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  Topic: Wildlife, What's in your back yard?< Next Oldest | Next Newest >  
fusilier



Posts: 252
Joined: Feb. 2003

(Permalink) Posted: July 20 2008,11:49   

Thanks for the ID's!

Definitely a house finch or three.  The pale red color extends over most of the animal, just like the photo.

Also, probably a Carolina chickadee.  The black head and black throat separated by the white band is also clear.

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fusilier
James 2:24

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 20 2008,14:58   

This Just IN!

I had never heard of this, but noticed a Dragonfly Swarm last night out front of our house.

A little google indicates that dragonfly swarms ( @50)are not unknown, but not all that common either.

The Designer Must Work In Mysterious Ways.

I have a movie, .mov file extension, but my pc ineptitude does not allow me to link or post to it.  The pics I took are too small to be useful.

If you have hints on How To Do It, and of course, if you are interested in it, let me know.

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
carlsonjok



Posts: 3326
Joined: May 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 20 2008,17:19   

A little wildlife from around my property.  I have two of these that live in the brush around my house and graze in my front yard every morning.



This photo of a coyote pup isn't real good resolution as I took the photo from about 80-100 yards away and had to zoom in and resize some.



--------------
It's natural to be curious about our world, but the scientific method is just one theory about how to best understand it.  We live in a democracy, which means we should treat every theory equally. - Steven Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 20 2008,19:13   

Quote (carlsonjok @ July 20 2008,17:19)
A little wildlife from around my property.  I have two of these that live in the brush around my house and graze in my front yard every morning.



This photo of a coyote pup isn't real good resolution as I took the photo from about 80-100 yards away and had to zoom in and resize some.


I think your coyote saw your first photo and said "Mmmmm! Breakfast!"

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Albatrossity2



Posts: 2780
Joined: Mar. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: July 21 2008,03:18   

Wildlife report from near Tyndrum, Scotland. (in no particular order)

Red deer
some kind of lemming or vole
Chaffinch
Wren (known as the Winter Wren in the US)
Magpie
Pied Wagtail
House Martin
Barn Swallow
European Robin
Rook
Herring Gull
Osprey!
Linnet
Coal Tit

and probably a few more that I can't recall right now (jet lag). I got some pics of the Chaffinch and the Wren (including young un's), but will wait til I get back to edit those. Today we head to the Isle of Lewis, so I should get some seabirds for the list.

--------------
Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mind
Has been obligated from the beginning
To create an ordered universe
As the only possible proof of its own inheritance.
                        - Pattiann Rogers

   
fusilier



Posts: 252
Joined: Feb. 2003

(Permalink) Posted: July 21 2008,07:42   

Quote (J-Dog @ July 20 2008,15:58)
This Just IN!

I had never heard of this, but noticed a Dragonfly Swarm last night out front of our house.

A little google indicates that dragonfly swarms ( @50)are not unknown, but not all that common either.
{snip}

yeah, ain't they amazing?

We had one in front of our house, maybe ten years ago.  We sit at the corner of three streets - in an ordinary subdivision - and they were just soaring up and diving down for over two hours.  It started late afternoon and just went on and on and on til dusk.  Just about twilight, a flock of swifts arrived and the display was over in minutes.

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fusilier
James 2:24

  
khan



Posts: 1554
Joined: May 2007

(Permalink) Posted: July 21 2008,18:16   

Once, 20 or more years ago, the Monarch butterfly migration came through my street (SW Ohio).  Thousands of them settling into the trees for the night.

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"It's as if all those words, in their hurry to escape from the loony, have fallen over each other, forming scrambled heaps of meaninglessness." -damitall

That's so fucking stupid it merits a wing in the museum of stupid. -midwifetoad

Frequency is just the plural of wavelength...
-JoeG

  
Albatrossity2



Posts: 2780
Joined: Mar. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,09:41   

Latest wildlife report from the Outer Hebrides (again in no particular order)

Greylag goose
Grey Heron
Merlin
Eurasian Curlew
European Oystercatcher
Northern Lapwing
Common Buzzard
Corn Bunting
Twite
Meadow Pipit
Corncrake!!! (walked across the road in front of us)
Greater Skua
Whooper Swan (pair with 6 cygnets)
Grey Seal
Carrion Crow
Snipe

--------------
Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mind
Has been obligated from the beginning
To create an ordered universe
As the only possible proof of its own inheritance.
                        - Pattiann Rogers

   
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,11:15   

Quote (Albatrossity2 @ July 22 2008,09:41)
Latest wildlife report from the Outer Hebrides (again in no particular order)

Greylag goose
Grey Heron
Merlin
Eurasian Curlew
European Oystercatcher
Northern Lapwing
Common Buzzard
Corn Bunting
Twite
Meadow Pipit
Corncrake!!! (walked across the road in front of us)
Greater Skua
Whooper Swan (pair with 6 cygnets)
Grey Seal
Carrion Crow
Snipe

Don't forget to tell us about the weather, and the food!

