#back-yard-wild-kingdom — Public Fediverse posts

Street Legal

I just spent an hour and a half or so at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. The dreaded RMV.

My drivers license expired on my birthday, two days ago. I needed to renew it (which could be done online) and I also needed to upgrade to the stupid fascist federal RealID card bullshit (which could not be done online). I had an appointment for 3:30 so I was able to get into the office, but the lines were long and I didn’t actually get into to do my business until around 4:30. Once I was at the window though it went off without a hitch.

When I got home, there was a visitor standing next to our driveway.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54509381147/in/datetaken/

#BackYardWildKingdom #driversLicense #iphoneography #Massachusetts #photography #realId #realid #registryOfMotorVehicles #rmv #turkey

Bird

One of the cats was sitting in the window next to my desk, just watching the goings on in the backyard. All of a sudden she FREAKED OUT and ran away. A few minutes later I noticed this:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54466313014

Coincidence?

#BackYardWildKingdom #BackyardWildKingdom #bird #hawk #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photography #z5

What Are They Looking At

There were two turkeys right outside the window. One of them kept puffing up its feathers and making all sorts of noise.

The cats sat in front of the open window, about 10 feet from these gigantic birds…

and their attention was absolutely NOT drawn to it at all. They were looking off to the left when the turkey was sitting off to the right. What were the cats staring at so intently? What was holding their attention? I don’t know. I saw a squirrel run past from that direction, but they didn’t move their heads to follow it. They just kept staring in that same direction. There has to be something out there that is fascinating them.

https://flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54460610760/in/datetaken/

#BackYardWildKingdom #Cat #iphoneography #Kitty #lily #photography #robin

Overkill

I feel like I over did it a smidge.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54454343705/in/datetaken/

#backYardBirdFeeder #BackYardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #iphoneography #photography

Baffle

I saw how the squirrels are getting around the anti-squirrel baffle I have on my bird feeder rig. I looked out the window just in time to see one of those little rodent pricks simply jump over it. I had been trying to imagine some complicated method they were using to thwart my defenses and it was just an athletic little sucker jumping really high. Asshole.

I went outside and raised it up quite a bit. Hopefully that will be enough. We’ll see.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54425291235/in/datetaken/

#backyardBirdFeeders #BackyardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #iphoneography #photography #squirrel

Dinner Time

I filled the bird feeders this morning before I started work. Look at me just ringing that dinner bell for all of the birds. Also for the squirrels. I’ve seen one little bastard get around my anti-squirrel baffle. I don’t know how the little shit managed it but now I need to invest in a gun*.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54415670020/in/datetaken/

*I am kidding. I am not planning on shooting any squirrels. If there is a zombie apocalypse and I need to eat squirrels to survive then I reserve the right to change my stance. Until then, however, I will just hate those little rodent fuckers from afar.

#backyardBirdFeeders #BackyardWildKingdom #bird #birdFeeder #birds #photography

We had a visitor in the back yard.

https://flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/53911405927/in/datetaken/

I opened the window so I could take a picture and the cats came-a-runnin’.

https://flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/53912542563/in/datetaken/

https://flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/53912647019/in/datetaken/

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/08/09/animals/

#BackyardWildKingdom #Cat #Deer #Kitty #lily #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photography #robin #z5

Our back yard visitors from the other day left a present.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/20/you-turkey-10/

#365 #365Challenge #BackyardWildKingdom #iphoneography #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography #turkey

That’s a joke that never gets old.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/18/you-turkeys-3/

#365 #365Challenge #BackyardWildKingdom #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography #turkey #turkeys

The weather held long enough for me to cook dinner on the grill. Jen marinated some chicken and I cooked it. I consulted The Google to know how long to cook it and the suggestion I went with was much too short a time, but I rolled with it and it looks good now.

The whole time I was outside, I had this cat up at the top of a tree eyeing me.

He or she was sitting in that spot when I first went out to turn on the grill, and he or she was still there when I packed up and went back inside about half an hour later.

You could say that he or she was watching me… watching me like a hawk.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/04/watching-me-like-a/

#BackyardWildKingdom #bird #chickenOnTheGrill #cookout #gasGrill #hawk #Holiday #iphoneography #photography #predator #raptor

I moved the squirrel baffle higher up on the bird feeder pole. Let’s hope that stops the little bastards from getting to the bird feeders. I’ve seen a squirrel get past the baffle four times, but I have never actually caught them in the act to see how they are getting around it. I am hoping it was just too close to the ground and they could somehow jump over it. We’ll see.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/07/02/squirrels-suck/

#BackyardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #iphoneography #photography #squirrelsSuck

I just ate lunch. I’m wrapping up my lunch break with a little brain dump.

