Author Topic: Backyard critters  (Read 104355 times)

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Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #125: April 16, 2012, 07:53:40 AM »
I think there are a few falcons that pass along the east coast during the winter months, but hawks are common and reside year round in the mid-atlantic and south.  99% you're noticing hawks, I'd guess.

Turkey Buzzards?  Used to see them all the time in Herndon.

Offline mitlen

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #126: April 16, 2012, 08:10:43 AM »
Wow, a rattler in WV...I have never seen one east of the Mississippi.

There's a "snake farm" in Bangkok where they collect venom by "milking" the snakes, which is then used to prepare the vaccines that are kept in refrigerators in hospitals and zoos all over the world.  You can watch them do this...it's worth a visit if you are ever in Bangkok. 

If I'm in Thailand, I have other things to do.   :)

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #127: April 16, 2012, 09:43:15 AM »
I think there are a few falcons that pass along the east coast during the winter months, but hawks are common and reside year round in the mid-atlantic and south.  99% you're noticing hawks, I'd guess.

Eagles are scavengers, and there are a bunch around year round - could also be a vulture

Offline The Chief

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #128: April 16, 2012, 09:47:05 AM »
So basically I saw some kind of angry bird.  Got it :P

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #129: April 16, 2012, 10:35:04 AM »
Most likely a raptor- but not necessarily

Maybe you should invest in

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/0679446826/ref=aw_d_cr_books

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #130: April 16, 2012, 04:18:04 PM »
Not so much angry... confident. Because Birds of prey... they know they're the sh!t.

There's not really a taxonomical difference between falcons and hawks, I don't think. Well, they treat them differently here than they do in Europe. Here hawks are falconformes, they are not in Europe. They are daytime, sight hunters.

American Kestrels (Sparrow hawks) are  tiny. Big, bad ass attitudes, but little bodies. Not what you saw.

Peregrine Falcons are bad ass and their range extends through the Chesapeake region. They feed mostly on water fowl and need a lot of territory, so they aren't a common sight.

I think the common ones on the eastern seaboard are the sharp shinned hawk (small), the Cooper's Hawk (bigger) and the Red-Tailed Hawk (big, too). You prolly saw a Cooper's Hawk or a Red-Tailed hawk if it was brownish.

There's a Cooper's Hawk in our backyard that regularly eats peanuts via the intermediary of pigeons, which it likes to drive into the picture window. Nasty.

Love these damn birds.

So basically I saw some kind of angry bird.  Got it :P


Offline tomterp

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #131: April 16, 2012, 04:31:28 PM »
So basically I saw some kind of angry bird.  Got it :P

Like a Robin fighting with its own mirror image?       :mg:

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #132: May 03, 2012, 09:22:41 AM »
Any advice for keeping a chipmunk out of my garage? Is there any way to keep him away without having to kill him? Anyone know if a repellent like this would work? http://www.critter-repellent.com/chipmunks/test/chipmunks-test-yard-landscape.php

If I have to kill it, I have read that peanut butter and rat traps will work.

Offline blue911

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #133: May 03, 2012, 09:24:54 AM »
Any advice for keeping a chipmunk out of my garage? Is there any way to keep him away without having to kill him? Anyone know if a repellent like this would work? http://www.critter-repellent.com/chipmunks/test/chipmunks-test-yard-landscape.php

If I have to kill it, I have read that peanut butter and rat traps will work.

I'd buy a fox

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #134: May 03, 2012, 09:27:56 AM »
Any advice for keeping a chipmunk out of my garage? Is there any way to keep him away without having to kill him? Anyone know if a repellent like this would work? http://www.critter-repellent.com/chipmunks/test/chipmunks-test-yard-landscape.php

If I have to kill it, I have read that peanut butter and rat traps will work.

they sell predator urine at some hardware stores- fox urine around the perimeter of my fence got rid of a bunch of rabbits who were destroying a garden, might work for chipmunks

saw this this morning

http://forthunt.patch.com/articles/surprise-kittens-turn-out-to-be-foxes-photos?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001

Quote
The Talberts named the smaller of the two tiny critters Phineas, the larger one Ferb.

The Fort Hunt family found what they thought were very young kittens under their backyard shed. The animals were so young, their eyes were not even open.

When the animals' mother did not return to the shed, the Talberts took them in and began to care for them. This included feeding them kitten formula every two to three hours around the clock. They even bought a few toys for their new pets.

On a spring day several weeks later, the Talberts took Phineas and Ferb to a park along the Potomac River and let them play on a picnic blanket

A park ranger walked by and "[he] said, ‘They look like a very strange breed of cats,’” according to Hayley Talbert.

“We were very surprised. We couldn’t believe it. We were convinced they were cats,” she said.

Phineas and Ferb were, in fact, very young red foxes.

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #135: May 03, 2012, 09:31:58 AM »
Thanks, Blue. :lol:

they sell predator urine at some hardware stores- fox urine around the perimeter of my fence got rid of a bunch of rabbits who were destroying a garden, might work for chipmunks

Definitely worried that would attract the fox back. :lol:

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #136: May 03, 2012, 09:33:03 AM »
So, in the backyard/pond this morning I've seen the following.

Geese with their chicks (?)
Deer with their babies
Ducks, sans kids
Blue Heron

Amazing amount of wildlife for a suburb in Richmond.

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #137: May 03, 2012, 09:35:27 AM »
Blue Heron, neato.

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #138: May 03, 2012, 09:39:53 AM »
Blue Heron, neato.

When the Heron squawks, I often imagine that's what a Pterodactyl must have sounded like.


Offline Mathguy

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #139: May 03, 2012, 09:51:48 AM »
Some group in Arlington is trying to get Arlington County to allow residents to have egg laying chickens in their back yards

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #140: May 03, 2012, 09:54:03 AM »
Some group in Arlington is trying to get Arlington County to allow residents to have egg laying chickens in their back yards

Serious question.

What type of chickens don't lay eggs?

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #141: May 03, 2012, 09:54:57 AM »
A rooster.

Offline Lintyfresh85

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #142: May 03, 2012, 09:55:52 AM »
A rooster.

Right. What type of female chicken doesn't lay eggs?

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #143: May 03, 2012, 09:55:53 AM »
Some group in Arlington is trying to get Arlington County to allow residents to have egg laying chickens in their back yards

Legal in Fairfax County, if you have enough acreage.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #144: May 03, 2012, 09:57:01 AM »
Legal in Fairfax County, if you have enough acreage.

The idiot urban farmers want to do it down to the apartment level

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #145: May 03, 2012, 09:57:15 AM »
Right. What type of female chicken doesn't lay eggs?

I guess you could read the quote as they are trying to allow hens to be legal but not roosters. Thinking about roosters waking up all the 20-somethings in Arlington is cracking me up, though.

Offline Mathguy

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #146: May 03, 2012, 10:28:45 AM »
Chickens are like pit bulls.  Some are trained for fighting and some are not.
Chickens that are egg layers are fairly different than chickens for meat consumption.

Serious question.

What type of chickens don't lay eggs?


Offline tomterp

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #147: May 03, 2012, 10:48:38 AM »
Blue Heron, neato.

Not if you have a goldfish pond.

Offline blue911

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #148: May 03, 2012, 11:26:45 AM »
Right. What type of female chicken doesn't lay eggs?

Lesbian

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #149: May 03, 2012, 11:27:42 AM »
Hens don't need roosters to lay eggs, so a lesbian hen would lay eggs.