Wonderful Nature - Thread

[BlackCurtains]

It was a downpour last night. It's still too early for the tree frogs. Last year there was at least one in the tree outside my bedroom window. I hope he's still there this year.

In the street I saw a black racer. It must have been flooded out of its hiding place. I didn't think to get a picture. Black racers are large but harmless black snakes. I think they are the most common snake in Florida, at least down here.

[Heart Of Midnight]

Late on Monday night, I heard for the first time this spring a cuckoo singing!  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.

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 )

  Sorry when I have typos. I just copied that reading from the site where I went to turn kilometers into miles. 
But, luckily you are here to fix and help! 

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BC, Wow, the black racer is a beautiful snake! (I looked at the pictures on the internet.) Fortunately, it is a non-venomous snake just like the grass snake here in Finland.
 
There are three different species of snakes in Finland; grass snake, smooth snake and common European viper.
Smooth snake is very rare and does not occur here in mainland Finland (only in Åland). Of these three, the common European viper is poisonous. There were a lot of vipers near my childhood home, but I wasn’t afraid of them. Very beautiful and interesting snake!

[Griffin]

Sorry when I have typos. I just copied that reading from the site where I went to turn kilometers into miles. 
But, luckily you are here to fix and help! 

Hey, no worries And I'm sorry if I sounded condescending, that wasn't my intention.

Yeah not too many snake species here! I don't think I've ever seen a grass snake or a smooth snake in wild. I have seen vipers, though. They are pretty common in our neighbourhood too, I'm always a bit wary when walking our cats here but luckily the snakes prefer to stay out of the way. I avoid the foresty areas in the spring when the snakes are small and aren't used to people or other creatures yet, I hear young snakes are the most dangerous since they are inexperienced and bite more easily. But we've lived here for seven years now and I've only seen snakes once or twice, so it's not like they're everywhere...

Here are some pics from our bike trip last weekend. Kingcups were blooming and we spotted some tiny little spruce cones!

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[BlackCurtains]

Florida has a lot of snakes, some of them quite deadly. We also have invasive pythons from people letting their pet snakes into the wild. Some get big enough to eat alligators. We have a lot of invasive species actually, from insects to monkeys.

Beautiful photos, Griffin! What a nice trail.

[Heart Of Midnight]

Oh, really beautiful photos, Griffin! It would be nice to walk there and watch the birds with binoculars. Did you see any birds there?

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On Thursday, after the rain stopped, I found this "guy" in the yard! It's an Ash-gray slug (Limax cinereoniger). In Finnish: Ukkoetana.
It is the largest land snail in Europe.This is only the third time I have met this snail. So beautiful! It is not a harmful creature. It does not do damage to the garden. For food, it uses decaying plant material, algae and fungi growing on the surface, and, when the opportunity arises, also animal carcasses.
I found information on the internet that it can grow up to 20 cm in length. I didn’t measure this, but it was big.


The breathing hole is on the back of the shield on the right side of the animal. It shows well in the first picture. The surface of the shield has a groove pattern resembling a fingerprint. It is shown in the second picture. The back has a ridge extending from the tip of the stern to the middle of the back. It shows up a bit in the last picture.

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[BlackCurtains]

Wow, what an interesting looking slug! I'm planning on building a bio active terrarium and have looked at both snails and slugs to put in it.

When I lived in Wisconsin I would see slugs often in our garden. I've seen maybe three since living in Florida.

[Griffin]

Oh, really beautiful photos, Griffin! It would be nice to walk there and watch the birds with binoculars. Did you see any birds there?

Thanks! We did see some swans and mallards at least (whooper swans and I believe one mute swan, too - they were quite far away and we didn't have binoculars).

That's one big slug!

[Beth3346]

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

[Artemesia's Garden]

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

I love empty lots. I know it's not a good idea to trespass and poke around in brown field sites, however you can get some really cool pioneer plant species that I love to look at in high summer.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

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.

[Beth3346]

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.

the same thing happened last year with the nest by my front door. i felt so betrayed that i didn't get to say goodbye. one day they were there then they just left. i know it's irrational of me to feel that way. i thought we had something special.

last night an owl was hooting somewhere outside. my little dog woke me up barking at it.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I think there's one bird left in my roof. It keeps squawking and flapping it's wings, hopefully it will get strong enough soon to make it's own way. Bird list from the window of my house this weekend includes: grey heron, little egret, barn owl, jay, goldfinches and the usual house sparrows, blackbirds, robin, blue tits. Confusingly I saw something that looked like a redpoll but I read that they are only passage winter migrants in the UK and do not breed here, so it can't have been that. Wonderful nature is raining today for the second day in a row!

[Heart Of Midnight]

The hedgehogs haven’t been seen in a few days so I stopped feeding them. There are already so many kinds of insects to eat in nature that they can survive. I start feeding in the late summer, before the fall when the hedgehogs go into hibernation.
I keep water available to them all summer.

I have a Hooded Crow in the yard with four chicks. Today they kept the noise in the pine tree and followed what I was doing in the garden. Those chicks are fun birds, but they can also annoy, for example, by pecking at my summer flowers! 
There are crows and their chicks in this yard every summer, I guess it is good for them to live and nest here. 

[BlackCurtains]

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 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.

[Artemesia's Garden]

The final bird has left the roof. All is peaceful. The barn owl is a regular near our house at dusk.