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My spring/summer in pictures, wildlife version


On 10/14/2014 at 08:08 PM by Ranger1

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Sort of. I was really, really busy over the summer and also pretty stressed, so photography suffered as well as gaming. I did get some cool stuff, but it would take me forever to paste them into this entry, so I'm just going to put in links to my Flickr page, as they've made it a pain in the ass to post them in here.

First off, the wild things:

  • Osprey Sitting in her nest
  • Another Osprey He had a fish, but you can't see that, unfortunately.
  • Great Blue Heron This guy (girl?) was about 20-30 feet away from me and let me snap a bazillion pictures. I also got a pretty decent video that I may share at a later date.
  • Pileated Woodpecker Another bird that just let me stand pretty darn close and snap away. He's about the size of a crow, if you're wondering.
  • Male Flickers Note the black mustaches. These guys were doing this ritualized thing called fencing, where they decide who the dominant male is. It's a pretty cool thing to watch, unfortunately the camera that does video was out in the car at the time.
  • Female Flicker Note the lack of mustache. She seemed quite unimpressed at the goings on of the two males in the previous photo.
  • Seal Pup Spent a day keeping people away from this little guy and hoping his mom would come back. He was gone the next day, but we eventually found his little body washed ashore about a week later. Not all stories have happy endings, unfortunately.
  • Hen Turkey She strolled through my front yard on several occasions over the summer.
  • Green Frog This frog was huge! Found it in the pond out behind my cottage.
  • Moth It was on the wall of the cottage. It was pretty. No, I don't know what kind it is.
  • Porcupine It trundled through my front yard one evening. It wouldn't cooperate and stand still to have its picture taken. I chased it around and around and then it left. This was the best of the blurry photos I managed to take.
  • Deer Not exactly rare. This one was standing on the edge of the park road, with three or four more in the woods behind it, in broad daylight.
  • Great Egret Went home for lunch one day, and on my way back to work this guy was standing in the middle of my road. Had to honk my horn to get him to move.
  • Surprise! Read the caption under the photo.

I'll do another photo blog later of some of the scenery, wildflowers, and other interesting stuff.


 

Comments

asrealasitgets

10/14/2014 at 09:21 PM

I would love to be a Ranger but I'm afraid of every animal. Around my neighborhood I often see racoons, possums and in the evening bats. In the park I usually jog at I've seen coyotes or wolves. Not sure which is which. Also while jogging I saw a snake side winding right in front of me. Must have been chasing a rabbit. I'm also really afraid of bears. I've never seen one up close but, they scare me. Even the little ones. 

If that bear was in my trash can I'd scream. That racoon near my home is about the size of a small bear. I enjoyed your pictures. There are alot of birds around my home. They are so noisy!

Ranger1

10/14/2014 at 09:39 PM

the thing about most wildlife is that they're usually more afraid of you than you are of them. Unless idiots feed them. Then they lose all fear of humans and all bets are off. Raccoons are the animals that I am extremely cautious of, they may look cute, but they have really nasty dispositions and tend not to be afraid of people. I don't know where you live, but my guess is that it was coyotes you saw.

asrealasitgets

10/14/2014 at 11:03 PM

Well that possum that one time stood up and stared me down like an mma fighter. I totally caved and just ran away. But I lived to tell about it. I don't feed the animals either. I'll stick to pokemons.

Super Step Contributing Writer

10/14/2014 at 09:33 PM

What a cute deadly bear. 

Ranger1

10/14/2014 at 09:39 PM

I did jump and squeak when I found it.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/14/2014 at 09:44 PM

whoa that last pic is scary!  

Nice frog.  We have frogs here if u can believe it.  I see them at night sometimes.  They creep me out.  I like wildlife a lot, but I like it distantly, not up close.  

Ranger1

10/14/2014 at 09:51 PM

Yeah, a stuffed bear head wasn't what I was expected when I opened that can, lol. I knew there were toads in AZ, didn't realize there were frogs, too.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/14/2014 at 09:53 PM

I'm not sure if they're toads or frogs, actually.  but i remember being told there were poisonous frogs here that secrete a poison if an animal picks them up in their mouth.  

Ranger1

10/14/2014 at 10:07 PM

That's usually toads. All toads can secrete poison from their skins. It's why dogs foam at the mouth when they pick one up.

Ranger1

10/14/2014 at 10:10 PM

And look what I found for you: Amphibians of AZ

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/14/2014 at 11:50 PM

hmmm I don't know which one it is, but definitely not the bright green one.  

SanAndreas

10/15/2014 at 12:11 AM

My aunt who lives in Gilbert has always had a bunch of huge toads living on her property. They come out at night. I never was tempted to "do toad", as in the Family Guy episode. :)

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/15/2014 at 02:06 AM

yeah, me neither!

SanAndreas

10/15/2014 at 12:13 AM

Awesome pics. The things you see in your line of work.

Ranger1

10/15/2014 at 06:38 AM

Yeah, it's a pretty cool job most of the time. A lot of those pics were taken from my front window, too - the flickers, the turkey, and the porcupine were all in my yard. One morning after I first moved in here, I had six or seven deer right outside the window, and we're seen skunks, raccoons, foxes, and a fisher, as well as hearing the coyotes in the woods or the back field.

SanAndreas

10/15/2014 at 10:55 AM

We used to have a lot of raccoons and opossums that would come up to our back door when I was growing up, and deer are always out and about here. One time we had a skunk make its home in our foundation, which wasn't fun.

A neighbor also used to keep peafowl and let them roam loose, and they'd come into our yard.

