Urban Wildlife

Somebody had this going in previous forums. I can't remember if
it wa Warrior NY or Loveskitties. So I that I would bring it
back here.

Our urban wildlife lately has consisted of a skunk who keeps getting into our garbage bins. I've repeatedly run into it and so far have been spared being sprayed.

it must be skunk season.....probably trying to fatten up before the winter..i've smelled a skunk a couple times around here. not always at night either!
there's a some ground hogs who live where i walk past coming home. one lives in a big dirt pile they made when they've been working on the road.scared the crap out of me one day when i almost tripped over him running past me!

Imagine how scared he must've been nearly getting tripped over. To be running past you in broad daylight something else scared him but good.

My downstairs neighbor put up two birdfeeders: one for the wrens in the yard off a shepherd's hook, and a hummie feeder hanging right on the rafters of the porch (directly under my balcony). I've yet to spot any hummies in my yard though, only at Brads.

well, he was either running across the turnpike or he was eating something in the grass between the road and the sidewalk.
ground hogs are out in the daytime around here all the time. though he shoulda been in the wooded area to keep cool that day.it was in the same area that i sometimes see deer...only the deer are farther from the road. (I will not speak of the poor deer i almost tripped over a couple weeks ago...that poor deer was nowhere near the wooded area though. i wish driving idiots would heed the deer crossing signs!).

I have some friends who live about a mile from me - they had trouble recently with a groundhog - decided to trap it (they have a Have-A-Heart trap, they use it to "protect" their vegetable garden) - Mary was watching the trap when a SKUNK!!! was about to enter a set off the trap - fortunately skunk went off with tripping the trap - we weren't sure how it would have reacted to trapping, transporting to another location, and releasing - that might have been INTERESTING!

Hey - I just noticed - my message count is only 16 - I was over 100 before - WHAT HAPPENED????

Jim, and Vic

You know I think I would have just opened the trap and
hot wired the garden. I don't know, I've noticed that on certain
topics that I have marked as to watch I don't get e-mail notification
on.

geez, i'm sure there must be a way to transport a skunk but i've never thought about it. if it ever did happen i guess the best thing would be to call whatever dept (i don't know...fish and wildlife dept?)

hmm...haven't been looking at my post amounts..will look at them tonight and see if anything weird is going on with them.

I've had two skunk 'smellings' the past two nights in a row. Really puts a crimp on my plans to let the cooler air in overnight.

Saw 3 deer in the yard at the school Sunday am just before sunup. Won't be too long and we'll be seeing the bucks too.

that's where i see most of the deer around here...around the school. there's wooded area about 3/4 around the middle school here.

I see them sometimes in my own back yard too. There's a patch of woods just behind Taylor Freezer, which is a block from me (I can see it from my balcony). I know the deer hang out in there since the river isn't too far past the edge of the woods.

I heard a rooster crowing this morning! So now I know the guy about a mile from me as the crow flies got himself a new rooster to go with his fancy pet chickens. No fence but they never leave his yard. My sister used to live about 3 blocks from him years ago when the kids were small.

Skunks are plentiful in Flint as well...saw them the last three mornings on my run. I think I'm doomed to get sprayed!

maybe Micheal Moore will make a movie about the Skunks of Flint! (that i'd like to see;) )

there's been a lot of news about people in NJ having chickens in their back yards...and of course a lot of folks in NY have them as well. nobody here has them...probably against the law here in the fancy shmancy town. would be nice to have a half dozen hens to have nice eggs you wouldn't have to worry about getting sick from!

This guy has some of the friendliest fancy chickens you'll ever meet. They will greet you at the sidewalk, but will not leave his property. Very pretty for chickens. I heard the rooster again this morning at sunup. Sounds pretty healthy to me.

Saw the neighborhood red-tailed hawk this morning on the hunt while I was at work.

wow that's really well trained foul!
i have a friend just over the border in upstate NYC who has some pretty odd chickens. (her daughter used to have them for 4 H projects).some of hers lay eggs that are so colorful you can use them for easter without dying them!

Yeah, I think this is the guy who occasionally donates eggs to the food pantry here. They're all sorts of colors.

he must have a lotta chickens if he has enough to donate! but that's a good idea!

I've seen at least a dozen or more in the front yard, no telling how many in the back with all the trees he has. But the pantry gets donations of fresh local eggs about 3 times a year.

My neighbor reported that a hummer got stuck in the hallway after I left in the morning Saturday. By the time I got home from the store that afternoon with mom it had already died from the heat and was buried.

we had 3 reptiles wandering around last week,including a a 2 foot caiman, and an iguana (Iguanas are on teh no pet list in New York City. it probably got too big for the cage and someone let it out. Same for the caiman., although some kids swore they saw it coming out of the sewer

did somebody catch those poor things and take them to a repile place? i know there's maybe two places here in NJ that take rescued thing like that. i can't remember their names but one has the word 'turtle' in it (though its not only turtles).

i'm afraid something died in the largest woods i walk past to get home. the last two times i've walked passed its smelled bad...when i was walking home last night it was reaaaallly nasty. (I hope in this heat that somebody has taken care of it, poor thing). haven't had any sightings though... just an...er... smelling

Try holding your breath when you walk past that patch of woods for about another week. Something might take care of whatever is causing that stench, then again it might be so bad not even a skunk would touch it.

the 3 reptiles were taken into custody of Animal care and control, and sent to a reptile preserve.

I was reading that a 4 foot alligator was found in front of a Middle school in Wayne Township NJ. He scooted into a storm drain but the police managed to round him up.

I saw a lil fat raccoon early this morning in the yard at the bank next door. Cute lil fellow.

They've been having Coyote problems in Rye, just north of the city. Some coyotes (or maybe jus the one) have been aggressively attacking people. One attachked a 13 year old boy, he chased it away and it later went after a 2 year old girl in her yard. The father got her away from it and ran it off, but all three were bitten.
The coyote was later captured but not before it bit the head off of one of it's own pups.
Tested protive for rabies. it was the first rabid coyote found and trapped in this area. Al the others were released in more rural areas.

We've also had a big raccoon problem in New York City. They have been doing an aggressive trap and vaccinate and release program in Manhattan, because alot of coons in Manhattan have turned out to be rabid. But in the other buroughs that make up NYC people have to trap and dispose of raccoons on their own which is discriminatory, since it costs alot to hire people to trap them, and in Manhattan it gets done by animal contol for nothing. also, when people have to "dispose of the critters"on their own they might not be so humane about it.