It has been hot lately and even vultures come to my creek for a drink at my new place. It’s nice and cool and fairly peaceful at the bridge. Buzzards are easier to sneak up on than most birds. They all turned and saw me just as I got their picture looking like a bunch of chickens roosting for the night.
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Huge Grass Carp keeping my new pond clean. Guess I have light footsteps. They look like a shark when their fin is sticking up. They are bigger than a small person. I have enjoyed watching them for years. These are triploids not diploids so they cannot reproduce like the problematic Carp species.
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These cranky critters, their kids and cousins live in branch piles in our food forest and in the open shed above our wine cellar. I mostly meet them when roaming the fenced part of the property at night (not crazy, just crappy back). Last week at least three of them kept running, huffing and puffing around me, circling the perimeter all at the same time to the great consternation of our cat.
I’ve no idea what the fuss was about as I met the whole prickle ( I love English animal group names) under my propagation table by the cellar the next night.
Someone’s been stealing from the duck feeder and someone’s been poaching cat kibble…
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Very cute!! It made me check your location though because that’s one adorable animal we don’t have native to America. My husband’s family in Turkey though tell us of getting oven mitts to remove the little fellows from their garden so that their dog will stop barking.
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In my climate and area the easiest thing to attract them is to create shelter in he form of branch piles. When pruning, anything that is not thick enough for firewood or the grill gets cut/broken nto smaller pieces and piled up to about 1,5m stacks. We keep either adding to those or make fresh ones, when they compost. The hedgehogs use them for winter shelter and so they stay and multiply. Some cat food left out in late autumn ensures they are nice and fat and can survive winter.
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Yes, dogs are not happy about them. They are either affraid of them outright or pissed due to bad experiences. And thick hide mitts are a must for hedgehog evacuation. Not just for the prickles but also occasional flea infestation.
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We bulldoze brush here into piles for rabbits, raccoons, coyote, bobcat, possums, skunks etc. To live in. They make their dens in the lose soil or stuff the logs with hay and fur for the babies like a crib. My favorite bad tempered animal we have which is becoming much more rare is the badger. I have not even seen one for a few years now. It was common to see them weekly 10 years ago. Part of that is because I’m not outside as much as I used to be. After awhile they get to know me and ignore me. When someone else walks near them they are territorial and growl in preparation to defend their home. That is partly why the badger is rare here now. Once lots of people arrived the conflicts started with animals and you know how it ends. The snakes here are non poisonous because of our king snakes and bull snakes claim this area. As people kill non venomous snakes they don’t realize it is an invitation to the venomous types who are ever seeking expansion of their territory. Poisonous snakes have tried to establish themselves here. It is very obvious when they are here because everything is out of balance. I dont like them here. Sometimes one or occasionally many wonder in this area. People kill harmless animals like possums that eat ticks out of fear. Sometimes it is necessary to kill them if they are attacking chickens. It is most often the increased highway traffic that is the main problem.
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Occasionally, one is glad that squabble over wildlife (mostly bears and wolves) is a big part of political discussion here (Slovakia has 40% forest coverage). At least people get to be informed and kids learn about grass snakes and such at school. But people will still hunt mostly for sport here and badgers, foxes and forest cats (and domestic ones that venture over 200m from the nearest inhabited building!) are their favourite sport. That’s also one of the reasons why we keep an unkempt (by most people’s standard) portion of our land for the animals to hide in.
That said, I am envious of your friendly badgers - I mostly get to see their asses or get to track them in fresh dusting of snow in the forest or abandoned vineyards.
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It’s time for the stag beetles to duel the Hedgehogs now
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The hedgehogs would just mow over them… A stag beetle duel is quite hilarious mainly if you’ve ever seen Carpathian red deer duel relatively up close. Stag beetles make a show of their pretend sumo wrestling while weighing as much as a ball of crupled paper. One is tempted to see it as a ritual, but they are dead serious.
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the cows of the lakes.
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Two pairs of juncos are nesting in our yard, and the one with a more accessible nest has five babies in it! The parents have been energetically scouring the yard for insects & seeds, and bringing them to the nest. They were NOT happy with me when I pulled back the pile of sunflower stalks covering their nest to take this photo, jumping around in the branches above my head chirping angrily. But I put it back carefully, and I’ve not been mowing this corner of the yard since I spotted them, so they should be more grateful! Lol
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I found this moma opossum beside my back porch. SHe had clearly been attacked by some kind of large canine (dog or coyote) and was badly injured. As I examined her I discovered her pouch was full of babies! In spite of mom being in bad shape, the babies all were ok. I put mom on antibiotics and she started to recover and they’ve all done well. This started about 6 weeks ago. You can see how they grew. I have released mom and all but 1 of the babies. Some of you may remember this isn’t my first time “adopting” an opossum! I know they are the ugliest animals on earth, and some people see them as overgrown rats. but once they calm down they are the most gentle, sweet animals on earth!
First night:
10 days later:
3 weeks in -
4.5 weeks:
today, week 6. Don’t worry…that isn’t blood on its face. This one had an infection and I had to mark it with fingernail polish to be able to tell which one got antibiotics. This is the only one I have left. II released mom and the other babies. a week ago.
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Gator trying to get my koi. I’m going to start selling Koi since all the critters are getting my fruit trees so I’m pretty much giving up and will be selling my blackberries and other trees this fall.
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Turtle in the orchard. I’m sure it didn’t climb over the fencing. Its mission may have been to remind me it is time to mow again.
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Insect guards for my High Density Apples
Since Purple Martins eat a lot of flying insects I thought a couple of nest poles would be the perfect addition to my high density apple planting. The Martin’s are coming and going constantly and any flying moth’s would be picked off quite likely. We will see. They seem quite happy with their location.
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I see these gourds all around here in Florida. Do these birds only eat bugs as they fly or do they really get in the tree branches and hunt down bugs? The leaf footed bug and cockroaches are doing damage on my berries.
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