Here they are in all their glory!
Actually – crows or ravens? There’s someone I follow on Twitter, I’ll have to check their notes.
Also, that last photo, with the eye thing going on? That’s some serious “Game of Thrones” worg action going on!
Category Archives: Critters
Crow Cackling
It was a lovely day and we had the doors and windows open this evening. Outside I could hear a couple of the local crows making one of their signature “cackling” calls back and forth.
Remember the crows when we first moved in here last May? They’ve come and they’ve gone from time to time, but they’re back now and quite vocal. The sound is a lot like the percussion section of the orchestra yesterday playing on the gourds or wood blocks.
I’m also here to report that I’m surprised how good the sound pickup is on the iPhone. I knew that **I** could hear the crow just fine, but I’m surprised that the video picked it up.
Announcing His Presence With Authority
I got home yesterday evening and the house was FILLED with birdsong. I thought that there was one that had gotten into the house and was squawking to get out.
I didn’t see anything inside, so I went out onto the back porch. Ah, there’s the problem.
This guy’s sitting on the edge of the chimney and the sound is coming down the flue and echoing through the house.
But now I’ve made the mistake of coming into his back yard, and this action must be challenged!
Well, I’ve got a few thoughts about who’s back yard it truly is, so I took a step or two in his direction…
Time to go into camouflage mode! You can’t see me here!!
Gotta love mockingbirds…
Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Photography
Change Is Afoot
It’s the fall equinox, a balancing act, when both night and day are of equal length.
But from here the balance continues to shift, the nights growing longer, the days growing shorter. At least, for those of us north of the equator. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, your mileage may vary.
Other changes are coming as well. It will be important to use our days wisely and prepare. One door will open, another close.
Meanwhile, outside, the praying mantis awaits. This guy was about as long as my index finger.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Lakeside
There was a work event today up in Palmdale, but rather than being on a ten-acre, dirt-covered construction site, we were at a lakeside location. I was working most of the day, but did take five minutes to go down to the lake and take in the view.
When I first got there and took the first two pictures, all of these ducks were just off the end of the dock, most of them with their duck butts in the air as they were feeding. When I started to walk out onto the dock, they all took off to about 100 feet away and proceeded to squawk and bitch at me.
These must not be normal “park ducks.” The park ducks do the opposite, coming onshore and near anyone that comes near because they’re used to people having bread and seed and crap to feed them. (I did not have anything to feed them.)
Maybe they’re just smart ducks and knew that.
Filed under Critters, Homes4Families, Photography
Wait – Snails Lay Eggs??!!
WTAF??!!
Count me among those who are having our minds blown by the fact that SNAILS LAY EGGS!
I’ve admittedly never given just a whole lot of thought to the reproductive methods of snails, but if I had to guess on Final Jeopardy, “eggs” would not have been in the top ten choices.
Read the comments and look at some of the other pictures this guy has there – the snails in question are “archachatina marginata ovum” and they’re literally as big as the guy’s arm when they’re adults.
Still… EGGS??!!
I hope I didn’t bet too much on Final Jeopardy!
Filed under Critters, Social Media
Lunch With A Stranger
“Go to the park!” they said.
“Have a nice, relaxing lunch!” they said.
“Get a little fresh air!” they said.
Ever have the feeling that you’re being watched?
Yes, there was PBJ involved (and I’m not talking about the bomber!). This destroyed all pretenses toward maintaining a separation between nature and my lunch.
Has this little bastard had his shots? Don’t they carry plague?
A bit of apple bought me the time to make a run for the car, escaping the little rodent terrorist to live and lunch another day.
Filed under Critters, Photography
Mothra
When I was getting up at 03:00 to be leaving at 04:00 to be on site at 05:00 last week, I found this monster hanging around on the wall by the front door. I figured it was a rare catch, or at least unusual, and it would fly away at any second.
But then it was still there when I got home. And the next night. And the next.
Finally it was gone, with just a gooey red streak on the wall where it had been. Not quite sure what that all adds up to.
But it was a honkin’ big moth!
Filed under Castle Willett, Critters, Photography
EMHE Build – Day Five
Trigger warning – spiders.
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I’ve put a LOT of work into this block wall recently. It’s one of a gazillion dozen little things that we’ve been juggling in dealing with the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build experience, but it’s a really big one.
Part of what that involves is lugging a LOT of blocks around. They arrive on pallets, but there are a few different types, they get mixed and scattered, people pull them to use for their own purposes here and there. They need to get picked back up, they need to get moved to where they’re being put onto the wall, and so on.
My experience today, when I moved and lugged a LOT of blocks, was that about every 1 in 20 had an occupant.
I probably squished fifteen to twenty of them today. No mercy – I hate the little fuckers. But I was surprised how little anxiety or outright terror there was when I started running across them.
First of all, I had seen their distinctive webs, so I was pretty sure they were around. There wasn’t any surprise factor to deal with.
Secondly, I was wearing work gloves, so the chances of actually being bitten were negligible.
Still, it made a long, hot day a bit more interesting.
Filed under Critters, Homes4Families, Paul, Photography
There Was A Bug
A ***BIG*** freaking bug!
Okay, so it wasn’t a huntsman spider from Australia or a camel spider. But it was far, Far, FAR bigger than I was expecting. Especially since I wasn’t expecting it at all.
I was driving at the time. I felt something on my left hand, on the steering wheel, and looked down to find SpiderZilla crawling across the back of my hand.
I used words my mother would not approve of at truly astonishing volume.
I did not lose control of the car. But not for lack of trying. My attention was definitely elsewhere, despite my speed and the number of cars and trucks surrounding me.
While screaming like a little girl expressing my dismay, since I couldn’t really use my right hand to swat at it, I shook my hand and it fell off.
Which is not necessarily better.
You see it, right?
SpiderZilla is now down on the floor. Or on the seat. Or on my leg. Or crawling up my pant leg. Or…
Should I pull over? Stop in the middle of traffic? While that would no doubt be my first move if it had been a rattlesnake, it wasn’t clear that blocking a lane in rush hour was called for. Not for a…
…a what? What kind of spider had it been, besides **BIG**? Was it actually a spider? It had looked…
I had only seen it for half a second as I was freaking out. Yeah, it was a bug, it might have been a spider – but it might have been a cricket or something else, I guess. Maybe.
It was brown. If it was a spider, was it a brown recluse, a “brown widow”? Did they get that big, and if so, why am I still living in this part of the world?
And then…
There it was, crawling up from below. Fortunately, not on me. It was coming up the side of the center console.
Yes, it was that big, probably at least four inches long. No, it probably wasn’t a spider. But no, I had no freaking idea what it was.
My best guess is some sort of mantis or “walking stick” bug. Not like anything I had ever seen before around these parts.
But now I wanted it dealt with. Permanently. Before I did lose control of the car and be without a decent excuse about why I caused the accident that was going to happen if I didn’t deal with it.
So with a clear shot, while holding my lane and watching out for traffic ahead, I squished that little bugger into next week’s protoplasm.
Not what a good entomologist would do, but I was a physics major, so screw that!
Filed under Critters, Distracted Driving
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 