One of the worst parts of the whole gastric bypass post-op/lifetime recovery is that after I eat I have to wait 60 minutes before I can take a drink. It’s been two minutes since I finished eating and I am dying for a glass of water right now. It’s going to be a long hour, kids. A long hour indeed.

One of the bird feeders I filled this morning is 2/3 empty right now. It’s been six hours. Calm down, birds. You’re going to be as fat as I used to be and you’re going to need stomach surgery like I did. You try flying when you weigh 452 pounds. I bet you can’t do it.

The next scheduled band practice is Sunday. I don’t know what we’re planning on focusing on, but I don’t care. I want to play loud. I haven’t played at all since the last practice, three weeks ago, because I am conducting a creativity experiment. Also because I am lazy, but the experiment is a thing. The 50 songs in 90 days challenge thingie starts next week (on the 4th of July). The last few years I have worked on some sort of writing/recording project just prior to the start of the 50/90. This year I wanted to avoid any attempts at writing anything in the hopes that maybe my hypothetical creativity reserve tank would fill itself up during the break. I don’t know if that’s a thing or not or is it just something I made up out of laziness. We’ll find out starting next Thursday, I guess.

The weather forecast at the ocean at sunrise tomorrow looks good. I was thinking of taking a camera or two to the coast and grabbing some sunrise shots. I mentioned it on threads and someone I don’t know in the real world sort of invited himself to join me… and now I don’t wanna go. No. No social interactions, please. Pretty please. I just want to be left alone, thank you. I’ll probably stay home and watch the blue jays inhale the bird seed at an alarming rate.

Hey, check it out. Next week is a four day work week thanks to the holiday on the 4th of July. The week after that is a three day week because I took two days off to celebrate my 20th work anniversary. One of those days will see me out shooting photos somewhere. The ocean, around my town, Boston… all of the above? I need to find more lighthouses. The one on Plum Island is the closest, but it’s kinda boring. It’s not even on the water. I’ll figure something out.

Uh oh… when I went to my Flickr account to grab the above photo I think I discovered that they have rewritten the album pages and I don’t think I like it. Sure, I have only spent about three seconds looking at it, but first impression is… uh oh.

Okay, back to work with you, Robert. 2.5ish hours left in the work week.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/28/random-thoughts-on-a-friday-lunch-break/

#5090Challenge #BackyardWildKingdom #BandPractice #birdFeeder #birds #CoverBand #filmPhotograohy #Flickr #health #introvert #kodakPortra800 #lighthouse #lizardfish #Music #Ocean #Pentax #PentaxK1000

I just saw some backyard wild kingdom violence. Well… it was mostly over by the time I looked outside, but I saw a little of the aftermath.

I have the window open in my home office room. I heard a bang outside followed by lots of angry bird noise. I looked outside and…

…right in front of my window was a hawk standing on the ground eating a fresh kill. I think the fresh kill was a sparrow. It was tough to say. I thought maybe a chipmunk at first but it was definitely a small bird. I reached for my phone to take a picture but the hawk and it’s lunch flew away into the woods.

I guess we’ll have to settle for a cat photo as my photo a day shot.

This was taken before the murder. Robin had left by the time the horror went down.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/27/backyard-violence/

#365 #365Challenge #BackyardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #Cat #iphoneography #Kitty #lunch #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography #redTailHawk #robin #violence

I wrote about the karmic retribution I witnessed on the morning commute today, but I have yet to write about the other thing that happened during my drive to work.

I’ve yet to write about the frog.

On two past occasions, we have somehow found a tiny little frog hanging out in our house. Once our former cat, the late great Miss Patches, cornered a frog in the living room. Years later our current pair o’ kitties cornered a frog in the hallway between the living room and the bedrooms.

A little research lead me to believe that the frogs are a tree climbing variety of froggers who climbed a tree next to our house and then came inside via the chimney through the fireplace. Seems logical.

This morning while I was in the car stuck in traffic on route 93 South Jen called me. She was calling to let me know that the cats, Miss Robin and Miss Lily had once again cornered a frog. This time in the dining room. They had it underneath a piece of furniture where it was paralyzed with fear. It would hop a little, the cats would freak out, it would freeze. This repeated itself a couple of times.

Jen wasn’t sure what to do. I said to see if she could cover it with a bowl or a box or something. She was already thinking the same thing. She didn’t think she’d be able to do anything with it if she trapped it. She has a bad back and leaning over to scoop up a tiny amphibian would be difficult for her. I said to cover it with a bowl and leave it and I’d get rid of it when I got home.

