Wild and Not So Wild World

uh huh. Sometimes shy, but the other day walked up to the pond, he jumped off rock from far side, glided over to spot only 2 feet away directly in front of me to check me out, we both just stared at each other. It was like he was sayin, "Who?What the hell are you? and what do you want at my pond?"

What desert MadDogMike?

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader 2013-07-22 19:46 ]

JT, I'm in the Sonoran desert of southeast California. 100 miles east of San Diego and 100 miles south of Palm Springs.
Your frog looks like a bullfrog with that large tympanum?

The frog is probably pretty flattered that you think his tympanum is large.

ummm, well I jus ler ned a new word. Thanks guys. How do you make a livin out there Mike? Hell, I'd live in the desert if I could. and yes, it is a bullfrog. Sweet music at night.

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader 2013-07-23 16:13 ]

Well, two teenage Hooligan Raccoons have declared a turf war
at my house, after a few nights of wanton destruction & carnage

I have been dealing with them at close quarters (I am very aware of how dangerous they can sometimes be)
yet I have no wish to harm them, I will stand my ground!

Here are pics from the interwebs, but I will try to get some actual shots during the next raid.

you know damn well they mean bidniss when their nostrils are curled like that. Looks like a Maori nose.

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader 2013-07-24 07:47 ]

You get bit, and you are going to have to have rabies shots.

Down town the other day, I turn around and here's this bloke taking his goat for a walk...

What's yer goats' name? says the woman.

"Gary", says the bloke...

Nice to meet ya Gary...

[ Edited by: komohana 2016-04-04 19:15 ]

That's not normal for Western Australia?

In Western Australia all animals are usually named "Bruce"

...or "sheila".

On 2013-07-31 20:41, komohana wrote:
...or "sheila".

Yes that's right, thanks Bruce! :)

Just got back in the house from some walkies around the block a few times with some bats fluttering around overhead. Heard an owl screeching so stopped to see if GROG could spot it in the tree. It was dark, but the tree was silhouetted against the sky. As GROG stood there in front of a neighbor's house trying to spot the owl, a dark animal goes scurrying across the driveway about 20 feet away. At first GROG thought it was a black cat, but when it turned sideways GROG could clearly see that it was a skunk. Thankfully it was scurrying AWAY from GROG, but still GROG decided it was time to move on and head home.

[ Edited by: GROG 2013-07-31 22:30 ]

Yes that's right, thanks Bruce! :)

no worries Bruce, crack tubes...pshttt...amen.

Grog need find rock look like camera, keep rock in loincloth all time.

Its spider season in South FL. The other day I was working at a local park when I looked up and saw this...

About 30 spiders hanging out in a web. All of the specs in the photo are actually babies and the big ones are maybe 3-4 inches long. Here's a close up.

There is a sea turtle rescue place close to my house that I take my girls to a lot. They have a fund-raising program that allows the general public to come and see up close the nesting and release of sea turtles. In June, we did got to see the turtles laying eggs on the beach. Since we did that program we were eligible to return for the bay turtle release. The baby turtles are collected from nests that have hatched. Once nest hatches, the researchers go in and excavate the nest to collect info on hatch ratios... There are usually some hatchlings that can not make it out of the nest. In nature these babies are doomed. The researchers collect these stragglers and release them later on the same beach at night. There are 2 species that we got release.

First are loggerheads. The red light helps us to see but does not disturb the turtles.

Second were the Green turtles. Less of these but super cute!

Well, God Bless Wild America!

a coon jus like that one walked right up to my brother-in-laws back screen door and sat there staring at me. I was screaming like a little school girl. Their cat was growling at it. flea-bitten varmint tryin to get to the cat food.

Unga Bunga mistook this thread for photo association.

Tarzan, when GROG first bought GROG house they laid some cement and you have to water it every night for a week. One night GROG was out watering the cement,and when GROG turn around there was a raccoon just a couple of feet scurrying away from GROG. GROG assume it had come up to drink some water right behind GROG.

[ Edited by: GROG 2013-08-05 15:13 ]

AlohaStation - cute turtles, bet your daughters loved that. The spiders are not so cute
UngaBunga - that's just wrong!
GROG - generally you water grass, not concrete. Did the concrete contractor tell you to do that? Bet he got a good laugh out of that. Do you want to go snipe hunting during Oasis? There is some nice snipe hunting on the banks of the San Diego River behind Hotel Circle. Bring a burlap bag.

Saw this pack of four wild Chihuahuas over by the railroad tracks today. Many people don't know it but Chihuahuas are native to Costa Rica and first came into this country in the 20s hiding in bunches of imported bananas before the Dept. of Agriculture started mandatory fumigation.

Gotta water concrete so it doesn't dry too fast and crack. :)

[ Edited by: GROG 2013-08-06 09:16 ]

On the way to the beach to release the baby sea turles, the girl in charge hit a big racoon. Went under her car but was missed by the entire caravan of people behind the lead car. When we got to the beach I asked the girl if that was part of her plan to eliminate threats to the baby sea turtles. She was not amused and felt really bad!

Note to self: when selecting logs to carve, take notice of any bug holes...

If there are large holes in the log more than likely there is something large that made the hole! This came crawling out of one of these holes!! And he wasn't alone.

