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A BIG female praying mantis showed up today. She's about 4 inches long. I thought it was dead until the sun came out and warmed her up then she started hunting. She gave me that ninja on guard thing when I got too close.
We get a lot of female praying mantises in the plastic window well covers over our basement windows. They have figured out that that's a great place to lay their eggs in the fall. They arrive with big bellies and leave a lot skinnier. Then in the spring, we get tons of baby mantises.
As the construction traffic for two houses down the street is slowing down I am seeing more deer on my lot. Last night while my wife and I were sitting around a firepit three showed up to eat the corn I put out earlier that day.
Went out early this morning and immediately saw a doe running.....and a 6 point buck in hot pursuit. About 15 seconds later here comes a 10 point buck.....on the trail of the female.
I saw a small flock of pigeons, more of a fleck really. Now that might seem pretty unremarkable but I rarely if ever see them out in the country. They were feeding or picking up gizzard grit along the shoulder of a country road, 5 miles from the nearest small town. I am one of the few who like pigeons, and it reminded me of when I was young and we raised them for a couple of years. Haters be damned.
Around noon today I was driving down this one road on my way to the supermarket to get a cup of coffee and buy a few other things. This was the road I ranted about here. It's gotten to the point where I almost dread having to drive down that road for fear of seeing yet another squirrel hit by a car, but it's the only practical road for me to go to the supermarket (and a bunch of other destinations), so I go up and down it multiple times a day, usually. Anyway I was going down it and, lo and behold, I saw another squirrel that had been hit. But unlike all the other times, this one had just been hit, and was still quivering and struggling in pain on the road. I completely freaked out and immediately turned around on a side street so that I could pass over that spot on the road again, and deliberately run over the squirrel a couple times myself to finish the job.
Good God that was hard! I actually hit a squirrel myself on that road in mid-October when I was driving and it very suddenly started raining really hard! Seconds after it started raining, while I was grappling with the windshield wiper settings and trying to see in front of me, I suddenly saw a squirrel passing just feet in front of me. I panicked, slammed on the brakes and beeped my horn but it was too late. I squashed the poor guy.
But at least I had a good excuse with the sudden downpour. Nearly all the other ones I see - including the one today - occur in perfectly clear weather. It's just the people driving aren't paying attention to what's on the road in front of them.
Anyway, after I finished the squirrel mercy killing I continued on to the supermarket and got my coffee and other items. On the way back I was driving around the same spot as the squirrel when I saw ... a Bald eagle flying maybe 20 feet over the road! The first thing I thought was, "Did it get that squirrel?" I looked closer at the eagle as it flew over me and indeed it had something in its talons. Then when I got to the spot where the dead squirrel was ... it was gone! So yes, that eagle got the squirrel!
At least that's one squirrel killed on that road that didn't go to waste.
And this was only the 3rd time I've seen a Bald eagle around here since I moved here 8 years ago.
i recently ran out of pancake syrup for my sapsuckers and only had Honey .. filled up their little feeder cup with it and they wont touch it ,, i would have thought the opposite .. i have fed my other little feathered friends so long that they will now sit near the feeder and call me when it is empty .. i stand nearby while the smallest of the beast get their fill .. the wrens and chickadees and my fav the nuthatch . after they get thru i back up a few feet and my bluebirds come in .. usually about 4 or so .. when they get done i walk away and the bigger birds fight over the rest .. Robins and Blue jays .. i crunch up peanuts for them ..
The birds get pretty bad at me when I don't feed them. One even hit me in the head one day while I was getting their food from the shed. If I miss a day they get real noisy. Most of the time I have to pick up their feeders at night to keep the racoons from getting them. The racoons have not been by lately so I have not been taking in the feeders. I fill them full and don't refill them now until both of the feeders are empty. They like one feeder better than the other so it gets emptied faster.
Yesterday both of the bird baths were ice skating rinks. They were pecking it trying to get some water. So I got some water to put on top of the ice for them until it froze.
I have a Koi pond near the front of my house. It attracts all kinds of critters, most of which have bad intent. Over the years I've lost fish to racoons, possums, feral cats and the most devastating predator of all....the great blue herons which have wiped out the entire population of the pond on multiple occasions. At this time of year I place a large tent/net over the pond to prevent predation (and leaves from falling into the pond). This morning I came out to a surprise potential predator that had gotten inside the net.....a turkey vulture. He/she immediately vacated the net/tent but didn't leave upon my approach. While they are pretty common around here they generally eat carrion....guess it was looking for some fresh fish....must be a shortage of road kill.
Today I saw a seagull flying over a shopping center parking lot.
I believe that's the first seagull I've seen in Kansas City since I moved here in 2015.
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Then in the spring, we get tons of baby mantises.
