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5 hours ago, Tja said:

Tested Forest Service employees on the prairie, in Illinois

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When you say "tested", does that mean you took a urine sample for random drug testing?    

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11 hours ago, Muledeer said:

When you say "tested", does that mean you took a urine sample for random drug testing?    

No. I do hearing tests.

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1 hour ago, Tja said:

 I do hearing tests.

That's a good thing to test - and it actually helps people live a better life if the results are unfavorable.   Great pics, by the way.  A red-winged blackbird, wild iris, and an idontknow for that top birdie.  

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Elftober Country
On 6/4/2018 at 7:29 PM, Tunhope said:

Do you think it was hit by traffic, or caught by something? 

1

I think it was a cat attack :( 

 

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Lovely outing with Little Dog to a nature reserve, where many wild flowers were in bloom, and many sea birds and waders were nesting.  Little Dog enjoyed a walk by the sea, and sharing a cream scone and tea with me afterwards in a pretty country town.

 

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Yesterday was a beautiful day - went a little nuts with the camera  :) 

 

Birds:

 

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Ready for take-off...

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Love my Blue Jays ❤️    

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Chipmunk :) 

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Some flowers & stuff...

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By the patio:

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this is taking over my front porch...

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  East side of the yard ... waiting on the Lilies to bloom ❤️ 

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@LilyG, nice photos! I especially like the action shots of the chipmunk and blue jay....

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On 6/9/2018 at 12:37 PM, Muledeer said:

That's a good thing to test - and it actually helps people live a better life if the results are unfavorable.   Great pics, by the way.  A red-winged blackbird, wild iris, and an idontknow for that top birdie.  

Thanks!

I'm not sure what that first bird is. While not colorful, a beauty, nonetheless.

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2 hours ago, Tja said:

Thanks!

I'm not sure what that first bird is. While not colorful, a beauty, nonetheless.

It could be a female red-winged blackbird, or some sort of sparrow, or some other female songbird (warbler, thrasher, etc.). It does look like it has a similar beak to the male red-winged blackbird in your other pic.

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The poppy was growing in the dirt between my front hedge and the footpath. Poppy red! Re. separate photo... You can just about see the squirrel on its way down my little pear-tree-in-a-tub. It left me one tiny pear. (I think I'm going to have to do two posts.)

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The other photo - sorry

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A curious little chipmunk decided to pose for a picture. This is from my weekend in the Allegheny National Forest and surrounding area. The rest of the pictures will be posted in the Photo thread if you're interested. 

 

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A pair of Carolina Wrens have a nest on my front porch & Monday the babies took their first leap outa the nest :)  They bounced around the porch for a while before jumping down into the yard (about 6 ft jump).  Got some pictures once they were in the yard.  There are 5 little babies ❤️   

Little nubby tail LOL -- I wonder when they get their tail feathers??  

 

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Pic of an adult:  Carolina Wren Photos

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I had an encounter with a rather large (2 ft long) garter snake this morning.  I just watched it slither through the grass and rocks.  The dog just ignored the snake.  It was a beautiful greenish gray color with yellow stripes on each side running lengthwise.  Then I googled garter snakes and learned they are almost ubiquitous in North America.  I used to call them water snakes as a kid because they were usually swimming or near the water.   I learned their saliva is toxic to their prey and they are toxin-resistant themselves.  They eat mostly earthworms, insects, and some other small animals and fish.

 

I also have several very colorful spiders living in the greenhouse this year.  I am glad to have them around for insect control. 

I live at a high elevation - where there are no poisonous snakes or spiders or plants to worry about.  That makes nature much more care-free and enjoyable!

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I was bit by a garter snake once, but suffered no ill effects. I guess the toxin is only lethal to smaller prey. 

