Wildlife

[Rainwater]

I think I just heard a Barred Owl outside. When I went to listen to their song/call on Youtube, it fit perfectly. Too bad it was too dark for me to see it (only saw the silhouette, but it did take off flying). Can't say that I usually see owls (tend to see hawks, vultures, and kestrels more... and a very rare eagle).

[fawnfur13]

Saw a few interesting things today =D Saw a small herd of deer, this young bald eagle (looks like it might be 3-4 years old?) and a couple cormorants that I didn't get a picture of 'w'


Also, I have another mystery bone!
side view
front view
My mom found this out in our yard last month and thinks It's from a great blue heron, I'm not saying it isn't, but I can't find a good enough picture of GBH bones to say for sure 'w'

[TNHawke]

Once again, awesome sightings, Fawnfur!

On the skull, I think it's not a bird at all. The eye-orbits are way too small, and the ear holes quite large. Or... what if it's not a skull at all, but maybe a pelvis? Or the fused vertebrae of the back of a bird?

Here's a heron skull https://boneclones.com/product/great-blue-heron-skull Lots of open spaces in there.


Edit:
I continued searching, and found this interesting thread. A very similar bone, being identified as a bird pelvis!
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/thread/1659

[fawnfur13]

Once again, awesome sightings, Fawnfur!

On the skull, I think it's not a bird at all. The eye-orbits are way too small, and the ear holes quite large. Or... what if it's not a skull at all, but maybe a pelvis? Or the fused vertebrae of the back of a bird?

Here's a heron skull https://boneclones.com/product/great-blue-heron-skull Lots of open spaces in there.


Edit:
I continued searching, and found this interesting thread. A very similar bone, being identified as a bird pelvis!
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/thread/1659

That's what I was thinking as well, since I'd seen a picture of another species of heron's pelvic bone and it looked really similar, but I wasn't 100% sure since it was a heron that we don't get in Idaho and I haven't found many good refs of the pelvic bones of birds that I know hang around our yard 'w'

ETA;
Saw quite a number of things over the past few weeks *u* I'll start with the most recent...
Me and my mom occasionally pass this group of trees with several bird nests in them, we knew that egrets nested there, since we'd seen them before, but this time around we noticed some darker birds mixed in, turns out it's a mix of egrets, cormorants and great blue herons (some with chicks) nesting in the trees 'u'
One
Two
Three

The female fox from last year is back with a new set of kits
Fox
Fox 2
Fox 3
Fox 4 (from last month)

Then there's this family of geese I saw yesterday...
Giant cotton balls
Many giant cotton balls

Last month me and my mom went for a drive and saw a few interesting things...
Some turkeys
A Chukar
And a coyote
And again

A bit before that, we saw an assortment of interesting birds on the lake...
A Loon
With wings out
Grebes (at least some of them)
And a bunch of mergansers :3

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE;
On one of the roads we like to take home, me and my mom saw a couple of bunnies...
Bun 1
Bun 2
Bun 3
And a hawk...
Bloop

By the pond my and my mom like to eat by, we saw a bunch of cormorants...
Cormorant 1
Cormorant 2
Cormorant 3
Cormorant 4

And lastly, some pelicans, stilts and geese *w*
Pelicans (and geese)
Stilts (and geese)

[pegasi1978]

We had a lovely visitor to our side yard this afternoon. She's probably 50 feet away from me.

Spoiler

[Anira]

50 feet? Damn deer won't go away until you basically shove them here.

Not literally, but they come within 5-10 feet of you here. That is a nice looking doe, though.

[pegasi1978]

According to my husband that's how the deer used to be near us, because someone was feeding them. That hasn't happened in several years so they are getting more skittish as time passes. One of the does on park had twins this year. Wish I could have gotten a picture of them eating the grass in front of the office, but my phone doesn't do well taking pictures at night.

[Opalis]

Once I saw a hawk eating a squirrel. I recorded it. Then I accidentally permanently deleted the recording. Oops.

[BBkat]

Been seeing the geese and their goslings around lately, mainly on the way home from work.

[Morgaln]

I've been seeing goslings and ducklings around on my way to/from work for the last few weeks. Mostly mallards and graylags (which are both very common around here), but there's another duck with a single duckling that is probably a tufted duck. Today, I also saw a moorhen with her chicks. Moorhens are on the local list of endangered species for Germany (albeit the lowest level), so they're not very common around here, especially not in the city.