What does the fox say? :fox:
I went to bed rather late last night and was just about to fall asleep as I heard a fox outside. I see them pretty regularly here, and I've heard their cries before but this one was practically behind our bedroom window, screaming. :lmao: What a creepy sound they make. My cats were flabbergasted. :lol: I admit my heart was pounding for some time, too, after waking up so suddenly. Took me a second to realise where the noise was coming from, and that my cats were fine and not crying in pain. I saw the fox too, after a couple of minutes screaming it took off. I think it stopped to mark its territory on the way. :P
Great observation! :iconclap: But there’s definitely a little shock to waking up to its scream just when you’re about to fall asleep! :shocked: :lol: When I first heard the fox scream, I thought now that some woman is in distress and is being beaten! :shocked: But as the screaming continued the same for a long time, I realized it was an animal. The next day I listened to fox audio samples on the internet.
Late on Monday night, I heard for the first time this spring a cuckoo singing! :frolic: It was very close. I heard Bittern "singing" too! My house is at least 3,109 miles from the lake. It’s amazing that the voice of a bird comes here to me nicely and loudly. :wow:
Late on Monday night, I heard for the first time this spring a cuckoo singing! :frolic: It was very close. I heard Bittern "singing" too! My house is at least 3,109 miles from the lake. It’s amazing that the voice of a bird comes here to me nicely and loudly. :wow:
That's lovely! (Psst, I think you mean 3.109 miles - a small difference in orthographic conventions but a big difference in meaning so translating here for our Anglophone folks :D )
:blush: Sorry when I have typos. I just copied that reading from the site where I went to turn kilometers into miles. :redface:
But, luckily you are here to fix and help! :hug:
Oh, really beautiful photos, Griffin! :heart: It would be nice to walk there and watch the birds with binoculars. Did you see any birds there?
not too much nature lately. but i did see a bunny hop through the empty lot down the street. but we were taking out the trash and making noise so it hid pretty fast. still no squirrels
The nest was empty this morning. The little birdies have learned to fly away. I wonder if they'll be back at all or if they've moved on already.
Poor little raccoon was walking down the road in the rain early this morning. There are raccoons in the woods who go dumpster diving in the complex :lol: They set out no kill traps for them, but I think most raccoons are smart enough to not get caught. Apparently there are rats too, but I've never seen one. We had rats at my parent's house, from my dad feeding the birds. I opened the garage door one night (from inside the house) and there was a huge one on the table. I've also seen them on the side of the road at night.
The new neighbors called the authorities on my dad for feeding the cranes which is illegal (but to be fair, he wasn't feeding them, they would show up and eat the food later) so he stopped feeding all the birds and squirrels. They don't have rats anymore.
The baby sparrows are small destruct-monsters though. They have no clue that they're too heavy for half the things they land on until they land on them.
You can knock the nest down? They'll probably move. But of course you want to be very careful and leave them alone for a while afterward because they'll be mad.
@LAW i hope you find a way to get the wasps out of the attic. i love lightning storms like that at night. another word for silent lightning is sheet lightning. i looked it up to make sure i wasn't just misremembering the work and it turns out there is thunder but the storm is so far that the curvature of the Earth causes the thunder to reflect off the Earth's surface before the sound gets to you. Weather is so fascinating.
@LAW Are the wasps bothering you around the outside of your house at all?They don't bother me at all outside in the garden or yard. At least not yet. Let's see, now that autumn is progressing, the wasps run out of work and food from nature. Then they get frustrated and angry. Will they then let me go in peace.. :huh:
Oh no! My dog was stung by a wasp in the face once and we had to rush him to the emergency vet. They gave him Benadryl and told us to keep some in the house if it ever happened again. But I don’t know if you can give Benadryl to cats.
Is it possible the wasps are living in your walls? I never heard of such a problem like this. Does it happen every year?
I haven’t seen much. The squirrels have come back and there are a lot of mockingbirds around. I saw a bunny one evening too. My parents lost the pool cage in the storm, so they have been finding things in the pool. Mostly dragonflies and moths but one day there was a snake.
It's freezing outside! Lovely! The thermometer shows -2 °C. :frolic: I've been waiting for the frosts so much and at night like this it's the best. Not just because of the wasps, but because I love it! :heart: It should also be freezing on the night between Monday and Tuesday.
I went outside to admire the starry sky and trample among the icy leaves. :leaves:
That sounds so perfect! How lovely. The magnolia tree in our garden has dropped around half of it's leaves now. But the oak trees in the spinney and the cherry trees are still fairly green, so I guess we are still waiting for a real frost.
