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A basketball sized nest of buzzy jerks moved in. I'm not going within 20 feet.
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Aug 3, 2021 19:43
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 16:11 |
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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. She's hard to make out but here's momma hunched down in the nest. The white line is her eyebrow/head line:  I took some video of the baby birds leaving last year's nest I never edited down but now that this is becoming regular maybe I can get around to it. I had set up an IP camera to spy on the wrens last year and it was neat but I'll probably leave them alone this year unless I change my mind. One nice thing about keeping an eye on them last year was that I was able to determine when the babies were big enough to try leaving the nest and I left the garage door open the day they made their way out, so maybe it's worth doing again. The babies can't figure out the route the parents use.
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May 30, 2022 00:45
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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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This tiny jumping spider was guarding the top of my car from pests. It was only about a centimeter big but didn't mind me getting my phone out and taking a picture. I've got a little arachnophobia but these guys are cool:
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Sep 23, 2022 18:20
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St_Ides posted:
According to google it's a Stonefly. https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.php?identification=Giant-Stonefly https://bugguide.net/node/view/883515
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May 19, 2023 21:09
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Bored posted:Yeah. The person who lets me live in her basement is mad that I talked her into treating her dogs for ticks since a couple have obviously laid eggs (the ticks, not the dogs) in the house and I can’t sit anywhere upstairs without at least one tick climbing on me. You might have seen this already but the way to get ticks out without leaving any mouth parts is a tick twister. They naturally resist a pulling motion but can't hold on against a twisting motion, somehow: https://www.amazon.com/Tick-Twister-Remover-Small-Large/dp/B01BECRHEO
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May 23, 2023 19:57
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I missed getting a picture but I found a big brown tiger swallowtail caterpillar in my garage today. It came crawling along under my car (where I was working) and it climbed onto the mat I was about to use to catch brake fluid drips. I picked it up and took it out to the bushes. It rose its head up to mimic a snake just like in this article, but then climbed onto a small branch when I held it next to one: https://northbranchnaturecenter.org/2018/08/20/caterpillars-abound-at-nbnc/ Not my picture but it looked almost identical to this, very chubby for a little guy:  Hopefully it turns into one of these, also not my picture: 
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Aug 28, 2023 22:53
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Saw a cool mantis on a truck tire today:
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Oct 3, 2023 04:58
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You stay outta my garage, spider! I swept it out gently with a broom after it tried to run in. I don't care if it's almost Halloween, it's too creepy.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:33
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Captain Invictus posted:I was taking my dog out and I saw a deer mouse just wandering in circles in my driveway. It'd occasionally hop, but mostly just ambled in a vaguely circular path. It did this the whole time we were outside. Is that poison, did it get attacked by something and got some sort of brain impairment, or what? Don't like if my neighbors are putting out poisons since it could hurt my dogs. Kind of impossible to know for sure. If someone's using bait it's not usually poison like something that will just kill you but often it's an anticoagulant which could be harmful if eaten by a pet but usually it's in a tamper proof box with mouse sized holes. If your dog eats the mouse they could get a small dose but probably not enough to kill them due to their weight vs. the small amount a mouse might have consumed. If it's something like this you can see the warnings on the amazon page, it does recommend a vet if your animal consumes the bait directly: https://www.amazon.com/D-Corner-Mouse-Poison-Station/dp/B07FJXSZTS/
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Dec 15, 2023 01:35
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 16:11 |
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2024 post the critters on your floor!
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Jan 2, 2024 23:18
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