NOVA Critters (Merrifield: townhouse, garden, food)

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Caladium, you seem to be in a time warp. You're responding to a bunch of posts from July and August.

LOL, haven't you noticed I regularly bump old threads? I find it much more interesting than starting a new thread. For one thing, if it's a topic we've discussed before it saves everyone from having to type the same old thing over and over. Also, a lot of times people have reflections on what they may have said a year ago and I find that interesting. Best of all, when you bump old threads city-data contacts the OP. Sometimes that's brought old friends back into the forum.

[normie]

Originally Posted by Caladium

LOL, haven't you noticed I regularly bump old threads? I find it much more interesting than starting a new thread. For one thing, if it's a topic we've discussed before it saves everyone from having to type the same old thing over and over. Also, a lot of times people have reflections on what they may have said a year ago and I find that interesting. Best of all, when you bump old threads city-data contacts the OP. Sometimes that's brought old friends back into the forum.

Back when I used to hang out on the Politics forum I hated when old threads were bumped. But that was because it was confusing--you'd think some news event from a year before had just happened that day. Now that I hang out on the Nova forum, I like seeing old threads reappear. Especially the funny ones.

I'm about ready to revive the one about cheesy local tv commercials. There've been a few good ones lately. (Which is another way of saying there've been some really awful ones lately! ) I think I'll wait until after the SuperBowl, though. That's when a lot of the local businesses follow the lead of Pepsi and Doritos and trot out their new ads.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by normie

I'm about ready to revive the one about cheesy local tv commercials. There've been a few good ones lately. (Which is another way of saying there've been some really awful ones lately! ) I think I'll wait until after the SuperBowl, though. That's when a lot of the local businesses follow the lead of Pepsi and Doritos and trot out their new ads.

Oh yeah, that should be a sticky since there are always new ones. I've got a few saved up since last time.

[normie]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Oh yeah, that should be a sticky since there are always new ones. I've got a few saved up since last time.

LOL, I like the idea but if we gave a sticky to all the threads that deserved 'em, there'd be no room for new threads. The whole first page would be stickies!

[michgc]

Cool picture of the owl! I saw a fox two days ago on our cul-de-sac. He seems to live around here.

[Morrigkan]

That picture of the spider brought back bad memories. I found one just like that one in my house in NY once. My husband was deployed to Iraq at the time, which left me to deal with it. YUCK!! I think that it came in on a large house plant that I bought that day and ended up on top of my curtain rod. The thing was HUGE!!! I couldn't bring myself to squish it because that would be even worse, not to mention I was afraid the thing would bite me before I could do it. I ended up wrangling it into a large ziploc bag and releasing it outside.


With it's leg span it was easily the size of my hand. After doing some research I found out that they're commonly called fishing spiders. They typically live near water and actually eat small fish. I still get the willies thinking about it.

[normie]

Originally Posted by michgc

Cool picture of the owl! I saw a fox two days ago on our cul-de-sac. He seems to live around here.

Is it just me or are other people seeing an unusually high number of foxes this year? I have two different ones running through my yard almost every day now. It used to be I'd see a fox maybe once or twice a year.

[normie]

Originally Posted by Morrigkan

That picture of the spider brought back bad memories. I found one just like that one in my house in NY once. My husband was deployed to Iraq at the time, which left me to deal with it. YUCK!! I think that it came in on a large house plant that I bought that day and ended up on top of my curtain rod. The thing was HUGE!!! I couldn't bring myself to squish it because that would be even worse, not to mention I was afraid the thing would bite me before I could do it. I ended up wrangling it into a large ziploc bag and releasing it outside.

LOL, great story-- spiders always seem to know the worst times to arrive!

[FishSauce]

Some interesting critters captured on camera last year...

- The hawk snacking on the chipmunk was in the backyard
- The moth camouflage as a leave was on the front window
- The rabbit was on the side of the house
- The heron was at Meadowlark

[ICS67]

I don't have photos, but I have seen plenty of critters inside my 1/3 acre lot in Reston. To wit, resident squirrels and chipmunks; transient turtles, garter snakes, foxes, and deer; and about 20 species of birds, most notable of which were a red-shouldered hawk and a pileated woodpecker.

Right next door to my property: a bald eagle in my neighbor's tree, and a black bear 50 yards away from my property line (this was the black bear that a few years ago ended up in a tree three blocks from Maple Avenue in Vienna and which Fairfax Animal Control captured and relocated out to the Shenandoahs).

It's a jungle out here!