Front Yard Friends

[emshighway]

When I go out my front door I never know what will be there:

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Pets/Bird2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Animals/Squirrel2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Animals/Squirrel1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Animals/Spidey2.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Animals/Spidey1.jpg
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Animals/Spidey3.jpg

[T-Bird76]

The bird and squirrel are cute....but burn the spider!

[emshighway]

The spiders are very important!! They catch and eat the bugs. Last night I actually watched this spider make the web. It is amazing how it attached support lines to the awning then brought it over to a flower pot then down to the brickwork. Once done it worked hard on the web work. It proves to me the intelligence of these small animals.

[nwafan20]

Wow, nice shots! I really like the squirrel!

[T-Bird76]

The spiders are very important!! They catch and eat the bugs. Last night I actually watched this spider make the web. It is amazing how it attached support lines to the awning then brought it over to a flower pot then down to the brickwork. Once done it worked hard on the web work. It proves to me the intelligence of these small animals.

I HATE Spiders! Anything with more the two eyes is evil! LOLOL I would have taken out the flamethrower long before that bugger could have spun it first web! BURN IT! :twisted: :twisted:

[emshighway]

LOL, as long as it was outside and we had eyes on each other we were cool. He did his thing and I stayed out of the way.

[mirrodie]

Very nice shots EMShighway.

Like Tom, I hate the spiders when they invade our home but they can be beautiful. They are cheeky guests that always drop by where I don't want them!

Not to take away from your thread, but here's a little guy we saw in Northern Australia. His BODY was 1.5 inches long. I guessimate that from tip to tip he was about 3.75 inches long.





(Note: If you are a total arachnaphobe, be forewarned. The following image might make your gonads rescind up into your torso.)


http://www.nycaviation.com/hosting/golden.jpg

[emshighway]

Beautiful yet scary.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Cute pics, I see these things at my grandmother's house in Queens, sometimes there's even a possum or at least that's what I think it is. Have any of you seen possums around here, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

[Tom_Turner]

Cute pics, I see these things at my grandmother's house in Queens, sometimes there's even a possum or at least that's what I think it is. Have any of you seen possums around here, or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

Plenty of possums around. Seem as common as Raccoons, maybe more so.

They're frequently mistaken for large rats however, and this does not work well for them in their contacts with people. In fact they're our only marsupial; same as Kangaroos. They carry their young.

Tom

[emshighway]

I have my own marsupials, they are sugar gliders.

Bridgette and Muskrat

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j12/emshighway/Pets/Bridgetteandmuskrat2.jpg

[Tom_Turner]

Wow EMS... Haven't seen a sugarglider since about 6 or 7 years ago. A friend had a couple - he lived not too far from LGA in fact; first time I saw Planeview Park.

Anyway, very lively animals.

Tom

[cancidas]

nice to see i'm not the only one with a birdbath in the yard.

not much in terms of wildlife out here, unless you're counting the cretins that come stumling out of the bar on tuesday and wednesday nights. i've got a shot of one of the central park falcons (or were they hawks?) that flew away from thier nest a while back, gonna work on finding it this week...

[mirrodie]

Bridgette and Muskrat, very cute. Remind me much of Tarsiers.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Tom, thanks for the info. I didn't even know that the raccoons were so common either. Tonight I was leaving my grandma's (about a block from Flushing Meadows Park) and ended up face to face with a raccoon that crawled out from under a minivan. He casually walked away and headed down an alley between the houses. So much of Flushing is getting paved over and otherwise 'citified' that it's nice to see there's still some wildlife around.

[RDU-JFK]

Great picture! We get raccoons and opossums in Brooklyn.

[cancidas]

come to think of it i have seen racoons even in my neighborhood. there is a delapidated shed house two doors down. i saw them a few weeks ago while barbequing in the late evening. i really wanted to get my paintball gun out, they were gone by the time i got back to the yard.

[emshighway]

Be careful there has been many reports of rabid raccoons.

[mirrodie]

Good tips. Raccoons are cute and deadly.

Saw a pair of them at the turn off to our street last week, both of them brazen enough to get within 5 feet of the car to check us out.

We have a raccon family likving between our property and hte one next door. Looking to maybe evict them soon ;)

Also, in the front yard, there are the birds (inc Red Cardinals and Blue Jays), chipmunks, Possums (once one slept in our garbage can, shook the can to wake him up, looked and me and went back to sleep!)....
a half mile away, up the mountain ridge of Long Island, I once saw a rooster and a rabbit, in free range, 25 feet from each other.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Not to go off topic but do any of you guys know if there is a way to tell from seeing it if a raccoon is rabid? Being from Manhattan and not very knowledgeable about animals, I often think all these critters are cute and cuddly ("Rascal" was one of my favorite books as a kid) but if they are potentially diseased that's not good. We once called 311 about squirrels gnawing on the telephone cables out there but the 311 operators just sort of seemed amused by the situation, I suspect if I asked them about raccoons and possums they'd just totally crack up.

[RDU-JFK]

Not to go off topic but do any of you guys know if there is a way to tell from seeing it if a raccoon is rabid? Being from Manhattan and not very knowledgeable about animals, I often think all these critters are cute and cuddly ("Rascal" was one of my favorite books as a kid) but if they are potentially diseased that's not good. We once called 311 about squirrels gnawing on the telephone cables out there but the 311 operators just sort of seemed amused by the situation, I suspect if I asked them about raccoons and possums they'd just totally crack up.

It's tough to identify if a raccoon is rabid. Some rabid animals appear to stumble or run in circles/show erratic behavior. Also some say you're more likely to see a rabid raccoon in the daytime rather than at night, but this is not necessarily true as families might be foraging for food.

I called 311 when I saw 2 raccoons in my backyard and the operator said they would dispatch animal control as long as they were remaining in one place, but of course they scattered.

[emshighway]

Yea the stumbling around, going in circles and the old foaming at the mouth (but that is later stages) may not be present. Best bet is to keep your distance.

[cancidas]

Be careful there has been many reports of rabid raccoons.


should i pull out the USP?

[emshighway]

http://www.hkpro.com/usp40compa1.jpg

Oh yea!!!! :D