(Unless you just listed the menu at the Scottish Arms Hotel?)

Just kidding! :)

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Wesley R. Elsberry



Posts: 4991
Joined: May 2002

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,11:42   

Quote

I have two of these that live in the brush around my house and graze in my front yard every morning.


Rusty and I could fix that if you wanted.



--------------
"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker

    
carlsonjok



Posts: 3326
Joined: May 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,11:53   

Quote (Wesley R. Elsberry @ July 22 2008,11:42)
 
Quote

I have two of these that live in the brush around my house and graze in my front yard every morning.


Rusty and I could fix that if you wanted.

LOL.  You'd have to work your way through about a half-dozen nasty little barn swallows that didn't appear too afraid of a hawk that landed on one of my blackjacks last week.

Actually, I haven't seen the rabbits in a number of days.  Their "disappearance" seems to coincide with both Mike Gene's bowing out over at TT and the appearance of a coyote in my backyard recently.  So, they may have been eaten, or perhaps they have been called to MG's secret lair to prepare for the inevitable war on the monolithic Darwinian priesthood.



--------------
It's natural to be curious about our world, but the scientific method is just one theory about how to best understand it.  We live in a democracy, which means we should treat every theory equally. - Steven Colbert, I Am America (and So Can You!)

  
dvunkannon



Posts: 1377
Joined: June 2008

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,14:03   

Quote (Albatrossity2 @ July 22 2008,10:41)
Latest wildlife report from the Outer Hebrides (again in no particular order)

snip
Carrion Crow

I saw a hooded crow on Castle Hill in Budapest about two weeks ago. Given that King Matthias was the Raven King, I thought it highly appropriate. Bird was too smart for me to catch a picture of, almost made me drop my camera as I tried to follow it.

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I’m referring to evolution, not changes in allele frequencies. - Cornelius Hunter
I’m not an evolutionist, I’m a change in allele frequentist! - Nakashima

  
jeffox



Posts: 671
Joined: Oct. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,14:08   

CarlsonJOK wrote:

Quote
Actually, I haven't seen the rabbits in a number of days.  Their "disappearance" seems to coincide with both Mike Gene's bowing out over at TT and the appearance of a coyote in my backyard recently.  So, they may have been eaten, or perhaps they have been called to MG's secret lair to prepare for the inevitable war on the monolithic Darwinian priesthood.



It's that darn holy hand grenade of Antioch!

:)   :)   :)   :)   :)

  
Henry J



Posts: 5786
Joined: Mar. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: July 22 2008,20:55   

This thread on another bb has a right interesting youtube (but I'm not sure how to post one of those directly).

Henry

  
Alan Fox



Posts: 1556
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: July 23 2008,12:01   

Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,July 19 2008,07:24)
Quote (Alan Fox @ July 19 2008,05:03)


Found a couple of months ago (dead or dormant) under the edge of a pool cover. The larger one was about 80mm or 3" long. Could they be some kind of moth larva?

The friend who found them just reminded me I said I had an idea where I could get some info. on a science site bursting with eminent academics.

i don't think they are aquatic, and they are definitely not megaloptera (dobsonflies or their ilk).

i'd say probably a beetle larvae but my inordinate fondness for beetles does not cover the terrestrial forms.  the size tends to rule out Neuroptera.  there are some structural differences between the first pic and the lacewing larvae, or whatever it was that was a few posts below.

are their fleshy prolegs along the abdomen?  what does the posterior end of the abdomen look like?  hooks?

Hi Erasmus

Only just spotted your reply, for which many thanks. You are right in that they are not aquatic. If they had come from the pool they would have been bleached. Also I don't think we get dobsonflies or fishflies in Europe.

I am sorry to report that my friend did not keep the specimens, so I can only report what I remember from looking at them around Easter. I saw six walking legs towards the front of the body, don't remember obvious prolegs or abdominal hooks.

