Wildlife encounters

Ptyra · **on:** March 21, 2010, 02:35:47 PM

Theived from another website I'm on
Theived from another website I'm on
I am quite happy for the ducks at my park.

Yesterday, we had a bit of snow...which did NOT make me happy angry.gif . Snow on the first day of spring in Texas. BOOOO

!!! But it fast melted, so yaay biggrin.gif

Anyway, according to my dad we have new ducklings. My mom didn't think they made it...but what did we see in the neighborhood coming home from lunch?
Fifteen ~~dalmatian puppies~~ ducklings playing in a puddle with their momma standing close X3 . There were lots of black and white ones, and there were about three solid yellow ones.

We have tons of ducks at my park...and a heron. On Wednesday, my boyfriend and I TRIED to feed the ducks with very little success...but it is spring. We did, however, get to stand very close to the heron on the docks. He's such a cool bird. I like to think of him as the king of the pond. We also have tons of red-eared slider turtles X3 . They were all out basking that day. I haven't seen them in so long. For a few days, we had terns hanging around. They were all sitting on the docks in the same direction

Mumbling · **Reply #1 on:** March 21, 2010, 03:10:38 PM

Black Bear cub! My family, Tim and I saw one last year. It was adorable and just munching on some branches.

Next to that I regularly see squirrels and all kinds of birds. In early mornings I sometimes see deer on my way to school.

Ptyra · **Reply #2 on:** March 21, 2010, 04:07:41 PM

Aww, a bear cub 8D ? I wonder where his momma was.

I see squirrels all the time in my neighborhood too. And lots of red-breasted robins as of late O.O . I don't know where they suddenly came from. And I hear lots of woodpeckers XD . I actually saw one pecking the lamp post. "Heeey, this isn't working?! What's going on here? This tree feels wrong!" For once, I'm glad I missed the school bus XD . I'm guessing it was a young-ish woodpecker, since he looked pretty small. So he didn't know any better. It was still very amusing

Mumbling · **Reply #3 on:** March 21, 2010, 04:12:57 PM

Believe me, we were glad we did not see the mother, haha

Aww that story made me laugh, animals are cute

Ptyra · **Reply #4 on:** March 21, 2010, 04:20:33 PM

Maybe she was a short distance away...hopefully XD .

We've got some interesting birds. Two of them were rescued by my neighbor...the "bird lady" neighbor. She raised a baby Blue Jay, and she actually rescued a young sparrow. Both of them were named "Beeper". Because of her, I honestly don't believe the "other animals won't accept her thing", because both girls became extremely popular. Blue Beeper has a lot of boyfriends and Sparrow Beeper has oodles of buddies.

My family took care of a dove for about a week before we got it to a rehab. My mom's boss accidentally got it stuck in her car grill. and he lost a bunch of tail feathers. We kept him in a box in the laundry cupboard and we had to take high-maintenance to keep him clean. We had him drink water out of our sink...and he was really cute. My mom soon found a lady who could take care of him, and her house was full of un-releasable birds. There was one who only had half a beak...and a blue jay who WILL attack you if you try to hug the lady.

Alex · **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2010, 12:08:41 AM

I see deer, turkies, all kinds of fish, lots of aligators, used to be a bear living in my swamp, saw a coyote once, used to be a wild chicken living in my swamp, every kind of snake in florida, tortoises(spelling?), more than several racoons a year, I chased an armadillo a few weeks back, captured some baby opossums once, and I think that's it.

Pangaea · **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2010, 02:00:29 AM

This was a great idea for a thread!

I’ve had my share of wildlife encounters (though not nearly enough for me

), but one of the most memorable happened in August 2004. My family was visiting the twin cities, and we were taking one last trip to the Mall of America before heading home. We were in the parking ramp, and had barely gotten out of our car, when we saw a smallish, scruffy-looking pigeon nearby. Upon closer inspection, we found that it was a juvenile bird, still sparsely covered with strands of down, and apparently either too young or too weak to fly, as it only ran when we approached, and eventually hid under another parked car. When we were finished at the mall and returned to the car, we found that the pigeon was still there. We managed to catch it, and I assumed the job of holding onto it while my dad went to obtain a box and some food for it.

The pigeon seemed to calm down and become accustomed to us very quickly; after several minutes of holding it, I let it simply perch on my arm (which subsequently led to the bird literally walking all over me

), and it never attempted to escape. We put the pigeon in a cardboard box lined with paper towels (along with some water and mixed seeds for food), and brought it home with us (a three-hour car trip, not counting the rest stop we took). Along the way, I named the bird “Shemp”, for the high-pitched peeping sounds he made (which vaguely reminded me of the sounds made by Shemp Howard of “The Three Stooges”).

