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Florida wild life

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Florida wild life

Postby liz » Fri Oct 21, 2016 6:28 am

I was so surprised to see 2 Sand Hill Cranes standing on the middle line of a road waiting for the next lane to clear. They were very calm and seemed to be holding a conversation while they waited.

I have seen many different birds in flight. Egrets are everywhere. I have seen a group in a gas station yard. They hang out with herds of cows and seem to claim an individual cow and stays with it.p

There are many Anoles of different species here. The smallest one I have ever seen had a body no bigger than my pinkie nail. The larges one I have seen lives in the oak tree outside my front door.
No matter where I go I can see them. They threaten me if I step in e wuffing up and shaking it's head.

One evening I found many green Tree Frogs at my front light. They are beautiful but so small that they are hard to find normally.

The turtles are everywhere. I watched on stand tall and walk on a side walk with humans all around it. A cop stopped traffic to let a turtle cross a road. I have taken 3 out of the Back Yard Boys lot. Jake gets excited and barks until I get it out. Charles and Rachel each found tiny turtles in the middle of a road. They were no bigger than a 50 cent piece. Yesterday we saw one we thought was trying to get through a fence. When we backed up to help he dove into a hole. I saw his little back feet in the air as he did. He must have been thinking "oh no, another human wanting to help me".

I saw a bug flying around a flower but had to take a closer look since I have not seen one that size before. It turned out to be a baby humming bird with the body only the size of a pea. It was still camo brown with little wings and tail. Then we saw another not far from the first. They must have been just out of the nest.

The wonders of Florida are so uplifting.
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liz
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Re: Florida wild life

Postby Pajarita » Fri Oct 21, 2016 12:06 pm

Yes, Florida has wonderful wildlife - it's the climate. I hate it but creatures love it :lol:
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Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby liz » Sat Oct 22, 2016 7:06 am

I love it here and have climatized to any temperature shy of 90 degrees. We do not use our a/c until the house gets to 80 which is between 2 to 7 pm.

I haven't seen that much wildlife except at the Wild Life Park. We do have to be cautious while driving and check out anything that looks funny. Yesterday it was a turtle on the side of the road that had been hit and died with a busted shell.
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Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby Pajarita » Sat Oct 22, 2016 12:07 pm

Oh, poor thing! It's terrible when you see a dead animal like that... My husband had to work in Manhattan yesterday doing interviews and, while he was waiting in the lobby of a building somewhere, he saw what he called a white pigeon literally dragged itself through the doors so, thinking that maybe it had gotten hit by a car and had a broken leg, he quickly walked over to it to pick it up (thinking he would put it in the car and bring it home for me to take care of) and, as he scooped it up, the bird died right in his hands! He was so affected by it, his eyes actually filled up with tears when he was telling me about it... But, as I explained to him, it was, most likely, not a white pigeon but a white ringneck dove and they don't survive in the streets. I HATE the stupid practice of releasing white doves for weddings, ceremonies or whatever! They should make it illegal! These poor birds are domesticated and born in captivity and have NO survival skills whatsoever so they never make it. There is one that has joined the flock of pigeons I feed every day (my 'clients') and I have been wrecking my brain trying to come up with a way to trap it because I know that, when winter comes and it turns real cold, she'll die out there - but I still haven't come up with anything so, if anybody has a good idea, please let me know!
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby liz » Sun Oct 23, 2016 6:54 am

I read somewhere that birds do not fly south because of the weather. They do it for their food supply. Bug and nector eaters have to go south where it happens to be worm for them to find food. I have always been amazed at the seed eaters who have access to feeders and don't seem to mind the cold.
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Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby Pajarita » Sun Oct 23, 2016 11:45 am

Yes, but that is only for wild birds that are native to the area... doves have been domesticated for thousands of years and are not native to USA (they are from East and South Africa).
Pajarita
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby liz » Mon Dec 19, 2016 6:46 am

I have been getting photos on FB with everything covered with snow. I think we were 65 last night and will be 83 today. My son ran his AC last night because his home soaked up the day time heat.

