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Gulls are pretty intelligent birds, especially when it comes to obtaining food. Adult herring gulls typically drop shellfish on roads to break them open. Sometimes, the young herring gulls will wreak havoc on a golf course by mistaking the balls for shellfish and dropping them on the cars on the parking lot.
I've watched them do that at the beach. This is the first time I've seen one operating a paper bag.
Gulls are pretty intelligent birds, especially when it comes to obtaining food. Adult herring gulls typically drop shellfish on roads to break them open. Sometimes, the young herring gulls will wreak havoc on a golf course by mistaking the balls for shellfish and dropping them on the cars on the parking lot.
Actually, the young gulls know exactly what they are doing. After they drop the golf balls on the cars, they retreat to a safe viewing distance to observe the humans' response. Then they laugh their feathers off.
something during the nite last nite emptied a nest of 4 half grown robins i had been watching for the past few weeks .. i know there is a fox in the area .. can a fox climb a tree ?.. there are more cats than one can shake a stick at but they are well fed pets .. do they just kill randomly ? .. the babies are gone ...
Something went shrieking through the neighborhood around 3 AM this morning. I think it was a fox; it didn't sound like a cat being chased or I would have jumped out of bed and gone outside. It was more of a "barky" shriek. At any rate, it certainly scared both the pets and myself.
On an unrelated note, grackles really like dry Friskies cat food. I put a bowl out for the stray flame-point Siamese cat the other day, and the grackles marched up and down the back steps plucking out kibbles until the bowl was completely empty!
Something went shrieking through the neighborhood around 3 AM this morning. I think it was a fox; it didn't sound like a cat being chased or I would have jumped out of bed and gone outside. It was more of a "barky" shriek. At any rate, it certainly scared both the pets and myself.
On an unrelated note, grackles really like dry Friskies cat food. I put a bowl out for the stray flame-point Siamese cat the other day, and the grackles marched up and down the back steps plucking out kibbles until the bowl was completely empty!
Grackles like any dry cat food! I have to put the Kit 'n Kaboodle under the shed, or the dang grackles and blue jays will eat it all. Well, almost all. For some reason, they don't eat the brown-colored pieces. It's kind of comical to see how they will eat the red and and gold/yellow pieces, but not the brown.
For past two years a couple (yes male & female) ducks have returned to use the mini-pond on the bottom of the driveway.
So cute.
When I need some room to drive, the male squacks at me, as if to say "Hey this is our place. Drive somewhere else" LOL
Something went shrieking through the neighborhood around 3 AM this morning. I think it was a fox; it didn't sound like a cat being chased or I would have jumped out of bed and gone outside. It was more of a "barky" shriek. At any rate, it certainly scared both the pets and myself.
It's been a while since putting in the nature observations. The past few months I've taken some walks/hikes and as usual there are always fascinating events happening.
February through March saw an early amphibian emergence with wood frogs emerging late in February (3 weeks early). I think that most of them didn't oviposit because of the sudden shift to very cold temps for a prolonged period. Not many egg masses were found at the end of March.
Checked a vernal pool at the end of March and found red-spotted newts and marbled salamander larvae. Unlike most other vernal pool breeders in NJ, marbled salamanders breed in autumn. Salamander and wood frog larvae are carnivorous and marbled sals breed early to get a jump on the other larvae.
Spring peepers got it in when they could! Green frog and bullfrog larvae that had overwintered hung out in the warm shallows until I approached, only to skit away quickly when I arrived. Rock flipping in a local stream with kids turned up N. water snakes, pickerel frogs, and two-lined salamanders, as well as a neat bonus: a snapping turtle hatchling.
Singing of birds increased as territorial interactions did as well. Winter flocks broke up and migrants began to come in as cardinals, song sparrows, and American robins asserted themselves with song. 1.5 weeks ago saw a wave of warblers arrived from the neotropics: waterthrush, black-throated blue, black-throated green, magnolia, worm-eating, Canada, Northern parula, black-and-white, and blue-winged. These stayed for a week until the frontal systems arrived favorable for their continued journey North. The forest is still full of the songs of rose-breasted grosbeak, ovenbird, wood thrush, yellow warblers, red-eyed vireos, common yellowthroat, Baltimore orioles, and the occasional, haunting song of the veery. Blue jays squawk and queedle as they harass hawks and the occasional raven. I saw a raven pair the other day, their deep barking call and intimidating presence makes the whole energy of the forest change. Red-bellied woodpeckers and Northern flickers call, among the fading territorial drumming always seemingly in the distance.