I'll try googling coleopteran larvae.

  
nuytsia



Posts: 131
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 24 2008,21:52   

Quote (Alan Fox @ July 23 2008,04:01)
 
Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,July 19 2008,07:24)
   
Quote (Alan Fox @ July 19 2008,05:03)


Found a couple of months ago (dead or dormant) under the edge of a pool cover. The larger one was about 80mm or 3" long. Could they be some kind of moth larva?

The friend who found them just reminded me I said I had an idea where I could get some info. on a science site bursting with eminent academics.


Ooops I missed this as well.

This gentlemens flickr set might prove useful.

I wonder if it's a Lycidae beetle larvae.

I found something rather similar a while ago and haven't been able to pin it down either

but I think it's probably Lycidae as well?

   
Alan Fox



Posts: 1556
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: July 27 2008,10:13   

Thanks Nuytsia.

There is an abandoned orchard next to my friend's property which is carpeted in dead and decomposing wood, and lycid beetles seem quite evident around. But they tend to be on a much smaller scale, perhaps 20mm. What scale are the larvae in your photos? They do seem very similar in general appearance.

  
Jkrebs



Posts: 590
Joined: Sep. 2004

(Permalink) Posted: July 27 2008,10:56   

Taken in my backyard in more-or-less the center of Lawrence, KS.  The doe and two fawns have been around all summer, and this is my best picture.


  
Erasmus, FCD



Posts: 6349
Joined: June 2007

(Permalink) Posted: July 27 2008,20:37   

oddly enough the other day i was helping some local folks with identifying some specimens they had collected during biological monitoring of streams near some surface coal mining activity (National Coal Corporation is peopled by incompetent douchebags) and a grad student had a jar of critters with (what appeared to be) this exact same larvae.  No label of course (and he calls himself an entomologist... actually no he calls himself a herpetologist perhaps he has Total Recall and forgoes the label) and I didn't yank the critters out of the jar.  

But it sure did tickle me to death.  Coincidence?  I think not.  O, synchronicity, thou cruel mistress.

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You're obviously illiterate as hell. Peach, bro.-FtK

Finding something hard to believe based on the evidence, is science.-JoeG

the odds of getting some loathsome taint are low-- Gordon E Mullings Manjack Heights Montserrat

I work on molecular systems with pathway charts and such.-Giggles

  
Arden Chatfield



Posts: 6657
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 27 2008,21:21   

Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,July 27 2008,18:37)
oddly enough the other day i was helping some local folks with identifying some specimens they had collected during biological monitoring of streams near some surface coal mining activity (National Coal Corporation is peopled by incompetent douchebags) and a grad student had a jar of critters with (what appeared to be) this exact same larvae.  No label of course (and he calls himself an entomologist... actually no he calls himself a herpetologist perhaps he has Total Recall and forgoes the label) and I didn't yank the critters out of the jar.  

But it sure did tickle me to death.  Coincidence?  I think not.  O, synchronicity, thou cruel mistress.

Oh sure. And I assume it's just an accident that this happened right after Altenberg. What are you trying to hide, Erasmus?  :angry:

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"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

  
Arden Chatfield



Posts: 6657
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 27 2008,21:28   

Down to the Carquinez Straits, saw several of these:



And a pair of these:



Only one of these, but he flew real low over us and gave us a great view:



And about 1.5 bajillion of these:



None of these were new to my list, but it was cool anyway.

--------------
"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

  
nuytsia



Posts: 131
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 28 2008,03:52   

Quote (Alan Fox @ July 27 2008,02:13)
Thanks Nuytsia.

There is an abandoned orchard next to my friend's property which is carpeted in dead and decomposing wood, and lycid beetles seem quite evident around. But they tend to be on a much smaller scale, perhaps 20mm. What scale are the larvae in your photos? They do seem very similar in general appearance.

Hi Alan,

Goodness hard to recall really but I think around 40mm.

The curious thing about this larvae was it was actually found in Eucalypt foliage harvested from a low branch of a tree. Not in keeping with the general description of this famiy but I'm assuming there are, as ever, exceptions?

It had a single pseudopodium at the base of the abdomen. The abdomen contracted and expanded to aid movement.

   
nuytsia



Posts: 131
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 28 2008,04:57   

Quote (Arden Chatfield @ July 27 2008,13:28)
Down to the Carquinez Straits, saw several of these:
(snip)
None of these were new to my list, but it was cool anyway.

Looks like a very cool day Arden!

I popped over to Canberra a fortnight ago to visit friends and had a very nice time.

