Wild and Not So Wild World

Found this giant Sphinx Moth trying to break into my house and eat my cat!

Mike, don't those have a top speed of Mach 2?

I got to see some whales and dolphins over the weekend. The crappy looking water is funnily in Mexico, but I think its just the lighting. The whale was right off the coast of my beach. I can't believe I've never seen one from shore in California. The dolphin was from shore. It is difficult to get pictures of these underwater mammals, as I am sure many of you know.

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2014-02-19 19:17 ]

Not sure what this is? Some sort of bumblebee? We see bumblebees infrequently here but they are always black.

What's up with the giant insects? :lol:

Those Bald Eagle shots are awesome!!

I've been reluctant to post any snake stories without pictures and, strictly speaking, still don't have any as the brown snakes,
to which species the gwarda and dugite etc. belong, are generally shy and keep to themselves, unlike the tiger which is much more
aggressive, though not as common in our particular area.

Not wanting to bore anyone with our pets, I'll briefly say that at present we have two cats and the dog.

Jack on the left, mouser/ratter extraordinaire, tolerates the dog.
Rosie on the right is not my favourite in any way, shape or form, but has a strong bond with the dog.

Anyhow, my respect for Rose took a slight turn north about two months ago as I was in the shed and some
movement caught my attention. Looking over, I'll be buggered if she wasn't wrestling a small dugite, throwing
it into the air and biting it etc. I stood there stunned for a moment until the snake took off for shelter.
It went behind a stack of tyres, which I soon moved and could see the snake but wasn't quick enough to take
a photo before it moved behind our morning glory vine. I poked around for almost an hour without seeing it again.
I'd say it was about two feet long, maybe three.

A couple of days after that, the young couple next door said they had one about a foot long in their back room.

Around a week ago our other neighbour, a terrific old bloke, said that on two consecutive days he'd encountered
a large one about seven feet long in his yard. This being about as big as they come.

The land adjoining our back fence has only recently been developed and was essentially virgin bush beforehand.
The bloke that has built a house there is a landscaper and I've been taking keen interest in the work he's been
doing on his property. Yesterday I found the below shed skin that wasn't there the day before.
Measuring about four foot six inches, I'd say the owner was a about five foot and looks to be that of a dugite.

[ Edited by: komohana 2014-03-02 20:32 ]

Happy Easter Tiki Central!

Why do they just eat the plants I want and not the ones I don't want!

I took a Zoology class in college that had bird watching as part of it’s curriculum so I have paid attention to birds ever since. I have often thought about photo-documenting the birds of my area but the Imperial Valley is in a major migratory pathway and we have hundreds of bird species here. So I narrowed down the scope of my project by doing the birds I could find in one month (April) in the one square mile around my house. I came up with 35 species photographed and another 3 spotted but not photographed

One square mile with my house in the middle. Grass farmland, a hay compress, a small wetland, and some tumbleweed scrub area.

American Coot. They take off flying by running across the water

Anna’s Hummingbird (female)

Bank Swallow

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Necked Stilt

Black Phoebe

Blue Winged Teal (not a great picture)

Boat Tailed Grackle

Brewer’s Blackbird

Burrowing Owl, with his burrow mate behind him

Cactus Wren (he wouldn’t come out in the sun for a better pic)

Cattle Egret

pair of Cinnamon Teals

Cliff Swallow

Common Yellowthroat

Desert Great Horned Owl (best pic I could get at night)

Eurasian Collared Dove

European Starling

Gambel’s Quail

Glossy Ibis

Great Egret

House Sparrow

Kildeer

pair of Mallards

Mourning Dove

Northern Mockingbird

Red Tailed Hawk

Red Winged Blackbird

Ring Neck Pheasant – this bird was standing gloriously in the morning sun when I drove past. By the time I stopped and got the camera he was almost gone!

Roadrunner with lizard

Rock Doves or Pigeons

Turkey Vulture

Western Kingbird

Western Meadowlark

Whimbrel

Birds seen but unable to photograph:
American Bittern
Belted Kingfisher
Rufus Crowned Sparrow

You cataloged & photographed all these birds yourself Mike?
Well add Scientist & Ornithologist to your "Renaissance Man" resume!

bugger, didn't mean to turn the page.

[ Edited by: komohana 2014-04-28 20:25 ]

On 2014-04-28 18:41, MadDogMike wrote:
I took a Zoology class in college that had bird watching as part of it’s curriculum so I have paid attention to birds ever since. I have often thought about photo-documenting the birds of my area but the Imperial Valley is in a major migratory pathway and we have hundreds of bird species here. So I narrowed down the scope of my project by doing the birds I could find in one month (April) in the one square mile around my house. I came up with 35 species photographed and another 3 spotted but not photographed

One square mile with my house in the middle. Grass farmland, a hay compress, a small wetland, and some tumbleweed scrub area.

