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I need to get an actual camera, but once it warms up I'll be keeping my eye out for a green heron that I've seen in a creek a couple times near here.
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Jan 25, 2017 07:05
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VikingSkull posted:Blue herons are cool as poo poo. True, but they are also one of the most crotchety birds that exist, if not the most crotchety. Got startled a year or so ago when one swooped overhead from the tree it was roosting in (that I had unknowingly gotten too close to) and let out a loud disapproving croak. I swear it was the "GET OFF MY LAWN" of the bird world.
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Jan 26, 2017 05:42
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hooah posted:I couldn't find the "identify this critter" thread, so I'll just ask here. I was out walking with my daughter yesterday, and saw this bug. It's about thumb-sized, and we live in San Antonio. What is this crazy thing? Looks like the pupal stage of a cicada if I had to take a guess.
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Feb 2, 2017 05:11
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I want more pics of the commando possum.
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Mar 2, 2017 05:45
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poverty goat posted:he got cornered in the yard by the beagles a few nights ago and hosed off and hasn't been seen since He's probably just too drat stealthy to be noticed. 
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Mar 2, 2017 06:07
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Sir Nose posted:I don't think those are yellow jackets? Rather some sort of paper wasp that happens to be yellow. I've looked this up in the past, and apparently what is considered to be a "yellow jacket" varies considerably by region. What i have always considered to be a yellowjacket is a type of hornet, while those look like what I would refer to as a wasp. In my area, a wasp has a long thing abdomen, while yellowjackets are stouter and built more bee-like. For example, this is what I think of when I say "yellowjacket": 
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Mar 29, 2017 00:55
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Aren't those water striders and water boatmen, respectively?
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May 6, 2017 06:54
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That black vulture isn't a bad-looking bird. Up here we have turkey vultures, which I have grown rather fond of, but they are not easy on the eye.
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May 25, 2017 05:34
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Saw this spider in a park in Eugene, Oregon yesterday. I realize there isn't much in the picture for scale, but the gap in between the boards was big enough for me to get the tip of a finger into, so is at least a quarter inch or so. I didn't recognize this species, and thought I'd see if anyone could tell me what I was looking at.
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Jul 31, 2017 01:32
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vaguely posted:almost like a... chinchilla rat?? I think that's got to be it - the pictures look right, and there is a series of ponds just beyond the fence it was on and a bridge literally about 6' away. Thanks!
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Jul 31, 2017 18:31
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the yeti posted:A rove beetle! I think a devil's coach horse, but if not then another closely related species. I was thinking devil's coach horse, too, even though I constantly misremember the name as "devil's coachman." We have 'em around here, even though I only saw one for the first time a few years ago.
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Sep 20, 2017 07:27
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Mr. Fowl posted:I mean, yeah, they do sort of infest, but as far as I know they're more of an annoyance in the household since it's not like they make big farts or something and stink up your house. They just give off chemical smells when you smush them. They're also real dumb and have lousy reflexes so they're easy enough to nab if you want to deal with them. I know I should kill them but they are so dopey and docile that I usually gently escort them outside (where the winter weather will probably kill them anyway) or let them ramble around the house and hope the kitchen spider gets to snack on them.
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Dec 25, 2017 22:40
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POOL IS CLOSED posted:Insecticidal soap spray is a decent solution for the aphids though. It only works while wet; spray it anywhere you see the jerks. It doesn't really harm bigger hard bodied critters like bumbles, and it's also usually a biodegradable product. You can also look up recipes to make your own. Getting a bunch of ladybugs can also get rid of them - I wiped out an aphid infestation on my roses by dumping a bag of them on them. Biowarfare  .
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May 26, 2018 23:34
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El Burbo posted:It's been raining a lot so I can only look out my window, but there's some cool guys outside my window Clearly jays, but I'm not quite placing them. The colors look a lot like a scrub jay, but the crest seems to indicate they aren't Aphelocoma.
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Jun 9, 2018 22:44
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YggiDee posted:Those are Blue Jays. Guess I'm not using to seeing blue jays with such gray heads. Also haven't lived in a place with blue jays in years - around here it's scrub jays and Steller's, and some gray jays up in the mountains.
