wildlife

[Vinny 123]

You have wolves in Connecticut?

Coyote

[ArnoldT]

Looks like a healthy one.  I guess plenty to eat with turkeys.

[Vinny 123]

Looks like a healthy one.  I guess plenty to eat with turkeys.

:-)

[Nik]

Coywolf. We also have regular coyotes, red and grey foxes, fisher cats and bobcats.

[Nik]

This particular one spent about two hours resting in our yard. Early in the morning.

[brianw]

We have had a Fox and Muntjac in the garden in the last week or so. That is I saw them both. I suspect they are here almost every day/night. The fox was midday outside the window, just 10 feet or so from my wife preparing vegetables, the very pregnant Muntjac was at dawn and tripped the security light. 3 cock pheasants this week were debating who is going to be in charge this winter, although seed spilling off a feeder by a woodpecker took their mind of sex for a while.

[Vinny 123]

Muntjac in the UK are now (have been for quite a while) persons non grata and laws have been ammended a long while back - release (even of rescued muntjac) is illegal..
They are one of (the only?) animal that can eat bluebells and they have actually wiped-out huge areas that have been known for bluebells since before records began.
They are unusual cervids as pairs keep together and breed year-round.

Maybe abhorrent to some here, but lots of folklore says that muntjac venison is premier cru amongst UK venison........personally, I'd far rather eat roe, fallow, even red/sika (in that order).

[Nik]

I strongly recommend investing in a wildlife camera, because most of the activity (except birds) happens at night. Too bad videos cannot be shared here, but here are few screenshots from an interesting interaction not that long ago. The camera is at our lower deck, facing my Cymbidiums bench. The opossum did not want to have anything to do with the mother deer and the twins.

[Nik]

We have had a Fox and Muntjac in the garden in the last week or so. That is I saw them both. I suspect they are here almost every day/night. The fox was midday outside the window, just 10 feet or so from my wife preparing vegetables, the very pregnant Muntjac was at dawn and tripped the security light. 3 cock pheasants this week were debating who is going to be in charge this winter, although seed spilling off a feeder by a woodpecker took their mind of sex for a while.

That’s a great picture of a fox, brianw!

[Maggi Young]

I strongly recommend investing in a wildlife camera, because most of the activity (except birds) happens at night. Too bad videos cannot be shared here, but here are few screenshots from an interesting interaction not that long ago. The camera is at our lower deck, facing my Cymbidiums bench. The opossum did not want to have anything to do with the mother deer and the twins.

  You can post a link to a youtube video, Nik, if you have a channel there!

[FrazerHenderson]

I was looking out of the kitchen door (1126hrs on 16.12.2021) whilst awaiting the kettle to boil for a pot of tea when I espied a Long-eared owl perching on the washing line. I managed to take some photographs before it flew off some four minutes later. I've been lucky to now have all four of Britain's native owls in the garden or flying over.

[Vinny 123]

I've been lucky to now have all four of Britain's native owls in the garden or flying over.

Only four natives? Barn, tawny, long-eared, short-eared, snowy, although the snowy may have died-out again (RSPB refused permission - they are the experts authority advising DEFRA on all thins avian - for release of unrelated captive-bred stock for several years).

[ian mcdonald]

There was a Snowy Owl in the Cairngorms a few weeks back, for a few days.

[Hoy]

Snowy owls do not stay in one place. They migrate from one place to another. The "Norwegian" snow owls belong to the same population as the ones in Siberia, and even Alaska.

[Hoy]

A flock of whooper swans has taken a rest on the frozen pond. They have stayed some time now. The pond froze over yesterday so maybe they will leave .