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I always figured there'd be more Cougar sightings down in Houston.

Look, there's a squirrel.

Those motion sensing lights are nice for catching wildlife. When it clicks on, my cats run to the back door, because they know there will be a critter there to watch. One night we were treated to a red fox vixen and 3 or 4 kits.

Last year I saw what I beleived to be a Jagurundi down by my pond, But TPWD will not take a report without proof.

Nothing exotic as mountain lions and bobcats, but last week we got a good amount of rain. It caused an outbreak of toads and frogs. This little guy was snoozing on a lounge chair on our deck. One was even happily floating in the cat's water bowl.
(I guess I never paid much attention to toads before, but all the toads we saw were all colored the same as their surroundings.)

awesome pic cat, a very photogenic subject.

He kinda looks depressed.

I'm trying out my new camera. It seems like a great all around choice for someone with little photography knowledge. It's a Kodak Z712is and it has image stabilization and a 12 X zoom. It was $214 + tax, no shipping.

These pics were taken about 20 feet from the feeder.




edit: You can enlarge the images even more by clicking them again after you open them.

Speaking of critters, we just had a grizzly attack here yesterday, 20 min from town, apparently a hunter was pre-scouting an area for the upcoming deer season and got between the mom and three cubs. I guess she beat him up pretty good, he managed to stab her a number of times with a hunting knife and walked over a mile to get out of the bush. He is in hospital with broken limbs, cuts, bite marks. Pretty tough guy I'd say. They apparently found the grizz dead, close to the attack area.
This in addition to a number of cougar sightings both in town and close by and always Grizzlies and blacks around means keep your head up in the bush.
It's always unfortunate when wildlife encounters end in human injury but it is still fairly uncommon considering how often we are in their habitat and how common they are around here. I for one still feel much safer in the bush than on any city street, humans are far more dangerous than animals.

Grizzlies can be rough. I didn't like the way that Hummingbird was looking at me either!

Great sighting!

I thought I saw some parrots fly over 1 day, but nobody else has seen any.

I know I posted this before, but here it is again

gee-dub, if yer not aware, hummingbirds can be very territorial and aggressive. my great grandmother once tried to save a hummingbird whose bill was caught in an old metal screen door. she gently grasped the body of the bird and carefully extracted its bill from the screening. the bird promptly turned its head and drove its beak all the way through her index finger....

I've seen them fighting over the feeders. We have two on different sides of the house and one dominant bird tries to keep them both for himself. Sometimes when we're outside they'll buzz us a little.

I've found that some of my neighbors are real turkeys. Worse than that, they are eating my deer food, and drinking my pond water.

just in time for thanksgiving

One of my pond rats was running around the other day using my fish net as a butterfly net. It looked comical and I went back in the house.

The next day he shows me this. The flip flop is exactly 11" long. The white pellet is a moth ball to keep the ants from eating his homework project.

I thought the big moth was unusual.

What happenned to the other six legs?

Bruce,
I wish I knew, it was weird, it was using those feeler things to pick up food and eat like a mantis. It moved around pretty well with just the two legs, no sign of where others could have been attached. Thalidomide or banjo playing relatives?

Must be a birth defect on the lynx spider. If I'm not mistaken, missing legs can be re-grown over several moltings. The atlas moth is a beauty.

Bobbad,
It was around 2" toe to toe. It wasn't slowed a bit by the missing legs, the counter I found it on is inside the house and 30" off the floor.
Ain't nature grand?

As my University of Nebraska evolutionary microbiology professor once told me...

"Virtually all mutations are akin to shooting a .22/250 through a race car engine--Not likely to take hold".


...or something like that.

So... should I shoot it or race it?

Rad,

2" is a bit big for a lynx spider. Now I have no idea what kind it is.

I'm wondering how old it is, and whether the legs were lost or never existed. Most spiders live 1 year, but some non-web spinning spiders can live several years. I wonder how long it took your spider to learn to get by with 2 legs and 2 enlarged palps. I would love to see it in action.

Yes nature is grand. It never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

It reminds me of the frog-thing Gorgonite in the movie "Small Soldiers."

Weird.