Did You know - outdoor edition

[HemlockKing]

My Son found a baby crow this spring & gave it to his neighbor that raised it with his chickens & doves. Now it'll fly over to my Sons & sit up in a tree & make sounds like a chicken or a dove. I told him he should get a video of it,cause i'v never heard of that before. I wouldn't of believed it if I didn't see it.

He might have a raven, ravens make a all sorts of calls and can learn new ones. Have you ever been way out in the woods and all the sudden it sounds like you heard a old lady in distress yell "AAaaaHHHHHH!!!!"? Raven lol . Another 2 calls I notice often from them is a water drop sound and some kind of clicking sound, but this isn't limited to just those, once in awhile you will hear a weird sound from them

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that baby possums are basically born as preemy babies? They are born as tiny hairless critters after a very short gestation period and crawl around the mother's pouch until they find a nipple and latch on to it then they remain there nursing as they mature until they are old enough to leave the pouch and fend for themselves. It is a common sight to see an overloaded mother possum walking around with the babies hanging on to her back and sides until they actually let go of her. I assume she stops to feed and the babies get off, feed and get back on for several weeks.

[Roxie]

Did you know they like selfies?



 

[WV Sawmiller]

   The little ones are so ugly they are cute - but they grow out of it. I hear they are a tick eating machine. 

   Is that your pet possum or just a cat/dog food thief? 

   The last one we were raising was named Eatmore. He went to Happy Mountain when Brenda Washer sat on him while our neighbors were possum sitting for us for a long weekend. It was a sad day for all.

[Roxie]

He's considered a welcome addition to the cat food crowd on the back deck. I put out things like apple cores in his half of the dish. 

They don't carry rabies and they are voracious tick eaters. I didn't know he was out there until I saw my pink impatience plants being eaten down the row like you'd eat corn on the cob. The light pink ones are the only ones he bothered. I only plant begonias in the shade areas now. 

[Ianab]

 It's a common trait for marsupials to give birth to very small babies, then nurse them in a pouch. Kangaroos / wombats etc are all the same. We have the related Australian possums here. They are similar sized, but much nicer fur, even their tails are furry, but with  a strip of skin underneath for grip when climbing. 

The Australian possums are an introduced pest here, with no predators they can multiply out of control, strip the trees of leaves, and eat the eggs and chicks of native birds, not to mention what they will do to your garden and fruit trees.  So it's open season on them with any means available. It's a pity as they are actually quite a cute critter, and can even be kept as pets. In their native Australia they are a fully protected native species. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the opposum is the only native marsupial in North and, I understand, South America? Australia and New Zealand have many species and all mammals there, with the exception of the Dingo (which may have been introduced from elsewhere) were marsupials vs placental mammals. I know rabbits and mice have been introduced and have caused havoc on the continent. Domestic animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, camels, horses and cattle have been introduced with various damages associated. I know goats and pigs are causing problems. The camel seems to have adapted well with less damages I am aware of.

[Don P]

I wonder what is the advantage of an early birth and pouch raised?

[doc henderson]

that is a good question, and I assume it is to have multiples and get them out of the uterus.  I will see if I can find the teleologic reason.

Are Marsupials Mammals? - WorldAtlas

[Ianab]

Australia and New Zealand have many species and all mammals there, with the exception of the Dingo (which may have been introduced from elsewhere) were marsupials vs placental mammals.

Although we now have possums and wallabies naturalised, the only native mammals from NZ are 2 species of small bat, and some seals. All other mammals have been introduced by humans in the last ~800 years. I don't think there are even any fossil remains of mammals here. One of the reasons that NZ forests are quite different from any other place (no browsing mammals, and seeds couldn't spread via rodents etc) 

Aussie is also home to the monotremes, which are mammals that lay eggs. The platypus and echidna are the best known ones. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that other than the Spring season when the gobblers are hanging out with the hens during breeding season the rest of the year the males mostly hang out in bachelor groups while the hens and young stay together. The young jakes may hang out with the hens for the first year then they will split off and join the other older gobblers. The groups may merge or run together for brief periods when they run into each other at prime feeding locations such as cutover grain fields or such.

