Great pic!
This reminded me of something from Saturday that I mean to post. We were walking around Brockham, a village to the south of London. It’s a pretty big place these days; and we watched two buzzards and a red kite circling overhead. I guess that where you get people, you get food; where you have food you get rodents; and hence birds of prey. All part of the ongoing urbanisation of wildlife. (But not as showy as @beowulff ‘s example, obviously!) 
j
Deer absolutely love roses 
. An old Plant Ecology professor of mine used to curse them as “long-eared rats” as they were constantly finding ways to graze on his little fenced experimental succession plots.
I still like them though and on the plus side at least they also like to eat poison oak.
Ayup. I have netting around the rose trellis in the side yard to keep them from munching on that one.
Ooops. Wrong thread.
j
I just had a visitor in my backyard. It was watching the squirrels.
Time to go.
Reynard out!
Love foxes!
I think I learned that from you upthread somewhere when I was talking about one I had found plastered to the back of my car the morning after a rain storm. I was bummed that I had tried to help it dry out and recover, but it died anyway. Turns out it was already a goner. (They are beautiful though! And frickin’ HUGE!)
Yes, it’s sad. My sister-in-law sent me a pic of a cecropia moth (another of the giant silkworm moths) that was hanging around her back deck. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it wasn’t long for this world - a couple weeks max. We’re just lucky if we get a chance to see one before they go.
The tiniest anole
Yeah, I have seen some weensy guys lately!
They really do blend in, don’t they!
Barn swallows are nesting at work again. They’re somewhat intermittent from year to year, but the last two they’ve taken up residence right outside a main door. Which is slightly irritating right now, because I feel the need to use an inconvenient door so as not to bother them in the evening when they’re settling in.
Proud parent:
Chubby fledglings. They’re fully fledged and active fliers, but they’re still returning to the nest every evening for the time being. There are actually four in there, but one is tucked down in the warm spot.
Meanwhile it’s the season generally. Ugly duckling (hideously cute?) and quite independent gallinule chick hiding in the reeds. Parent was around, but off a ways:
Stripey, bug-eyed and also very independent pied-billed grebe fledgling out hunting in the open on its lonesome:
You took these pictures? They’re wonderful.
The barn swallow babies are so stinkin’ cute! I’m squeeing over here, lol.
I did, thanks 
.
They are, but the first thing I thought of when I was looking at those shots were those slightly terrifying Margaret Keane ‘Big Eyes’ paintings 
.
Oh dear god, no. Those are nightmare fuel.
Today in nature I saw a fella take a swing at seagull. He missed, but it was still mighty entertaining. Let me explain.
I don’t know how things are in the US, but round here seagulls are a proper menace. If you are eating at an outdoor table, they will divebomb in and grab food off your plate - you need to be vigilant at all times. The bastards know to come over your shoulder to catch you by surprise. I eat with a fork in one hand and hold the knife as a weapon in the other.
We were eating outside at Shoreham Airport cafe today. One unwary family group got raided and retreated indoors; shortly afterwards there was another swoop, but this time the fella stood up and took a swing. He missed. I have to say, impressively agile, seagulls, even if I despise them.
j
I once saw a seagull grab a steak off of the grill when the guy wasn’t paying attention.
Black bear near Banff, AB, Canada.