Fast forward 11 hours and I come home to find a bowl flipped upside down on the dining room floor. I cut a piece of cardboard off of a box and slid it under the bowl and walked it outside. I flipped it over to see if I had anyone with me and sure enough there was a tiny little frog in the bowl. I let him go in the front yard. It’s very likely he will be eaten by some predator tonight, but it’s equally likely he will climb a tree and hide out and be safe. Assuming of course that he is not so traumatized by the experience that he just sits there in the grass in a state of utter shock.

However it turns out for our froggie little roommate, he was alive when I left him. Everything else that happens now is out of our hands.

Good luck, my hoppy little friend.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/26/froggie/

#BackyardWildKingdom #Family #frog #frogger #froggie #frogs #homeOwner

The bird feeders are full again. It only took them a few days to blow through four whole bird feeders worth of seeds. That probably means I am going to slow down on the feeder fillings in the near future. For today though, we’re full once more.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/24/seeds/

#BackyardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #birdfeeder #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photography #z5

Woke up to this scene in the backyard:

Musta been a big critter. Is a deer big enough to do that? Probably. My first thought, and Jen’s first thought too, was a bear… I don’t think we have bears around here. I’m 99.999% sure we don’t. Still… a bear would be big enough. I’m probably overreacting to the size requirements though. I bet it was a fox or a coyote. Maybe a deer. Who knows.

I just know I need a new bird feeder post now. Oh well. To amazon.com we go.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/12/big-critter/

#animals #BackyardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #critters #iphoneography #photography #wildAnimals

I took the trash out this morning and snuck a peak into the back yard. The bird feeders are empty, but my new friend here was hanging out picking through the leftovers on the ground.

We hung out for a while, getting to know each other. Strangely he’s not a very big fan of Thanksgiving. I wonder why?

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/07/made-a-friend-3/

#365 #365Challenge #BackYardWildKingdom #iphoneography #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography

OMG OMG OMG

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/04/baby-turkeys/

#babyTurkey #babyTurkeys #BackYardWildKingdom #iphoneography #photography #turkey #turkeys

This cat has been hanging around all afternoon.

Obligatory South Park quotes:

• “Something went wrong. And the turkeys broke free. And the worst part is .they’re really pissed off.” Dr. Alphonse Mephesto
• “Wow, those are some pissed off turkeys!”
• “These fudged up turkeys from the crustaceous era can take our lives, but they can never take our FREEDOM!” Chef
• “Every turkey dies, not every turkey truly lives.” Chef

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/17/back-yard-guest/

#BackYardWildKingdom #everyTurkeyDiesNotEveryTurkeyTrulyLives #iphoneography #photography #SouthPark #southParkQuotes #southParkStarvinMarvin #turkey #turkeys

I took this picture this morning. Lily is on top of the mountain.

Now for an unrelated story that involves both cats. I have the windows open next to my desk. The cats have been hanging out, sitting on the window sill, enjoying the breeze and the warm-ish Spring air, and stalking the birds and the critters hanging out by the back yard bird feeders.

They were sitting there, minding their own business, and I was sitting at my desk working and minding my own business when BAM! Both cats ABSOLUTELY FREAKED OUT and ran out of the room as fast as their tiny, furry, little legs would carry them. What the hell, thought me?

I looked out the window and there were no creatures by the bird feeders. What there was though, and I only saw it for a split second before it disappeared into the woods behind our back yard, was the back of a red tail hawk. I think the hawk saw our bird feeder as a fast food take out joint and stopped in for a snack. I couldn’t tell if it had anything in its talons in the instant that I saw it, but if it had something I hope it was a squirrel and not a bird. The squirrels try to steal the bird food from the birds and for that they have earned my hatred. Jerks.

I fully understand why the cats went nuts. If I were a little furry guy I would have flipped my lid at the site of a hawk hunting for lunch too. Yikes, babie. Yikes.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/17/top-of-the-mountain-mom/

#animals #backYardBirdFeeder #BackYardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #birds #Cat #hawk #iphoneography #Kitty #lily #nature #photography #redTailHawk

The birds seem okay with the new bird feeders. So far, at least.

Unrelated note, my step daughter is coming over for dinner. She was in Connecticut with her step mother yesterday so she’s stopping in at our house for a Mothers Day visit with her mother and me. She’s on her way. It has only been a week since we’ve seen her but I don’t care. Every visit is a happy experience and I can’t wait.

