Fauna and other natural things

[backatit]

LOL, that would have been dire!

I'm visiting one of the grown kids, and they live near a canal in Florida. We've been walking down every day to see the piles (herds? What do you call a plethora of them?) manatee who are congregating there. Usually they do it when it's cold but it's been in the 70's. The babies look like fat ticks with their undersized heads :).

[apl68]

I was once 6 inches away from patting the back of the "nice kitty" that had crossed my path on the quiet, twilit sidewalk in front of a student's home....

Then I saw the white stripe and just as quietly backed away....

M.

The old Pepe Le Pew error, only in reverse!

[Anselm]

LOL, that would have been dire!

I'm visiting one of the grown kids, and they live near a canal in Florida. We've been walking down every day to see the piles (herds? What do you call a plethora of them?) manatee who are congregating there. Usually they do it when it's cold but it's been in the 70's. The babies look like fat ticks with their undersized heads :).

An aggregation.

https://www.livescience.com/27405-manatees.html

[Catherder]

The lake is frozen solid again, and deer are cantering across, white tails flapping.

[apl68]

It's scarcely gotten cold enough around here for a mud puddle to freeze over during the past several years.  I did have a close-ish encounter with a deer near the park pond before sunrise this morning.  I assume that's what I heard snorting and dashing away in the dark.

[hmaria1609]

Got a photo of a squirrel enjoying a nut on the exterior window ledge at my library the other day.

[mamselle]

Thinking of one of our forumites' names, I was interested to discover that cat cafe's in Japan now include Capybaras among their furry, friendly denizens.

I always wondered what that forumite might look like...

M.

[Thursday's_Child]

If anyone follows earthquakes, there is an on-going swarm of small & shallow earthquakes just SW of Iceland, underwater, on the Reykjanes ridge.  It's been going on for about four hours now - so far, the largest was a magnitude 4.6.

https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes

And it's still going on, both there and along the R. peninsula - rather vigorously recently.  There is apparently a "very small" amount of magma intrusion (1 million cubic meters doesn't seem small, but the volcanologists should know what they're talking about) ongoing under Mt. Thorbjorn.  An eruption isn't considered imminent.

[mamselle]

The song, "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," comes to mind...

Stay safe!

M.

[Catherder]

The first otter I've seen this winter is perched, fishing, on the ice at the edge of open water on the lake. 

On firmer ground, a variety of squirrels, black, red and grey, are dashing around the lawn.  All, including the otter, are engaging in a lot of tail-flicking.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I saw, what I believe to be, a red-shouldered hawk in my backyard last week. It was perching in a tree about 25 ft. from my kitchen window. I also witnessed a hawk (red-tail maybe?) swoop down from a tree and grab something on campus.

[backatit]

The first otter I've seen this winter is perched, fishing, on the ice at the edge of open water on the lake. 

On firmer ground, a variety of squirrels, black, red and grey, are dashing around the lawn.  All, including the otter, are engaging in a lot of tail-flicking.

Otters are some of my favorite animals. I've seen them in my neighbor's pond but ours is a little too exposed for their taste, I think. I used to work on a big cattle ranch when I was a grad student (I was developing a program to count and track purebred cattle herds) and right down the road from the office was a creek, and the otters LOVED that area. I'd take my lunch down there and sit with them, and some of the babies got quite used to me during the couple of years I worked there, and would sit near me, hoping for a bit of tuna.

[Catherder]

Before the property next to mine was sold and landscaped, there was an otters' burrow in the creek bank within sight of my desk.

In winter the young otters would play, sliding down the creek, and in summer they chased each other right under my window.

Sadly they are scarcer now.

[nebo113]

Before the property next to mine was sold and landscaped, there was an otters' burrow in the creek bank within sight of my desk.

In winter the young otters would play, sliding down the creek, and in summer they chased each other right under my window.

Sadly they are scarcer now.

Sad.

[backatit]

That IS sad. I saw the herd of red deer at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire on a hike this winter. That was the high point of my winter trip to visit family there. I saw a rather large herd at the barn the other day, too, though, which was cool. American deer are huge!