H.O.M. you seem to have plenty of snow as well! And omg those raccoon dogs! I've never seen so many, they are usually loners like foxes, aren't they?
That was the first and probably the last time for me to see so many raccoon dogs eating at the same time. I believe that was a very rare situation. :wonder: I would think they are quite hermits. They accept their spouses and their puppies, but usually if someone outside the family has come to eat at the same time, a fight breaks out. Raccoon dog politely dodges the badger and disappears back into the forest. :lol: At least this is what I observed at our old place of residence, when we lived in the countryside, where raccoon dogs and badgers were guests in the yard almost every night. Oh how I miss those times, the forest animals and that place... :sad:
That was the first and probably the last time for me to see so many raccoon dogs eating at the same time. I believe that was a very rare situation. :wonder: I would think they are quite hermits. They accept their spouses and their puppies, but usually if someone outside the family has come to eat at the same time, a fight breaks out. Raccoon dog politely dodges the badger and disappears back into the forest. :lol: At least this is what I observed at our old place of residence, when we lived in the countryside, where raccoon dogs and badgers were guests in the yard almost every night. Oh how I miss those times, the forest animals and that place... :sad:
Ooh I'd love to see a badger, I've never seen one in the wild! Sorry you had to move from the old place, I loved reading about your nature observations in the Finnish forum.
What gorgeous photos, Beldarna! I wish we had that much snow! Do you live in the northern part of the country? I love snow but here in Southern Finland it's getting quite unpredictable. We rarely get snow that stays for more than a couple of days until late December or early January, but so far January and February can be expected to be white even here on the coast. This winter we suddenly got a lot of snow at the end of November, and a white Christmas. :heart: But after that it's been kind of on and off.
Snow, snow and snow! Lovely! :cold: It snowed all day Monday and it continued until Tuesday night! At least 30cm of new snow has accumulated, so I've had a really good time working with snow! :happy:
Every day we still have deer coming to eat in the yard. On Monday evening, it was fun to watch the deer and the hare eating together. :)
A few pics of this summer.
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This is about 10 km outside of my city, and yes, we could bike here. The temperature and humidity was crazy high this evening, the meteorologists said it was tropical. The humidity made the fire alarm go off twice at the cinema and two other locations.
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This river is right beside the above picture. It is before it comes to my city.
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Blueberries! I'm lucky to live in a country with the Right to Roam (Allemansrätten in Swedish) where I can just go out in the forest, any forest, and pick fresh berries.
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This is from when we were kayaking down a river. It was so beautiful :heart:
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This is the river that goes through my city, dividing it in half. We have a walkway right next to it and I live close enough to be able to walk by it whenever I feel, it's also the prefered route to the city center. I always felt it was healing walking by it and I'm not alone. The other day, our local news wrote about a woman who travels six hours by train from Stockholm (that is surrounded by water might I add) just to spend a couple of hours by the river before going back home again and she thinks the river helps her better than her therapist. Pretty neat :).
Yesterday there was a bird fight outside my window. Two mockingbirds crash landed and they were kicking and pecking each other, wings open, and making terrible screechy sounds. I read that males defend territory by dancing, so I think these two were females. Maybe fighting over a nesting spot? Or who knows. Mockingbirds are very smart, maybe they just didn't like each other.Oh my! That sounds like a sight to see.
Thank you both :inlove:.
HoM, you better get out and take some pictures so I can look and compare and see if what you're saying is true :P.
I heard geese fly over. It is time to migrate.dang i better get going then see ya
There is snow, there is melted ground, there is snow.. Cold, warm, cold.. this is the Finnish spring. :biggrin:
At the beginning of this month, I was able to admire crocuses and bumblebees. Migratory birds arrived and began searching for mates. I could smell the melted earth around me and watch the ice melt on the lake. :heart:
Now, on Saturday, winter arrived back. I get to admire the snow-covered land and the forest again. Feel the freezing cold. But even though I love winter, I feel sad precisely because of these migratory birds, especially the small ones. They can't survive without the help of us people. Winter feeding must be continued. Most of all, I worry about the hedgehogs. I really hope I don't find them somewhere in the middle of the snow! :( I heard that yesterday someone had found a hedgehog in poor condition. I hope it survived and got help in time! Now more snow and cold have been promised for the next few days. I have to be really careful now in my yard and in the woods too.
I didn't know it was like that, I just think of Finland as being like Moomintroll forest and once spring has arrived you play a flute and start planning hikes and garden parties. I love hearing you talk about where you live. We stopped feeding the birds about a month ago. There was a light frost last nigth but I think it will be the last.