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Yay, a new thread! I was worried it might not happen. Hawaii 2016 pt. I forget - Mammals There are not many mammals in Hawaii and most of them are introduced. One in particular was a surprise - I nearly ran over a small weasel shaped creature almost immediately after we left the airport (thankfully it passed between the tires) and looked it up once we got to our rental. Turns out it was a mongoose, and the Big Island is infested with them.  Way to go, humans. Now with that said, it was very difficult to actually get photos as they move quickly and are quite shy. I was following rustles in the bushes around in the jungle for several mornings in a row before I got any good shots.    Here are some aquatic mammals - spinner dolphins.    And one of the many feral formerly domestic creatures on the island, a particularly noble goat. 
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Jan 26, 2017 15:53
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 23:49 |
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More Hawaii pics! This time it's non-gecko lizards (I have more than enough of geckos to justify an individual post). Inquisitive anole.  This anole found its way through our mosquito net but couldn't get out. I provided some much unappreciated assistance.  Spot the skink!  A better view.  Napping near a warm vent.  I'm trying to sleep here!   Man, anoles always look so suspicious.
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Feb 16, 2017 17:18
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I got crabs in Hawaii.   Beige tide pool crab of some kind.    Well-camouflaged green crabs.  A really well-camouflaged tide pool dweller.    Hermit crabs are the best crabs. Discuss.
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Mar 5, 2017 00:41
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Took a quick jaunt out to Elk Island National Park last weekend and saw a bunch of (plains) bison for a change! A couple of loners away from the main herd.  Said herd.     If we'd arrived 10 minutes later they'd have already crossed the road and been out of view!  I also spotted a bald eagle, which is a bit rare in landlocked Alberta in the winter. I wonder what it's been eating with all the waterways frozen? Just try it, buddy.
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Mar 26, 2017 21:55
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ijii posted:More tree lizards getting into my house. I wish I had tree lizards instead of silverfish, ants, and the occasional cockroach. Though the lizards would probably prefer to stay outside what with all the cats in here.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:27
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I neglected to post winter bird feeder photos, so here are some highlights:  Our local squirrel Doreen, who filled the tree with peanuts and has since sadly disappeared.  A nice floofy chickadee.   We didn't get a lot of blue jays, but they always made their presence known with those distinctive calls.  This sparrow had some ice stuck to its beak the entire time it was visiting the feeder and I have to assume it affected its ability to eat and drink. Hope it melted before he starved!   Red-breasted nuthatches are still my fave.
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May 14, 2017 02:37
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Potential BFF posted:I noticed this fella dangling from a tree, no idea what it is. Looks like some sort of long-jawed orb weaver based on the, uh, long jaws. Cool find!
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May 15, 2017 18:33
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The mosquitoes are too numerous for much Critterquesting in Edmonton these days, but here are some sightings from earlier this year.     Come on down from there! I just want to be friends!  It makes sense that porcupines would shed their quills as they're just specialized hairs, but I hadn't thought about it until I saw a pile of them outside one of their dens.  I hope this robin was also shedding. I spent quite a lot of time down by the beaver lodge in early May and it was pretty great!      It's quite an ecosystem down there!  Muskrats are well known to live in beaver lodges. Until recently they were thought to be mooches, but it turns out they actually help with maintenance.  Watching these two interact was a real treat.  
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Jun 17, 2017 23:44
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hooah posted:What the heck is this thing? We're in San Antonio, TX. Looks Iike an assassin bug of some kind but someone else can probably be more specific. That proboscis is used for piercing other bugs and sucking out their insides.
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Jun 18, 2017 03:04
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Banff and Jasper critters from last month. Clark's nutcracker.  Crow enjoying some watermelon rind.  Magpie on the prowl.  Annoyed swallow parent.    Apparently Canmore has quite a feral rabbit problem.   Morning run with some locals.  Black bear near Jasper.    Grizzlies on the Lake Louise ski hill.
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Jul 23, 2017 18:33
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Mordja posted:I live in downtown Toronto, so the most exotic thing I've seen is the neighbor's cat but I'm going to Cape Breton in a couple weeks. Any particular critters I should keep an eye out for? Will try and get some pix for the thread, natch. Whales and moose, as I recall. I spotted a few on my trip out that way, but they were not amenable to photographs. Mak0rz posted:Be on the lookout for blue herons and seabirds like puffins and razorbills too, though I don't know if they're on season or not. Oh yeah, I saw some kind of cool diving birds on the east side of the cape. West side was less birdy. This is my first spring in our house and I have a ton of bees around. I've spotted at least three species of bumbler (couldn't tell you which ones), a tiny one which may have been a sweat bee, and something that looked in between a honeybee and a bumblebee which may be nesting in our foundation. I'll try to get some pictures in the near future. Chinston Wurchill fucked around with this message at 17:00 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 16:57
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Gumbel2Gumbel posted:I saw a heron eat a mole alive including seeing the mole still struggling in its throat. That segment with pelicans eating baby birds in a BBC nature documentary deeply upset me.
