I haven’t gone properly birding in far too long, the weather has been crappy for it. Best sighting I’ve had in recent months was a hooded merganser. Not super rare or anything, but a really cool bird.

Awesome snake!!

@Mariah Yes, they are cool, we had a few in the little pond here recently. Funny birds!

This mushroom/fungus freaked me out when I found it under my raspberry bushes.

@Mariah Had one of thems in the pond next to my house

Hm, not “lately” per se… but a little less than a year ago, as I was on a run, I found a crawfish sitting in the gutter of the road! (There was a dried-up source of water nearby, so not as random as it would seem). I wound up taking him to a different source of water, and I hope he’s doing all right! The little cutie. He was not happy with me. http://i.imgur.com/yqSnCe8.jpg?1

@Cruiser—initially it looks like some flamingo popping his head up from the ground!

Another “not lately”, but once while fishing on the South Platte River in Colorado, I was watching a little bird dance around on the rocks, poking at the water in some fairly fast rapids.

Then he disappeared in the water. And he popped up again two yards away. I thought he’d slipped in, but nope. He did it again. This little sparrow-like bird was diving in the rapids.

It was the first time I saw an American Dipper in action!

@Cruiser cool! Your photo actually looks like a common merganser, a similar and also lovely bird :)

If Donald Trump were on Fluther he might say Ted Cruz.

@Soubresaut I truly was surprised to find that in my yard and I finally found out it was a mushroom called a stinkhorn Never got close enough to see if it lived up to it’s name.

@Mariah At first glance I thought it was a Loon one of my fav ducks and the red made me get out my binocs and Audubon book.

A year and a half ago, or so, I encountered something I don’t even know what it was. It was in the dunes just inside the inner edge of the green belt between the beach and the dunes in Oregon, in a remote spot where no vehicles are allowed. It was writhing in a blob of goo, and I’m not sure if it was an insect or a mollusk or an arachnid/scorpion or what, but it was freaky and I was glad it looked mostly immobile, but sad it looked suffering and out of its element in the sand. I imagine in might have been dropped in the sand by a bird who had found it in a nearby marsh or the ocean. But it was freaky and I don’t know what it was.

Since then, mainly just some nice raptors, deer, a few snakes, as far as I remember.

Hah…excellent sharings jellies! Nothing makes me happier than finding some wacky wild life moment. On an off note, we have 2 mares here in heat and the poor gelding is beside himself. He KNOWS what the girls want but he just can’t deliver. Nothing sadder than a sexually stimulated gelding that has lost his get up and go. Guess I’ll have to ride it out of him tomorrow. lol

This is super cool too…

www.foxnews.com/science/2016/02/12/san-diego-zoo-breeds-near-extinct-tree-lobster-insects-for-first-time-in-us-.htr

Shit..well the link didn’t work exactly, but..it is the article on the tree lobster in the bottom left corner. Pffft…wth.. haha

@Soubresaut I love crawdads. :-)

This is something I came across recently. Living in cougar territory and being a fan of the big cats, this was quite amazing. Warning: explicit content of two predators fighting to the death.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-mYvwyZDNA

Saw two huge bull moose right beside the road today on my run up north.

@SQUEEKY2 Well, rub it in man, rub it in. haha
Lucky you, how cool is that!

Cool discovery @Coloma ! I have not seen anything unusual although I did encounter a rather large Mediterranean house gecko that I thought odd because of his size.

I have a rare Sea Eagle that nests just down the road. He was soaring over the fjord a few weeks ago just before a storm.

Enjoy this next test. I’m going to go to the surface. It’s a beautiful day out. Yesterday I saw a deer. If you solve this next test, maybe I’ll let you ride an elevator all the way up to the break room, and I’ll tell you about the time I saw a deer again.

I saw a kestrel hovering by the side of the road this morning. I often see it in that spot. I worry that as we all drive past in our noisy vehicles we will disturb which ever animal it is watching but it doesn’t seem to put it off hunting there

GLaDOS can be such a ball buster

A huge flock of Sandhill cranes are circling here right now, riding the thermals and making these calls.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBe7QzrVD6s

@Coloma very delayed response, sorry—I love crawdads too! Had a third grade science project where each table took care of one crawdad like a pet, and then we measured them and raced them against each other. Loved the little clawed, exoskeletoned critters ever since!

Six two year olds at a public library. There is some wildlife there. Kudos to the library. Very well set up for kiddos but still a challenge after a while.

My wrens are back. They come to my birdhouse a couple of times a year.
They are taunting my cat through the window.
Does anyone know if they breed more than once a year?

@rojo Many songbirds nest several times during the season, especially if their nest is predated. Do you know the exact species of Wren in question, there are like 9 different species depending on range.

I think it is a Carolina Wren. It has a well defined white streak above the eyes, the long narrow beak that to my eyes appears longer than that of the house wren and an overall brown tinge. Sometime, however, in the sunlight it can seem to have a slightly yellowish underbelly; at least one of them does.

@rojo The Carolina Wren will raise 1–3 broods per season. We have Bewicks Wrens here, cute little things they are.

^^that does explain why I see them several times a year. thanks.

Guys!!!! I don’t have any photos, because it was dark and brief, but I saw a pair of screech owls tonight. I was walking home from the train station at about 6:30, and it’s already quite dark here by then, and I spotted movement on the top of a high chain link fence that I had to walk right past. It startled me – they’re so tiny, I thought they were squirrels, but that struck me as odd because I don’t see squirrels on that high fence ever, or anywhere else at that time of night. I cautiously got a bit closer and I saw the big big eyes staring at me. That’s when I knew they were owls, and I knew because they were so small that they were either eastern screech owls or northern saw-whet owls, those are the only small ones in my range. One of the owls had its ear-tufts pulled in, so if it weren’t for the other one, who had his up, I wouldn’t have been able to make the ID, but the ear tufts showed they were screech owls. We stared at each other for about a minute or two before they flew away.

I was so excited. I had never seen owls of any kind in the wild before. I get so goofy when I see a bird that excites me – I have no idea why in hindsight, but at the moment it seemed like a good idea to squeal “Hhhhiiiiiiiii!!!! Hiiiiii!!!!!” repeatedly at the owls under my breath. I hope nobody saw me, I would have looked like a maniac.

@Mariah Cool!
Screech Owls are so adorable. We have the Western Screech Owls here. One night I followed their calls to a tree off of my driveway at my old house and there was an entire little family sitting on a branch, the babies were so damn cute.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=neV9Gd-FT9E

I heard a Mtn. Lion scream tonight, pretty close by, maybe down below the horse barn here but sounds carry in strange way in these hills. I’m not going out to look all alone. haha
The neighbors have goats, we’ll see if one comes up missing.

I heard a Mtn. Lion scream tonight

Hide your koalas!

@jaytkay Haha..I read that article yesterday. Go P-22!
I love the big cats, P-22 was in the mood for a little exotic fare. What could be a better hunting ground for a cougar than a zoo chock full of Koalas and Zebras. lol

Poor little koala.

@Earthbound_Misfit I know, it is kinda sad but nature is nature. I guess this particular Koala was prone to rummaging around on the ground at night and the others stayed up in the trees. When Koalas make bad choices. haha

@Coloma, I think the zookeepers are responsible. They obviously didn’t lock up properly. Had they locked the front door properly that Koala would have been safe from marauding mountain lions that decided to sneak in through the door!~

Koalas aren’t endangered. In fact they carry some pretty horrible diseases.