I really could use a nice spider in my room - I just had another run-in with a clothing moth, and I only manage to kill those buggers about half the time...
As for the garden in the back of our row house - it's usually all cats, dogs, birds and sometimes a rabbit or two...
You know, you shouldn't just kill the pesky little bugs. You should set them free. How would you like it if a giant moth or spider came up to you and said 'Ugh! I'm not having that roam about in my home!' and then squashed you flat. Personally 'petrified' is the word that comes to my mind now that I've written this...
I don't have pictures of it, but there is a scary malevolant creature living near our house.
It's very violent and very, very disturbed.
The neighbours claim it to be an illusion, a myth.
I know better.
We used to have two rabbits, living in a cage in our backyard.
One night, it was probably full moon, a terrible sound filled the air and the moon turned red.
I never saw or heard these things, since I was asleep.
But the next day... the rabbits... were gone.
The only thing we found were scratchmarks and a little bit of fur...
After that we got two new rabbits, and we monster-proved the cage.
Alas, it was not to be... It wasn't long before the terrible sound filled the damp night air again and the moon turned black (all of which I didn't notice again.)
The next day... the rabbits... were dead... or at least... what was left of them...
We never did buy new rabbits. Though we did adopt one from another family.
He was tough this one, he was tougher then the toughest, harder then the hardest.
He could pull a whole carrot through the little iron bars in his cage.
I called him Rambo. I never dared to pet Rambo, for fear of my hand or limbs.
I thought, if anyone could survive another attack from the beast, it would be Rambo.
Alas, I was wrong again.
The sound of battle raged through the night sky and the moon turned red again, but because of the sight of the onslaught it turned kinda pale, so it looked more pinkish...
The next day... Rambo... was gone...
We found his body behind the barn... He had struggled to survive, and was still in one piece. Brave Rambo, the beast never got his soul...
We never had rabbits again. We never heard of the beast again either.
Though sometimes... when I come home late at night... I still pretend I can hear it howling... howling for the lost soul... of Rambo...
A part of this story is absolutely true!
(The rest is for dramatic effect.)
One of my rabbits was eaten from the inside out by raccoons. Seriously. There was nothing left but skin and a few bones.
Another of my rabbits got attacked by raccoons, but put up a huge fight and survived, albeit with lots of scars and one of his eyes was almost gouged out, but we managed to save it. I kinda hate raccoons.
As you can see, it is a red squirrel, which are more common here, as the grey ones have not yet started to multiply in our region.
Now I wish we had red squirrels here, that picture is adorable.
We've had this groundhog (or maybe a family of groundhogs, but we only ever see one at a time) living under our garden shed for several years. Sorry for the blurry photos, I had to take them extremely zoomed in through a screen window.
I love this one with the leaf in its mouth.
We've also had several raccoon sightings at night, but I haven't been able to get any photos of them.
Two years ago a squirrel started building a hide-out in one of our flower boxes on our balcony.
[...]
As you can see, it is a red squirrel, which are more common here, as the grey ones have not yet started to multiply in our region.
Ohhh, that is just gorgeous! They look like such sweet little things, you're so lucky.
No pictures unfortunately, but I have an amusing story.
This happened some years ago during summer. My younger brother and I were home alone and we had the door to the veranda open because the weather was nice. We hear the cat entering from outside, mewing in that particular way that means that she brought us a "gift". Uh-oh.
The cat drops her prey on the living room floor, a small lizard which is missing its tail and bleeding a bit, but is still very much alive. The lizard naturally tries to escape and darts around on the floor, between our feet and under the furniture. After a few seconds it is suddenly just gone. Not even the cat saw where it disappeared to.
Trying to find it so I can get rid of it, I bend down to check under a sofa. As I put my knee on the floor, I feel it touch something soft... I look down, but there's nothing there. What's going on?
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I reach down to touch my knee. I feel something soft though the fabric of my pants. As I touch it, it moves slightly.
I have never, before or since, gotten out of a pair of pants so quickly.
Of course, it was the lizard. I had run up my leg on the inside of my pants, and found the perfect hiding place! It had startled me quite a bit, but it made my day (once my heart stopped racing)
Took a couple of photos of some birds sitting on the powerlines outside my house. Unfortunately my camera zoom is crap, so I've added an inset of someone else's decent photos of these 2 species.
Firstly, the Shining Cuckoo. A migratory bird that comes here to breed in the spring. It heads off to the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands for the winter.
as an owner of a tiny defenseless rabbit, this made me sad.
