Urban wildlife

"William Claspy" wrote in message
...
On 12/8/04 9:31 AM, in article ,
"Wolfgang"
wrote:

http://falconcam.apk.net/

Nice, but it appears no one is home right now.

Red tail and rough legged hawks are common sights along the
freeways.

One reason I like the leaf-less seasons. It seems especially in
late fall
and late winter/early spring the roadways become hawk sighting
places. On a
drive to eastern Iowa last February, I lost count of the various
species of
raptors that I saw along the way on light posts, fences, etc.

Becky discovered a Great Horned Owl nest here late last February or
early March. She wasn't aware that they nest and hatch their young
that early. Imagine her surprise when I pointed out three or four
fuzzy white heads.

Naturally, they moved on and she hasn't seen an owl since early in the
spring. I have assured her that they......or others.....will be back
in a couple of months.

Two Novembers ago a friend and I were standing in my kitchen
slurping coffee
when he sighted a ring-necked pheasant in my back yard.

We had half a dozen of them roosting in a red maple next to a house I
used to rent on the outskirts of Kenosha back in the early eighties.
It was a bit disconcerting at first to look out one of the second
floor windows and see a pheasant staring back about four feet away.

Suburbia. Like any
other suburb, deer are common.

Rats......they ain't nothin' but tall rats.

Mink are common in the Rocky River, not ten minutes from home.

Haven't seen any mink in the streams around here. But then, I don't
often see them even in places with clean water and abundant food.
There used to be a lot of mink farms in the area thirty of forty years
ago. There were a lot of escapees. Wouldn't surprise me much to
learn that some of their descendants are still around.

I forgot to mention earlier that we also have fresh beaver sign along
a ditch no more than four blocks from the house.

And four (?) years ago, I sighted this fellow taking a break on his
way
north:

http://hrothgar.cwru.edu/urbanloon.jpg

(That's the Cleveland Museum of Art in the background.)

Too cool.

I went back out a little while ago. The bird I had seen was back on
its perch. I managed to get much closer this time. Either I
misidentified it earlier or it's an immature bird. I managed to get
close enough (within thirty feet) to get a couple of pictures. I'll
see if I can ID it properly when I get home. I'll be happy to send a
copy to anyone who's interested.

Wolfgang

On 12/8/04 12:11 PM, in article , "Wolfgang"
wrote:


"William Claspy" wrote in message
...
On 12/8/04 9:31 AM, in article ,
"Wolfgang"
wrote:

http://falconcam.apk.net/

Nice, but it appears no one is home right now.

Like you mention with the owls, they'll be back in a few months!

Check the "news" link:

http://falconcam.apk.net/news.html

We had half a dozen of them roosting in a red maple next to a house I
used to rent on the outskirts of Kenosha back in the early eighties.
It was a bit disconcerting at first to look out one of the second
floor windows and see a pheasant staring back about four feet away.

I went out to try and get a picture and MAN did that thing take off-
running, not in the air. Ran like a ROFFian faced with a hungry black bear.

http://hrothgar.cwru.edu/urbanloon.jpg

(That's the Cleveland Museum of Art in the background.)

Too cool.

It and two pals hung around for two or three days, then were gone. Just
across the street from my office. Nice little reminder of Traver country.


I went back out a little while ago. The bird I had seen was back on
its perch. I managed to get much closer this time. Either I
misidentified it earlier or it's an immature bird. I managed to get
close enough (within thirty feet) to get a couple of pictures. I'll
see if I can ID it properly when I get home. I'll be happy to send a
copy to anyone who's interested.

Sure!

Bill

"rw" wrote

When I worked at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA my
building was right at the edge of the wetlands bordering San Francisco
Bay.