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Jun 10, 2018 06:09
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Slo-Tek posted:Was walking in the woods today, when this Eight Spotted Forester landed on me. Dunno why they are called that. I'm not usually fond of butterflies (I think they are creepy compared to moths) but that is a nice-looking butterfly.
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Jun 12, 2018 07:15
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Mak0rz posted:You probably like it because it's actually a moth. Huh, that would indeed explain it.
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Jun 12, 2018 07:50
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free hubcaps posted:also bald eagles are beautiful but man they sound wussy and are kind of assholes, the Turkey would’ve been a way better national bird Around here I mostly see bald eagles getting harassed by other birds, and it's kinda sad. I watched two osprey make an eagle's life hell, and seen crows mob eagles out of their territory. It's been weird since there were no bald eagles around here when I was a kid, but they are common now - they rebounded spectacularly.
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Sep 27, 2018 08:06
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I try to avoid killing most things, but I make a few exceptions. Flies are one. Crane flies are another, although they often kill themselves pretty effectively. Ants, if they start coming into the house. Fleas and mosquitoes. Yellowjackets and the like if they get stuck inside. I've found that the older I get the less I want to kill anything. 
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Nov 12, 2018 02:57
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OneTwentySix posted:Why crane flies? They're odd-looking, but completely harmless. They're an invasive pest species in the US, are obnoxiously loud when they get in the house, and have a perverse ability to leave their corpses in gross places, like the floor of the shower. Trying to relocate one just means it will lose one or more legs, as they are more prone to limb loss than zombies. Swatting one leads to not only the legs getting stuck on the surface they were on, but a generally smeary mess. The only good thing I can say about them is that the Bewick's wrens around here eat them, but that's about it.
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Nov 12, 2018 21:17
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sexy tiger boobs posted:We've definitely got native crane flies in the US. I mean go around killing them if you want but they are definitely not all invasive. They might not all be invasive, but they are all affronts to everything that is fine and good and worthy of respect.
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Nov 13, 2018 08:14
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Alpenglow posted:Neighbor owls are the best. I walk past this one sitting out every morning when I leave and on the way home most nights. That owns.
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Feb 7, 2019 05:35
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I'd guess that's an Eastern gray squirrel - they are really common here in Oregon, and apparently are also in Washington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_gray_squirrel#Introductions
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May 27, 2019 23:41
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Falukorv posted:Most of the time the overall impact of hornets on bee hives are minimal (especially compared to pesticides, mites and lack of flower diversity), at least in our part of temperate Europe. Hornets eat flies above all else and only occasionally hunt bees, in most cases trivial numbers compared to the total hive population. From what I recall the situation is the reverse in Japan, perhaps in other places.
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Jun 9, 2019 21:04
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Katt posted:I had a Bird seed ball hanging outside my kitchen window. One day the ball eventually starts rising slowly until it vanished. I went outside to see what was up and two crows had pulled it up onto the roof by the string and were now eating it. That owns - corvids are awesome. I've been making friends with the scrub jays at my new place, and have already worked out with one of them that if it lands on the tree outside the front window I will come out and put peanuts in the tree for it. It's getting pretty comfortable with me.
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Jun 21, 2019 05:06
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Chinston Wurchill posted:
Thank you for doing what you could - that's rough.
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Jun 25, 2019 03:20
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In Oregon the invasive species that costs the most to contain, by a significant margin, is blackberries. They will take over acres of land and are pernicious as hell to get out once established. They do have nice berries, though.
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Aug 4, 2019 06:12
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Here in Oregon we had campaigns of aerial spraying in the 1980s to eradicate gypsy moth invaders. Seems to have worked really well. I have vague memories of California doing similar poo poo in the 1970s (maybe early 80s) to deal with the "med fly" (I think it was called that) but it was not my state and I was much younger at the time. Edit: I guess I was off about the medfly, and I guess I was unaware of it being a biological attack. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_California_medfly_attack CaptainSarcastic fucked around with this message at 08:38 on Aug 4, 2019 |
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Aug 4, 2019 08:36
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Mak0rz posted:These are bald faced hornets, Dolichovespula maculata. I grew up having them referred to as black hornets, and occasionally white hornets - I'm not sure why  .They're intense - like yellowjackets on steroids. As a teenager I noticed a half-built nest in an ornamental maple outside our kitchen, and it was like a partially constructed death star. The thing was probably 18 inches top to bottom, and would have been about a foot in diameter if it was completed. I sprayed it with the same insecticide that would drop paper wasps in mid-flight, and it just pissed off the bald-faced hornets. It took over an hour for it to actually kill them off.