Additional unrelated note, the sky looked cool over Home Depot in Salem, NH today so I took a pointless picture just to pointlessly share with all of you. Bless your hearts for putting up with my pointless drivel.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/12/so-far-so-good-4/

#BackYardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #birdFeeders #daughter #Family #iphoneography #kidVisit #Kids #mothersDay #photography #StepDaughter #StepKids #visit

They are bigger. I don’t think the birds will be able to pop the covers off of these. Are they better? I don’t know. They feel a little flimsy, but the price was right. Let’s see how they hold up to the rigors of back yard bird feeder life.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/12/upgrade-3/

#365 #365Challenge #BackYardWildKingdom #birdFeeder #birdFeeders #iphoneography #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography

I bought a couple new bird feeders from Amazon. They are fine and all, but when you buy online you really can’t judge sizes and these things are really small. I am disappointed. Maybe I’ll go to Home Depot or Lowes and try again. Not until we get home from Florida though. These will do for now, even if the blue jays in the yard are pissed because they are too big to sit on the ledge. Sorry, blue jays.

Robin watched me hang the new bird feeders through the dirty window screen. She’s still sitting there but she’s chirping at the birds and the squirrels and the chipmunks. I think she wants to get out there and kill some stuff.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/06/new-bird-feeders-day/

#BackYardWildKingdom #birdFeeders #birds #Cat #iphoneography #Kitty #photography #robin

One indoor critter:

Another indoor critter:

Interesting outdoor critter. A grey squirrel with a white tail? Is this some sort of squirrel mutant, x-men type critter?

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/05/02/critters/

#backYard #BackYardWildKingdom #Cat #iphoneography #Kitty #lily #photography #robin #squirrel #squirrels #squirrelsAreAssholes

The backyard had a visitor this morning.

There were actually two turkeys. I think this one might have been showing off for the other.

Also, while we’re on the subject, miraculously the window mounted bird house survived the night. No tenants yet though.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/04/14/sunday-morning-3/

#BackYardWildKingdom #birdHouse #Hipstamatic #iphoneography #photography #turkey

First there is this…

Both of those bird feeders need to be replaced ASAP. One of them had a big chunk crack off just because I tried to lift the lid. They are literally crumbling in front of my eyes.

Second, there is this stupid thing…

I cleaned the holy crap out of the window, and still the suction cups that hang this sucker barely stuck. I 100% expect that within an hour or two I will check on its status and find that it fell off.

Until then, here’s a view from inside…

I suspect this puppy will be filed under “dud.”

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/04/13/for-the-birds-10/

#iphoneography #photography #Hipstamatic #BackYardWildKingdom #birds #birdHouse #birdFeeder

I took these through the window next to my desk. It was right around sunset. Please forgive the reflections of the lights that are getting in the way of everything.

Back yard wild kingdom on the first day of winter, 2023/24.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/21/deer-18/

#photography #Nikon #Deer #BackYardWildKingdom #nikonZ5 #z5

One of the upsides of moving my office into my step son’s bedroom is that I get a window facing the back yard.

That means I can see the deer when they visit!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/08/deer-17/

#BackYardWildKingdom #Deer #nature #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photography #photos #z5

Would ya look at that! The bugs in the daily writing prompt system have been fixed! The text box with the responses link is back again, and the question is in sync between the web and the mobile app. Excellent! Thanks, dev staff!

Do I ever see wild animals? Yes, yes I do. My home is technically in a city, a small city at least, but my house is in a very sub-urban neighborhood complete with a patch of woods behind our back yard. We get the usual suburban rodents, squirrels (I hate them) and chipmunks (adorable) and stuff like that. We have a groundhog in our back yard. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but he/she/whatever is exceptionally cute when waddling around. We get skunks who only come out at night too, but we’ve never had an issue with them.

We have tons of birds. The usual fare, robins and blue jays and crows and chickadees and little guys like that. I am a big fan of cardinals and we get a few. We’ve had a whole flock of turkeys visit us. We also get little yellow finches (adorable) and woodpeckers (awesome). The best birds though are the hawks. Redtail hawks mostly, but there have been others that I don’t recognize. I saw something once that might have been a falcon but I’m not sure. I saw an eagle in the distance once, but it didn’t hang out in our yard at all.

We’ve had some bigger, less New England suburb common animals too. I woke up to find a grey fox terrorizing my bird feeders once. I saw something in the woods in the distance that I think was a bobcat. I know we get them around here, but it never came close enough to be sure. I saw a coyote once in the pre-dawn hours. He/she/whatever was hanging out down the street from us a ways, but it was definitely a coyote.

The best non-rodent/non-bird visitors, and the most common (though not that common) are the deer. I love the deer. I want them to be our best friends. I want them to let us feed them and ride them and sing xmas carols with them. The deer are the best. I’ve seen as many as eight or nine at once before, but that large a group is rare. Usually it’s only 1-3 at a time. I don’t care how many we get, I love them all.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2023/12/06/wild-kingdom-5/

#BackyardWildKingdom #dailyprompt #dailyprompt2144 #Deer #photography