Ranger1

10/15/2014 at 11:37 AM

I'm actually quite fond of skunks. They're very non-aggressive and will get used to you. As long as you don't startle them, they generally won't spray. I used to rescue a lot of them from empty chip bags and tin cans when I worked at a beach park - they'd get their heads stuck and then wander around blindly trying to get free.

SanAndreas

10/15/2014 at 11:45 AM

I've never had any problem with skunks, but having one living in your foundation, right under the dining room no less... ugh. We live-trapped the skunk twice. The first time, we deposited it two miles away on the southern shore of Lake Thunderbird near our house. It found its way back. The second time, my father drove it all the way around to the northern shore of the lake.

leeradical42

10/15/2014 at 07:41 AM

I would love to do that for a living hundreds of acres for your office really cool I love nature as nd im with you we caught a racoon that was tangled in a net and we cut him free but he was wild and very aggressive but after we caught him and took him to be freed he covered his eyes and cried like a baby cute but aggressive. 

Ranger1

10/15/2014 at 11:33 AM

It's a pretty small park, only about 250 acres, but that's a lot for a coastal park in Maine. Most of the population in Maine lives on the coast, and most of the really good coastal property is privately owned by wealthy people who don't even live here year-round. But yeah, can't beat the view from my "office" Laughing

VisuaLIES

10/15/2014 at 12:03 PM

Holy crap that's a bear lol!  

Hello Tami, this is Jesse (formerly jelliSHOT from 1up).  I lurk on Pixlbit every now and again, but I didn't create an account after 1up shuttered, because life and different priorities.  I have been frequenting other gaming news sites becaues I love and will always love the hobby, but frankly there's so much negativity these days.  I decided to come back here because through your (1up bloggers collectively) blogs, I got to know a little bit about you guys as individuals.  There is so much generalization and labeling going on right now in the vocal gaming community I needed to get a different perspective.  I don't really mean to go so far off your topic and bring that baggage here lol, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's enjoyable reading about your experiences and seeing your photos.  They are a refreshing break from what has become a war (over things that were created to help us relax and have fun).  Anyway, glad to see you're still blogging.  You're the first person I recognized because you're on the front page, and hopefully I can reconnect with some others on here and meet some new peeps.  

Ranger1

10/15/2014 at 12:11 PM

Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too. Along with a squeak. I mean, you take the top off a plastic trash can and the last thing you expect to find is a stuffed bear head.

Well, let me be the first to welcome you to officially to Pixlbit. We like it here, everyone plays nice in the sandbox together. Glad you ported yourself over here. Hope you stick around. GH is on here, along with sneenlantern, epic greenman, brokenH, keegs, Cary Woodham, and a bunch of others. Some of us kept our 1up names, some of us changed 'em.

KnightDriver

10/15/2014 at 04:28 PM

Like me. I was RunningWithGuns there.

Michael117

10/15/2014 at 04:28 PM

That moth is pretty interesting, never seen anything like it before.

Ranger1

10/15/2014 at 05:12 PM

I misidentified it at first as a rosy maple moth, but it isn't. I'll have to find an entomologist or lepidopterist to ID it for me.

KnightDriver

10/15/2014 at 04:36 PM

I really liked the woodpecker, the seal, and the frog.

Concerning the bear in the trash can. I used to work in a upstate New York vacation spot in the woods. Among other things, I had to go around to all the log cabins and pick up the trash every morning with the pickup truck and put it all in a large dumpster. There was frequently a Raccoon stuck in the dumpster. I always had to find a large branch or two-by-four to put in there so it could climb out. Also, there was a small beach I had to rake at the pond and the Raccoons would get into the closed-top trash cans and couldn't get out. Sometimes I'd find them dead in there, but sometimes not. Pheasants would show up every year in Fall too. I really loved that job. Outside is where I want to be always.

Ranger1

10/15/2014 at 05:13 PM

Glad you liked them, John. I'm surprised you missed them the first time around on Facebook. And that's the stuffed head of a bear in that trash can. Did startle me at first, though.

KnightDriver

10/16/2014 at 03:46 AM

Yea, I don't know what's up with Facebook. Maybe I didn't go there for a week sometime and it erased all my past messages. I'm more on here at Pixlbit than Facebook, but I've been trying to check in there more often now. 

C.S.3590SquadLeader

10/16/2014 at 02:08 PM

Whoa, that's a pretty interesting looking moth.

Ranger1

10/16/2014 at 05:11 PM

I know! It looks kind of similar to a moth called a rosy maple moth, but rosy maple moths don't have those white dots on the wing. Whatever it was, it was pretty cool.

goaztecs

10/21/2014 at 10:58 AM

I thought bears loved picnic basketsTongue Out

Awesome pictures, and thanks for sharing. As much as I like animals after seeing a bear in a trash can, I probably wouldn't go outside for a long while. 

Ranger1

10/21/2014 at 11:24 AM

Stuffed bear head, inside on the screened in porch. Outside is still safe, Chris.

goaztecs

10/22/2014 at 05:43 PM

Haha oh I thought it was a living baby bear inside of a trash can. Yeah I think I could handle a stuffed bear head...I have to go make something out of wood to earn back the man card

Ranger1

10/22/2014 at 05:44 PM

I recommend toothpicks and Elmer's glue. Wink

Ranger1

10/22/2014 at 05:45 PM

And don't feel bad, a lot of people made that mistake, both here and on Facebook.

NSonic79

10/26/2014 at 03:18 AM

Why do I have the sudden urge to play one of those Caleb Hunting games right now...

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