American Coot. They take off flying by running across the water

Anna’s Hummingbird (female)

Bank Swallow

Black Crowned Night Heron

Black Necked Stilt

Black Phoebe

Blue Winged Teal (not a great picture)

Boat Tailed Grackle

Brewer’s Blackbird

Burrowing Owl, with his burrow mate behind him

Cactus Wren (he wouldn’t come out in the sun for a better pic)

Cattle Egret

pair of Cinnamon Teals

Cliff Swallow

Common Yellowthroat

Desert Great Horned Owl (best pic I could get at night)

Eurasian Collared Dove

European Starling

Gambel’s Quail

Glossy Ibis

Great Egret

House Sparrow

Kildeer

pair of Mallards

Mourning Dove

Northern Mockingbird

Red Tailed Hawk

Red Winged Blackbird

Ring Neck Pheasant – this bird was standing gloriously in the morning sun when I drove past. By the time I stopped and got the camera he was almost gone!

Roadrunner with lizard

Rock Doves or Pigeons

Turkey Vulture

Western Kingbird

Western Meadowlark

Whimbrel

Birds seen but unable to photograph:
American Bittern
Belted Kingfisher
Rufus Crowned Sparrow

Outstanding work Mike!!

Wow, it's like a safari in here!

I have a ton of birds and squirrels in my neighborhood and I feed both. I recently doubled the size of my hummingbird and butterfly garden and I am waiting for the last frost to plant my new annuals. I was having my morning coffee yesterday and feeding the locals when I noticed my fist baby squirrel of the season. The baby is almost totally white. I couldn't get close enough for a good picture but hopefully it will come for peanuts like the others.

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"Anyone who has ever seen them is thereafter haunted as if by a feverish dream" Karl Woermann

[ Edited by: uncle trav 2014-05-04 05:06 ]

Nice Trav. Speaking of babies, I had a "baby" great horned owl in my backyard yesterday. About the size of a large chicken, all fluffy and not able to fly yet. Hopefully momma is still taking care of him.

It's been hard to get good pictures (stealthily shooting through the bathroom window), but we've now confirmed at least 5 gangly babies out by our front door.

Nice Bam, what are they?

Birds.

You knew that was coming.:D

GROG' roommate saw a bear several miles from GROG' cave a couple of weeks ago riding up in Angeles Crest.

I must concur with the wisdom of GROG: to the best of my knowledge, they're birds.

This is what the Mama looks like - she's a red-headed stripy-bellied bird.
(Ours are nice, but not quite as cute as the fuzzy baby owl bird)

Don't get eaten by bears!

Bam & Grog, you are both right about the "bird" part :lol: Without knowing the location and size my best guess is the house finch. But most of the pictures on the net show more red than orangish like yours. Also, only the male has that coloring - the female is more drab (something that occurs in almost all species except humans :wink: )

Ha. I should've at least been smart enough to realize the pretty bird was a male. Looking more carefully through our pictures, it looks like both the male & female have been tending the babies equally. Who knew (besides MDM, of course)?

We're in inland San Diego (La Mesa area.) Whatever they are, hopefully the young'uns will be quick learners when flying time comes. The nest isn't very high off the ground and is in kind of an enclosed area. And hopefully none of the neighborhood stray cats will be around or things will get very exciting.

Sorry I didn't get any shots, but I was not going to risk getting sprayed by a Skunk
I was about 5 feet away.

Last night I watched a Skunk & possum fight over some scraps of food
The Possum just bulldozed its way to the food, where the Skunk had already staked a claim

At which point the Skunk repeatedly headbutted the Possum (A large one) which
the Possum mostly ignored & was clearly unafraid of getting sprayed by the Skunk
it was for the most part, a shoving match which went on for about 10 minutes.

None of the beasties did any real damage to each other, but it was a real nature show
to say the least & Skunks are actually pretty cute animals.

Saw a doe with twin fawns this morning just down from the fire road behind GROG' house.

Fall is in the air and the animals are active.

Spring has sprung in the great south land, and in my locality snakes are very common at this time.

Always mindful of them, it still came as a surprise to see this one inside a small shed in the back yard
as there is no apparent way in or out besides the door which has no gaps anywhere.

One of my brothers and myself had not long ago cleared out some old car parts that I'd stored for him,
nearly emptying the space completely - with no sign of it, so how it got in is a mystery.

The head can be seen in the next photo, unfortunately I had a torch in my other hand and the extra light
ruined the picture a little.

This snake is a young adult about three to four feet or so and was not harmed.

I was reluctant to show these next pictures as probably no-one wants to see dead wildlife,
but may as well put them up while I'm here.

As I was slashing the grass in my back yard a few weeks ago these two were accidentally killed, in fact,
I didn't even see them until it was too late, the second one not until the next day among the dried grass.

