Spring has sprung

[Nancy]

Thought it would be fun to have some glimpses of everyone's wildlife spottings, since it's spring.

During the last two weeks, I've seen quite a few of nature's finest, during the early morning hours.

a red fox
an albino squirrel, very different looking
a wild turkey with fully fanned tail
three deer together
our frog pond is alive with much frog activity--lots of noise
all kinds of birds, cardinals, robins, chickadees, Canada geese,hawks,finches, crows, bluejays, woodpeckers, sparrows

So what's in your area?

 

[Ross]

2 cats on the roof!

Robins and other assorted birdies, Skunks, Ground hogs, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and an occasional Raccoon. Haven't seen any Deer, Elk, Moose or Bear yet this year.

 

[jenlynn72]

I had two wild turkeys in my backyard this morning. My little beagle was going crazy! Couldn't wait to get out there!

Lots of rabbits, squirrels and birds everywhere. They were splashing around in the bird bath yesterday afternoon-we had a high temp of 65! Today is supposed to be 74!

I love spring !

 

[hensylee]

dead cats and possums on the roadsides - all trying to get to that elusive 'love connection' and didn't make it - or did they and then were just too tired to get out of the way?

We have carpenter bees, snakes, armadilloes, birds everywhere making nests, squirrels chattering away and our cats trying to catch them. Our cats are just loving the weather. Miss SS wants to stay out all night because it's so nice. HOWEVER - last night it was in the 30s. We ALWAYS have summer the day after Easter, but it hasn't happened this year. I am in Sarasota and this morning it was in the high 40s. unheard-of What's going on?

 

[Creed3]

Hi Everyone!

Hi Everyone!

Well, here in the good ole Shenandoah Valley there is quite a bit of activity. We have bunnies, bunnies and more bunnies running around our yard. Squirrels and running around everywhere. All kinds of birds; robins, cardinals, blue jays, doves, finches, crows etc.....Skunks have been spotted in the neighborhood and you can sometimes get a good whiff of them too. Today is the first day all week we have seen the sun and the blue sky. The weekend is supposed to hit near 80. Can't wait.

Take Care!
Gail

 

[Glenda]

We live on a farm so we see all kinds of animals. Smell them too. LOL. There's a robin sitting right outside my window on the fence while I am posting. My big old cat sits in the very same window wanting outside soooo bad. They keep an eye on each other but neither one moves. We have had 4-5 deer down at the pond early every morning. There are geese and ducks, mole, rabbits, squirrels and all kinds of birds. At night the frogs make so much noise you can hardly sleep. There's also a rather large coyote that crosses in the field not too far from the house ever once in a while. My blue heeler sure doesn't like him getting that close to the house.

The only thing I really don't like coming out this time of the year is snakes. I'm terrified of them. We have a lot of copperheads, garden, king and black snakes. I think the only good snake is a dead snake so if they get around me they meet their maker real fast. I know, I know a black snake is supposed to be good in the barn to catch mice but I would rather have the mice. My blue heeler is real good about killing them and bringing them to me. UG! About five years ago down at out log cabin at Table Rock Lake I got bite by a copperhead two times. Was I ever sick! It was at night time and I stepped on him. So I am constantly looking out for them when I'm outside, day or night. They love to hide in my flowers so I always have a hoe with me at all times.

But I do love this time of the year. God's beauty is everywhere!

 

[Susan BAV]

I'm still waiting to hear from my mom about the first Whip-po-rill call! She lives in NE Missouri and always calls me with the first call she hears; I love that. Around here, I hear the neighbor's peacocks calling in the spring but they don't call much at other times. I decided it must be a mating thing. The first time my mother heard the call when she was visiting, she exclaimed, "You have a cat-bird!" They kind of sound like a cat! Now one of her neighbors in MO has some peacocks too.

I kept hearing a funny bird call for the last few weeks in an untamed (and unburned) brushy area just north of us and it sounded a bit like a chicken with the sound choked off. Earlier this week I was out on the back porch early one morning nursing my (decaf) coffee (because my husband has decided that caffeine is the devil for me but I sneak to town and get my latte's nearly every day anyway) and my husband came out and finally heard the call too. And it was getting closer! Then we saw it, a ring-neck pheasant! I've seen them here and there (and "hunted" them with my dad in MO when I was a girl -- but never found one then either and never ever shot at a living thing) but I've never seen one near us. The fires dramatically relocated a lot of the local animals!

