Ended BYC’s Wildlife Photography Photo Contest

[wolfinator]

Newly hatched Carolina wrens on our front porch in a basket. This was the 3rd year straight they've hatched eggs in the basket.

Submission #4

*A few more of the Carolina wrens (not submitting these 2).
Food, feed me, hungry, and will ya'll be quite I'm trying to sleep.

Ssshhh, they're sleeping.

 

[CFLRanching]

Just a note- Eastern Indigos can be quite rare, and they're always habitat specific. It's unlikely for someone to randomly just stumble upon one.

I am not a snake fan, at all but about 8 years ago (winter time) we had a family of about 5 show up (they were all 4 to 7 ft long, heads and bodies as big as your fist, and actually really pretty color wise). We live in central Florida on a large ranch so i had seen one or two in my lifetime. These ones nested under one of our oaks under the roots, the whole winter. We would see them out and about every few days when it was warmer. As ranchers, we were always told the indigos eat rattlers, so I never felt bothered by them (and we didn't have chickens @ the time either) they were truly valued in our opinion. We were bottle feeding a dobie calf so i had plastic bird netting around my tiny garden to keep her out. One day I came out and one of the snakes had tried to go through it and gotten wedged all the way about 18" past it's head and then proceeded to twist and curl up into the netting. Such a mess, how it even got that far into the little netting holes, I'll never know. I had to hold it's head down by standing with the flat back of the shovel on it (so it wouldn't bite me) and cut that guy out with scissors. I finally got it out, it had a couple deeper areas where the netting had gouged and cut through it's skin, but it seemed fine. I backed up and let it up, and it slithered out about 5 feet from me, sat yhere for a few minutes, and then casually took off. We've never had them come back again since that winter.

 

[Bakbuk]

I am not a snake fan, at all but about 8 years ago (winter time) we had a family of about 5 show up (they were all 4 to 7 ft long, heads and bodies as big as your fist, and actually really pretty color wise). We live in central Florida on a large ranch so i had seen one or two in my lifetime. These ones nested under one of our oaks under the roots, the whole winter. We would see them out and about every few days when it was warmer. As ranchers, we were always told the indigos eat rattlers, so I never felt bothered by them (and we didn't have chickens @ the time either) they were truly valued in our opinion. We were bottle feeding a dobie calf so i had plastic bird netting around my tiny garden to keep her out. One day I came out and one of the snakes had tried to go through it and gotten wedged all the way about 18" past it's head and then proceeded to twist and curl up into the netting. Such a mess, how it even got that far into the little netting holes, I'll never know. I had to hold it's head down by standing with the flat back of the shovel on it (so it wouldn't bite me) and cut that guy out with scissors. I finally got it out, it had a couple deeper areas where the netting had gouged and cut through it's skin, but it seemed fine. I backed up and let it up, and it slithered out about 5 feet from me, sat yhere for a few minutes, and then casually took off. We've never had them come back again since that winter.

Wow! That's really interesting.

 

[CatLoverLu]

Not an entry: A chipmunk on a hike.

 

[CatLoverLu]

Entry #4

 

[Bakbuk]

Entry #4View attachment 3184903

Same little man I'm assuming?

In what general area was this? I could identify it to species for you...

 

[CatLoverLu]

Same little man I'm assuming?

In what general area was this? I could identify it to species for you...

Yep.
It was up Hurricane Ridge in Washington State.

 

[CatLoverLu]

Not an entry: A Preying Mantis on the side of a house.

 

[Bakbuk]

Not an entry: A grasshopper on the side of a house.View attachment 3184908

You mean a Preying Mantis?

 

[CatLoverLu]

You mean a Preying Mantis?

Yes, sorry