[tmarch]

I have 8 Jake's and a hen that have been coming in all summer.  Today they got a bit confused and were strutting, gobbling and fighting like it was March.  Really dumb acting until I feed the chickens then they will come running to within 6 feet of me talking or I should say demanding their feed.

[doc henderson]

down by the sawmill area yesterday.



 

 

[Texas Ranger]

You gonna have them over for Thanks giving? ;D

[doc henderson]

we have a neighbor thread about these guys and some wild cats.  we would be shunned but it is joked about.  they are more like family!  

[WV Sawmiller]

  Did you know woodchuck hide was a preferred skin for drum heads by many of the eastern Indian tribes? It was supposed to be a very tough hide and lasted better than most other hides.

[WV Sawmiller]

  If you are a bow hunter and spending time in the woods this time of year and looking for something to entertain yourself while waiting in your tree stand did you know you can take a pocket full of pebbles along and get even with all the squirrels and chipmunks who drive you crazy scurrying around in the dry leaves? It is great fun. If you are hunting around oaks or hickories or such that are dropping acorns or nuts you may have noticed every time an acorn falls all the squirrels and chipmunks in the area rush over to grab it before the next tree rat finds it. You can take a pebble and from your elevated position you can easily flip it 20-30 feet to your left into the dry leaves and watch the critters rush over and look for it. Then take another pebble and flip it 20-30 feet to your right and watch them rush over. Back and forth, back and forth until you run out of pebbles. You can really run them ragged. :D

[doc henderson]

no wonder you never get a deer... :D :D :D.

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

 If you've ever sat there all day and had the squirrels and chipmunks drive you crazy rustling the leaves behind you and you just knowing it is a big buck only to find after half and hour it is only Alvin and Simon stirring the leaves then when you do finally decide that chipmunks and squirrels is all it is and move and hear a big 6-8 point snort right behind you and run off you will think it is justice to them.

 In all honesty some of the best times and memories I have sitting in the woods, I never shot at anything. (And some of the worst was when I did kill something and had to drag it out and clean it in freezing cold weather and such.)

  Besides - who's to say a deer won't come to a pebble decoy too! 

   Oh - I forgot. You don't have trees in Kansas tall enough to use a tree stand anyway.

[HemlockKing]

 

 Did you know salamanders only come above ground to mate and after a heavy rain? Found this spotted salamander(that's the name) this morning! He seemed lifeless then he sat in my warm palm for a few minutes and he was off to the races. You don't see these ones often. 

[Roxie]

Do NOT perform a burial at sea!  They hibernate!  My tragic tale from Tree of the day thread:

Speaking of salamanders, when I was in the second grade, I found a salamander in the basement of the house in which we lived.  I wanted to keep it, and against my parents objections I consulted my second grade teacher, Mrs. Henry, about how to take care of it.   Armed with what I believed was thorough knowledge on his care, I put my salamander in an old turtle bowl that I had, dug earthworms that I put in his sand for him to eat.  He was living a good life on a north facing window sill, until one day he had buried himself in the sand and was dead.  It was a cold December day when I carried him into the kitchen crying, and it took some doing on my parents part to convince me that a (flushing) burial at sea would be in everyone's best interest.  We gathered round the bowl and I recited 'The Lord's Prayer,' for his tiny soul, and my brother as pallbearer gave the flush.  At school, when I began to tell Mrs. Henry that he was dead, before I could say anything more, she said, "Oh, he probably isn't dead honey, salamanders hibernate."

[WV Sawmiller]

That's funny! :D :D :D

[HemlockKing]

He went for a good nap and probably woke up in the sewage! lol

The one I had today I just put him near where I found him

[WDH]

Well, the salamander found himself/herself with a lifetime amount of organic matter to feast on  .  

[WV Sawmiller]

  Did you know baby turkeys often drown in a heavy rainstorm because they look up and the water runs into their nostrils and kills them? At least that is what I have always heard.