This came crawling out of WillCarves' large tang the other day. Its maybe 2" long and did not come out alone. My wife would lose her sh*t if she saw something like that inside the house. She freaks out over little spiders, imagining her reaction to this is quite entertaining.

Throw a saddle on that beast!

Did a little wildlife rescue of my own this week. Had a Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) with a broken wing trapped in the concrete ditch in front of my house. It had some water (not shown in the pic) but no shade from the scorching desert sun, no obvious food source, and nowhere to go when that ditch is full of water every week. I caught it and put it in the dirt ditch nearby where it has food, water, and shade. It should be able to live out it's life there.

(not my pic)


(bird just below center of the pic)

A two member Raccoon assault team again
attempted a raid on my compound, but this time I was ready to shoot
......some photos, one of them hissed at me (First time that happened)
so I just hissed right back, one stayed hidden, but this one was caught
in the open, They seem to have their own night vision eyes goggles....

While i was working on the hut today, he just casually strolled thru the backyard...

Holy Schnikey!!! :o Hope he stays out of the rum!

Well, if'n my cousin there were raised properly, he won't imbibe 'less he were invited, that jes' be good manners. Course, if'n he were invited, then it's highly likely you'll be restocking soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d74DGKdIw5M

Came across this guy while doing some work on my trail. Leopard Spider about 2" - it was gorgeous.

"Gorgeous" is not a word most people would use to describe a spider :lol:

I have some accent lights on my Tiki deck which attract bugs, the bugs attract spiders. Got lots of Western Spotted Orb Weavers this year. This one is pretty close to an inch long, fat and juicy from lots of bugs :lol: (crappy cell phone pic)

I'll start with prefacing that I live on the edge of a large swamp. In that swamp are large amounts of grass and water - bugs are everywhere. And since there are so many bugs, of course there are predators as well. It is the rainy season which means its peak season for bugs and their enemies. Here are some recent photos.

First is of the toad - this thing is huge - as big as your hand. He was hanging around my front door. He lives in the bushes in my front yard. I see him often.

Next are a variety of spiders. Help identifying these would be appreciated.

Golden Silk - Easily 6"

Maybe 2" long

Found this one while cutting some bushes. Maybe 1" wide body and fuzzy

Damn Tom, those are some ugly-ass spiders!

I welcome the spiders. The mosquitos here are huge and could probably fly off with a small child. Anything that eats or kills mosquitos are beautiful in my book. The most annoying spiders are the Crab Spiders - they love to stretch their webs across any open area. You'll be walking along and WHAM spider right in the face! They are small enough that you don't see them till its too late. Fortunately they are not aggressive or poisonous. The toad is a good sign - that means there aren't any big snakes in the area. Some crazy kids lick these toads to catch a buzz - not me!! The curly-tailed lizards are the other nuisance critter that I tolerate because they eat bugs - they are everywhere in my yard!!

[ Edited by: AlohaStation 2013-09-18 12:19 ]

"The mosquitos here are huge and could probably fly off with a small child"

That's for sure. I spent a few days in Miami prior to a Caribbean cruise a few years back. I left the hotel window open to get some fresh air and went to sleep. When I woke up there were the 2 HUGE mosquitoes sitting at the foot of my bed. The first one said "Do you want to eat him here or drag him back to the swamp?" The socond one replied "Let's eat him here. If we take him back to the swamp, the bigger ones will take him away from us!"

When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2013-09-18 15:15 ]

I had a run in with a wasp this weekend. I was messing around a bush and all of the sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see a wasp heading straight at me. Normally, wasps don't attack - but this guy had other plans. He came at me stinger first and landed a blow on my cheek. Hurt like hell and progressed to my jaw. After the swelling went down I now have a small hole in cheek where the stinger got me. I just feel blessed that it was not one of the Chinese Killer Wasps.
http://butterflies.heuristron.net/pictures/wasps/DSC06088.JPG

I exacted sweet revenge when I went back a smashed their nest!

A run-in with more wildlife. I saw this guy at a local park. Its about 6-8'

This vicious animal visits my urban jungle every day almost without fail. She is one of many but she will literally run down from the tree when I step outside with a handful of treats.

Can you see it? In the middle of the tree is a nested Bald Eagle. The nest is on top of a tall Cyprus tree (maybe 100' up) at the County Park next to my house. It may look small in the picture but when it takes off, its wingspan is about 6+'.

Nice Tom. One of my goals for this year is to photo-document every bird I can find within a half mile of my house. We are in a major migratory flypath and we get lots of species.

Speaking of birds, I saw something on my way to work the other day. I could see 2 medium sized birds in the road up ahead of me. As I approached in the car it was a pair of mallard ducks, one flew off to the right and the other FLOPPED of to the left - clearly it had a broken wing. It looked like the healthy one was staying with the wounded one - do ducks mate for life?

Yes they do Mike. My 6th grade teacher told us his story of why he quit hunting. He once shot a duck and the ducks mate flew down to him and put its wing over the dead bird. The ducks mate actually died too, on the spot. He said it was the saddest thing he had ever seen and he put his jacket over them and never hunted again.

Just have to share this, saw it on FB and it is hysterical...that is some serious talent there. TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP>>>>

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=704364939607865&set=vb.166337376743960&type=2&theater

Here's a better picture of the Bald Eagle that has set up shop at my local park.

Sweet Tom, with hatchlings!