Suburban wildlife

[SteveR]

The cabin is in Utah mountains; several miles from Park City. I will see about some photos when we get back from vacation in TN.

[Nords]

[Yes, thank you, vBulletin, I know this thread is more than 1460 days old. It took me a while, OK? It's the last time the "Search" says that I used the word "quail"!]

I guess this is an extreme instance of Trombone Al's updates to threads, but I finally got backyard quail photos. Besides it's interesting to see who was posting four years ago.

Our kid is on the Mainland for another two weeks and we just returned from two weeks there ourselves. So it's been really really quiet in our backyard. Maybe because of that, for the last week the local quail have returned nearly every evening just around dinnertime 6 PM.

This time I could shoot from 30 feet with a cheap surf camera on max digital zoom. The youngsters are fully fledged so maybe the parents weren't as protective. I was finally able to sneak within 15 feet but the youngsters just stepped off the wall into the bougainvillea. The dad flew to a chain link fence next door and yelled at me for a while before deciding he'd distracted me from the rest of the flock satisfied honor and could fly off.

[W2R]

They are so cute!

Lately we have had numerous absolutely huge black ravens about the size of puppies or toy poodles flocking to our neighborhood. (They did this in the months after Katrina, too, but had become less frequent for a while.) When they are in the street they stand their ground and look at you truculently like, "This is MY street and proceed if you dare!"

These are definitely too big for the idea of "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie", as you could make two pies out of just one of them. Ewww, except that they are probably seriously diseased and they probably eat all sorts of disgusting stuff.

Sunday one of them defecated on my windshield, leaving a spot about 8" in diameter or more. I hadn't had a chance to clean it off, when yesterday's heavy rains washed it off. TMI, I know, but this has been about it for suburban wildlife around my house lately.

My ravens would beat your quail to a pulp!

[Martha]

I love resurrected old threads! The quail are lovely. Ravens are smart and fun to watch as well.

[freebird5825]

The quail are beautiful! Do you feed them or do they just know that nice unarmed people live there?

[Brat]

Our two eagles ...they are preditors for losts of smaller creatures, and even large salmon. The crows (some of whom are raven size) try to drive them off, I suspect because they dine on their young.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire My ravens would beat your quail to a pulp!

I don't mess with ravens, but my father always says "Hello" to them. If they see you regularly enough over a few months they'll croak "Hello" back. Freaks out the fellow hikers he meets on his favorite trails.

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebird5825 The quail are beautiful! Do you feed them or do they just know that nice unarmed people live there?

I think the quail just use our yard for commuting. I don't know where they come from, and we quickly lose them in the head-high California grass. Their predators are mongoose and neighborhood cats.

We were stupid naive enough to feed the feathered critters when we first moved in, but that just encourages the java sparrows. Those little suckers form noisy packs that turn meaner than any of Hitchcock's friends.

So now the birds just feed off the yard's grass and guava. The mockingbirds and red-vented bulbuls are pretty territorial about their perches while the zebra doves & sparrows seem to make most of the nests. We regularly scare the heck out of each other when I'm pruning. Brazilian cardinals and mejiros round out the flocks. (The mejiros will actually peck into a papaya and hollow it out.) The neighborhood also has a flock of about two dozen wild green parrots. A breeding pair escaped during Hurricane Iwa in 1982 and their descendants seem to be doing just fine on their own.

[Walt34]

We see lots of deer, the occasional fox, lots of squirrels, herons, hear the owls at night but have not see one, a groundhog living in the next door neighbors back yard, and regularly see possum and skunks as roadkill. The deer don't even run from the back yard when I open the porch door but they do stroll away.

The deer in particular are becoming a problem. Every few days we see a new one on the side of some road. On the bike I'm more afraid of them than I am of the cars. At least the cars are usually predictable.

[harley]

I finally got a half decent shot of one of the bald eagles that hunt in the pond and bay in back of my house. There are two, but I only got a picture of one. He's sitting on my neighbor's house. Of course it's the crappiest day we've had in weeks. Between these guys and the ospreys I've learned to look up when we let the chihuahua out back. I really need a new camera.

[JPatrick]

We discovered one of our does dead about 500 feet from the house the other day. Had been violently ripped apart and feasted upon.
As we have no dogs in the area, the first suspect is a coyote. Others are cougar and/or a mountain lion, though they are not nearly as plentiful as the coyote. Need some CSI help..

[JOHNNIE36]

Looked out the back window today and saw some movement up in the giant oak in our back yard. Got out the old glasses and dialed in on a hawk eating somekind of catch, probably a rabbit. I've seen many hawks in my day but this one struck me as different looking. I Googled hawks and found this one noted as a Northern Goshawk. The stripes on the neck feathers is what made it stand out to me. Had himself quite a meal as he was up there for over an hour. Just like that he was gone.

[TromboneAl]

Great shots, Harley. Didn't you have chickens at some point?

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Great shots, Harley. Didn't you have chickens at some point?

Once upon a time...

[harley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Great shots, Harley. Didn't you have chickens at some point?

Not me. We've got a lot of waterbirds around here, ducks (many flavors), geese, cormorants, coots, herons, etc. The HOA here would plotz if we got a chicken. Hmmm....

[Lsbcal]

I was cleaning down the siding on our house for painting prep. Out pops a bat from the siding edges and flys away. He was about two inches long before folding out his wings. Seeing a black thing this size emerge from a hiding place is quite startling. He was startled too.

Had this happen a few more times. The last time I was using a mild bleach solution and got a chance to wash the bat down thoroughly with fresh water before he took off.

Then there is the porch creature. Currently I've go lights going on under the porch and will put in some wire mesh to keep the thing out once there is evidence it has abandoned ship for good. Could be a possum or maybe even a skunk.