# 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:** 79
**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 29, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1562 "2022-05-29T15:54:12Z")
A buddy of mine has hundreds of white pigeons he breeds and trains for their role in white dove releases at funerals. People seem to think they’re payment goes toward buying the birds, but in fact \>90% of them arrive home after the funeral before he does. ---
**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 30, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1563 "2022-05-30T21:57:35Z")
Was at a car race this weekend. We had gulls, canada geese, turtles, deer and chipmunks to look out for. Not nearly as many birds as usual. Damn avian virus. ---
**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 31, 2022, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1564 "2022-05-31T12:28:27Z")
Here is an alligator, relaxing in his flower garden: [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52112664685_3950b7f637_b.jpg "Flower gator") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/45215582@N06/52112664685/) And here is a turtle, hanging out with my chickens. I tried to feed him some nice chilled celery, but he was not interested in making my acquaintance. [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52112665165_68d8017328_b.jpg "Pasture turtle") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/45215582@N06/52112665165/) ---
**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 31, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1565 "2022-05-31T22:15:30Z")
As of today, it appears that the falcons have given up trying to hatch the remaining three eggs. The one hatched chick is about twice the size he was and is getting around in the nesting box quite well. Young eagle hasn’t flown yet, but is sporting the classic dark coloring and spends much time at the edge of the nest checking out the goings on in the forest and river. She spends a lot of time stretching and strengthening wings. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1566 "2022-06-01T02:52:52Z")
It’s that time of year again - this very young Columbian black-tailed fawn was wandering next to my abode w/ its twin and their mother: [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/9131NMk.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/9131NMk) ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1567 "2022-06-01T03:05:20Z")
I didn’t see it, but a black bear busted through my screened in porch at the cabin sometime between yesterday morning and today. He chewed up a plastic bottle of vinegar I used to clean glass and took a hummingbird feeder before busting out a different screen panel. ---
**Author:** ![pipperroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7feea3/32.png) [@pipperroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pipperroo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1568 "2022-06-01T03:25:30Z")
Sitting on my back deck, I saw and heard lots and lots of robins. An orange bird that I think was an Oriole but was too far away for me to see well. and a red-headed woodpecker in the neighbor’s tree. And as usual, always squirrels everywhere. One even climbed onto my hammock on my deck after I went inside. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2022, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1569 "2022-06-01T11:33:11Z")
Wow! Great photo. He looks kind of cocky, doesn’t he? ---
**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:** [June 1, 2022, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1570 "2022-06-01T11:49:21Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Great photo Looks like cgi it’s so good. I’d have to have my phone camera in portrait mode to get anything close to the pic. ETA: my brother gets pics like it with his fancy camera and lenses. Blow up the eye and you can see reflected details ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1571 "2022-06-01T17:04:52Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > He looks kind of cocky, doesn’t he? Not for long 🙂. I took that from an open stairwell half a floor above him and about three seconds later an elderly couple came around the corner on ground level and he/she and his sibling went bounding away. This is at a heavily landscaped condo complex built into the side of a hill that backs onto a small regional park. A couple of local moms regularly give birth on corners of the property that are isolated in a relative sense and have a dense enclosing canopy. So the emergence of the young fawns is a regular sign of late Spring around here. > [@kayaker](#): > > I’d have to have my phone camera in portrait mode to get anything close to the pic. > > ETA: my brother gets pics like it with his fancy camera and lenses. Well, this was a semi-fancy camera with a semi-fancy long lens. Sometimes I think about going genuinely fancy, but I’m lazy and the size and weight I’d need to shoot birds in particular are a disincentive. I hate the idea of a dragging a tripod all over the place. I have one, but almost never use it because pain-in-my-ass. Also, I can’t quite justify super-fancy prices to myself for a casual hobby 😉. ---
**Author:** ![merrick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@merrick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merrick)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1572 "2022-06-01T18:44:24Z")
It may amuse you to hear that I saw the opposite behaviour the last time I was at the Lea Valley lakes - I came upon a backwater occupied by three pairs of Canada geese with goslings (2 pairs with five each and one with four). On sighting me, one goose (or gander), who definitely hadn’t got the “communal parenting” memo started aggressively hissing at and chasing off the other pairs. Having seen off the competition, the family then presented themselves at the water’s edge and awaited the shower of bread. I had no bread or other goose food and withdrew before things got violent. Park geese (and ducks) in the UK are often only questionably “wild”, especially in areas where they’ve learned that humans feed them. I’ve had a goose stand at my feet and make the goose equivalent of puppy eyes at me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1573 "2022-06-01T19:43:50Z")
I’m in a Cleveland suburb. Yesterday, I was in the back yard and something came waddling out of the open garage door. It was the size of a large cat and vaguely similar to a short-tailed rodent. We are not near any water, and I’ve never seen anything like it. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2022, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1574 "2022-06-01T22:25:00Z")
Sounds like a badger to me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1575 "2022-06-02T04:42:40Z")
It didn’t have stripes on its head, and its tail was too small. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1576 "2022-06-02T04:50:38Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’m in a Cleveland suburb. Yesterday, I was in the back yard and something came waddling out of the open garage door. It was the size of a large cat and vaguely similar to a short-tailed rodent. We are not near any water, and I’ve never seen anything like it. [Groundhog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog)? Apparently Cleveland has been [under invasion by them](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/08/operation-groundhog-unites-neighbors-in-their-battle-against-the-destructive-critters.html) 🙂. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2022, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1577 "2022-06-02T11:17:06Z")
A friend of mine in St Martin was in the US once in his life, when he was a teenager visiting an uncle in Ohio for a 3 day weekend. He tells the story about when he saw this strange animal and was told it was a ground hog. He initially thought it was a baby pig, the strangest animal he’d ever seen. Forty five years later the only memory he has of the US is the funny ground hog. When he tells the story (and he often tells it at his beach bar) he laughs like a madman. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1578 "2022-06-02T12:51:08Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > [Groundhog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog)? > > Apparently Cleveland has been [under invasion by them](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2021/08/operation-groundhog-unites-neighbors-in-their-battle-against-the-destructive-critters.html) 🙂. That looks right. This was a big one! ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2022, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1579 "2022-06-02T13:32:34Z")
Walking from our house to dinner in town we saw a turkey vulture land on our residential street and spend some time with a nice piece of roadkill. ---
**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:** [June 2, 2022, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1580 "2022-06-02T14:47:55Z")
My brother took a picture of a red winged blackbird chick. I asked him if he was certain of the species and he said definitely. [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/eSHMQjk.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/eSHMQjk) He was certain because mom was harassing him [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/TOBb76P.jpeg "Imgur: The magic of the Internet") ](https://imgur.com/TOBb76P) As was dad [![Imgur](https://i.imgur.com/wOQ6C86.jpeg "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/wOQ6C86) (He actually has a selfie video of the male attacking his scalp!) ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854/1581 "2022-06-03T17:27:24Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Well, this was a semi-fancy camera with a semi-fancy long lens. Sometimes I think about going genuinely fancy, but I’m lazy and the size and weight I’d need to shoot birds in particular are a disincentive. I hate the idea of a dragging a tripod all over the place. I have one, but almost never use it because pain-in-my-ass. This sounds exactly like me. I go out with birding groups sometimes and think I should get some equipment like that. One hundred meters later, people are stopping to rest, falling behind or making so much noise the sound like a herd of rhinos. That convinces me to stay with what I have. > [@panache45](#): > > That looks right. This was a big one! I was at my neighbors once when she opened her garage and one of these came wobbling out. She screamed like a five year old girl and I swear her legs were doing the spinning in place Scooby Doo run. I still give her crap about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854.md?page=78) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-nature-i-saw/915854.md?page=80)