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This was my first encounter with a Badger!  (an American Badger?)  It came by on Sunday afternoon, and Elsa ran over for a greeting but I called her back in time to avoid a conflict.  The badger stood it's ground the entire time.  In fact, we were able to get within ten feet to take a photo, and the badger just laid there on top of my compost pile, then slowly wandered off into the sagebrush after the photo shoot.

 

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It is very different from badgers here in the UK @Muledeer. Ours are black and white and usually only seen at dusk or at night. I know they are extremely heavy. I've occasionally helped move a dead one and they are very solid things indeed. 

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I saw a bunny with white paws today. That's definitely uncommon for eastern cottontails. It was adorable. 

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In that article they say it will be "euthanized" if caught. :mad:

Seems like such a misuse of the word (and the animal!).

 

I wonder why it attacked him. Was it protecting young? Didn't sound like it was hunting the guy to eat him.

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5 hours ago, daveb said:

I wonder why it attacked him. Was it protecting young? Didn't sound like it was hunting the guy to eat him.

Maybe because he shot an arrow at the lion and missed?  Just about any wild animal is capable of an attack, or, as my dad used to say:  "animals are unpredictable".  Although according to the article, the attack was unprovoked.

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Thrilled to see a kingfisher at the local nature reserve.  It flew over the lake and landed on a dead tree that has fallen across the water.  From there it dived and caught a little fish.  They may not be rare, but they are elusive, and have to be our most colourful bird here.

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When I got home tonight, there was a family of four mule deer grazing on my lawn.  A doe, a yearling, and twin fawns.  I have recently begun using an electric livestock fence to keep out the cows.   The deer just jump over it.  At least I won't have to mow my lawn for the rest of the season!  I didn't realize just how much they have been eating, but every day, they come back for more green grass.  I'm not watering the grass for the mule deer to eat, but maybe there is a happy medium so all of us can utilize the lawn I have worked hard to maintain all summer long.  I would rather have deer grazing than cattle - they are much cleaner animals.  Oddly enough, they have left my petunia planters alone all summer.

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I saw this video on youtube about an escape artist honey badger. It's amazing at how clever it was! Getting a mate to help it unbolt a gate (which had 2 bolts) and then opening the gate. They even had to remove some wire the person had tried to wire the gate shut with. Using everything from large rocks to trees to an old branch to a rake to a shovel to be able to climb out of a walled enclosure. Digging under a wall or fence and having to work through some concrete or something. And even escaping and breaking into the keeper's house one night! It really sounded like it thought things through, too. Kind of gave me chills at how intelligent it appeared to be. I think I'd be a little concerned if I were that guy - hopefully the critter isn't holding any grudges. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, daveb said:

I saw this video on youtube about an escape artist honey badger. It's amazing at how clever it was!

That was amazing! Very intelligent and persistent. Wow.

 

@Muledeer, I like the way you live in harmony with the wildlife in your area, looking for that happy medium.

 

Argh, don't get me started on the subject of retirement! I do live frugally, but still am not able to save a lot toward retirement (which is 6 years, 8 months away 😊). And who knows if the U.S. Social Security system will still be in place by the time I get there! (And it drives me crazy when some people refer to it as an "entitlement program"! I have paid into it since I  started working at age 13.) If I could go back and change things, I would have tried to save more when I was younger...but I was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years and didn't think I had any extra to save. Then I got divorced and REALLY didn't have any extra to save!!! 

 

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Oh dear. Just realized I posted in the wrong thread!!!! My apologies....

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Actually, the part about retirement should be in the Over 50 thread. See what happens when I try to multitask???!!

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14 hours ago, daveb said:

I saw this video on youtube about an escape artist honey badger...

Interesting video! I didn't know that badgers could be that clever in escaping from cages/pens. 

 

I'm kind of wondering why the guy can't just let them roam free in the wild and put tags on them, like some professional animal researchers do when studying dolphins, birds, etc. in the wild, since these badgers obviously are signaling by their escape attempts that don't like being kept in pens or cages. It does look a bit empty and seems boring for them, where they're forced to live, since it's not like the wild at all, with trees, branches, and rocks removed.

