Nature & Wildlife Thread

[JBtheExplorer]

The eagles are busy doing their thing. All three eggs hatched this year. Hopefully all three grow up and have nests of their own, but the odds aren't great.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I'm thrilled I decided to go in the woods today! Haven't been back there much recently. The trails were pretty flooded. That's a good thing, it means no people, which can mean more wildlife.

I was enjoying the sound and sight of a vernal stream that was flowing good after our recently rainfalls, and I heard a "hoo hoo". I looked up and found this juvenile Great-horned Owl staring back at me.

I rarely see them, but I hear them on occasion. The owls nest in the woodland. Just goes to show how important parks are. This is the perfect habitat for owls. We may even have another specie nesting here, but I have yet to confirm it. For the record, this wasn't the owl making the noise. There was another one maybe 50 feet to the left, but it wasn't visible.

 

[tbendl]

Love it.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

On yesterday's hike I thought I might have found a geocache. I wasn't sure, so when I got back home I looked it up to see if any were in the woods there. Turns out, there's five. I went back today and found four of the five. I added a bag of native seeds to them all

...and butterflies are absolutely everywhere. I saw my first one of the year just a few days back, now I've seen at least 30 in the past couple of days.

 

[addy1]

We were at Assateague Island, decided to go by Trap pond , Delaware. My family used to camp there many moons ago I was a young one then! Back then living in a tent, now a RV lol

Saw our favorite bird to love and hate, they were hanging out everywhere.

A ton of HUGE bull frogs, the yellow is the pollen that is falling everywhere.

There are Bald cypress trees here, they are not any further north than here.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

A short hike yesterday did not disappoint.

Bloodroot. This is one of my favorite early spring native plants. Unfortunately, the bloom time is extremely short.

Spring Beauty

Blue-spotted Salamander

 

[j.w]

On a hike near Lake Havasu, Az

Another hiker told us these huge things turn in to a pretty butterfly

Meep Meep!

Cactus were starting to bloom

Little lizard was a high stepper

Rattler, everyone told us in their many years of hiking they have never seen one. Well we saw two!

Colorado River and all it's beauty!

I must say this was quite the hike, they called it Sarah's Crack

Someone put an old busted ladder up and if it was not there we could not have gotten up there

Then there was the rope you had to pull yourself up with

We did make it out of there safely but we did not bring enough water. Very important in the dessert to bring plenty of water. We were so happy to see the parking area after hours of trying to figure out which way was the right way.

 

[addy1]

Great pictures great hike!

 

[MitchM]

The dogs were barking a lot last night, now I know why.
We had a bear visit our yard, a black bear I think.
My boot is a size 10 for reference.

This is about 20 yards off our front deck.

 

[j.w]

Sheesh how many toes do they have? Looks like I count 7. You sure that's not a Sasquatch

 

[MitchM]

Sheesh how many toes do they have? Looks like I count 7. You sure that's not a Sasquatch

I think the print is a result of the back foot stepping into the front footprint.
That's why I'm not sure if it was a black bear or a grizzly..
Big though....

 

[addy1]

Big one, stay away from that hungry one.

 

[Lisak1]

First @j.w tries to get lost in the desert and then @MitchM is tracking bears in his own backyard... this is some kind of adventure thread!

@JBtheExplorer - beautiful pictures! Where are the eagles nesting?

 

[addy1]

Well now to add to the excitement...................a snake doing what snakes do and all other predators, eat..............felt bad for the frog, there were a whole lot of them now one less.
.

Not my pond, We put some bees on their yard.

 

[addy1]

I took a quick picture of their pond, it is not running right now. The skimmer pump quit. Very pretty pond, it needs a bit of clean up, they just bought the place. The pond also loops behind the two green trees.