I used to duck hunt the south SF bay, out of Alviso, and every time I went,
and I went dozens of times, it was a real shock. One was surrounded by
civilization and high tech, but in the middle of wildness ( at least in the
preferred nasty late Fall weather of duck hunting ). I can't really
express it well enough, think "scary wild" and you'll get the idea, every
bit as removed and isolated feeling as two days walk into the Sierra. The
lights of the city buildings were like the lights of a passing jet on a
backpack, a reminder of a different life, but one that seems very far away.

I suppose it's all gone now, but I used to train where San Antonio rd meets
the bay, east of Palo Alto, and it was a very large wetlands, full of some
of Nature's best work, in sight of the homes and work places of one of
Nature's least pleasant experiments

"Wolfgang" wrote


Wolfgang
no bears or jaguars yet.......i think the geese scare them off.




We've had two Cougar sightings here locally in the last year ..... which I
think is WAY cool .... I'm not in an urban area, but certainly not in
anything that qualifies as real country, either.

"Larry L" wrote

Now, that worthless,
****ing, slimeball, ****head lawyer ( I never believed the stuff about
them being scum until this happened )

and i never believed that a single, living organism could display as much
cognitive shortcoming in one post, until i read your abysmally shortsighted
buffoonery.
congratulations, dumbass.

wayno

"Wayne Harrison" wrote


and i never believed that a single, living organism could display as much
cognitive shortcoming in one post, until i read your abysmally
shortsighted buffoonery.
congratulations, dumbass.

wayno

lol, are you trying to say there may NOT be a direct relationship between
the bird owner being a scumbag, and his profession ?

I know that, but, the post about raptors prompted a memory, which I shared.
That memory included my "dumbass" prejudicial response as it happened. I
really did have a "lawyers must really be pricks, like the jokes say"
reaction, at the time. I felt it was part of the story, and included it,
even though I was aware that it would display some of my poorer qualities.
I'm pretty comfortable with who and what I am, at this stage of my life,
and, certainly, "dumbass" fits, at times.

You, don't seem too bad, though ....ah, for one of them :-)

Larry L wrote:

We've had two Cougar sightings here locally in the last year .....

Here in Illinois we've had numerous cougar sightings that the
experts pooh-pooh, but they can't dismiss actual cougar corpses.
The first was found hit by a train in Randolph County (SW IL) in
2000 and the second was found in Mercer County (NW IL) just last
week with a hole in its body.

The sightings were in Lake County, the northernmost of the "collar
counties" that surround Chicago and not all that far from Wolfie
in Milwaukee.

--
Ken Fortenberry

Larry L wrote:

We've had two Cougar sightings here locally in the last year .....

Here in Illinois we've had numerous cougar sightings that the
experts pooh-pooh, but they can't dismiss actual cougar corpses.
The first was found hit by a train in Randolph County (SW IL) in
2000 and the second was found in Mercer County (NW IL) just last
week with a hole in its body.

The sightings were in Lake County, the northernmost of the "collar
counties" that surround Chicago and not all that far from Wolfie
in Milwaukee.

--
Ken Fortenberry

"Ken Fortenberry" wrote


Here in Illinois we've had numerous cougar sightings that the
experts pooh-pooh, but they can't dismiss actual cougar corpses.
The first was found hit by a train in Randolph County (SW IL) in


my insurance agent is a hound man ( his father, now dead, was an avid fly
fisher and that is how they became "my" insurance agents ) and he tells me
that it isn't difficult to tree several cougars a day within 50 miles of
Oakdale, where I live. It's illegal to harm them, but he runs them with
his dogs, I assume legally. We have a friend that won't let her young (
toddler ) daughter out of the house alone ... they have cougar tracks in the
yard constantly and regular sightings. They are up the hill about 20
miles and in an area one would expect cougars to inhabit. We are right
where the valley turns to foothills and agro-urban sprawl becomes big winter
grazing ranch land, but still in the flat and irrigated, here.

"Larry L" wrote in news:HVHtd.103836
:

It's illegal to harm them, but he runs them with
his dogs, I assume legally.

In NY, that's considered hunting.

Scott