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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

JCC [Animals] What wildlife visited my yard today

Discussion in 'Community' started by jp-30, Sep 5, 2005.

  1. Healer_Leona

    Healer_Leona Squirrel Wrangler of Fun & Games star 9 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jul 7, 2000
    That is totally awesome! :D :D I'd be most careful to help it back outside as well.
     
  2. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    One of the cats just brought in this Silvereye.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/sivereye.jpg]

    Luckily it wan't hurt, so I caught it and let it go - that's it resting on our roof after the ordeal.
     
  3. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    We had another visit from a cave weta today (see first post of this thread). This guy was huge. One of the cats was playing with it and had managed to eat one and a half of its legs, unfortunately.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/DSC02560.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/DSC02561.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/DSC02562.jpg]

     
  4. JediYvette

    JediYvette Pacific RSA emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 18, 2001
    An insurance agent dropped by today.

    [image=http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs139.snc3/18654_294521918073_752283073_3625830_1728811_n.jpg]

    His name is Midas the Gecko. :)
     
  5. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    Got a vist from a Great Grey Heron recently

    [image=http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c380/vader123/DSCF0052.jpg]

    [image=http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c380/vader123/DSCF0053.jpg]

    [image=http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c380/vader123/DSCF0056.jpg]

    [image=http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c380/vader123/DSCF0054.jpg]

    I was impressed how well it could balance on a fence or the bush next to it given its size, they are predominantly wading birds.
    I think it was looking at the neighbour's pond to see if it could get any frogs.
     
  6. Everton

    Everton Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Jul 18, 2003
    it's not a Great Grey Heron. It's just a Grey Heron. Good garden bird, though. :D


    Nice bird. :cool:
     
  7. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Kids found this near-dead Puriri Moth yesterday. NZ's largest moth.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puriri_moth

    They live for 5 or 6 years as a caterpillar, and then 2 days as a moth. Bummer. The colours on this one are really dull compared to most that I've seen.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/pururimoth1.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/pururimoth2.jpg]
     
  8. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    [face_worried]

    I have somewhat of a moth phobia, not sure why but I dislike them immensely.

    Luckily when I visit Australia it is winter so I don't have problems encountering giant moths over there, although I had run-ins with some kind of Owl Moth when I went to South Africa [face_worried]
     
  9. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Winter in Australia isn't that cold, and I'm pretty sure in most places Moths are still active at night.



    Oh, sorry.
     
  10. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    At least they have bug screens for doors and windows over there.
     
  11. FlareStorm

    FlareStorm Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2000
    looks huge
     
  12. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Had a visit from another Puriri Moth last night.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/puriri-new.jpg]

    But that's not why I'm posting today. This is one for the archnophobes. [face_mischief]

    A web appeared on a shrub by our front door last week. Yesterday the eggs inside hatched, and Mum was out guarding her brood.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/nws1.jpg]

    It's a Nursery Web Spider.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/nws2.jpg]

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/nws3.jpg]

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/nws4.jpg]

    A beautiful creature.
     
  13. ApolloSmileGirl

    ApolloSmileGirl Jedi Knight star 8

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 2004
    Those are awesome looking specimens. I've never really been scared of large spiders based om appearance, as much as their potential to be extremely poisonous. What is the deadly potential, if any, for these?
     
  14. Whitey

    Whitey Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Jan 26, 2003
    I miss having a gecko. :(
     
  15. zacparis

    zacparis VIP star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 1, 2003
    Dammit jp, why do you get all the good stuff up there. The first time I ever saw a weta was in Wellington, we get absolutely nothing exotic down here.

    Actually, I saw more wildlife in suburban England than I do in ChCh.
     
  16. Healer_Leona

    Healer_Leona Squirrel Wrangler of Fun & Games star 9 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jul 7, 2000
    ***damn jp!!!! I literally jumped in my seat scrolling down. Here I'm looking at all the cute bugs and birds and you post that nightmare!
     
  17. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Well, I do live on the edge of a rainforest, Sam, so that certainly helps.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/DSC02946.jpg]
    View across the forest from my lounge window.


    Juli, Nursery Web Spiders are not considered harmful. I mean, if you teased one with your fingers and it bit you you might get a slight itch or a secondary infection, like you can get from a rose thorn or palm frond spike I guess. We have one poisonous spider in NZ, the katipo but it's reclusive. I've never seen one. Black with a warning red stripe.

    We have no snakes either. About the worst thing you'll encounter are wasps.
     
  18. zacparis

    zacparis VIP star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 1, 2003
    Well I have seen a few katipo along the Canterbury coast. The beaches are full of driftwood, and katipo love driftwood.

    Oh, and I've had a few white-tailed spider encounters in the house too, but not been bitten by one yet.

    That's about as exotic as it gets.
     
  19. Miana Kenobi

    Miana Kenobi Admin Emeritus star 8 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 5, 2000
    I hate spiders, but that one was really pretty. Still gross, but pretty.
     
  20. beezel26

    beezel26 Jedi Master star 7

    Registered:
    May 11, 2003
    I hate spiders and that was my one fear in Australia was the damn spiders.

    Oh and the jack jumper ants weren't really cool to walk into either. Well a nest anyway.
     
  21. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Little grasshopper in our courtyard yesterday;

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03061.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03060.jpg]

    And our Swan Plants are swarming with Monarch Caterpillars at present, and the butterflies are still laying eggs.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03077.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03064.jpg]

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03068.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03072.jpg]
     
  22. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    This little skink was found running through the dining room, probably brought inside at some stage by a cat. Looks like it's not the first time it's had a tangle with a predator given the tail stump.

    [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03096.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03099.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/wildlife/Dsc03100.jpg]
     
  23. Espaldapalabras

    Espaldapalabras Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 25, 2005
    Really great pics. Our dog takes care to keep out most of the wildlife in my backyard. A lot of birds pass by, and sometimes mice get at the dog food out in the garage. The odd spider will get into the house, I just had to kill one yesterday that was crawling next to me while watching TV.

    Deer do come down from the mountains quite often so I've seen several driving around town.

    But when I lived in Louisiana we had tons of little lizards that lived on the outside of the house, wasps that attacked me from the burned out tree truck after I decided to kick their hive (I was 12) and plenty of fire ant hives to molest which they would quickly repair.

    And as a child in Oklahoma we lived next to a large field and found a large snake in the front yard, an armadillo, and when I was in 2nd grade I was at my friend's house who lived out in the woods outside town and we were catching fireflies at dusk and he got bit by a poisonous snake, most likely a copperhead.

    Being so much colder and more in the middle of a metropolitan area unfortunately not too much wildlife strays by, but we do have hummingbirds in the summer.
     
  24. xblackout

    xblackout Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 5, 2008
    I wish we still had an abundance of wildlife around here, but the area is way too overdeveloped. We used to have deer and hawks and all different sorts of little critters, but now it's basically just rabbits & raccoons. It kind of bums me out :(
     
  25. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Raccoons are cool (especially to a person living in a country where bats are the only non-introduced mammal). So, what about insects and other bugs? They can be just as interesting as bigger animals.