I’m joining Coco and Deborah and sharing a lot about the wildlife in our area recently.
If we were enjoying tea/coffee . . .
I’d tell you about the Merlin App. It’s so cool! You can record birds in your area, and it will show you what type of bird it is. After the first time it finds the bird, it will highlight the bird in yellow as it’s singing. It doesn’t require you to be running data either (although it does take up some phone space)!
If we were enjoying tea/coffee . . .
I’d tell you I was able to identify the Carolina Wrens that nested under our deck using Merlin. Man, for small birds they have surprisingly loud voices! Then they moved on. We never saw the chicks, but we had heard chirping (as did Bandit, who was constantly sniffing the deck for their nest below it).
If we were enjoying tea/coffee . . .
I’d tell you although I haven’t mentioned it, Albie (our resident Albino squirrel) is alive and well. We don’t see him often, but we have seen him several times. Only about 30% of white squirrels are Albinos, but we’re relatively certain Albie has red eyes, and that would make him an Albino. While apparently cats still see white squirrels as prey, hawks may not recognize them as food, which ups their chances of surviving.
If we were enjoying tea/coffee . . .
I’d tell you yesterday morning we saw two rabbits jumping over each other. I’ve never seen that! I assumed that it was either a mating ritual or fighting. I was right! Apparently they sometimes just jump around for play, too. Did you know they’re capable of jumping 9 feet into the air?
If we were enjoying tea/coffee . . .
I’d tell you while at my mom’s last week, a hornet got into her apartment. That’s never happened and she has no insect spray. We called maintenance; yeah, they never appeared. It seemed to really like her blinds. I kept an eye on it, and when it finally flew onto the porch door (after several hours), I opened the door and tried to shoo it out. It was having none of that.
Finally I kicked the damn thing out there & thankfully didn’t get stung. I knew I was never going to be able to sleep with that thing flying around, worrying about it stinging me in my sleep — as if I’d fall asleep under those conditions — because it was in the living room and that’s where I sleep!
Any interesting wildlife sightings lately?
Would you have kicked the hornet?
Ever had a rabbit as a pet? Not me. My mom didn’t like “rodents”.
Also linking up with:
Chocolaterunsjudy 
Nope. Nothing interesting here. Even when we went hiking on Monday we commented that we did not see any animals or birds.
I am enjoying the flowers. And the sunshine. And evening runs and walks.
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Animals are often out fairly early in the morning. They’re mostly wise enough to have a siesta midday.
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I see rabbits on my trail runs sometimes. I want to see one jump nine feet in the air!
That Merlin app is cool! I’m completely ignorant about birds- I should get it.
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To be clear, we didn’t see bunnies jumping that high. But I had just never seen that behavior before. Very strange!
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When I was a kid, we fostered an abandoned baby bunny for about a month. We had two large boxes taped together (which stood about 4-foot high), and that itty bitty little guy could jump out of that! I see a lot of chipmunks on the biking trails, and they are so cute!
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Sounds a lot like cats — they can jump up about 6’!
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We have tons of deer in our backyard and they are not scared or bothered by us at all. I think they are cute but they eat all of our flowers. We also have some cute little red fox that don’t bother me. That app sounds kind of cool-thanks for sharing
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We never had deer to a few years ago, but it’s usually only maybe once a year — and they are clearly lost, cause they’re running on through!
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I see some bunnies here and there while out running. I do wonder if it is the same one? I didn’t know about the cats and the squirrels. It is a good thing my cats do not go outside.
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I’ve never actually seen a cat with a squirrel though. My cats just had their outdoor kennel, so they didn’t roam. The6 we’re still good hunters in there, but never got a squirrel.
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We had two rabbits as pets when I was growing up. Flopsie and Mopsie. They didn’t seem to live very long, but they were cute. I’ve been enjoying the birds who come to our bird bath. A squirrel comes to drink as well. Haha!
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The birds love our fountains — which aren’t bird baths but they sure think they are. Squirrels & chipmunks too. Love the names of your rabbits!
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I will definitely check out that Merlin app! Especially for Wisconsin, where I hear birds that are different from here in Illinois. I have the Audubon app, but they don’t have that bird chirp feature. Thank you!
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It’s really cool. The birds are different just from here to my moms, too! Definitely will be interesting when we go somewhere.
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Nothing interesting since the deer I saw last weekend! Yikes on the hornet. I’m glad you got rid of it safely.
That app is so cool!
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We even id’d a bird from a photo my husband took in Merlin. It’s definitely fun!
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Ooo, that’s so cool! Great find for an app!
I’m glad Albie is still okay! Glad that they’re at least safe from hawks.
I probably would’ve tried to kick (or trap) the hornet — not sure what my success rate would’ve been though!
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I’ve been stung by hornets & it’s SO painful so happy I managed to “shoo” it outside.
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We have a bunny that has recently taken up residence in our side yard – so far my dog has not found him! Hopefully we can keep it that way 🙂
That Merlin app sounds pretty cool! We have so many different birds around – It would be nice to know which one is which.
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I hope your dog doesn’t find the bunny! Bunnies come into our yard to chow down. Bandit did inadvertently kill baby bunnies one year. I think he basically just “played” with them & scared them to death. 😔
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I’ve had no recent wildlife sightings but we have LOTS of birds around my house and they love singing very early in the morning…
Glad the hornet didn’t get you. Those things are the worst! I would’ve been too scared to try to kill it myself!
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I had to get rid of that hornet somehow! I’m actually pretty scared of them, having been stung multiple times several years ago.
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