We apparently have a skunk living (which is quite unusual for here because the coyotes usually keep them thinned down), either in the neighbor's field or under our culvert (I haven't crawled down there to investigate) and three of the neighbor's dogs were torn up by a bobcat several weeks ago. One of our friends who lives nearby said she had a mountain lion on her roof (the house sits funny with the way the pad is cut into the hill, so it's possible) and we have TONS OF BUNNIES and those rotten gophers everywhere!!! I've also seen several quail when I've been out and about but also not near our house. Oh, and roadrunners! I saw a couple (not near our house, but when I was again out and about) and stopped the car and one of them "flew" up into a short scrub oak! I didn't know they could fly but it looked about like the way a chicken occasionally "flies." Where there are roadrunners around here, there are RATTLESNAKES! I have never seen a rattlesnake near our house (although one of the crusty old neighbors told me that they're "everywhere") but we have some gopher and king snakes, although I've not seen any yet this year. My son went with a friend to look at some property for sale not too far away and there were wild turkeys everywhere; he hadn't seen them before. They're ENORMOUS AND EVERYWHERE at my mother's farm!

We have a small pond out back that my husband built with a short waterfall and I always keep bird seed in the feeders nearby so we have ZILLIONS of birds, mostly finches and jays and hooded (I forget what they're called --junkos maybe) and hummingbirds and some robins and Mexican orioles. And the cats have been dragging lizards in the garage and torturing them. I hate that. I like the lizards because they eat all the SPIDERS that groves out here are full of!

Southern California (inland foothills) doesn't really get a fall. It's just three more months of hot. And that's always disappointing. But we do get about six months of springtime! I'm loving it! ~Susan W

 

[Susan BAV]

Oh, and MONSTROUS CROWS/RAVENS around here, but they are year-round. They scream when there are coyotes nearby and they also scream at the red-tail hawks (who rob their nests) and my cats can tell the difference between the calls! The cats scatter when the crows are calling "coyote" and they ignore them when the crows are calling "stop thief!"

And the frog sounds from the pond where HUGE so I went out with a flashlight one night and had to sit still for a very long time until they started up again. I expected to see monstrous-sized frogs with all the bragging they were doing and they were only the size of my thumb! My Grandma fried up froglegs for me once when I was a little girl. They moved around in the frying pan! ICK!!!

Oh, and also, I've heard several hoot owls over the last several weeks.

~Susan W

 

[Christina L]

After reading all of your posts, I am thankful for what we DON'T have here in the Rockies and that is snakes! I am terrified of them also and growing up in Iowa, there were many. We have tiny garter snakes up here in the mountains, but for whatever reason, rattlesnakes and other mid-size snakes cannot survive above 6000 feet above sea level. There are plenty of rattlesnakes down in the foothills but not up here! BIG sigh of relief. Estes Park is at around 7500 (?) feet of elevation.

Instead of more animals moving in, we will soon be losing all the elk and deer that winter here in town - they will be going to the higher elevations in another 1-2 months, giving us a chance to actually grow something green in our yards and not having it eaten by them!

In the Rockies, there are few signs of spring yet - I was in Iowa last weekend and it was wonderful to see the flowering crabs and the tulips and daffodils - my tulips and daffy's are just starting to come up and there is still plenty of snow to come for us (possibly snow until the end of May) and snow on the ground on the north faces of buildings and such in town.

Spring is almost nonexistent up here, but summer and autumn in the mountains is the most glorious time! I am anxiously awaiting summer - especially this year.

Christina L.

 

[Kevin M]

Sigh. Still snowing here. Geese have come back though. Saw a couple of grouse during the winter, as well as coyotes, a fox. We usually get skunks in the summer.

We have an owl that wakes us up sometimes at night with his hooting. It's nice.

The Bohemiam Waxwings are back. Which is nice because they bring some subtle colours to the grays and browns.

We are fighting a plague of mice this year due to the old lady next door that keeps her place in disrepair (that's a diplomatic way to put it).

I'm sure our sightings will liven up once the buds finally come out and we get some greenery to look at.
Kev

 

[MarkU]

Spring Breakers in bikinis on the beach....

 

[Granbonny]

Animals?

Animals?

Most all of the above..including black bear..I have not seenZeke (My bear) but signs of him..like huge bear paw prints in pine straw...for you Newbies, Zeke comes up into my yard in early Spring to raid birdfeeders..When I was 3 weeks post-op and had just moved out of Living Room into bed..He pushed my front door in at 4 A.M. Dog barked and he left..paw prints on glass door..and neighbor said she awoke at same time with him carrying large garbage can of birdfeed down the side of her deck. She took a broom and ran him off. Age 80... He was here before us..Just put up with him for about a month until the wild blueberries, ect. are ready..I have the yellow sign, Bear Crossing at end of driveway and a zillion black bears..in house. Signs, statues, ect. Sign on front porch..Please do not feed the bears. Bonnie

 

[Granbonny]

P.s.

P.s.