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Jun 4, 2018 20:29
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Ha, I recognize the look in that first picture. Swallows don't like paparazzi! Here are some critters in my yard of late.  Haven't seen a hare sit like this before!  Delicious toes.      That bush has too many branches.   A flock of juvenile blue jays showed up in our tree today!   Braving the bird bath.   Naptime! Chinston Wurchill fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Jun 17, 2018 |
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Jun 17, 2018 03:43
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I guess the blue jay family is sticking around!         There are six fledglings in total and they're super loud but so adorable. Our yard is pretty safe so I hope they do okay!
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Jun 18, 2018 02:43
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Maybe a bushy-tailed woodrat? I wasn't familiar with them either until our local wildlife rescue posted some pictures.
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Jun 21, 2018 04:30
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In retrospect it makes a lot of sense that you should buy rain barrels with lids on them, but unfortunately I had to learn the hard way. Sorry little squirrel. I'll do better in the future.
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Jun 22, 2018 16:31
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 Glad to see these guys back in my yard again! The nuthatches are getting more common too.
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Jul 6, 2018 20:19
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Had a great time in Utah last week and quested some good critters! This bee had impressive antennae!  Probably the biggest fly I've ever seen, which was cooler before I potentially identified it as a rabbit botfly.  Another robberfly for the thread.  Some kind of fancy wasp.  I was wondering why this vulture was hanging out so close to the road, and it turned out someone tossed a bag of animal (I hope) guts in the ditch.  Some kind of jay that really enjoyed tree nuts in a canyon we hiked.  These hummingbirds barely cared about my presence. I have about 100 more pictures of them to sort through before posting. Note the beak intruding to the left of the frame.  Clark's nutcracker(s). I didn't even notice the second one until now!  Pretty good camouflage against that brown wall. And of course, a bunch of lizards.        
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Sep 23, 2018 02:22
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Anony Mouse posted:Okay what kind of bee is this (on the left). It was huge, about an inch long, and way different than the normal bees I'm used to seeing around here (on the right). Looks like a great example of a great golden digger wasp. Cool find!
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Oct 5, 2018 21:22
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Backyard critter dump! Nice camouflage on this inchworm.  Some sort of shield bug?  I felt really bad for this caterpillar and pulled it out of the web but I fear I was too late.  Various bees on various flowers.     Not a bee!  Spiky caterpillar.  A nice little moth.  Big ol' mosquito!  Some neat dragonflies.   The tiniest little snails I ever did see.  We had some good spiders around too.  Especially this one! 
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Nov 12, 2018 04:14
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Springtime is critter time! Accidentally chased this coyote on my morning run. It eventually outpaced me.  Spring camouflage is hard.  I saw this guy at the end of our street and thought it was a stray dog, but upon getting closer I was delighted to find otherwise.  My dog really wanted to mix it up with this bison.  This crow dropped an entire slice of bread in our bird bath and let it soak for awhile before digging in.  Didn't know we had dung beetles in Alberta! Aphodius distinctus, maybe?  Purple-rimmed carabus.  Bald-faced hornet enjoying the smashed insect buffet.  Flat little spider.  I found this in our basement. I don't think I hate it as much as the turbo house centipedes in Ontario, but I definitely don't want it in my house.
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May 28, 2019 16:08
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Enfys posted:I love porcupines so much and "grumbling" is the perfect way to describe how they move They're definitely my favourite local critter and I totally squealed with glee when I parked the car and ran out into a stranger's yard to get a picture of that one. I prefer "trundling" but "grumbling" is good too. Captain Invictus posted:I remember driving home one morning and seeing a huge blob fall out of a tree into the road. It picked itself up and grumbled off into the brush. Turns out porcupines can climb trees, didn't know that! Also that they live in massachusetts, didn't know that either! Interestingly, porcupine quills have antibiotic properties which must come in handy when they puncture themselves during falls or other activities.
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May 29, 2019 17:13
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Looks like some variety of tent caterpillar. We used to have infestations every few years that were so bad the streets would be slick with caterpillar guts.
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May 29, 2019 19:44
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Falukorv posted:I would place it as genus Onthophagus. That looks more accurate, thanks. My insect book and the internet were not informative about dung beetles of Alberta.
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May 30, 2019 12:26
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 Yep, those dragonflies were bangin' on my head alright.