Get a defense...full rabbit! I had one--he bit everyone that went close to him and lived to an extreme old age, even with raccoons and cats in the backyard.
We don't get much wildlife in our garden apart from the occasional bird (sparrows, robins & tits) and next doors cat, so heres a picture of my rabit in a furnace
I've got no pictures of my own, but I thought I'd pop in and say I'm loving all the (non-spider) pictures. Especially the squirrels, those critters are just awesome.
Oh man, I saw an awesome animated gif recently. It had a GIANT SPIDER and it was being swarmed by enough smaller spiders to have their tiny little bodies completely cover every bit of the large spider's body. I don't know if they were baby spiders swarming and eating their mother(as I think at least some spiders are wont to do), but it looked amazing.
For the sake of my mental state, please never embed that image here. I just had to cover the screen when scrolling past jp-30's images. Eww.
I drank a mug of tea today, and it wasn't until I reached the bottom that I realised there was a dead moth in it.
Class.
Did you keep the moth?
I once pulled out a branched out artery (about four inches long) from a burrito. I wanted to keep it (:Dbiologist:D) but my roommate was so grossed out that I had to throw it away.
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.
And another one in the courtyard - better colouring.
I was searching through some of my old photos and came across this picture. I had forgotten I had encountered this strange thing! If your name is Avistew, or you are someone else who really hates spiders then WARNING SPIDER PICTURE COMING UP LOOK AWAY NOW. You'll only give yourself nightmares. For everyone else, I promise this photo is unedited in any way (I wouldn't know where to begin), but there is an explanation which I have provided at the bottom of the photo.
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It's actually something like three or four spiders sitting on top of each other. It gave me the fright of my life when they all split up and walked in different directions. I've never run so fast!
Definitely my neighbors in the mornings and day time with that little runt they got next door. I think he runs that joint, he makes the strangest calls to us. He's a real wild thing, a blend of nature's most resilient. I think he's more than they can handle, when he speaks up the whole neighborhood knows who's in town!
We see many quail and turkeys around our house east of San Francisco.
We also see deer, foxes, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, skunks and cows. There have also been cougar sightings near us - one lived behind the middle school, which had a good, strong fence.
mjt - I like how in one photo there are all those cute little quails lined up on the stair rail, then in the next there are two big ugly turkeys trying to pull the same trick, and failing to look cute at all.
I haven't seen avistew post on here in a while. I think the spider photos scared her away.
Well even if Avistew left there are a lot more lurkers with spider phobias.
@jeeno0142
Thank you for posting that warning! I really appreciate it. I'm not as grossed out by them as I used to be, but they still give me the creeps and nightmares sometimes.
Here's a picture of a praying mantis. I usually see them greener than this, but this one was brown. They kill spiders, which is why they are my best friends. I saved a baby praying mantis I found on the beach once and transported it to a nice bush in my backyard.
Puzzlebox, that's just what I felt. I was washing the dishes when I suddenly realized there was something huge out there! I'd never seen the turkeys that close before. The quail are so cute and so intent on getting where they're going on their fast little feet. Then came the turkeys, big and ungainly with small heads and skinny, dinosaur legs.
Comments
As for the garden in the back of our row house - it's usually all cats, dogs, birds and sometimes a rabbit or two...
np: Blamstrain - Sun Dub (Red Green Blue)
It's very violent and very, very disturbed.
The neighbours claim it to be an illusion, a myth.
I know better.
We used to have two rabbits, living in a cage in our backyard.
One night, it was probably full moon, a terrible sound filled the air and the moon turned red.
I never saw or heard these things, since I was asleep.
But the next day... the rabbits... were gone.
The only thing we found were scratchmarks and a little bit of fur...
After that we got two new rabbits, and we monster-proved the cage.
Alas, it was not to be... It wasn't long before the terrible sound filled the damp night air again and the moon turned black (all of which I didn't notice again.)
The next day... the rabbits... were dead... or at least... what was left of them...
We never did buy new rabbits. Though we did adopt one from another family.
He was tough this one, he was tougher then the toughest, harder then the hardest.
He could pull a whole carrot through the little iron bars in his cage.
I called him Rambo. I never dared to pet Rambo, for fear of my hand or limbs.
I thought, if anyone could survive another attack from the beast, it would be Rambo.
Alas, I was wrong again.
The sound of battle raged through the night sky and the moon turned red again, but because of the sight of the onslaught it turned kinda pale, so it looked more pinkish...