 

Perhaps, they might be clever enough to take the tags off, but I think I heard there are other methods that researchers use to keep track of them, like implant chips. Or perhaps, build a taller wall, but I thought the first option sounded more humane to the animals, allowing them to be in the wild, like they want, than keeping them in cages/pens they don't want to be in.

 

But, perhaps the researcher is studying their escape attempts and how smart they are.

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That's no ordinary badger. It's a honey badger (aka ratel), from Africa and Asia. I don't know why it's in a cage/enclosure, but I agree - it certainly doesn't seem to want to be there (or maybe escaping is a game for it?). I did wonder why they didn't let it go free. Maybe it's not in its native range. Or maybe there is some other (good?) reason it's being kept in an enclosure.

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I wonder if all badgers are that smart, especially my badger (I don't really own him but I did take the photo) :

 

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The hummingbirds are getting ready to leave for the season.  Here is the scene from my kitchen window that I have enjoyed all summer:

 

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Lazy hummingbird feeder? :lol: 

(I usually see them buzzing around when they go for nectar in real flowers, but I suppose they'd sit on a branch if it were doable)

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58 minutes ago, daveb said:

Lazy hummingbird feeder? :lol: 

(I usually see them buzzing around when they go for nectar in real flowers, but I suppose they'd sit on a branch if it were doable)

Those little perches are foldable, so if the hummingbirds need more of a workout we can make them hover for their food.  The feeder outside of my bedroom window has no perches, so all that the humming and buzzing and chirping wakes me up each morning at dawn!

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1 hour ago, Muledeer said:

Those little perches are foldable, so if the hummingbirds need more of a workout we can make them hover for their food.  The feeder outside of my bedroom window has no perches, so all that the humming and buzzing and chirping wakes me up each morning at dawn!

:lol: 

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I have no pictures, just words that don't seem to be enough. This morning there was a flock of wild turkeys in town running down the street. The leaves are starting to turn and some were blowing in the wind around the running turkeys. The air was crisp and there was hardly any wildfire smoke.  It was a joy go be out walking.

 

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8 hours ago, froglady said:

I have no pictures, just words that don't seem to be enough. This morning there was a flock of wild turkeys in town running down the street. The leaves are starting to turn and some were blowing in the wind around the running turkeys. The air was crisp and there was hardly any wildfire smoke.  It was a joy go be out walking.

 

Nice!

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I saw hummingbirds twice last week. I stayed very still as one hovered very close to me, moving from flower to flower. Then I saw it eyeing up a moth, but it flew off without pursuing it. Despite their taste for nectar, hummingbirds eat insects as well. 

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I saw a hummingbird this morning!  At least I think it was one.  Of course it could have been a large mosquito?  I didn't get a good look at it.    

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Beautiful weather here at the moment.  There were lots of swallows flying round the lake in the park, on their way to Africa for the winter.  A pair of sparrowhawks were circling over the little wood across the river.  In the garden, blue and great tits were on the feeders, and there was a visit from the greater spotted woodpecker.  After the summer drought, the grass seems extra verdant this autumn.  

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The hummingbirds are still around, although fewer and fewer by the day.  yesterday, I watched one feeding on the petunias.  She preferred the flower buds that were jest getting ready to open, using that needle-shaped beak to gather the nectar from those long, skinny flower buds.  I'm glad I refilled the feeders one more time last week.

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I've noticed this phenomenon for several years: suddenly, there are large garden spiders sitting in the middle of very large orb webs festooned from every twig, bush, window corner and things that stick up in the garden. (By very large, I mean 30 cm / one foot diameter o r so,   and maybe 'every' is a slight exaggeration.) They weren't there yesterday. They are there today. 

Over the next few months I'll be watching these spiders grow fatter and fatter. Then, just as suddenly as they appear, they'll be gone again. 

Sometimes the orbs are destroyed by bad weather, but, within a few hours, the spiders have rebuilt them. I'm not fond of spiders but I do think they're pretty amazing.

 

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