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New friends on the trail last night. A nice bunny   A nice buzzard
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Jun 15, 2022 12:12
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Can't get good pics but our local hawk family has been getting their yearly harassment by our local crows - I can't tell which one is nesting, but this time of year they're really at each other's throats. We also get fledgling and "in training" hawks as well. It's fun to watch them learn to be a bird.
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Jun 15, 2022 12:25
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I'm pretty sure what I watched happen the other day was the crows snatched and ate a baby mockingbird, so the vengeful mockingbird parents wrecked the crows' nest. My crow pair are no longer tag teaming the nest and have both just been moping around begging for food.
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Jun 15, 2022 13:29
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I was wondering where that fly went after tormenting me into madness for most of the day  I'm almost positive that's a false widow, which aren't as scary as local media like to make out with scarebait articles but are unfortunately invasive and are eating native spiders  However, this one did me a solid so 
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Jun 15, 2022 19:45
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Rexxed posted:Well the carolina wrens who built a nest on some shelves inside the garage somehow last year are back. I removed the old nest in the winter but this year they picked the next shelf down inside of a box which mostly holds garden gloves. It's tilted forward maybe 30 degrees on the shelf so when I saw the start of a nest maybe a month ago I thought maybe they'd started it and moved somewhere else. Nope, they're not afraid of nesting anywhere, even inside a closed garage. We're assuming there's a loose shingle on the roof cap the little birds know about. These baby wrens were pretty fuzzy and weird looking on June 9th:  Today I peeked in and they were pretty big and had a lot more feathers:  When I got home (I took the picture when I was leaving) the nest was empty and they were trying to fly around the garage while their parents peeped at me. I didn't get a lot of pictures because the two little ones are just trying to figure out how to get around and I didn't want to scare them too much, but the garage is open and they can make their way outside where their parents are peeping at them to go. This is a very zoomed in picture of one of the babies. They have much shorter tails than their parents:  So all in all another Carolina Wren success story. I don't mind them nesting inside the garage but I wish they'd stop pooping on my car.
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Jun 15, 2022 23:02
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Wrens rule, in Finnish the species is called "peukaloinen" which basically means "a thumb sized dude".
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Jun 17, 2022 06:44
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   Found this cool female stag beetle in the garden, I know they are in the area but first time I've found one in the garden, was very excited when I found it!
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Jun 17, 2022 14:00
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Ebola Dog posted:Found this cool female stag beetle in the garden, I know they are in the area but first time I've found one in the garden, was very excited when I found it! Love em! I wish we had more interesting beetles around here.  Interesting couple weeks for muskrat parts! This looks a fair bit older than the pile I found last week.
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Jun 17, 2022 18:48
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I need some help with an ID! We found this fuzzy little guy on our walk today (Central Connecticut). He had a beautiful song: https://i.imgur.com/pAI6dfR.mp4 Any idea what he is?
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Jun 19, 2022 23:04
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Silver Falcon posted:I need some help with an ID! We found this fuzzy little guy on our walk today (Central Connecticut). He had a beautiful song: The beak makes me think a wren of some sort, but I could be way off.
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Jun 19, 2022 23:09
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Silver Falcon posted:I need some help with an ID! We found this fuzzy little guy on our walk today (Central Connecticut). He had a beautiful song: hermit thrush
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Jun 19, 2022 23:18
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Some pictures from today. The usual suspects but looking particularly beautiful at low tide:  
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Jun 20, 2022 02:38
