# Today in nature I saw **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854 "2020-07-20T18:22:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/662 "2021-05-13T21:45:21Z")
I posted that picture to my local community FB group recently. Someone commented, “your ancestors are telling you you’re on the right path”, which gave me a smile. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/663 "2021-05-13T21:56:48Z")
It is always a gift when animals let us see them in their majesty. And I bet you aren’t too bothered by pesky, meddlesome rabbits much either. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/664 "2021-05-14T03:22:51Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > S/he So I’d figured it was a boy hawk because the bird was large and so showy, deep orange shoulders and bright stripes on the wings and tail. Now wiki tells me both girl and boy Red-shoulder hawks are showy, and in fact the females are larger than the males. Ignorance self-fought. Possibly, maybe likely, this is a lady hawk. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/665 "2021-05-14T04:34:40Z")
Maybe we can hope for some baby hawks to fledge and the weeks to come? Watching them learn to fly and dive would be amazing. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/666 "2021-05-15T03:43:25Z")
We get Orioles out here too, but not often. They will swoop in to drink out of the hummer feeders (while making a huge mess) and then take off. It’s all good, I watch them from the kitchen window, then go and hose the mess off which attracts the tiny blue butterflies. So, anyhow, I’ve been seeing an Oriole recently, so yesterday I cut an orange in half and put it out on feeding station. No birds were interested. No birds looked at it. No birds even landed on it. Today, I picked the mummified orange half up and considered using it in some sort of holiday arrangement because it was totally dried out and would probably last forever. As I’m not Martha Stewart, I got over those thoughts quickly and orange went into the trash. Today in nature, I saw a cactus wren fly into its nest in a Saguaro cactus. While I’ve seen birds feeding on the flowers, I’ve never seen one actually using a nest hole. Another one checked off my bucket list! ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/667 "2021-05-15T22:30:42Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > We don’t normally see these birds in this area of Minnesota. Now, that’s exciting. They only time I’ve seen them is when I lived by the MN zoo and at migratory time visiting swans were trying to get in the employee entrance and one was injured. I called into the zoo and they came and declared them strangers that they couldn’t help. They did fly away an hour or so later. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/668 "2021-05-15T23:34:34Z")
Today I saw papa bluebird feeding baby bluebird. He was cheating a bit, though, since he was taking mealworms from our mealworm feeder and then giving them to baby, who was up in the tree. Hard to get pix of them, so this is the best I could do. [![Google Photos](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/OCLwoKHOXvSTaLydLY3J6fZayLNxGgRkcpFuiGZz4hUYZ92R3gsoLDX6nMC-hpQzf4ZOCcP-sT2Xb5s00tLZVrA9TkY6fpwKSX1sZiiqIA7m07oFJJ8rautlhlmrp20S2rW3QPrEvKk=w600-h315-p-k "New item by Romansperson") ](https://photos.app.goo.gl/vaeEsgRaHop4fD486) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/669 "2021-05-15T23:45:18Z")
Heading down from Red River NM to Taos on Route 64 this morning, I saw a tons of of prairie dogs (mostly alive) on the road and the shoulder. They were quite occupied with their noses to the pavement, scurrying away at the the last moment as cars approached. I’m guessing they were going after traces of road salt. The day before, heading up to Red River out of Eagle Nest, a female elk came barrelling down the mountainside to cross the road a couple hundred yards in front of me. She hopped the fences on both sides of the road quite impressively at full gallop. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/670 "2021-05-16T11:35:01Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > We’ve been at peace with our raccoons the past few years. Then, last night, they fired an opening salvo across our bow, destroying two bird feeders. Apologies to our raccoons. Once I went to work repairing the bird feeders, I realized that the metal pole I can’t straiten was bent by a black bear. All feeders are being brought in overnight and the dogs are being kept in view. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/671 "2021-05-16T16:15:17Z")
We have a pair of lovely barn swallows taking over a nest built a couple of years ago on our front porch by a phoebe. They don’t like it when we sit on the front porch (morning coffee) but we tell them “this is our nest, too.” Here in the hinterlands-west-of-West-Lafayette, we have these odd, brown, prairie dog looking things. I don’t think they’re beavers either. Maybe muskrats? They seem pretty chill, and I see them near ditches or drains or railroad tracks (these have water-filled ditches often), typically when I’m driving past but sometimes when I am hiking. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/672 "2021-05-16T19:55:53Z")
Nutria (aka copyu) , maybe? > **[Nutria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coypu)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > The nutria (Myocastor coypus), also known as the coypu, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent. > Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, Myocastor is now included within Echimyidae, the family of the spiny rats. > The nutria lives in burrows alongside stretches of water, and feeds on river plant stems. Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America,... ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/673 "2021-05-16T20:02:00Z")
**LIVE**. I’m sitting in my yard, drinking and smoking. This cutie crept up across the meadow to eat the corn leftover from this morning. [[Album] Oh deer ![](https://i.imgur.com/BfsHApN.jpeg?fb "Oh deer") ](https://imgur.com/gallery/xfzmg01) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/674 "2021-05-16T20:24:53Z")
You’re a lucky man. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/675 "2021-05-16T20:25:59Z")
Indeed. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/676 "2021-05-17T01:36:45Z")
I think you may be on your way to having more deer. She looks pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/677 "2021-05-17T01:37:16Z")
It’s that time, yes. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/678 "2021-05-18T04:17:24Z")
We have a quail block sitting on an old cookie sheet by the bird feeder. A young Thrasher wandered up and pecked at the tray, which produced a noise. This was interesting, so bird pecked the tray again. Another noise happened. Suddenly bird leaped onto the tray and started pecking and stomping around while waving its wings in the air. After about a minute of a bird percussion and dance show, it startled and took off. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/679 "2021-05-18T12:56:19Z")
Wait until a woodpecker finds that tray. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/680 "2021-05-18T15:39:42Z")
Last few weeks I have been observing jumping spiders on my cement patio. Fascinating creatures, they seems to have extremely good eyesight and show what appears to be intelligence when hunting. They primarily hunt flies on my patio and I will occasionally throw a bug down to see if they will take it. They seem to notice movement at about 3 feet away. Crawling bugs they simply run down and pounce on but winged creatures are where they really shine. They do little dances to gauge how sensitive their prey is to being stalked. They also use the dance to determine the preys field of vision by watching their reaction. Once they determine the field of vision they will make a long circle around the back of the prey and then pounce! I would say they rank very high on the list of successful stalks just based on the dozen or so I have seen they average about 80%. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/681 "2021-05-19T14:36:02Z")
I saw something this morning I’ve never seen before. I was driving down a somewhat rural road and noticed a mallard duck hen waddling around in a yard. As I got closer, I noticed she was accompanied by her mate who was not the standard green-headed drake. His whole body was iridescent black. I did some googling and am now more confused than ever. There is an American black duck that is related to the mallard duck but is described as having a brown coloration - not really black. It was maybe a Cayuga duck which is a domestic duck and it was just hanging out with the wild ducks. It was beautiful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854.md?page=35)