Once we got home, I found a bigger box to hold Shemp, and kept him in my room for the night (we never found out whether Shemp was male or female, but thought of him as a he). The next morning, we called around to try to find someone licensed to care for a wild bird. Eventually we made contact with a woman who regularly kept and rehabilitated pigeons, gulls, and other birds, and arranged to bring Shemp to her the following day. We found out from her that Shemp was healthy, but underfed, and that he probably would have starved to death had we left him in that parking ramp. A few weeks later, we met with her again to release a now mature, fully fledged, and well-fed Shemp into a wooded area she had selected.

Technically, pigeons are feral descendants of domestic rock doves (Columba livia), but they still count as wildlife, right?

Saft · **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2010, 12:38:43 PM

Seen various types of wildlife that include deer, a fox, hedgehogs, rabbits, possum (that was in NZ), various birds and a unidentified lizard.

Although I'm sure that certain cats can count as wildlife encounters.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2010, 11:02:09 PM

Provided I'm an outdoors enthusiast, I have seen a lot of wildlife (in wild settings, not the zoo or Animal Planet

). I have seen in wild settings:

*Various birds
*American Bald Eagles
*A Black Bear
*A Bobcat (they live in my area)
*Deer (one even rammed into the side of my car once :blink:)
*Possums
*Foxes
*A Wild Boar
*Stingrays
*Jellyfish
*Various marine life
*A wolf
*Sheep that live on the cliffs of the Grand Canyon
*Elk
*Various snakes
*Various insects and other creepie crawlies
*Various rodents
*Rabbits
*Ducks
*An alligator in Mexico
*Wild turkeys

And that's most likely not everything I've ever seen as far as wildlife goes

.

F-14 Ace · **Reply #9 on:** March 25, 2010, 09:41:42 PM

These people down the road have a pet bison. I think I've mentioned them before. He's real friendly and he'll eat out of your hand. He doesn't like carrots though. The big guy decided to lay down right before I took the picture. I was on my way to school when I took the picture and I didn't have time to get out of the car to get a closer shot.
In my state, bison are classified as both wildlife and domestic cattle so you don't have to have any kind of special permits to keep them.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2010, 01:38:54 AM

Here are all the wildlife encounter photos I have posted on the GOF so far:

A Great Blue Heron about to go fish:

As close as I could get to some Prairie Dogs at the local zoo

A Meerkat at the same zoo:

An Elk at the Grand Canyon (his mate was nearby):

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #11 on:** March 28, 2010, 01:42:00 AM

Continuing the last post...

A Ratsnake at the park last summer:

A Redbelly Watersnake at the same location:

A Pelican at the fish dock...:

...And his friends who tagged along lookin' for scraps:

Mirumoto_Kenjiro · **Reply #12 on:** March 28, 2010, 02:33:15 AM

If I wanted to see wildlife, I just look to my back yard & neighborhood! This is what I've seen:

Quail (large groups)
Rabbits
Jackrabbits
Roadrunners
Hummingbirds (one landed by my bedroom window)
Doves
Pidgeons
Ravens
Crows
Owl (once at dusk)
Falcons
Gopher Snakes
Garter (sp?) Snakes (two were living in our vegetable garden once)
Rattlesnakes
Deer
Coyotes
Skunks
Squirrels (I have video of one at a botanical garden)
All kinds of insects & lizards
A cougar strayed into my neighborhood, but I never saw it.

Ptyra · **Reply #13 on:** March 28, 2010, 09:32:22 AM

Quote from: Cancerian Tiger,Mar 27 2010 on 11:38 PM

As close as I could get to some Prairie Dogs at the local zoo

Hey, isn't that the Nashville Zoo? I could have sworn I was in that same dome two or three years ago!

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #14 on:** March 28, 2010, 10:15:51 AM

^ No, that's at the Norfolk Zoo in Norfolk VA

.

Ptyra · **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2010, 11:02:35 PM

My family was visiting the Water Gardens in Ft. Worth today (I was happy to be there now that I know a scene of Logan's Run was filmed there

). While we were having lunch, we watched a female Grackle that was hopping around near us. For some reason, she kept bowing and putting her head between her feet. We had no idea what she was doing.

And on our way home from all our round-a-bouts, we saw our family of ducks getting ready for night-nights X3 . Mama duck was trying to make sure all her gazoolion ducklings were safely under her.