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Birding / nature / photography ~ Older Asexuals for light walking and hiking nature adventures ~


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DogObsessedLi
38 minutes ago, Midland Tyke said:

Where are your favourite walks? I'm a sucker for views from high places, which means I'm always tackling climbs (walking, not actual climbing - though I don't mind the occasional stretch of scrambling).

Mainly my local countryparks. I'm not big on scrambling.

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Here is a story from a local TV station about a hungry, aggressive cougar that is blamed for the deaths of 4 sheep, a pig, a horse, about 30 cats and a dog.  And a goat.  There is video of this cougar with a freshly-killed house cat in his jaws.  The cougar is still at large.  There is another cougar in the same county that has now killed four goats. 

 

https://fox13now.com/2018/10/27/dramatic-video-of-cougar-killing-cat-causes-concerns-for-utah-residents/

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A herd of bison grazing this morning.  These animals are members of  the Wyoming State Bison Herd, and they live in a state park in my town.

20181031-110702.jpg

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I saw a flock of cedar waxwings going to town on a crabapple tree. They're one of my favorite birds. They're so pretty yet have some quirky behaviors that make them a joy to watch. 

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@LVG  and other tree-loving folk, a few years ago, a guy called Alex Metcalf organised a 'Tree Listening'  experience in my town. He hung headphones from a large tree and it was an experience which actually brought tears to me eyes. The tree was so alive with sound. There was a rumbling sound (the tree vibrating), and a clicking sound like rice crispies crackling (don't know if you have them outside the UK) which was due to water passing through the cells. There was a popping sound too. 'Amazing' is an overused word, but that's what it was - amazing.

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@Tunhope I would love to experience the sounds of a tree- like you just described.  It got me wondering if all plant life makes their own unique sounds.   There are so many noises and pitches that are out of our hearing range (like dog whistles and rodent sonic repellers), I have to wonder what sounds we are missing.  Just because plant life does not have ears like we do, I assumed they grow in silence.    

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know I haven't been on here for a while (my life is just kind of uneventful 😕 ) .... but little bit of excitement in the backyard today!  Had to share ❤️ They are beautiful!

(btw - sorry for the bad picture, was taken thru a storm window)

Image may contain: tree, grass, outdoor and nature

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3 hours ago, LilyG said:

I know I haven't been on here for a while (my life is just kind of uneventful 😕 ) .... but little bit of excitement in the backyard today!  Had to share ❤️ They are beautiful!

(btw - sorry for the bad picture, was taken thru a storm window)

Image may contain: tree, grass, outdoor and nature

Wow! What are they? Lynx?

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Or bobcats? 

 

Cool to see them like that though! I've never seen any in the wild, although I am sure they are around.

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On 11/2/2018 at 3:19 AM, Tunhope said:

...a 'Tree Listening'  experience in my town.

That sounds incredible!  I'm going to search and see if anyone in my city (Portland, Oregon) offers that.

 

5 hours ago, LilyG said:

but little bit of excitement in the backyard today!  Had to share ❤️ They are beautiful!

Wow is right!  They are gorgeous, and right in your backyard!  I looked up lynx v. bobcats, and I think those are the latter.  It seems that lynx have even shorter tails.

 

PS. I think the photo is awesome--no apology necessary!

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They're definitely bobcats. Lynx are found much farther north, mostly in Canada. I'd love to see bobcats in the wild.

 

I encountered an 8-point white-tail buck the other day. I was entering the backyard of a client's property and there he was next door just staring at me. I regret not having my phone. 

 

Also, I'm close to declaring war on some raccoons who've decided that my bird feeders are now their personal buffet. They actually stole one of my suet cages the other day.  

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2 hours ago, pickles mcgee said:

I'm going to search and see if anyone in my city (Portland, Oregon) offers that.

I'd be shocked if Portland didn't. :lol: 

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Sorry it took so long to reply - had to go to sunday family dinner :) 

Yes, they are bobcats ❤️  First time I have ever seen them here!!  Walked by a window and something caught my eye...I thought my little fox was back, so grabbed the camera & wow, what a surprise :D   FIrst one out of the woods...then the other two followed.  Kind of hope they stay around for a few days so I can see them again.

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@LVG  I also have some resident raccoons that clean out whatever is left in the bird feeder every night.  They haven't damaged or stolen anything though  LOL

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Spoiler

Image may contain: grass, tree, outdoor and nature

 

Image may contain: people sitting, grass, outdoor and nature

 

(again ... apologies for glare from sun on windows - best pics I could get without scaring them away)

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, daveb said:

I'd be shocked if Portland didn't. :lol: 

I looked it up and found events in the U.K. and the eastern U.S., but nothing in Portland.  I was surprised too!  We certainly have plenty of both--trees and tree huggers.

 

1 hour ago, LilyG said:
  Reveal hidden contents

Image may contain: grass, tree, outdoor and nature

 

Image may contain: people sitting, grass, outdoor and nature

 

(again ... apologies for glare from sun on windows - best pics I could get without scaring them away)

 

 

 

WOW again--they are gorgeous, and those pics are amazing.

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1 hour ago, pickles mcgee said:

I looked it up and found events in the U.K. and the eastern U.S., but nothing in Portland.  I was surprised too!  We certainly have plenty of both--trees and tree huggers.

Somebody is falling down on the job here. I also heard the cat cafe is closing down. Whatever happened to "Keep Portland weird"? :( 

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@LilyG I love the way they are strolling around in typical cat fashion as though they own the place.  Garden visitors here are limited to birds and small mammals like squirrels and mice, shrews, voles, hedgehogs.  I get foxes too, sometimes rats, so visiting cats are very welcome along with the fox.  The evidence for shrews etc. comes from finding the occasional corpse or gnawed hazelnut.  The pond attracts frogs and newts, and I do find toads in the garden sometimes.

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2 hours ago, daveb said:

Somebody is falling down on the job here. I also heard the cat cafe is closing down. Whatever happened to "Keep Portland weird"? :( 

Hahaha!  Well, at least we still have Voodoo Donut weddings and naked bike rides.

 

I think I visited the cat cafe once.  Or dreamed about it.

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The only wild cat species we have is the Scottish Wilcat, which is the same size as a domestic moggy, and genetically close enough that interbreeding produces viable offspring, thus the pure Scottish wildcat is one of the rarest mammals in the world. 

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8 hours ago, Mz Terry said:

  Garden visitors here are limited to birds and small mammals like squirrels and mice, shrews, voles, hedgehogs.  I get foxes too, sometimes rats, so visiting cats are very welcome along with the fox.  The evidence for shrews etc. comes from finding the occasional corpse or gnawed hazelnut.  

 

Shrews are interesting creatures.  I Googled shrews last year after catching one in a mouse trap inside my greenhouse.  Did you know that they are the only mammal with a venomous bite? (besides possibly a duck-billed platypus) I watched a video of a shrew vs. a snake and the shrew paralyzed the snake with his venom, then ate the snake.  Shrews also have an incredibly high metabolism, like the hummingbird.   Their bottle shaped nose reminds me of an aardvark, so I imagine they are pretty good at harvesting insects.  I'm pretty sure that it was a shrew that ate about half of a large cabbage head in the greenhouse.  

Foxes are common, although I didn't know that until I deployed my motion activated cameras.  I think a hedgehog is very exotic - they don't exist around here.  The raccoons have just shown up at this elevation in the last two years or so.

 

 

 

 

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8 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

The only wild cat species we have is the Scottish Wilcat, which is the same size as a domestic moggy, and genetically close enough that interbreeding produces viable offspring, thus the pure Scottish wildcat is one of the rarest mammals in the world. 