The next day... Rambo... was gone...
We found his body behind the barn... He had struggled to survive, and was still in one piece. Brave Rambo, the beast never got his soul...
We never had rabbits again. We never heard of the beast again either.
Though sometimes... when I come home late at night... I still pretend I can hear it howling... howling for the lost soul... of Rambo...
A part of this story is absolutely true!
(The rest is for dramatic effect.)
Another of my rabbits got attacked by raccoons, but put up a huge fight and survived, albeit with lots of scars and one of his eyes was almost gouged out, but we managed to save it. I kinda hate raccoons.
This reads like creepypasta. I approve.
And personally, I draw the friend/foe line at bugs that want to munch down my clothes... :mad:
np: OSC - Tundra I (Tundra I-VII)
Two years ago a squirrel started building a hide-out in one of our flower boxes on our balcony.
Here's one of the pics:
As you can see, it is a red squirrel, which are more common here, as the grey ones have not yet started to multiply in our region.
We've had this groundhog (or maybe a family of groundhogs, but we only ever see one at a time) living under our garden shed for several years. Sorry for the blurry photos, I had to take them extremely zoomed in through a screen window.
I love this one with the leaf in its mouth.
We've also had several raccoon sightings at night, but I haven't been able to get any photos of them.
Ohhh, that is just gorgeous! They look like such sweet little things, you're so lucky.
And that's a great photo too.
This happened some years ago during summer. My younger brother and I were home alone and we had the door to the veranda open because the weather was nice. We hear the cat entering from outside, mewing in that particular way that means that she brought us a "gift". Uh-oh.
The cat drops her prey on the living room floor, a small lizard which is missing its tail and bleeding a bit, but is still very much alive. The lizard naturally tries to escape and darts around on the floor, between our feet and under the furniture. After a few seconds it is suddenly just gone. Not even the cat saw where it disappeared to.
Trying to find it so I can get rid of it, I bend down to check under a sofa. As I put my knee on the floor, I feel it touch something soft... I look down, but there's nothing there. What's going on?
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I reach down to touch my knee. I feel something soft though the fabric of my pants. As I touch it, it moves slightly.
I have never, before or since, gotten out of a pair of pants so quickly.
Of course, it was the lizard. I had run up my leg on the inside of my pants, and found the perfect hiding place!
Took a couple of photos of some birds sitting on the powerlines outside my house. Unfortunately my camera zoom is crap, so I've added an inset of someone else's decent photos of these 2 species.
Firstly, the Shining Cuckoo. A migratory bird that comes here to breed in the spring. It heads off to the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands for the winter.
And secondly the rather lovely Kingfisher.
Both these birds are also found in Australia and the South Pacific islands.
as an owner of a tiny defenseless rabbit, this made me sad.
Get a defense...full rabbit! I had one--he bit everyone that went close to him and lived to an extreme old age, even with raccoons and cats in the backyard.
and a sea serpent in my pool. his name's Jerome.
For the sake of my mental state, please never embed that image here. I just had to cover the screen when scrolling past jp-30's images. Eww.
np: Flying Lotus - Table Tennis (ft. Laura Darlington) (Cosmogramma)
And our Swan Plants were swarming with Monarch Caterpillars a couple of months back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_%28butterfly%29
EDIT: Sorry, i'm blind. I've just spotted the link to wikipedia that shows that it is in fact that type of butterfly they'll all become.
Class.
Egh! I bet you don't count that in your top 10 moments in life.
Did you keep the moth?
I once pulled out a branched out artery (about four inches long) from a burrito. I wanted to keep it (:Dbiologist:D) but my roommate was so grossed out that I had to throw it away.
Kids found this near-dead Puriri Moth last month. 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.
And another one in the courtyard - better colouring.
Teacup not included.
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Safe to look again.
We also see deer, foxes, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, skunks and cows. There have also been cougar sightings near us - one lived behind the middle school, which had a good, strong fence.
Well even if Avistew left there are a lot more lurkers with spider phobias.
@jeeno0142
Thank you for posting that warning! I really appreciate it. I'm not as grossed out by them as I used to be, but they still give me the creeps and nightmares sometimes.
Here's a picture of a praying mantis. I usually see them greener than this, but this one was brown. They kill spiders, which is why they are my best friends. I saved a baby praying mantis I found on the beach once and transported it to a nice bush in my backyard.
I managed to take a picture of the male: