to see the show. It was such a delight. When they flash, they light up everything around. They are like tiny stars that are close enough to touch instead of being light years away.

There are only a few places in the world where you can find Photinus carolinus. There's a small population in the Smokies and they draw big crowds during the few weeks that they are active. The flashing is a mating ritual and the males' flashes are much brighter than the females. The males flash in a pattern, sometimes up to 8 times, then they stay dark for a few seconds while they search for the female. Last night, they flashed 4-5 times then stayed dark for 3-4 seconds before flashing again.

The scene...too bad I couldn't get a pic of the fireflies.

They don't sinc here but they are in abundance. We had some section hikers here the other night at Fort Bastion amazed at the number of fireflies & how bright the stars were.

My first night on the AT at Hawk Mountain I was impressed with how bright the stars were.

I guess it is always that way when you are out in the woods camping, but I probably noticed it more because I just had my son with me and wasn't worried about what a troop of boys might be up to.

I nearly missed the show and I'm fortunate to have seen it. I had to make myself sleep with the rainfly open. That was harder than hitching a ride this winter =O .

The ones in Pennsylvania are supposed to peak in a week or so.

TrafficJam wrote:

Last night, I got to witness synchronous fireflies. It's only the second time I've seen them. It was perfect sleeping weather so I decided to sleep with the rain fly open. I was drifting off to sleep when I noticed a few flashes so popped my head out of the tent to see the show. It was such a delight. When they flash, they light up everything around. They are like tiny stars that are close enough to touch instead of being light years away.

There are only a few places in the world where you can find Photinus carolinus. There's a small population in the Smokies and they draw big crowds during the few weeks that they are active. The flashing is a mating ritual and the males' flashes are much brighter than the females. The males flash in a pattern, sometimes up to 8 times, then they stay dark for a few seconds while they search for the female. Last night, they flashed 4-5 times then stayed dark for 3-4 seconds before flashing again.

The scene...too bad I couldn't get a pic of the fireflies.

There are gazillions of them in my back yard, they start out at ground level and seem to go higher as the night progresses. I spent the night out back in a hammock a few nights ago, at dark they were about 4-5 feet off the ground, woke up at 3:00 and they were high in the trees. 40 of us did a night hike to McDill point in Cheaha Park to see if any were there, not many, returned to Turnipseed Campground about 11:00 and cooked dinner and then did a midnight swim under Cheaha Falls, I was the first in the water and almost sat on a cottonmouth, had to kill that sucker three times before the girls would go in the water.

Don't get fireflies in Oz.
Never saw any until last year. Not many on the AT but we had some big numbers in the evenings on the aqua blaze.
Fascinating.
IM and I probably behaved like 8 year olds with them.

Same here

I've seen about 20 black bears in the Smokies. Half of those have been while running or biking around the Cade's Cove loop. I saw my first bear while day hiking from Clingman's Dome to Siler's Bald. It was mid week and I didn't see another hiker all day. The bear was sitting in the trail eating blackberries. I was so startled, I yelled for him to go away and he took off like a shot. I've always felt bad about chasing the bear away from his meal.

The first time my sister backpacked with me, she was really scared of bears. We only saw two cubs scamper down from a tree and run off into the woods. By the end of the trip, my sister was disappointed she hadn't seen more bears.


The second time she backpacked with me, we were on the AT near Fontana Dam. We saw a mama and 3 cubs. We kept walking and mama kept pace with us for about 10 minutes until we were safely away from her cubs.

I was at the shooting range this morning on the 200 yard range, it is about 10 yards wide with 15' banks on each side and a concrete walk down the middle, I'd been shooting for a while and had just ended a round when I saw an animal coming down the walkway about 150 yards out, thought it was a fox at first, as it got closer I could tell it was a young spotted deer fawn, it walked right up to me and stopped under the shooting table I was at, thought it was going to let me pet it, stayed there 10-12 seconds and continued walking in the direction it was headed.

A fawn that is not afraid to stroll through a shooting range is probably not going to die of old age.

OK, so here are some of my best wildlife encounters from days of yore.

Back in 1985ish, my wife and I were taking a day hike in Haleakala NP, Maui, HI on the Halemau'u trail. It starts at around the 8000' contour, follows the outside of the volcano until it reaches the rim of the crater in about 3/4 mile, and then drops down into the crater. We only got the view at the rim and turned around. Along the trail you see the valley between the two mountains that make Maui 8000 feet below. There were many rare Silversword Plants blooming. They are only found at the upper elevations of Hawaii. They grow for about 50 years, then bloom and die. Where the trail reaches the rim you are at the edge of a 1000 foot drop straight down to the crater floor below. The crater is a moonscape of multi-colored cinder cones, bare lava, and ash. At this point there is a gap in the crater. It was early afternoon and warm moist air was rising up from the Pacific was forming clouds that were pouring into the crater right below our feet. It was one of the most amazing views I've ever witnessed. I was standing there in awe for a while before I noticed an odd sound. I looked around and saw that I was standing right in the middle of a whole flock of Nene or Hawaiian Goose - the state bird of HI. Having evolved in the absence of predators, they have no fear of people which is why I was able to walk right into the middle of the flock without noticing them. They are very cute and very rare. At one point there were as few as 30. At the time there were only a couple hundred. I did the math and figured that I was surrounded by about 5% of all Nene in the world.

not my pic - this is from Wikipedia

Cool how hawks have made a come back the last 20 years, never saw em that much growin' up, least round here.

Not the best photo, but this guy walked around my stand for a while on Tuesday. Big guy probably 30-40lbs, I think he (she?) may have walked past my stand last year in the same spot.

"Is that a bobcat?"
"Yes, it's a cat Bob."

A small bird got in the house last night. tried to ride the living room ceiling fan. Hid in a cupboard on top not the pictured stuffed toy. Then flew out the open door.

I've had this happen a few times during warm summer months when the door is only loosely screened for the dog...always fun trying to shue em out.

How do you spell shoe/shu/shue?

Shew the bird out.

I think.

Anyway, my sister discovered that she had to turn the house lights off, with the door open. Then the bird flew out.

And my post should have said, darn auto correct, Hid on top of the pictured stuffed toy.

lol, it's shoo

I like weird Al !

meat wrote:

JimBlue wrote:

A small bird got in the house last night. tried to ride the living room ceiling fan. Hid in a cupboard on top not the pictured stuffed toy. Then flew out the open door.

I've had this happen a few times during warm summer months when the door is only loosely screened for the dog...always fun trying to shue em out.
How do you spell shoe/shu/shue?

Funny Story -

I had a bird fly into an open door of a restaurant kitchen I was working at 10 years ago. The bird flew in and was crapping everywhere as we tried to get it to leave the kitchen. We chased this thing around for about 15 minutes and I was finally able to get it by quickly putting a full size (18" x 26") sheet pan up above my head while it was flying and it crashed into it. The bird was placed outside and after about five minutes it wobbled up on its feet, gave me the finger (I made that part up) and flew off to sit on the fence and recover. It took us hours to clean up the bird crap everywhere.

yes they do, it's amazing just how much crap can come from such a tiny thing. There's a few birds that seem to have permanently taken up residence at my local grocery store, been there two trips now.

just be glad it wasn't the truck stop cafe we turned possums loose in one night years ago.

meat wrote:

Rasty wrote:

meat wrote:

JimBlue wrote:

A small bird got in the house last night. tried to ride the living room ceiling fan. Hid in a cupboard on top not the pictured stuffed toy. Then flew out the open door.

I've had this happen a few times during warm summer months when the door is only loosely screened for the dog...always fun trying to shue em out.How do you spell shoe/shu/shue?

Funny Story -I had a bird fly into an open door of a restaurant kitchen I was working at 10 years ago. The bird flew in and was crapping everywhere as we tried to get it to leave the kitchen. We chased this thing around for about 15 minutes and I was finally able to get it by quickly putting a full size (18" x 26") sheet pan up above my head while it was flying and it crashed into it. The bird was placed outside and after about five minutes it wobbled up on its feet, gave me the finger (I made that part up) and flew off to sit on the fence and recover. It took us hours to clean up the bird crap everywhere.

yes they do, it's amazing just how much crap can come from such a tiny thing. There's a few birds that seem to have permanently taken up residence at my local grocery store, been there two trips now.

We had a food product warehouse that made canned soda's - the place was so big we gave up and brought in a sharpshooter and "sophisticated" .22 rifle. One and done.

Five years ago I opened my door for a second to let the dog out and in flew this cute little winter wren . After a bit of a chase I finally caught him and let him back outside.



Then one year latter, almost to the day, I open the door again and in flies this winter wren...




That was really weird. It is not as if my yard is crawling with winter wrens. I hardly ever notice them. I am still unsure if it was just some weird coincidence, or if it was the same misguided winter wren coming back to say hello.

Think how much messier life would be with the rectum and the urethra joined into a cloaca.

like a beaver! I guess it makes it water proof, like frogs ass.