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I've got a huge haul today  Hemileuca hera - Hera buckmoth. Pretty sure this guy was dead iirc, but I appreciate that he made sure to die in the most glorious pose possible. Owyhee Co., Idaho.  Pyrrharctia isabella - banded woolly bear caterpillar. Steens Mountain, Oregon.  Euxoa auxiliaris - army cutworm caterpillar, eats the gently caress out of cheatgrass like a champ. Here one is wrecking house on one of our experiments. Would be great to just spread these dudes all over the place to take care of the cheat grass problem but they grow up into miller moths which do the same thing to corn and alfalfa crops.  Field cricket. Boise, Idaho Dead bird warning  Duck  Ducks  Goose All poached and dumped under a telephone pole on the side of the interstate.    Cyclocephala sp. - masked chafer. Bilk Creek Mountains, Nevada. These guys seemed pretty lonely, they really just wanted to hang out and would tumble their dumpy asses through the air toward me just to sit on my shoulder or fly into the side of my head. The next night, one of these shoulder buddies bit me on the neck and then accidentally jumped into the flame of my camp stove after I made him get down.   Eleodes sp. - desert stink beetle. Bilk Creek Mountains, Nevada.  interspecies Ménage à trois  Then some privacy  Meloe americanus - buttercup oil beetle munching on some pacific popcorn flower.  Some bee/wasp on a wyethia amplexicaulis flower. I don't have the patience to ID apids and even less patience for bugs that want to look like apids. Trout Creek Mountains, Nevada.   It's reptile time, lets goooo   Young rattlesnake that happened to be chilling 10' from my tent in the middle of the night. Rattlers are the most chill, docile, and forgiving snakes I encounter on a regular basis. They just want to be left alone and will try their hardest not to attract attention. Even if you accidentally step on/very near one, they're more keen to make some noise and scare you off rather than bite, and if they do bite it's very likely dry. Young snakes supposedly cannot control whether or not they deliver venom on a bite, so with rattlesnakes--just like with humans--the only ones I'm really afraid of are the teenagers.   Western fence lizard.  Nevada Side-Blotched lizard, ironically one of the few photos in this series that weren't taken in Nevada.  And here's a bonus return visit from our friend and former critter quest alum, collared lizard. Coworkers liked this one enough to get a canvas print made and now it's hanging on the wall in my lab. If only this little dude could know that just the other day his handsome mug was viewed and appreciated by the secretary of interior, 8th in line for the presidency of the United States... he wouldn't give a poo poo, because lizards be like that, and that's what I love about them. A Sand Hill Crane in just about the last place I'd expect to see one, up in the Nevada mountains nearing 7000ft with no water for miles apart from shallow streams. https://i.imgur.com/RXTh7Iz.mp4 Here's the scenery near where the crane was spotted, looking out over the granites and the aptly named Disaster Peak--I almost died on this trip several times over; ran out of gas on the way in, two flat tires on the same truck, lost a UTV spare tire down the side of a mountain, got rained on all night and forced home a little early only to experience the heaviest downpour I've ever seen on the highway. gently caress this place, it's beautiful but absolutely unforgiving country. Can't wait to go back on Tuesday... https://i.imgur.com/Z8J16cZ.mp4 treat fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Jun 20, 2022 |
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Jun 20, 2022 03:22
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Nice set of photos! Pretty sure that’s a field cricket not a camel cricket though?
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Jun 20, 2022 03:30
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These photos are incredible! Thank you so much for sharing. Would you be kind enough to either link or spoiler tag the dead birds? Just out of respect to any sensitivities. I really like your beetles so much, but my greatest takeaway from this is that there is a popcorn flower???  Saw this today out at Raccoon Creek west of Pittsburgh. No clue but I find it very pretty.  More excitingly, my husband spotted these egg casings. They seem to be hatches and not snacks. There were more in a little burrow nearby! I'm guessing water snake, but who can be sure. Hoping the babies are doing well.
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Jun 20, 2022 05:54
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You're right, it is a field cricket. My bug ID is sloppy and lazy, I'm more of a plant dude. It's a good thing we don't have a thread like this for plants because between every animal I snap there are at least 100 plant photos, and I don't have the time to be posting all that poo poo.
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Jun 20, 2022 05:59
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treat posted:I've got a huge haul today This is one of those moth species where the adults do not feed. They have as much energy available to them when they come out of the cocoon, as their digestive system is gone after pupation. The adult form is for mating, which they don't have that long to do. When done, they find somewhere to rest, and quietly run out of energy.
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Jun 20, 2022 06:36
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Those ducks/geese don't look like they were butchered at all, were they poached for being a nuisance or something? Or just someone being a sociopath?
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Jun 20, 2022 12:22
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treat posted:You're right, it is a field cricket. My bug ID is sloppy and lazy, I'm more of a plant dude. It's a good thing we don't have a thread like this for plants because between every animal I snap there are at least 100 plant photos, and I don't have the time to be posting all that poo poo. thank you for the spoiler tags, friend 
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Jun 20, 2022 16:09
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Those birds were found during migratory waterfowl hunting season so my guess is that whoever shot them wasn't licensed/exceeded their bag limit and didn't want proof of their illegal deeds around, or more likely they just wanted to kill something without dealing with the hassle of dressing & butchering.