I've blacked-out the wounds on the first which was about two and a half feet but fairly thin, so quite young.

The second was only about a foot long and didn't have any obvious damage.

All three snakes are believed to be dugites, or maybe the closely related gwarda - western brown snake.
Regardless, even the smallest is venomous enough to potentially kill an adult human.

[ Edited by: komohana 2014-11-20 03:27 ]

I don't think you have to apologize for killing venomous snakes. Kill or be killed I say!

Was burning the last of the dry grass yesterday and found this little bugger in the pile.

Lucky for the snake it didn't end up in the fire only a couple of feet to the left of the rake,
as I just saw it in time while I was flicking the grass onto the flames.

The picture is blurry because it is a snap shot from a short video that I managed to take but
the snake can be seen to the right of the rake head and alongside the brick wall.

A little funny at the time because as I whipped out my phone with my left hand, had the rake in
my right, and as I wasn't wearing any glasses couldn't tell whether the bloody phone was in
video mode or what, while keeping one eye on the snake and the other on the screen.

Anyhow, just a young-un at about two and a half feet this snake was not harmed and made a bee-line
for the bush behind our place, quick smart.

By all accounts it's a bumper year for snakes in the West, with about 190 people bitten this year
state-wide and around 20 within the last month or so.
Recent news separately saw a couple of kids needing treatment in hospital, and some dick-head
out in the goldfields died after being bit three times on the arm and refusing medical treatment,
he was aboriginal.

[ Edited by: komohana 2014-11-20 19:43 ]

Some recent encounters. The spider was living on my truck.

Keep them coming Komohana and Tom. Look at that lizard! Last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it!

Found another Spider hitching a ride on my truck.

Handsome devil!

Praying mantis baby just hatched.
That is the egg sack up top.
100 to 200 baby praying mantis can hatch out of one egg.

These egg sacks can be bought on where else, eBay.
We set about five egg sacks worth free each year in our yard and
see maybe two to three grown 4 inch praying mantis each year.

Who knows how many really live?

I thought praying mantis egg cases looked like this?

Yes, they can look like that too.
Got one of those on our fence.

Different type I guess.
Here are some big ones from last year.

Eating...

Here are some Black Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillars.
They like to feed on dill fennel and carrot plants even parsley leaves, so we plant them all.
I found close to 30 of these yesterday.

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•:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:••:"If you do fine work you will never die":••:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:••:•:•
TIKISKIP

Lights for home and
commercial TIKI bars.

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I went out to take photos of the deer and when he saw me he came closer to me.
The mother was not around and it was crying out for the mother.
I think it saw the mother in the another yard as he ran that way after some time.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2015-06-18 17:27 ]

This Beehive is huge!
I would guess it is 2.5 feet by say 1.5 feet.

Right by our house but not in our yard, glad I don't have to mow around it.

![](https://tikicentral.com/uploads/4035/513ce114.jpg)  
"Let us sale one to you"

Wildlife has been buzzin around your place Skip. I like the swallowtail caterpillars, they remind me of the big fat tobacco hornworms we used to find on our tomato plants. I think they made Sphynx moths?

First wee visitor for the season, maybe gwarda, about two years young.
Very little difference between them and dugites, basically just the scale count across the
back of the head, and the prior often having some variation of colouring to the head.

Looks to have recently swallowed a mouse or some-such. Was not harmed by myself, though the
cats were taking keen interest and some brew-ha was heard during the night, could have been
the ongoing hostilities with the cat next door, who knows? No casualties found this morning. :)

Love those pictures of the deer posted previously, and the green tree snake? Had many encounters
with our version during my time in the Daintree region of north Queensland. Very easy to imagine
yourself in a deserted tropical paradise in that part of the country. :)

edit - deer, not dear. :lol:

[ Edited by: komohana 2015-11-13 18:37 ]

Here is a friend who has been visiting me almost every day for the last three years. She enjoys peanuts while I have my coffee outside during good weather. She had triplets in a big tree in our yard this spring.

Here's one of my concrete tikis with a natural "top knot"

NICE!!!! :lol:

Wild baby frogs.

Hey Skip, are those little guys Spring Peepers?
Mahalo for sharing.

I was told they are tree frogs from Indiana as I bought them off eBay.
Being in Ohio I thought they would be ok in our climate.

Got 35 tadpoles and was able to raise only seven to frogs.
Was doing great until I bought tadpole food from the pet store.
Lots died after I fed them that.
Chopped boiled lettuce seam to be the best thing to feed the tadpoles.

Let them all go by now, hope they live and don't just feed other wild things.
Was raising praying mantis and the frogs won't eat those.

mother nature is a poppin.

Wild and now getting wet baby deer.

They are going to eat our nation.

17-Year Cicadas some say "Locusts"