Painted and red-bellied turtles and non-native red-eared sliders are basking away, as are green and bullfrogs. Looking carefully in sunny spots at forest/field edges turned up garter snakes and racers, and looking between rocks at strategic sun angles near lakes shows that the Northern water snakes have emerged as well. Fishermen were taking trout and pickerel in mid-April, now begins the bass, bullhead and panfish.
The forest floor was a carpet of wildflowers just a few weeks ago: spring beauties, trout lilies, and bloodroot bloomed in the rush for the last wave of sunlight before the leaves came out on the trees, and skunk cabbage proliferated in the seepage areas. The sweetness of decomposing leaves and the smell of flowering trees nicely backdrops with all of the sights and sounds of the wildlife.
Soon it'll be the dog days of summer, with the cicadas, crickets and katydids!
Thanks - I figured it might be because the neighbors have seen a Mama and her kits in the field behind their house. I've only seen one Grey fox in the immediate neighborhood, at around 4 AM one morning when I was getting ready for an out of town antiques show. It was a lot larger than the red ones. I don't mind their "barking"; I just wish they wouldn't do it a 3 AM when the neighborhood is dead quiet - it's a bit unnerving. Plus the cats start to growl at the sound, and chaos ensues all 'round. Fun!
It's been a while since putting in the nature observations. The past few months I've taken some walks/hikes and as usual there are always fascinating events happening.
February through March saw an early amphibian emergence with wood frogs emerging late in February (3 weeks early). I think that most of them didn't oviposit because of the sudden shift to very cold temps for a prolonged period. Not many egg masses were found at the end of March.
Checked a vernal pool at the end of March and found red-spotted newts and marbled salamander larvae. Unlike most other vernal pool breeders in NJ, marbled salamanders breed in autumn. Salamander and wood frog larvae are carnivorous and marbled sals breed early to get a jump on the other larvae.
Spring peepers got it in when they could! Green frog and bullfrog larvae that had overwintered hung out in the warm shallows until I approached, only to skit away quickly when I arrived. Rock flipping in a local stream with kids turned up N. water snakes, pickerel frogs, and two-lined salamanders, as well as a neat bonus: a snapping turtle hatchling.
Singing of birds increased as territorial interactions did as well. Winter flocks broke up and migrants began to come in as cardinals, song sparrows, and American robins asserted themselves with song. 1.5 weeks ago saw a wave of warblers arrived from the neotropics: waterthrush, black-throated blue, black-throated green, magnolia, worm-eating, Canada, Northern parula, black-and-white, and blue-winged. These stayed for a week until the frontal systems arrived favorable for their continued journey North. The forest is still full of the songs of rose-breasted grosbeak, ovenbird, wood thrush, yellow warblers, red-eyed vireos, common yellowthroat, Baltimore orioles, and the occasional, haunting song of the veery. Blue jays squawk and queedle as they harass hawks and the occasional raven. I saw a raven pair the other day, their deep barking call and intimidating presence makes the whole energy of the forest change. Red-bellied woodpeckers and Northern flickers call, among the fading territorial drumming always seemingly in the distance.
Painted and red-bellied turtles and non-native red-eared sliders are basking away, as are green and bullfrogs. Looking carefully in sunny spots at forest/field edges turned up garter snakes and racers, and looking between rocks at strategic sun angles near lakes shows that the Northern water snakes have emerged as well. Fishermen were taking trout and pickerel in mid-April, now begins the bass, bullhead and panfish.
The forest floor was a carpet of wildflowers just a few weeks ago: spring beauties, trout lilies, and bloodroot bloomed in the rush for the last wave of sunlight before the leaves came out on the trees, and skunk cabbage proliferated in the seepage areas. The sweetness of decomposing leaves and the smell of flowering trees nicely backdrops with all of the sights and sounds of the wildlife.
Soon it'll be the dog days of summer, with the cicadas, crickets and katydids!
sounds beautiful
speaking of cicadas, there are a boatload of these guys around the dc area, apparently they set their clocks wrong and emerged 4 years early.
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