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I think I'm right in saying that in Ireland (both NI and the Republic) there are no snakes at all. Legend has it that  St Patrick, the patron saint, drove them all out. I'm not a fan of spiders, I admit. When I was a little girl, our toilet was outside (joined on to the house but outside of it) and I always remember going to the loo and then looking in the toilet bowl ( the way you do) and there was a huge spider trying to climb up the side. Put me off for life - and I still check the bowl to this day .

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The Carolina wren is lovely, @LilyG, as is your photo.  It is a bit like our Jenny Wren, which has a less distinctive supercilium.

 

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Love that poppy, @Tunhope

 

We don't have poisonous spiders here, and the adder is not encountered much.  It can be toxic to people if they have an allergy to the venom, but is more of a threat to an inquisitive dog.

 

I have been finding empty broken snail shells around, and was pleased to see the song thrush in the garden earlier today.  They do sterling work bashing snails on stones to break the shell and eat the snail.  They also have such a beautiful song.

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@Mz Terry, the False Widow spider is indigenous to Britain and venomous, however it is non-lethal to humans 

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There never were any snakes in Ireland, partly for the same reason that there are no snakes in Hawaii, Iceland, New Zealand, Greenland, or Antarctica: the Emerald Isle is, well, an island.

 

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Excited to see a robin with two newly fledged chicks today.  I put out dried meal worms for them which they love.  This is the second brood for the robins, as I saw a baby robin in the garden earlier in the spring.

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This morning, I was tending to the greenhouse with the door propped open.  Elsa was laying in the grass outside the door.  I saw her get up and point to something across the yard (yep, German Shepherds can point too).  I looked out the door and saw a Mule deer locked into a gaze with Elsa, with one front hoof off the ground, like she was pointing back.  We all just stood there for a few seconds until Elsa stepped forward.  Then the deer made a sound - like a sigh, a snort or a hiss - and it turned around and ran off.  I praised Elsa for alerting me and then she laid back down and I went back into the greenhouse.  I'm lucky to have a dog who is one with nature and gets along well with all  most of the wild animals around here.  She did have one really bad experience with a porcupine a few years back....

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@Muledeer when you say Elsa alerted you, does that mean that mule deer (the 4 legged ones) are dangerous? Would they attack Elsa? Or yourself? I imagine they are pretty big beasts, but are they aggressive?

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8 hours ago, Tunhope said:

@Muledeer when you say Elsa alerted you, does that mean that mule deer (the 4 legged ones) are dangerous? Would they attack Elsa? Or yourself? I imagine they are pretty big beasts, but are they aggressive?

Oh no, mule deer are very timid animals.  The deer around here seem to have about a 20 meter buffer zone and they will simply run away if they are approached or threatened.   I have been able to scare them off by whistling at much greater distances.  They have exceptional hearing with those large ears.  Adult mule deer weigh about the same as people do.  When I praised her for alerting me, I was simply rewarding her for being a good watch dog and letting me know ,without barking or chasing, there was a possible intruder approaching. 

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Elftober Country

Found a teeny-tiny spider on my door that resembled a "jumper" do we have something like that here?

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@October Country, there are similar spiders here. I can't remember what they are called, but there's one which is about half the size of a 5p piece which is common 

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Happy to see and hear swifts screaming overhead in the little town I went to today.  Also swallows flying into their nests in the roof of an old building.

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Those are lovely sounds of summer. I wonder if the swallows used that nest last year, @Mz Terry? There's a Melvin Bragg/ BBC radio programme in the In Our Time series about bird migration. It's interesting.

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Baby BunBun loves apples  :) 

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Seeing this out my office window just makes my day happy from the start :) 

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Lots of birds are visiting the garden in the current drought.  I have the bird bath full of fresh water and am putting out mealworms and peanuts for them.  A juvenile woodpecker and jay visited yesterday.

 

Lovely pics, @LilyG My day lilies are flowering now. 

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Here is a rock chuck and a couple of deer.  The bottom photo was on an old camera that I just put back into service and discovered the image.

 

 

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