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Jun 20, 2022 16:19
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Usually wouldnt be too interested in a bee like this, but this one was definitely not a honeybee, rode a few miles on the windshield before leaving unharmed. It was very small, like half the size of your usual honeybee worker  
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Jun 20, 2022 22:16
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Kayaking a reservoir on the Colorado Front Range today, I saw a family of ducks I've never seen before! Shots have been enlarged, my sunglasses are polarized and I couldn't see poo poo to take the pictures.    Mama and babies had bright rust-color brown heads, and black and white on their butts. There were 11 of the little guys, so she definitely had her wings full.
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Jun 21, 2022 00:25
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shape of the head leads me to believe thems loons, not ducks! not sure bout the species cool family tho :3
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Jun 21, 2022 02:09
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Those are either Common or Red-breasted Mergansers. It's tough to tell because the detail is so poor and the females of both species look very similar. Both are also widespread across North America, so location doesn't help much. If you put a gun to my head, I'd guess that they're Red-breasted Mergansers.
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Jun 21, 2022 02:30
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 I’m pretty sure there’s a spittlebug (froghopper nymph) in there somewhere  Six-spotted tiger beetle (with eight spots)  Shy crawdad
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Jun 21, 2022 03:13
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McGavin posted:Those are either Common or Red-breasted Mergansers. It's tough to tell because the detail is so poor and the females of both species look very similar. Both are also widespread across North America, so location doesn't help much. If you put a gun to my head, I'd guess that they're Red-breasted Mergansers. Wow, thanks! I checked both, and the pictures on this page look exactly like our little family. Common Mergansers they are! https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/common-merganser
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Jun 21, 2022 05:26
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treat posted:
Your bee is a soldier fly, Stratiomyidae. The very large eyes and wierd antennae are clues that it's a fly trying to mimic a bee.
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Jun 21, 2022 15:23
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I just had a conversation w/ Mr. Crow where instead of the normal range of caws and croaks I'm pretty sure he mimicked the metallic sound of my birdfeeder snapping closed (which summons him to breakfast in the morning). It's now a word in the local crow dialect. Hopefully he's not telling all the other crows about it.
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Jun 21, 2022 15:45
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I have a couple of these on my back porch, including one whose web construction I have had to wreck because she keeps attaching to the lid of the quail coop. Anyway, very pretty little friends. Very hard to photograph!   Some seriously radical Mt. Dew colors.
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Jun 21, 2022 21:45
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Was going to swat a mosquito in the car this morning, but noticed it looked wrong. Ha! You long-legged freaks might be sneaky and quick to flee from my camera out in nature, but on the dashboard you're mine!!  Beautiful fella, love these guys whenever I can get a pic.
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Jun 22, 2022 02:44
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poverty goat posted:I just had a conversation w/ Mr. Crow where instead of the normal range of caws and croaks I'm pretty sure he mimicked the metallic sound of my birdfeeder snapping closed (which summons him to breakfast in the morning). It's now a word in the local crow dialect. Hopefully he's not telling all the other crows about it. Congratulations on your new flock.
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Jun 22, 2022 03:57
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Base Emitter posted:Congratulations on your new flock. Isn't it a murder if it's crows? Anyway, have this cutie I found on my doorstep a while back.  A type of ladybug larva. Probably Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, or mealybug destroyer.  It uses its waxy fur to blend in with its prey.
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Jun 22, 2022 07:35
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Scarodactyl posted:Was going to swat a mosquito in the car this morning, but noticed it looked wrong. A long-legged fly, that's actually their accepted common name! Family Dolichopodidae.
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Jun 22, 2022 08:50
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Apparently our backyard is a daycare facility. See also native Swamp Rose, some sort of goldenrod, and an encouraged patch of American Burnweed. It's a lot harder to take pictures with a newborn of my own, but the Swamp Milkweed is starting to bloom, so hopefully many critters will be visiting soon!
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Jun 22, 2022 15:38
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Geemer posted:Isn't it a murder if it's crows? It is, but it's never wrong to call a group of birds a flock.
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Jun 22, 2022 18:14
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 Tis the season for awkward baby birds! This one's parents weren't around but I walked past another wee magpie yesterday and got thoroughly cussed out by its folks.
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Jun 22, 2022 20:06
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I met a tiny lizard today. Some sort of Tropical Night Lizard. Probably Lepidophyma reticulatum since I'm on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. It was only about 6 cm long.
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Jun 24, 2022 06:21
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Its little face is so ANGRY, it's adorable!
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Jun 24, 2022 12:30
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NIGHT LIZARD
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Jun 24, 2022 14:00
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my cat is norris posted:NIGHT LIZARD FIGHTER OF THE DAY LIZARD aaAAaaah
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Jun 24, 2022 21:17
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