USVI-On-Line

Nothing as striking as that fox... wow!
Just "Chip" at my WV country house in the mountains.

We have lived in this home for 34 years. So my first chipmunk! They are so funny. Way too much energy.

Living in the country we get lots of wildlife. fox, deer, heron,hawks, bear,mink.muskrat...loose cows ( there is a farm across the road...lol)

Here are a couple of my visitors that come most everyday, along with the normal squirrels, chipminks ,bunnies and snakes( Mostly garden, but we have a lot of them this year for some reason).





Sorry they are so big

We once counted 30 moose on our 11-mile rural drive to work. They are abundant in the spring. A few years ago we had 12' of snow. That definitely took a toll on the population, but they seem to be coming back. You can hear them chewing wood while you sit in the hot tub in the dark! We've had recess cancelled because of moose on the playground. They are HUGE and VERY dangerous.

We saw a great horned owl the other day. We've only seen one bear in the yard, but have seen lots of scat. We live on a lake on 4 acres. I guess we don't see a ton of wildlife because there are so many places for them to go. We did see 2 river otters on the salmon stream nearby our house. Very cool!

This off topic forum is fun...first time I have visited.

Sea grape
We have a mother bear in our neighborhood that is now had her second set of cubs. The funny story about this year my neighbor hollers to me from across the street that mama bear was on the other side of my house with her two babies. I run around to see her then run inside to get my camera so I could post it on the forum. I run out the back door and start running towards the woods to get a picture! I suddenly stop realizing idiot you’re running towards a bear with cubs and turned around and went on my deck hoping for a picture. Around here bears are trained that birdfeeders has sunflower seeds and they go after them by whatever means necessary. My neighbor has had two birdfeeders on top of metal poles that were bent over so that the bear could get sunflower seeds.
I have seen a moose track on our property about eight years ago. Moose are having a hard time in southern New Hampshire. Whitetail deer have a parasite in their droppings that the moose eat. This parasite attacks their brains and you know the rest.
Out of curiosity yesterday I googled big Lake and look at the aerial photograph of your area (I used to be a topographic surveyor in the Army and love looking at aerial maps) the current Google map of your Lake still shows the ice roads leading to the individual houses around the Lake looks like a beautiful area. What’s the race course near the Marina used for cars or snowmobiles? You can see I can read a lot from maps in the day I could take a standard topographic map and use it to navigate through a German city.
And welcome to the off-topic forum

The town bears, they walked acrossed our yard a couple of times this year

http://merrimack.patch.com/groups/aroun ... -the-bears

about a mile from our house, the cubs have grown in the last year
http://merrimack.patch.com/groups/aroun ... wsRef=true

Our neighbor flock of over 20 turkeys wanted to partake in one last swim before the pool closes for the season


It's turkey time by SHOEMAK38, on Flickr

Red-shouldered Hawk August 30, 2014



corrected from Red-tailed Hawk to Red-shouldered Hawk.
Thank you, PA Girl!

We have lots of turkeys as well. I love watching them. "Our" poults have grown so much since spring. My husband used to feed them until a family of bears paid us a visit.

Iprof - I think that is a red-shouldered hawk. Do you live in the woods? We have a nesting pair of red-shoulders that look just like the one in your picture.

PA Girl, you are so right! It is the Red-shouldered Hawk! For years I was told Red-tailed but had looked it up and knew the correct ID, but I had forgotten. (Old habits when you are old!)

We live in the semi-country on an acre and a half that backs on a wooded area. This guy is often around and is not very afraid of us. After several tree poses he flew to the ground right in front of me.

DSCN0049

My son is a budding falconer and I also have been bitten by the bug.

I asked about your location because red-shoulder hawks like wooded areas. We have about an acre of mowed grass and ours skirt around the edges, sitting in the trees bordering the yard.

Ours are particularly active in the morning. I like to get up before everyone else and spy on them through the binoculars.

Cornell University has an excellent bird identification site if you are into that sort of thing.

Good Morning PAGirl and Iprof
That is a very stunning picture of a red shouldered Hawk never knew there were two types of been calling the nesting pair in our neighborhood red tailed now stand corrected. All the wild turkeys in New Hampshire came from approximately 30 pair shipped up from West Virginia back in the early 70s.

Have a funny bear story for you were driving to a local farm stand last Sunday in the convertible with the top down and saw all these cars stopped about a half-mile away from the entrance to the Merrimack premium outlets. There is the bear at the side of the road watching all the cars go by so I slow down as we drive by the bear (within 20 feet) and my wife says stop putting on the brakes the bear will charge us. We both had a great laugh on that comment

image by SHOEMAK38, on Flickr