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Aug 4, 2019 21:30
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Mak0rz posted:I actually find them to be more docile than their smaller yellow cousins No, I agree on that - they don't seem to be absolute dicks like regular yellowjackets are. They are just gently caress-off huge and scary.
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Aug 4, 2019 21:45
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Sauer posted:There are some Cormorants living at a large pond at La Fontaine Park in Montreal. I saw a cormorant at a pond in the middle of Arizona and looked up their range - they go way inland apparently.
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Aug 16, 2019 08:25
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poverty goat posted:You should have eaten the cicada That's not recommended. https://www.inverse.com/article/57081-cicada-fungus-masspora-cicadina
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Aug 17, 2019 20:29
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vortmax posted:After y'all identified that she's a fishing spider, I've been calling her Ms Fisher, and I've been turning on the outside light to attract bugs for her. Over the last six weeks she seems to have grown fat and happy. I can only hope that she'll come inside when it gets cold. I've fed spiders before. When I had to move last year I seriously considered bringing along the spider that lived above my kitchen sink with me. I miss her.
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Sep 3, 2019 05:55
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My parents' house had a water problem in the corner of the house sunk into the hillside, and slugs started showing up in their laundry room. After a couple years they got a contractor that was able to deal with the whole thing, but the slugs are still showing up even though there is no longer water coming in or a drainage problem. It's like the slugs spontaneously generate in there now or something. Some of the slugs will show up weirdly pale, like they are rapidly evolving to be cave dwellers.
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Sep 22, 2019 21:42
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BOOTY-ADE posted:Me & my family used to see them all the time when we lived in England, they were indeed the dumbest & most worthless fliers ever I hate crane flies with a passion. As far as I know they are an invasive species in the Pacific Northwest, are a lawn pest, and are the most pathetic zombie-like insect there is. Look at one of the fuckers wrong and a leg falls off. Swat one and its corpse desegments and glues itself to walls and windows. The only good thing I can think of about them is the Bewick's wrens like to eat them, and those are good birbs.
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Sep 23, 2019 03:33
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Telebite posted:The one on the right is actually a male. Check the beak color. Yellow beak = male. He is in his eclipse plumage. I had no idea this was a thing. This explains why I see what looks like large groups of female mallards around here sometimes. Thanks for posting it!
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Oct 5, 2019 21:35
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Mak0rz posted:
Along these lines, anyone else seethe whenever they hear someone talk about getting "bit" by a bee or other stinging insect?
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Mar 14, 2020 22:15
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mosquitoes don't sting
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Chaosfeather posted:Last but not least, the invasive European Starling I always feel conflicted because I know starlings are invasive but they can also be such pleasant birds. They are capable of really nice song, and I spent a lot of time watching baby starlings pester their parents and follow them around begging for food and inadvertently developed a level of fondness for them. I absolutely appreciate the work you're doing, though.
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Apr 19, 2020 07:34
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I have never been bitten by a spider, and find the idea slightly hard to imagine. If I have to relocate a spider friend I will usually just grab it bare-handed, take it outside, and let it jump off or walk off my hand onto something if it is more chill. There is an upper size limit to what I will grab, but I have handled some pretty big spiders this way and never had a problem.
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Apr 29, 2020 23:38
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When I grab one I scoop up it up with my fingers and close my hand around it, so it is a little aggressive. It's easier when I grab them out of the air, but I'm just careful to be gentle when I am having to grab them from the wall or floor. If any of them have tried to bite me then it wasn't hard enough to break the skin or even cause me any sensation at all.
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Apr 29, 2020 23:52
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