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Jun 16, 2019 14:30
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Pretty critterful day yesterday. First, the good stuff: I noticed a bunch of bees in the air when I was walking across a bridge, and it turned out they were congregating on one of the concrete pilings. Not a great place for a hive, ladies, but more power to you.  My dog was really interested in a bush at Dairy Queen and when he got too close this hare limped out and hobbled away. It obviously had a badly broken leg and probably some internal injuries as well. I didn't want to leave it to die in the parking lot so I captured it with the help of a DQ employee and took it to the local wildlife hospital. They weren't optimistic, but at least it will have some measure of comfort and go quickly assuming they euthanize it.
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Jun 24, 2019 15:04
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 Spotted a porcupine on my morning run yesterday which is always a highlight of my day.
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Jun 27, 2019 15:37
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Summer is invertebrate time!  Caught this little lady having a sip after it rained.  I should have included my hand for scale as this was a pretty big one but I didn't want it to touch me. My wife is considering burning down the house.  There's a weird caterpillar rain going on down in our river valley. I went for a walk the other day and there were hundreds of them hanging from the trees on threads, and I was pulling silk off my hair and clothes for the rest of the day.  The post-rain earthworms can be sizeable around here!  Two bees for the price of one!
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Jul 1, 2019 01:45
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Took a quick trip to Elk Island National Park a couple weeks ago and didn't see any bison close enough to photograph, but there were plenty of smaller critters around: The good thing about this being a bad mosquito year is that it's a good dragonfly year! The bushes by the lake were just buzzing with them.  Sad doot 2k19.  An ex-elm sawfly.  I shared a shelter hut at the top of a mountain with this bee during a snowstorm. In July.  Lots of damselflies in the garden!  Any ideas on this thing? It was too small to get a better photo but you get the gist of the body shape.
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Aug 3, 2019 00:15
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So many bumblers around! They seem to like the wildflowers we planted in our front yard. This one was about the size of my thumb.    Lacewing, I believe.  Any ideas on this spider? It was maybe 1 cm long, and I'm in north-central Alberta. I dig that glossy black!
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Aug 5, 2019 02:59
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 Spotted tussock moth caterpillar. I love these guys!  Scarlet lily beetles. I should really take some preventative action next year. I was initially puzzled by the brown (slightly out of focus) thing on the leaf to the left of them as it looks like a poop but appears to have a head and legs. Apparently the larvae of this species form a fecal shield for protection, which is kind of neat!
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Aug 6, 2019 15:37
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On the downside it's been a terrible year for mosquitoes up here in Edmonton. On the plus side, it's been a banner year for dragonflies!  
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Aug 27, 2019 15:56
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Happy Flying Ant Day, Edmonton!   I never realized how coordinated this could get, but at least five colonies in my area were in on the action when I walked my dog last night. I swept what I thought was a single female off my shoulder and felt a bit bad when I noticed a tiny male was there as well. poverty goat posted:
I think they're relatively uncommon in Edmonton, unfortunately (though it looks like we're just in that range).
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Aug 28, 2019 15:48
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Cardiovorax posted:Oh, no, it definitely isn't just you. Jumping spiders are widely acknowledged to be the most intelligent of spiders by a fair margin. In fact, they actually do exhibit curiosity behaviour - when you hold your finger in front of them, their natural first instinct isn't to flee, but rather to fixate on it and try to figure out what it is. Yeah, salticids are the best. Some species will pluck the edges of another spider's web and pounce when the spider comes running.
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Sep 4, 2019 15:38
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I'm seeing way more crepuscular creatures on my morning run now that the days are getting shorter, but it's not ideal for photography. This morning I spotted a deer along my running path for the first time ever, but it was way too dark down in the ravine and I didn't even realize what it was until it was in the trees.  One of my usual porcupines. Glad to see them after a long absence!    Spotted these coyotes in the field right behind a local college. I guess they had caught or scavenged a rabbit. I see coyotes all the time, but seeing three at once is rare, especially that close to buildings.
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Oct 9, 2019 15:41
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It's getting colder outside so all the spiders are coming home to roost.   
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Oct 22, 2019 19:57
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 Forgot to post these pelicans from a summer trip to Elk Island. Enjoying the birds around our feeders this winter, as usual!     Blep.  
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Dec 7, 2019 22:41
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joat mon posted:Any ideas on what kind of moth this is? I don't have any answers but does it have a long snout? That's interesting. Here's a pretty extensive list of OK moths, if you want to have a look through them.
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Apr 24, 2020 22:36
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I saw some deer on my morning run. This is only the second time it's happened in three years on the current route!
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May 8, 2020 15:58
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 23:49 |
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Speaking of geese, Imagine looking out your 15th floor apartment window to see that.
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May 8, 2020 16:43
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