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I work in an area called Earth City, in St. Louis County, MO. Earth City is an industrial park, close to the Missouri River. It has canals and lagoons running through it, so that the area doesn't flood.
We get a surprising amount of 'animal experiences' around here. Canada Geese are ubiquitous. They can get super territorial around nesting time. Last year, I had a male goose go around our building, pecking at his reflection in the glass. He'd peck peck peck, and then hiss at himself. Peck peck peck, and hiss. That went on for a couple of hours.
Some springs, they have their babies, and THEY are cute to watch. This year, someone(s) from the conservation dept went around and oiled the eggs...so no new babies this year.
About once a year, we'll get baby snakes in the building. Like in the office space. Like over the coarse of a week, we'll get 3 or 4 of them.
Once, several years ago, a ground hog wandered up from the lagoon, came up to the building, and stretched up to the door to take a look inside. I'm the receptionist...so I see everything that goes on out the front. LOL
Another time, a baby goose kind of sort of got itself trapped in a corner, by the front door. It was freaking out as people were trying to come and go, and mom and dad goose were freaking out over the baby freaking out...it was bigger drama than one would've thought was necessary. LOL
Just the day before yesterday, somehow a baby bunny got trapped in our foyer. It must've come in during the changing of the shifts, with people coming and going. It was freaking out, scared to death. But once most of the people were gone, it was easy enough to shoosh it toward the open door.
Last year, the mourning doves were being weird. We had a pair that kept trying (over the course of weeks) to build a nest in the space between the windshield and the hood of a couple of specific cars in the parking lot.
The drivers of these particular cars would park in the same spot every day. And then the mourning doves would start building their nest. At the end of the day, the drivers of said cars would have to tear the nest out to drive home. And then the same thing would happen the next day. Same two cars. It was kind of bizarre. But it was pretty funny too.
Other animals I've seen here at work...
hawks and owls
foxes
coyote
raccoons
bob cat
musk rats
river otters
And various fish
Trapped bunny story reminds me, when we moved into our townhome back in September, we had a piece of business to handle right away. I'm really glad that we had our move in date when we did, too. When we got there that morning to do some measuring and scope out the new place and contemplate where we were going to put furniture and all... In the basement, there is a window well, which for those who live in areas where they don't do this, is where they dig out a big space around a basement window, that is large enough to escape in the event of a fire, for instance, and allows for a big window there. They shore it up with a metal structure to preserve that dug out area. Sometimes it's a good idea to get a cover for those, but ours is so big that to do that, I'd have to custom order one. Well that day, there was a baby rabbit trapped in there. I managed to trap it under a laundry basket, then lay a towel down, move the basket over the towel, then carefully flip it over and lift it up and gently toss the bunny out into the grass. Had we moved in at a later date, that little creature would probably have perished.
Great place to work! Most can't say they have interesting animal experiences on the job.
Why are the eggs oiled by conservationists, do you know...?
Fascinating on birds choosing same cars for nests...must be exactly the correct measurements in the grille...
These geese... Depending how cold it gets, sometimes they don't 'go south', and they stay year-round. So the conservation dept. oils the eggs sometimes for population control. Oiling them keeps the eggs from hatching. In the whole Earth City area, I think I'm safe in saying that we get hundreds of Canada geese. In our smaller more immediate area, we probably have a couple of dozen.
Like I said, they get territorial, and they'll build a nest in the most inconvenient places. It makes it not so safe to walk around outside...you never know when you'll **** a goose off. LOL
And I forgot...I also see turtles. They like to sun themselves on culverts when it's warm outside.
Regarding the mourning doves...I played a trick on a friend of mine. She owns one of the cars that was getting nests every day. She's NOT an animal lover, and she didn't like having to remove the nests every day.
So, one day, I clipped a little fake bird (it was red, and had real feathers.) to the hood of her car, right by the windshield. Really, I figured she'd see it right away, take it off and laugh.
Well, she didn't notice it until she was in the car and on her way. She figured she'd just turn her windshield wipers on, and it would fly away. So that's what she does, but the wipers actually push the bird further down into the hood/windshield space.
NOW she thinks she killed the bird, and it's freaking her out, and she's afraid that bird guts are going to get into the vents of her car, and eventually start smelling up the car, so the more she thinks about it, the more the whole idea is grossing her out. So she decides she should stop at a car wash, and spray the dead bird and guts and stuff out, BEFORE she picks her husband up from work.
So she goes to the car wash, puts her money in, turns on the spray, and she sprays and sprays and sprays, but she can't get the bird out. And she's thinking "What the heck?!?" So THEN she FINALLY takes a close look at the bird, and realizes it's fake.
She said she knew right away that it was either me, or another lady at the office who had done it.
These geese... Depending how cold it gets, sometimes they don't 'go south', and they stay year-round. So the conservation dept. oils the eggs sometimes for population control. Oiling them keeps the eggs from hatching. In the whole Earth City area, I think I'm safe in saying that we get hundreds of Canada geese. In our smaller more immediate area, we probably have a couple of dozen.
Like I said, they get territorial, and they'll build a nest in the most inconvenient places. It makes it not so safe to walk around outside...you never know when you'll **** a goose off. LOL
And I forgot...I also see turtles. They like to sun themselves on culverts when it's warm outside.
Regarding the mourning doves...I played a trick on a friend of mine. She owns one of the cars that was getting nests every day. She's NOT an animal lover, and she didn't like having to remove the nests every day.
So, one day, I clipped a little fake bird (it was red, and had real feathers.) to the hood of her car, right by the windshield. Really, I figured she'd see it right away, take it off and laugh.
Well, she didn't notice it until she was in the car and on her way. She figured she'd just turn her windshield wipers on, and it would fly away. So that's what she does, but the wipers actually push the bird further down into the hood/windshield space.
NOW she thinks she killed the bird, and it's freaking her out, and she's afraid that bird guts are going to get into the vents of her car, and eventually start smelling up the car, so the more she thinks about it, the more the whole idea is grossing her out. So she decides she should stop at a car wash, and spray the dead bird and guts and stuff out, BEFORE she picks her husband up from work.
So she goes to the car wash, puts her money in, turns on the spray, and she sprays and sprays and sprays, but she can't get the bird out. And she's thinking "What the heck?!?" So THEN she FINALLY takes a close look at the bird, and realizes it's fake.
She said she knew right away that it was either me, or another lady at the office who had done it.
I thought it was way funnier than she did.
I think it's hilarious
She might feel differently if she had noticed earlier....money for car wash, getting feet wet etc....
The oriole discovered my new feeder! Woo-hoo it only took 1 day! Just watched him eating from it, I think he preferred the jam over the blueberries.
That oriole(s) seem to have disappeared. It ate from the feeder for a few days, then it never showed up again. I wonder if it was just passing through.
That oriole(s) seem to have disappeared. It ate from the feeder for a few days, then it never showed up again. I wonder if it was just passing through.
Well, shoot.
Maybe you'll get more. I saw that B. Orioles and other orioles summer in your area in forest lands...
article states you also get the painted bunting, lucky you.
That oriole(s) seem to have disappeared. It ate from the feeder for a few days, then it never showed up again. I wonder if it was just passing through.
Depending on where you live, that happens. They move on.
Main reason I'm disappointed is, now I bought an oriole feeder for nothing!
Maybe some other ones will come back? Hopefully.
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