One of our neighbors told Hubby. He woke up at 2 a.m. and it was snowing like crazy. Today it was 70 degrees. It must not have stuck and elements just right for snow..but annuals looked fine. Guess it was not freezing. Thank goodness. $100.00 worth planted by Hubby in the last week. Bonnie

 

[hensylee]

I forgot to mention my son's springtime animal. Son and his wife live in an area that was for many years a ranch in a part of Florida that is swampy. In order to build homes, they had to dig lakes (actually they are holding ponds but it sounds better to call them lakes) so the water would have someplace to go. Each neighborhood has a golf course and a 'lake'. Seems to be an alligator in every lake. Son's neighborhood lake has a lovely landscape around it, sidewalks where folks trot and walk their pets. The other day there was a 10-12 ft alligator sunning himself on the bank. Son took movies, alligator never moved. Needless to say, I only go outside to get in the car. Mark U lives round these parts somewhere and can confirm the alligator population. Don't know which is wsorse - Bonnie's bear or the alligator!

 

[MarkU]

Just about every body of water down here ends up with a resident gator sooner or later. The retention/drainage lake in our subdivision is home for a four footer. Not much of a threat to humans or neighborhood dogs, but it keeps the duck population under control...

 

[Marge]

OTOH -- a sad sign of spring -- a young deer (dead) by the road as I was driving to cardiac rehab early this a.m.

We live near a protected watershed that is full of wildlife: including many deer and, I am told, the occasional mountain lion (although I walk up there fairly often, I have never seen a mountain lion there myself). No bears however!!! LOL.

The deer often wander down off the mountainside and into the residential areas and, unfortunately, try to cross the road near our house which a lot of people use as an alternative to the freeway. Lots of speeders; lots of dead deer.

 

[kayl]

We live on the Georgia Coast. Our new chicks have all of their feathers and took their first walk in the grass. We also saw our first hummingbirds and butterflies. Spring is beautiful indeed! Thanks, Nancy, for the reminder.

 

[Susan BAV]

I was out and about this morning on a nearby Reservation and I saw a hen with her 10-12 chicks; she scratched around ferociously and then the little chicks would peck the ground all around her. When the momma crossed the dirt road, the chicks looked like big yellow cotton balls blowing across the road following their mother! Suddenly she called them all closer and she squatted over them with her wings stretched, covering them all. That's when I realized that our forecasted rain had begun!

That was pretty neat. Although I grew up in the Midwest, I was a "town kid," and wasn't around chickens very often. Oh, once when I was in 4-H and I got too close to a hen and her chicks during a project. Don't mess with the mother hen! I remember that lesson!

 

[tobagotwo]

The Spring Report from central New Jersey:

The crocuses are long over, and the Chionadoxa are but a remant of their glory a week ago (we have powder blue and giant pink alternating).

The midseason daffodils are in full bloom now, and the hyacinths. We have one, edge-of-woods area that has creeping myrtle (low, dark green vines with bright blue flowers). We planted all types of daffs in it, which are blooming in yellows, whites and oranges, and the back is bordered by bright-blossomed, yellow forsythia. It is a gloriously colorful woodsy spot this time of year.

The Pasqueflowers are in mid-bloom, purple Flox is opening, and the Red Rriding Hood and Tarda rock garden tulips are in full fledge (deer don't eat them). The Scilla are still flowering, but they are always so tiny.

Lilacs are not close to opening yet, but the magnolias are blooming in profuse, riotous color this year. And the Mushrooms have started, on the side, where I took the maple stump out last spring.

Some of the Hostas are beginning to poke through the ground as tight shoots. The Poppies are green and growing, up eight inches already. The Hardy Geraniums (Cranesbill) are unwinding and greening. Peonies sprouts are up ten or twelve inches, loloking for all the world like purple asparagus, and the Iris have shot up five or six inches from their winter stubs.

The Artemisia is still very low, but greening. The Daylily mounds are bright and growing, about six inches high. The heads of Asian Lilies are just poking through, but the Tiger Lilies are up a half a foot.

And it's supposed to hit 70 degrees tomorrow, for the first time this year.

 

[tobagotwo]

Oh. Animals. New Jersey SPring Animal Report:

In (or should I say through) our yard, we have a herd of seven deer (male was a gorgeous eight-pointer this winter). There will be more when the females drop. We also have at least one red fox (sometimes makes horrible, wounded-dog noises at night, when it's defending its territory from local cats). We also have a wild turkey flock, lots and lots of light brown bunnies, squirrels, and groundhogs.

I feed birds during the winter, so we have all manner of them, my favorites being the cardinals, carolina wrens, chickadees, downey and hairy woodpeckers, and the occasional flicker. There are also many finches, including colorful house finches. The robins arrived more than a month ago, and are fatter than I ever remember seeing them. The grackles came back a few weeks ago, and the cowbirds should show shortly.

Many years ago I remember fondly listening to the Whip-poor-Wills at night during the summers in eastern Massachusetts, near Plymouth. They would sometimes get ridiculously loud, but I was a kid, and it is a comfort sound. I haven't heard one in years.