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Squirrel mom and likely newborns, in hollowed-out knot of live oak tree just behind my place...she looks out throughout the day, just her head showing-then goes back in...
have seen her come out to sit on branches, but she only ventures outside briefly to groom herself...
Yesterday was Ground Hog Day, AKA Candlemas or Cross-Quarter Day.
Took a long walk at a new park I found, backing up onto a nature preserve. Great landscape and did some cross-country hiking and discovered this rushing, rocky brook in the heart of the woods!
Going to do some more off-the-trail explorations to see what I find deeper in the forest.
I should say this new area is a mix of bottomland prarie, steeper rive-valley slopes and ravines, and old fields going to forest on the uplands, with some mature forests. You can get this great mix of grasses, cedars, some young trees, etc. Almost like a savannah but with some more open prarie-esque areas. The woods have some trees that still have their fall leaves (oaks, I think), and you can hear the wind in them.
Good memories. The waxing moon up in the golden hour blue sky, over a cedar sitting in a little praire, backdrop that oak wood...everything just glowing in the bright late sun.
Place has some suprises...an alle' of young trees, with the trail covered in green moss. Nice.
Yes, a more rural version of Lawn Guyland still exists from about Route 112 in Patchogue all the way out to the tips of both forks. Most of that has been spared the suburban sprawl found in Nassau and western Suffolk. Deer are plentiful (so plentiful, one of the townships sponsored a short hunting season to lower the numbers) along with rabbits, fox, and a variety of other small rodents.
Seems I saw something on PBS about a veg farm on Long Island, if memory serves. Would have to be eastern or someone would have sold it for the value of the land.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AksarbeN
Yesterday while working in the backyard I noticed two large hawks flying overhead. They continued to soar in a circular pattern catching the wind currents. They amazed me as the two birds stayed within inches of each other at times and never more than a couple of feet away from the other. I watched them for more than five minutes before they drifted away over another area. They were so graceful and synchronized together while in flight.
There's something about big birds flying. Not the big yellow one from Sesame Street.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greatblueheron
Squirrel mom and likely newborns, in hollowed-out knot of live oak tree just behind my place...she looks out throughout the day, just her head showing-then goes back in...
have seen her come out to sit on branches, but she only ventures outside briefly to groom herself...
Many years ago in winter a squirrel came onto the balcony of the apartment I lived in at the time. I opened the sliding glass door and put out a plastic bag of shelled walnuts on the living room floor. The squirrel that came in looked like she had been nursing kits. She at almost a full bag of walnuts. I think she needed them!
Some really nice posts here tonight, folks. A very enjoyable read. I am wondering if we are going to have an early spring seeing we have hardly had winter...I saw a dead skunk on the road today. Other years, that would be unheard of. It has just been that warm.
Whilst vacuuming the entryway today, using the attachment feature and at the very last possible moment, I noticed a rather large wolf spider about to be sucked in by the vacuum. Though I hastily pulled back the nozzle, I was thinking for certain it'd been captured.
But No! Looking again in the corner, there it was ~ frozen absolutely motionless. I was able to get my Spider Evacuation Kit and safely transport it outside where I let him free to run up the walnut tree.
I would never knowingly kill a spider, unless of course he was discovered in the process of biting me and I knew it were of a poisonous type. At that point I'd have to take defensive action.
Did you know that several types of spiders can live 15-20 years? I find that amazing.
Whilst vacuuming the entryway today, using the attachment feature and at the very last possible moment, I noticed a rather large wolf spider about to be sucked in by the vacuum. Though I hastily pulled back the nozzle, I was thinking for certain it'd been captured.
But No! Looking again in the corner, there it was ~ frozen absolutely motionless. I was able to get my Spider Evacuation Kit and safely transport it outside where I let him free to run up the walnut tree.
I would never knowingly kill a spider, unless of course he was discovered in the process of biting me and I knew it were of a poisonous type. At that point I'd have to take defensive action.
Did you know that several types of spiders can live 15-20 years? I find that amazing.
Didn't know spiders live that long. I second the notion of evacuating non-poisonous spiders. They're just doing their job of killing other bugs!
This morning I went out the door with coffee in hand and thought I'd walked right into the middle of the next World War. There on the fence was Herr Squirrel and a Steller's Jay stuck in a Mexican standoff with a peanut in between them; this did not, however preclude them from screeching at each other in full volume. Now I don't know which one of them brought the stupid peanut to the fence originally but DAMN IT there was gonna' be a brawl over it. The anger of both antagonists was growing by the second but just as things were about to come to fisticuffs one of the neighbor's cats came ambling down the top rail of the fence.
With the feline danger approaching something had to give; and it did. The Jay turned for just an instant to screech some unmentionable vulgarity at the cat before turning back to confront the squirrel once more. The split second of inattention was all Herr Squirrel needed to reach out, seize and abscond with the peanut. In a blinding flash he was up the tree and safely inside the squirrel hut.
The Jay, thoroughly enraged at the skullduggery of Herr Squirrel, flew about the squirrel hut screeching at it and even tried to get inside before a well placed nip to the bill by the felonious rodent make the bird think otherwise of the tactic. He resorted to sitting on the branch about a foot away from the entrance to the squirrel hut and hurling obscenities at the black furred thief. The neighbor's cat just looked on in amusement from its perch on the fence. I just kept drinking my morning coffee through all of this and shook my head at the pair.
Methinks I'll leave a couple of peanuts out on the fence in the morning; just to see if I can start another fight.
I won't kill spiders most of the time. Earlier tonight I took a honey bee and turned it loose outside. It had just stung my almost 1 yr old Gdaughter. They've recently removed a screen door to back porch BBQ area... the bee was in her bedroom.
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I must be dreaming 
Seems I saw something on PBS about a veg farm on Long Island, if memory serves. Would have to be eastern or someone would have sold it for the value of the land.
Not the big yellow one from Sesame Street. 
A Close Call
