Quadsville

Posted by: Adam Peters on January 8, 2009 11:21AM CST My grandma taught me how to bird watch at a small age. Her favorite bird was the cardinal. She would have loved to see that picture. I've had some really fun wildlife experiences lately... since moving to my grandm'a farm... I've had a beautiful red fox run across the yard, a big burly owl wake me up with it's hooting at 4:30 AM every day, and a HUGE bald eagle fly very low over my car! Foxes, and Owls, and Eagles... OH MY!

Posted by: Mayor Melissa on January 8, 2009 11:32AM CST Awesome. I had a really cool run-in with a deer out in Goose Lake, IA, when I was housesitting. It came up into the yard at dusk. I was standing on the porch. We just stared at each other and then he started jumping around and making a weird, loud noise that was a cross between a bleat and a moo. I don't even know how to describe it. Keening is probably the closest I could come. It was a cool experience. Have you seen "Doubt," Adam?

Posted by: Adam Peters on January 8, 2009 12:00PM CST I have seen "Doubt". Christmas day I went and saw it. (although I wanted to see "Frost / Nixon"... but they won't release it around here until after the Oscars most likely.) It was a fantastic movie. I also saw "The Mysterious Case Of Benjamin Button" which was okay... very "Forrest Gump"-ish... and "The Reader", which EVERYONE should see.

Posted by: Penelope on January 8, 2009 1:08PM CST Deer will also snort, it is realy funny to hear when they do it too.

Posted by: Penelope on January 8, 2009 2:08PM CST I think one of the cutest animals I have seen here is a baby porkeypine( I can't spell). He was in the dog-run with the dogs, after their food!He couldn't shoot his quills yet, he was so small.I had to shoo him out of the pen with a broom.

Posted by: Watchfulmom on January 8, 2009 2:28PM CST January is a good month for us to take the kids and head out to the cabin with their ice skates while we eagle watch. Owl, fox, deer, kids squealing with glee....makes for great times.

Posted by: Goodbye on January 8, 2009 2:43PM CST I posted a few photos of wildlife encounters for fun: 1. A takeoff on the multi-sex Cardinal pictures. This one is fake, of course. http://my.quadsville.com/post/Volunteer/photos/cardinals_mixed_up.html 2. A couple of fawns that hung around the yard last spring. http://my.quadsville.com/post/Volunteer/photos/fawns_grass_3.html 3. Elephants in Tanzania, huddling up to protect the babies from a lion in the background. http://my.quadsville.com/post/Volunteer/photos/elephantslion_2.html

Posted by: Chowdogz on January 8, 2009 3:13PM CST A year ago in Wild Cat Den State Park, I took a walk that started at the bottom of the rocks and towards the top. I ended up in one of the parking areas. I had been looking down at my feet to be sure of my footing and when I looked up there were antlered deer and does just standing there looking at me. There were about 7 of them total and some were within 5 steps of me. We all just stood there looking at each other and then they obviously decided that I wasn't much to look at so they just walked away. That was as close as I got to wild deer in my life!

Posted by: alertreader on January 8, 2009 3:20PM CST There is nothing more beautiful than the male cardinal against the fresh fallen snow. I feed the birds and see a lot of different ones but my favorite are the hummingbirds. I have a Audubon pocket guide that was my moms, she made a list of the ones she saw in the Pensacola area and I am starting the list of what I see here. I love the indigo buntings too and the orioles.

Posted by: Teenager on January 8, 2009 9:19PM CST The gender confused cardinal pictures were so cool! It's funny to see that something like that can happen. What a rare thing ... Alert: No kidding, I love seeing cardinals in winter, they are beyond beautiful!! I also love seeing the first robin of spring, I always keep an eye out and celebrate when I see one! Usually happens to be really early though, when we still have a few weeks of wintery weather.

Posted by: reuther on January 9, 2009 11:19AM CST Probably the neatest bird I've experience of is the dipper. I saw the bird when we vacationed in Colorado in a cabin on the Big Thompson River. As I recall, it is shaped like the nuthatch (the one that you sometimes see upside down on tree trunks). The dipper stands on the bottom of swift cold mountain streams and feeds there on what-I-don't-know, if that makes sense written as one would describe it in conversation.

Posted by: reuther on January 9, 2009 11:27AM CST With reference to Linda Cook and her reviews, she is featured as a "blurb" on the cover of the DVD she reviewed some long time ago about the Ioway Indians. She gave it maximum 4 stars. It's an awesome film. I join her in recommending it. About "The Ioway: Lost Nation" she said "'Ioway' is perfectly complete...another fantastic documentary from Kelly and Tammy Rundle." Not adventure, a work of art.

Posted by: Deirdre Cox Baker on January 9, 2009 1:12PM CST About wildlife: I live in rural Scott County, and feed birds regularly, especially because I like to see cardinals, blue jays, and others of various colors. I was cleaning out our back patio recently as it contained a lot of spilled seed and hulls. As I swept, a small dark grey/black furry animal scurried away. I think it was a baby mole, but a neighbor suggested a vole. I have no clue as to its precise nature, but that was my latest experience.

Posted by: reuther on January 9, 2009 1:57PM CST Adam - Similar experience here with the owl but not everyday. He could be out there everyday, but I hear him only when I can't sleep and move to the living room to read before daybreak. It could be he investigates the light. We used to have barred owls in the timber in the hollow below our house, and I loved to listen to their sonorous 'Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" calling at dusk.

Posted by: Sweet Old Thing on January 10, 2009 10:45PM CST Gracious, I live in the middle of Moline and there are deer, fox, coyotes, oppossums, skunks, raccoons, hawks, turkey buzzards, eagles, and owls in my back yard. One big old buck thought my 5 foot fence was a 4 foot fence. He tried to jump it landed on his back side, and bent the fence. He cleared it the second time. The reason for the fence is to keep the coyotes out. There is so much more around us than we really see sometimes. I have noticed our city deer tend to check for traffic before they cross the street, but don't trust them.

Posted by: Penelope on January 11, 2009 7:53AM CST We see the coyotes here too, and we have red fox. They like Cheeto's,lol.

Posted by: reuther on January 11, 2009 5:25PM CST About the vole: we had a little black rodent down the basement I took for a shrew after first thinking it was a big black spider (it was that small). I managed to put a wastepaper can over it and slide a flat cookie sheet under, and I carried it out into the country and let it go. We flushed a mole out of its hole by running water in the opening and caught him the same way walking soaking wet down the drive. I drove him out to the country also. Right now we have a mouse in the garage and have ordered some humane traps out of a catalogue. He ate a hole in the seal beneath the garage door to get in.

Posted by: reuther on January 12, 2009 8:13AM CST My great horned owl was outside my window again at 0430, hooting. I don't know if he was the assassin or the dogs, but I found a rabbit that had fallen prey in the snow in the backyard when the dogs refused to come in when I called for them and I went out in the early morning darkness. Surely the owl would have carried the animal off, unless the dogs interrupted him. Sad way to begin the day. I recently read that among some Native Americans it is believed that indwelling in the owl ofttimes is the soul of a man who is not replaced after death by another adopted into the family. The adoption releases the soul of the deceased.