There is another sign in the neighborhood about a missing black and white cat. It has been up for about 2 weeks now. All our black and white ones are gone too. The black ones do not attract
hawks. We have two blacks and an orange that does not go out during the day.

I saw my first wild boar. They are illusive and rarely seen. This one was hit by a car. There were many people who stopped on the side of the road to take a closer look. After about a week someone cut off his head to get it mounted. It was on my road.

I am being quiet but one of the Tiels is singing. A different one sang at 9:30 last night. I have also heard sing offs where they compete with each other. February is spring here. The Tiels are practicing their wake up singing.

The squirrels live a better life here too. There was a nest of 4 babies and now they are on the loose all around us. They don't need to preserve their energy and calories so that nest of squirrels are having a great time playing together. I hear them early in the morning making racket and running across roofs.

Their is a herd of Angus and Herferds near us. Each one seems to have it's own Egret. It is so funny to see the black cattle with a white birds beside them.
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liz
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: Hernando FL
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Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby Pajarita » Mon Dec 19, 2016 11:06 am

What a wonderful picture you made in my head, Liz! Ideally bucolic... exactly my cup of tea! I envy you!
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Florida wild life

Postby Loriusgarrulus » Thu Dec 22, 2016 5:50 am

Pajarita wrote:Oh, poor thing! It's terrible when you see a dead animal like that... My husband had to work in Manhattan yesterday doing interviews and, while he was waiting in the lobby of a building somewhere, he saw what he called a white pigeon literally dragged itself through the doors so, thinking that maybe it had gotten hit by a car and had a broken leg, he quickly walked over to it to pick it up (thinking he would put it in the car and bring it home for me to take care of) and, as he scooped it up, the bird died right in his hands! He was so affected by it, his eyes actually filled up with tears when he was telling me about it... But, as I explained to him, it was, most likely, not a white pigeon but a white ringneck dove and they don't survive in the streets. I HATE the stupid practice of releasing white doves for weddings, ceremonies or whatever! They should make it illegal! These poor birds are domesticated and born in captivity and have NO survival skills whatsoever so they never make it. There is one that has joined the flock of pigeons I feed every day (my 'clients') and I have been wrecking my brain trying to come up with a way to trap it because I know that, when winter comes and it turns real cold, she'll die out there - but I still haven't come up with anything so, if anybody has a good idea, please let me know!

One way to trap the dove is to wedge a cardboard box up at an angle with a stick.
Attach a string to the stick in the middle so that you can pull the stick away with the string from a distance.
Put bird feed under the box and wait till the dove is under the box and pull the stick away with the string so the box falls over the dove. Rectangular boxes work best and not to big and heavy.
This can only be done on a day that is not windy and some practice is needed to get the timing right.
You might only get one chance at it as if you miss they could get too wary for a second go.
Have bird carrier ready for if you are successful.
One advantage with a dove is that you are unlikey to get savaged when you slide your hand under the box to retrieve it.

Why don't they use white homing pigeons for weddings. At least they have a good chance of getting home after release if they must do this.
Growing Old Disgracefully
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Re: Florida wild life

Postby liz » Fri Dec 23, 2016 8:30 am

A neighbor has had a sign up about her missing cat for about a week now. Our black kitten has gone missing for a few days now. There are many preditors in this area. We searched for her but already know what happened to her. That makes 6 cats I think. 5 kittens and my large cat have been taken.

I can understand how the kittens have been picked off by hawks but could not believe that my big cat fell prey to the hawks. Charles said he saw a hawk being chased by a Bald Eagle.

Aunt Betty wants me to go to the shelter and get her two more kittens. I told her no more kittens to feed the hawks. She did not believe me but Charles also told her no more kittens and no more feeding the preditors. She accepted what he said.
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liz
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 7234
Location: Hernando FL
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

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