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Cool wildlife you've seen recently
I'm always intrigued whenever I see something unusual in nature, and an encounter that I had a few days ago made me think it might be fun to have a thread in which we shared our encounters.
I was walking downtown the other day, just passing the library and the First Presbyterian Church when I happened to see this guy crawl out of the ferns in front of a big water oak. He's a hickory horned devil, a mean looking caterpillar common in the American southeast. I had seen one when I was little, but I haven't seen any since I moved to the city. This one was easily five inches, big even for his species, about as big around as a roll of quarters, with long spider-like horns and a tiny black head. He looked intent on crossing the sidewalk, so I stood guard for a four or five minutes in case there were any pedestrians oblivious enough to tread on him. A few other people stopped and gawked -- most of them had never seen anything quite like it outside of a Japanese monster movie. Assured that he was safe on the chuch lawn, I moved on, but I came back later and carefully picked through the lawn to see if I could find him. Sure enough, there he was, the green of his flesh practically blazing as he nudged his head into the cool earth.
Anyone else see any interesting animals or insects lately?
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Hmmm.. well there was the red tailled squirrel that got entangled in our garden netting the other day, While holding onto it while my spouse cut it free, I had the opportunity to reflect on the sharpness of rodent incisors, the fact that an animal cannot bite you more deeply once they have got their gumline touching your skin, and also that I coagulate fairly quickly.
Regards, M. Graham
Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger. -- Gordon R.Dickson
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Rabies isn't usually found in the squirrels uphere, but a tetanus shot was gotten.
Regards, M. Graham
Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger. -- Gordon R.Dickson
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Always lots of wildlife here in the mountains of Mexico. Small lizards of various designs, some of which live in my garden. For about a week, huge catapillars which look like the horned guy, but are the larvae of the luna moth, inhabited my peach tree and pretty much ate all the leaves off it. Scorpions, about 3 species, some of which found their way into my house. One time while walking my dog I saw a huge taranchula slowly crossing the road. And several varieties of snakes. And of course, Mexico has a couple of the biggest wintering grounds for the migrating monarch butterflies. We took a trip to view them several years ago, and it is an astonishing sight to see these millions of butterflies all in one place.
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Squirrels are my favorite common wild animal species. I can't accept that they're rodents. I like to bring a bag of peanuts to the park and feed them to the squirrels as a means of relaxation.
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
If you guys don't mind, whenever you see an interesting example of some species, try to find a picture online and link to it. I like to see the diversity that people are encountering and get a sense of where they dwell. I'd be really interested in seeing some examples of the kinds of scorpians you've run into Marti.
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
This is what I think I found in my yard recently www.herpnet.net/Minnesota-Herpetology/snakes/Black_ratsnake.html. My boyfriend spotted it hanging on our fence right before we were going to let our dogs out for their morning walk. I begged him to get something to move it to the woods instead of killing it. He retrieved a prybar and started to coax the snake onto it when the snake got nasty. It reared up and tried to bite him. He beat it to death and threw it over the fence. Since it tried to bite, we thought it was a Cottonmouth snake, which is poisonous. He didn't want it coming back and biting our beloved dogs. I did feel bad for the snake though, especially after deciding it most resembled a non-poisonous Black Rat snake.
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Mad, I will try to find some pics of our scorpions, but they will be hard to identify because I have smashed them almost to transparency. LOL Most of those around here will send an adult to a clinic or hospital with respiratory problems, and can kill an infant, small child or the infirm or elderly.
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Black widows - eeks.
At first I was thinking we don't get much in the way of interesting wildlife out here, but have seen a lot of black widows of late. Not unusual for the area, but they seem to be hanging around out in the open lately whereas usually you find them hidden in the dark corners of the garage or under rocks and such.
Well this is an example that makes me cringe - not a huge spider fan!
Also was just reminded that the yellow-billed magpies around here are gorgeous. Just read recently they are only indeginous to the Sacramento area and are in danger of being extinct due to the West Nile virus.
Not latency, or power shortage, nor bedtime shall keep me from my appointed screed
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Oops - that was me - wrong ezboard account - sorry.
I just came across one of these today and thought of you all. The interesting thing about these guys is they are very calm and you can get real close for a good look at them. Heck, you can stare at the for hours if you so like. Whereas it looks like something that would hop away. I've only seen them in the "praying" position as well.
Joined: Jan 2006 Posts: 67 Location: Tampa, FL USA
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Re: Cool wildlife you've seen recently
Our back yard is on a wetland preserve; Tampa has an interesting system of "green belts" that snake through neighborhoods all across the city. The part near our house has several creeks, a lake, a 12-mile bike trail, and hundreds of acres of cypress swamp.
Every winter migratory birds from up north roost in the preserve. They don't come near the houses so you can't really see them, but you can certainly hear them. They make these very loud, very strange noises at night ... sort of a warbling yell that, until you know what it's coming from, is actually kinda scary. I'd love to get a picture of one, but considering the density of the swamp and the fact that they only seem to be active at night, I'm probably out of luck.
Another critter we get lots of are American Green Tree Frogs. The picture in the Wiki article doesn't do them justice; most are the size of my palm and colored an almost neon green. They look like something you'd expect to see in a Brazilian rainforest. During the spring and summer (which combined essentially last eight or nine months in Florida) these frogs are everywhere in our neighrborhood. They're loud - especially when they're looking for a mate - but they keep the bugs down.
When it starts warming up next month I'll try to get a picture of one of the more impressive specimins to post.
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