Wild Game Photos

[Harv]

<font color=blue>a small black bear about 50 feet from the house</font color=blue>

Yikes! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Bears are okay critters in my book, but not 50 feet from my house! Can't you put out a no-pest strip or something? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Thanks for that picture, Pat. If nothing else, it's a good reminder to me that I ain't no country boy yet. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[uppermich]

At 3:00 am it was just beneath my living room picture window, which is only 3-1/2' off the ground. It was a little disconcerting watching the bear with so little space or material between us. I put the deck light on, used a bright flashlight and even got the dog ( a black Great Dane) up to bark at it, but it was determined to eat.

The summer before, something had been raiding the trout food up at the pond. I have a floating dock and keep a pedal boat with a cover on it tied to the dock. There were some small footprints left on the boat cover and tooth marks on the feed box.

I was wiped clean of geese and chickens by a bobcat the previous winter. A 39 pound bobcat was trapped and I was given the skull. I saw it many times, even stood outside the door and watched it eating just 100 feet from me. The tooth marks on the box matched the skull of the trapped cat perfectly, so I figured there was another bobcat. The pond has a lot of Suckers in it, so I started putting a sucker out on the dock every other day or so to keep it up at the pond and away from my chickens.

I went out at first light one August morning and could hear something moving on the dock, but couldn't quite see it yet. When it passed in front of the boat, it's outline kind of looked like a black panther! Just as it was getting light enough to see, something else moved out of the trees and down to the dock - then a third....it turned out to be a small mama bear and 2 very small cubs that were the culprits! I high-tailed it out of there and quit feeding them their fish buffet. I think the one in the photo may be one of those cubs.

As it turned out, another bobcat was in the area and wiped out the chickens just after New Years. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Pat (Techno-Tractor Mom)

 

[Harv]

Dang, Pat! That's some story! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

I get the feeling you don't live too close to town. Just how far out in the boonies are you?

I gotta admit, it's kind of fun to read your tales of the wilderness, but it's a lifestyle I'm having trouble relating to. Part of me thinks it would be great, but I think it would take some serious getting used to.

Bears, bobcats -- did I mention my encounter with a peacock? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[Thomas]

uppermich,
By the sounds the wildlife lives in a peaceful environment.

Sounds like a good area for a game tracker camera for some good pictures,so one can really see whats happening. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Do you have mountains loins??
Sure like to see one..none of those cats in NH so says the New Hampshire Fish&Game. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

I do enjoy your adventures plus the pictures..keep'em coming.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Harv]

Well, I'm still here in the 'burbs, but we're heading up to the property tomorrow. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Even with the rain I'd have to say we've been having some pretty mild weather around here. In fact, we just took the cover off the swimming pool for some pre-season cleanup. When my daughter started getting ready for school this morning, I heard, "Uhhhhhh, Daddy -- there's something in our pool!".

This is another one of those things that is commonplace in the country, but around here it's just unusual enough to bring a smile to your face. See attachment. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MReeter]

Harv,we also have winged friends that stop by,fortunately,that land in the lake and not the pool.

 

[jimmoore]

That's a neat photo Harv. did you see the pics of my geese on page 4 of the weather thread?

jim

 

[Bird]

We've got a lot of ducks around here this time of year on the stock ponds, lake, and creeks, but I've never seen any land on a swimming pool./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Bird

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Some years back my girlfriend and I lived in an apartment overlooking the community pool.
A mallard threesome (2 drakes/1 hen ) began regular visits (and regular deposits), which had the landlord concerned.

Solution? (not!) ... a fake blow-up snake, floating in the pool.

Worked for about 3 days. Then we had 3 ducks and a snake in the pool quite frequently, until the ducks left for reasons of their own.

Larry /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Harv]

<font color=blue>did you see the pics of my geese</font color=blue>

I've seen them now, Jim -- Looks like you're just one short of a gaggle. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Although ducks in a swimming pool is a rare sight here, up at the property our pond is host to dozens of ducks, a few Canadian geese and a heron. I have some old-fashioned snapshots of them somewhere, but maybe I'll just try for some digital picts this weekend. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

LHSmith -

Yeah, having ducks pooping in your swimming pool keeps the ol' filter busy, but right now the water is too cold for human swimming anyway. When it warms up a tad we'll keep it covered with a solar blanket. Never thought about it being a duck shield. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[LazyK]

Larry...did the synthetic snake to scare the ducks become a snake deek fer a sincere snake suitor?
Nothing worse than shake snit and shuckdit...

Lazy K - Chip

 

[LazyK]

I tol' my shrink der waz ducks in da pool!

signed.... Tony Soprano

Lazy K - Chip

 

[Thomas]

Harv,
Little bit of food each day and those mallards will hang around,and if you like eggs duck eggs are richer plus taste better. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Harv]

Okay, so with this thread in mind, I put my telephoto adapter on my digital camera and went stalking wild game early in the morning.

Just my luck, there was hardly a creature stirring, but then, out of the corner of my eye I see movement on the far side of the pond. Stealthily, I snap a long-range picture of those elusive geese that have come to frequent our place. Apparently they saw me, too, but this time they didn't fly away. In fact, they daringly came closer!

What great luck! I was able to snap a much better picture at this range -- better than I had ever managed before. But wait! They're still coming at me! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif In fact, they're getting too close for this lense! Holy Cow!!! They're coming out of the water! Do geese eat people!!???

Well, I'm not sure who was stalking who in the long run, but I now have some mighty fine pictures of geese. I've been referring to these fellers as Canadian -- can anybody out there tell from the attached pictures if in fact, that's what they are?

 

[Bird]

Harv, they sure look like what we call Canadian Geese around here.

Bird

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: Wild Goose Photos

Harv,

Booya /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif! to the Canadian Geese ID! Nice shots!



The GlueGuy

 

[Thomas]

Harv,
Its been said that Cand,geese mate for life and looks like you have a newly weds. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Bird]

I don't know a lot about the Canadian Goose migration patterns. We have lots of ducks, of different varieties, on the stock ponds, lakes, and creeks around here, but in the 6 years I've been here, I hadn't seen a single goose until about a month ago on my way to town there was a flock of them (I'd guess maybe 200) in a field between here and town. Of course I've seen lots of them on the Texas coast and in Alaska, but the biggest flock I've ever seen was in a field in Greenlawn on Long Island about 21-22 years ago. I sure never expected to see that.

Bird

 

[Thomas]

A flock of geese to us up here means spring on the way /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gifthan a flock of geese in the autumn means time for hibernation. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Ever seen a flock of snow geese in late autumn,now thats a sight to see when there flying against a blue sky line.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[jimmoore]

Harv, The Arkansas Game & Fish realeased about 35 or 40 Canada geese here in our City pond and they stay here year round. They even nest here. They built nest platfords about 4 feet above the ground for them to protect the nesting hens from pedators. I will try to get some pics when they start nesting.

jim