Author Topic: Backyard critters  (Read 103742 times)

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Offline wj73

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1900: July 15, 2021, 07:13:25 PM »
Cornell’s Merlin Bird ID app has just added a new feature - Sound ID. Just start the app, and it’ll pick up bird calls it hears, and tell you what birds you’re hearing. It’s absolutely uncanny. We’ve been using it for a week or so, and it’s very accurate. They’ve also just added a feature where you take a picture of the bird and it’ll tell you what kind of bird it is.


It’s a freebie app from Cornell U. Once you download the basic app, you need to download a geographic “pack” for birds in your area, or you can just download all North America.


The basic bird ID app was already excellent, but the addition of the picture feature and especially the sound ID knock it out of the park.

Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1901: July 16, 2021, 08:16:19 AM »
I wonder whether it would recognize a squirrel's distress or warning call. Our next-door neighbor once asked me what that "quacking sound" coming from somewhere in the trees was; she thought it was a bird and was astonished when I said it was a squirrel (and pointed out where he was).

There are two cardinals who frequent the cherry tree in our backyard and in the evenings we use their chirping as a sign to tell us when Fraidy Cat has arrived looking for food—when the chirping suddenly becomes near-constant, 99% of the time it means Fraidy is out there.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1902: July 16, 2021, 11:52:34 AM »
I always say "the squirrels are pissed" when I hear that sound.

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1903: July 16, 2021, 01:50:00 PM »
I use BirdNET on my Android Phone. Also from the Cornell Institute of Ornithology.  Maybe it downloads your area based on phone location, because I don't have to do that step (but it knows).  It doesn't have that photo thing though... I'll have to try Merlin Bird ID.

Cornell’s Merlin Bird ID app has just added a new feature - Sound ID. Just start the app, and it’ll pick up bird calls it hears, and tell you what birds you’re hearing. It’s absolutely uncanny. We’ve been using it for a week or so, and it’s very accurate. They’ve also just added a feature where you take a picture of the bird and it’ll tell you what kind of bird it is.


It’s a freebie app from Cornell U. Once you download the basic app, you need to download a geographic “pack” for birds in your area, or you can just download all North America.


The basic bird ID app was already excellent, but the addition of the picture feature and especially the sound ID knock it out of the park.

Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1904: August 01, 2021, 07:32:50 AM »
Whatever this is bit the crap out of me last week. A dozen huge, incredibly itchy welts, some in places I’d rather not discuss:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/mysterious-nasty-bug-bites-stump-arlington-health-officials/2751051/

Offline Kevrock

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1905: August 01, 2021, 09:14:44 AM »
Oak mites. Seems a lot like chiggers if you’ve ever been down south a bit. For those, I just always take a shower / bath after being outside.

Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1906: August 01, 2021, 10:02:24 AM »
Oak mites. Seems a lot like chiggers if you’ve ever been down south a bit. For those, I just always take a shower / bath after being outside.

Yep. Lesson learned. I was in the woods Tuesday and woke up in rough shape Wednesday. 

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1907: August 01, 2021, 01:42:56 PM »
I got a few biking.

Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1908: August 23, 2021, 07:08:26 PM »
Anyone noticing insanely loud crickets ?

Offline HondoKillebrew

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1909: August 23, 2021, 07:17:54 PM »
Anyone noticing insanely loud crickets ?

Crickets or katydids? 


Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1910: August 23, 2021, 07:18:41 PM »
Crickets or katydids? 

I assume crickets given how many I saw yesterday while mowing

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1911: August 23, 2021, 07:23:16 PM »
Got one in the apartment. I think in the kitchen. Can't figure out how it got there. Staying in one spot so no need to go on a futile chase. When I close the bedroom door it sounds like outside noise

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1912: August 23, 2021, 08:10:45 PM »
We’ve had crickets in our house for years in Virginia. Never ending battle. 

Offline Mathguy

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1913: August 23, 2021, 08:29:47 PM »
I would use Raid

Got one in the apartment. I think in the kitchen. Can't figure out how it got there. Staying in one spot so no need to go on a futile chase. When I close the bedroom door it sounds like outside noise

Offline imref

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1914: August 23, 2021, 08:56:49 PM »
I would use Raid


Our cats take care of the ones that get in our basement.

Offline HondoKillebrew

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1915: August 23, 2021, 09:21:27 PM »
I get a few crickets in my basement every year.  Not sure how the get in. 

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1916: August 24, 2021, 03:01:50 PM »
I would use Raid

I don't want to breathe that stuff too.  I only use the heavy artillery for stuff that are either it's the bug or me.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1917: August 24, 2021, 03:08:36 PM »


Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1920: September 08, 2021, 11:27:14 AM »
now we know where NHL refs and linesmen stay during the off season.
Good one.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1921: September 08, 2021, 06:35:02 PM »
It's stinkbugs for us.  Fortunately they're small and not difficult to catch-and-release.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1922: September 08, 2021, 08:13:23 PM »
Fattening up so they can restrain Willy and Rawdogger Reaves in a couple of months
now we know where NHL refs and linesmen stay during the off season.

Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1923: October 31, 2021, 10:45:48 AM »


Picture is from a post much earlier in this thread from 2014. Fraidy Cat hasn’t shown up since last Sunday. Hardly a surprise last Monday, or Friday, both of which had pouring rain, but it’s extremely unusual for her to disappear for an entire week if there’s no snow on the ground. I guess we'll give it another week before we conclude she’s gone. We always knew someday she’d simply stop showing up each night, but it’s still disconcerting when it happens and Ms1995hoo is really down about it. I guess for a feral cat to survive outside for over seven years is pretty damn good.

Getting our own cat isn’t a great option because we’d have to make so many changes around the house (eliminating the veritable arboretum Ms1995hoo has in the living room, getting another china cabinet to secure breakable stuff, figuring out a way to protect leather furniture from claws, etc.).

Offline English Natsie

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Re: Backyard critters
« Reply #1924: October 31, 2021, 07:56:44 PM »
Hope Fraidy returns - it isn't unknown for ferals to wander for a while. However, getting a cat is always a great option (says Meowser...not that he's biased, you understand... ;))