Speaking of “huge and majestic” I kept forgetting to report that Sunday night, I came home later than usual and as I pulled into the driveway, I saw the biggest opossum I have ever seen in my life ambling around the backyard. Nose to rump, I think the monster was easily two-anna-half feet long at least. Is three feet length unheard of?
Trundled around utterly unconcerned by its surroundings, as befits a beast who’s attained such size.
We went to a local county park, adjacent to a reservoir, for an early morning walk yesterday.
We saw a huge black European wild boar. It didn’t look like it had one bit of feral domestic pig in its genes. It looked like the cartoon drawings of boars that I see in Asterix comic books, shortly before Obelix catches them for roasting.
It was kind of a scary sight - he looked fierce and bristly, and I know that you don’t want to mess with wild boars. So as we hiked, I clapped my hands and made a lot of noise to ensure that any boars would clear off the path before we came along.
This is why “99 bottles of beer” and similar were invented.
It’s the other way around. Domestic pigs are descended almost entirely from this species.
We live on the edge of a small (1000 pop) rural west Texas town, and we see all kinds of wild animals and birds. One night recently coming home at night saw several wild turkeys running with some deer followed by a fox right down our street.
One time found a raccoon in a dumpster having a feast; fearing he couldn’t get out easily i found a long board and fixed it so he could climb out.
One evening I was sitting on our back porch and saw a creature with a long tail running down our alley. Turned out to be a mountain lion, as several sightings attested to.
Since we’ve been here have had several adventures with nature.
I saw a flock of Bohemian wax wings pecking around on the road. I wonder what could have been there to eat. The roads are snow/slush/ice covered so can’t be bugs.
They have a beautiful black mask.
One of these:
https://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/beetles/chrysomelidae/images/isa252_1a_327w.jpg
Circular tortoise beetle. That guidebook photo doesn’t do it justice. It really looks like a bright drop of yellow gold. And then you get closer and see the clear shield.
WOW! That is cool. I’ve never heard of these.
We have these here:
I found one on my porch one day. I thought it was just a bit of shiny plastic, until I saw it move. It had legs!
A while ago, I just happened to look out the window by the Christmas tree, and saw a fat, very bright cardinal perched on a shrub branch just outside the window, facing me. It was maybe six inches from the window and just staring inside, maybe at something in the tree. It was so fat and so red, just beautiful.
I think that means good luck, panache45!
Met an eastern ribbonsnake the other day while I was out for a walk. Isn’t he a cheerful little feller?
10/10 would like to attempt to boop the snoot. What a lovely serpent!
No big spotting events for me lately, but I have been enjoying the tattletale pawprints in the snow, around my back door and driveway.
For one, there is apparently a small raccoon in the vicinity. For another, I now understand why letting out my cats turns into a massive sniff-fest for them right at my back door: fresh kitty paw prints each morning tell me a neighbor cat is prancing about.
The herons have moved into that tree. Cycled past again today and there were five of them. The adjacent pond is no place to be a fish!
j
Pink snow.
Either a dog had a bladder infection or it’s the pink variety of snow mold. It looked rather like the latter, but it isn’t common in Minnesota. However, we have had a couple of days with high temperatures above freezing, which is when this stuff gets active.
I thought snow mold shows up on the grass, not the snow @carnut though I’ll admit the idea of pink snow sounds pretty. Was it a small patch, or a big expanse of colored snow?
Yes, I’m having The Cat In the Hat Comes Back flashbacks!
Three small round patches. Pretty maybe, but I am allergic to the gray version. I don’t know about the pink version. Someone told me it smells a bit like watermelon, but I wasn’t going to stick my nose in it and trigger allergy reactions.
I didn’t see any wild pigs in person on my hike yesterday, but I did see their handi(snout?)work:
Today I saw (and felt) the aftermath of a heavy dose of freezing fog.
Lordy, did we have freezing fog last night. And this morning we awoke to spectacular hoar frost (library pictures, in case you’re unfamiliar; the last picture (holly) is just like some we saw.)
So that was a great accompaniment to a freezing (in a good way) walk this morning.
This afternoon, the weather warmed up just a little, and we stepped out for a quick stroll, to be taken by surprise by rain. Except it wasn’t rain. The hoar in the conifers along our road was melting - every tree you went under you got rained on. Never had that happen to me before. Went on for at least half an hour.
j
Queuing for the bird feeder.