Saw my third wild platypus and got my first ever shots!

Not brilliant, I know, but I was rather chuffed.

Saw the usual Kookaburra

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Eastern and Crimson Rosellas, Galahs, Crested Pigeons, an inordinate amount of Aussie Magpies and Magpie Larks (don't get these in Tassie).
Also saw Wedge-tailed Eagle, Kangaroo, Wallaby, Emu, Darters (Anhinga), Cormorants and some snow. :-)

Also got my first really good look at Common Myna

which are an introduced pest species to mainland Australia. Thankfully they've not got into Tassie.

   
dhogaza



Posts: 525
Joined: Feb. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 29 2008,12:14   

Well, walking from my girlfriend's flat, out towards the Royal Preserve that surrounds the palace at El Pardo (Madrid area), saw a short-toed eagle today.  Very cool.

But it was soaring overhead and I didn't see its short toes.  Oh well.

It was carrying something fairly large and furry in its mouth, and young rabbits are quite noticable in the area, I'm guessing less noticable by a count of one as of this morning.  Perhaps its toes are so short it has to carry it's prey in its mouth!

The edge of the suburb where my girlfriend lives, Las Rozas, has open fields and slightly shrubby grassland, good raptor country.  Common buzzard, hen harrier (why, oh why, have I only seen the species that exists back home in north america?), red kite, eurasian kestrel ...

While hiking along the glorified stream (they call it a river) that the palace of El Pardo was built on, I've seen large kettles of griffon and a couple of spanish imperial eagles.

And each once while talking my morning bird walk outside Las Rozas.  And the other morning, while walking through the central plaza right in town, happened to look up as a griffon soared right overhead about 50 meters up.  Startled me.

The dickey birds on these morning walks aren't particularly special for Europe, i.e. serin, melodious warbler, goldfinch, house-but-never-spanish sparrow, crested lark, red-legged partridge, wood pigeon (never in the woods, though, except in the botanical garden next to El Prado, not to be confused with El Pardo), several other species I'm forgetting at the moment.  Oh, black redstart, that's a nice bird.

Not bad birding for 10km morning walks in a suburb in sight of downtown Madrid.

  
Alan Fox



Posts: 1556
Joined: Aug. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: July 29 2008,13:29   


The nearest I have got to a wild griffon vulture while hiking in the Cerdagne last month. There was a group of about half a dozen that seemed to come and check us out for a few minutes before moving on. Best I could do with a basic  digital.

  
Jim_Wynne



Posts: 1208
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 29 2008,17:58   

A friend sent me the photo below of some sort of insects he found in his apple tree.  Anybody know what they are?



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Evolution is not about laws but about randomness on happanchance.--Robert Byers, at PT

  
nuytsia



Posts: 131
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 30 2008,01:42   

Quote (Jim_Wynne @ July 29 2008,09:58)
A friend sent me the photo below of some sort of insects he found in his apple tree.  Anybody know what they are?


Some sort of Hemiptera.
Look like shieldbug larvae to me?
Wikipedia page.

   
Jim_Wynne



Posts: 1208
Joined: June 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 30 2008,10:12   

Quote (nuytsia @ July 30 2008,01:42)
Quote (Jim_Wynne @ July 29 2008,09:58)
A friend sent me the photo below of some sort of insects he found in his apple tree.  Anybody know what they are?


Some sort of Hemiptera.
Look like shieldbug larvae to me?
Wikipedia page.

That looks like it.  Thanks!

--------------
Evolution is not about laws but about randomness on happanchance.--Robert Byers, at PT

  
Albatrossity2



Posts: 2780
Joined: Mar. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: July 30 2008,16:30   

We're back on the grid in Aberdeen, after a few days in the Highlands and a couple of days on Orkney. In regard to the latter, I wish we could stay another month!

Here are some shots of northern wildlife.

Northern Fulmar and chicks, Butt of Lewis (Outer Hebrides)



Northern Fulmar in flight (from the Orkney Ferry)



Common Eider ducklings (Orkney)



And Professor Steve Steve at the Butt of Lewis



--------------
Flesh of the sky, child of the sky, the mind
Has been obligated from the beginning
To create an ordered universe
As the only possible proof of its own inheritance.
                        - Pattiann Rogers

   
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: July 30 2008,17:47   

Quote (Albatrossity2 @ July 30 2008,16:30)
And Professor Steve Steve at the Butt of Lewis


That IS a Big Butt... but I thought it was spelled Louis?

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
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