There is a documentary out called The Tigers of Scotland, about the Scottish Wildcat. But I have my doubts about the documentary. The blurb says it's about a Big Cat. Usually that term is applied to cats like lions, tigers, etc., (genus Panthera), which are noticeably bigger than domestic cats. :P

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I had a skim through some information about that documentary. It's authentic, just the term "big cat" is slightly generic, and used to describe just about any non-domestic breed. They are bigger than a "moggy" but smaller than Ragdolls or Maine Coons 

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2 minutes ago, Skycaptain said:

just the term "big cat" is slightly generic, and used to describe just about any non-domestic breed.

Not in biology/zoology circles. Otherwise it gets stretched to being meaningless, and certainly shouldn't be misused that way in conjunction with a documentary.

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I have never thought of hedgehogs as exotic! Linking two threads here (for on the over-50s thread there are some posts about high garden fences between people's gardens) people in the UK are advised to cut holes in their garden fences so that hedgehogs can find a way through to next door and beyond. Apparently, the males roam a long way to find females, but if they can't find a way  through, then they can't have sex. (Asexual hedgehogs wouldn't have the problem!) My fence is so full of holes it wouldn't stop a full size pig-hog, let alone a tiny hedgehog. We sometimes find them curled up for the winter under a pile of leaves, and they really do make a hog-like noise when they're eating.

I love the photos @Muledeer and @LilyG have put up. LilyG, I think it's wonderful that you have your camera primed and ready to take photos like that. It's something that I'm bad at. I love clouds, and twice, from my kitchen window, I have seen, clear as anything, a cloud formation called Kelvin-Helmholtz, but it's so ephemeral that by the time I've got a camera it's evaporated. 

And I think it is a great shame that folk can't get to 'hear the trees'. 

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Guest Jetsun Milarepa

Lovely photos, beautiful animal visitors, wish the cats visiting my garden were that good! I get the domestic moggy variety. Mind you , 'little but fierce' is a good description of a Scottish Wildcat- not much bigger than a domestic cat, but you would't want to meet one.

 

Haven't heard the trees live, but on a documentary about trees , it sounded like the heartbeat of the tree, but it was the tree drinking the water , like a slooshing sound. All respect to the trees.

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The suet feeder survived the night. Seems the tape is working, but I'm not putting my guard down yet. Raccoons are incredibly smart. 

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17 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

thus the pure Scottish wildcat is one of the rarest mammals in the world. 

I googled Scottish wildcats and learned of two orphaned kittens that were just found in October.  They are being allowed to grow up in a large area with little human contact until they are old enough to release back into the wild.  Beautiful animals, a sister and brother.

 

9 hours ago, daveb said:

There is a documentary out called The Tigers of Scotland, about the Scottish Wildcat. But I have my doubts about the documentary. The blurb says it's about a Big Cat.

Via google I also learned that the Scottish wildcat is aka: Highland Tiger!

 

9 hours ago, Muledeer said:

Shrews are interesting creatures.

And now I'll be wanting to google shrews--I like following the leads here.

 

Saw a beautiful bird fly over and land in one of many abandoned apple trees on my walk today, and help itself to an apple.  My bird knowledge is minimal so I busied myself noticing as many features as I could before it flew away (for later googling purposes): largish bird (bigger than a robin), bright red underside of wings and tail, beautiful red at its throat, iridescent blue wedge on its chest, light bluish head, barred wings and body, all-around gorgeous.  And, eating an apple.  No idea what it could be, and my companion--who knows a bit more about birds--didn't know either.  We watched for fifteen minutes or so, then it flew into another tree, took up a position on the trunk, and started pecking away.  Oh, a woodpecker!

 

I think this is what it was--a Red-shafted Northern flicker woodpecker--though Wikipedia said the pendant is solid black (not iridescent blue), with red on the sides of the face (not at the throat).  But we didn't have binoculars, and the bird was some distance away, so even though we got a good long look we could have been off. 

 

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRubdZ5hq0Q6EbZzGPJVCa

 

 

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