Tag Archives: critters

Scorpions

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From a friend in Bisbee, AZ: “It’s been the worst year for scorpions either of us have seen. I got stung, a year and a half ago… my first time. I was picking up some scrap wood in the garden shed, and BAM, the little bugger was under a piece of wood. Classic scorpion story, and 24 hours later, I was fine. Taylor had never been stung, either, but some time in April, under the covers, she moved, and one got her on her leg, three stings. She jerked away, which sent it on to my leg, where it hit twice. I threw the covers down, found it, swished it onto the floor, and hit it with my shoe. Three rattlesnakes later (out by our cat cage…one got away, but the next two didn’t), we have found scorpions in every room of the house. On walls, on rugs, under blankets, coming out of sink drains, two in light fixtures! (cooked to death). So four nights ago, another one got Taylor, under the covers, on her belly. She jerked her arm, and… near as we could count, we found five or six stings on the end of her thumb.

I had trapped one, coming out of the sink drain, by closing the stopper on its arm. Its tail went into machine gun mode, and hit the stopper ten times in a second…so that seems to be how they react to being trapped.”

Wildlife: From the kitchen window

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Barb took this shot from the kitchen window. Seems like all of the critters are coming closer to the house these days. Hattie and Riley go nuts until Barb lets them out. The deer bound away but not in a panic. We think they know where the “invisible fence” line is and the dogs don’t go beyond.

Wildlife: Snake attacks helpless birds

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I took the dogs out to do their business earlier today and, on the way back, I happened to look up in the tree we walk under a dozen times a day. I saw what I thought was a black piece of plastic until it moved in an unmistakably serpentine way. It was a big-ass snake, about 15 feet off the ground.

As I looked closer I saw the snake was wrapped around a bird nest, which explained the frantic activity of some robins. They were darting in for a peck at the snake, trying to scare it off. With no luck at all. (I found it interesting that they were getting help from cardinals and other birds) The snake looked like he might be digesting something.

If you are a snake lover or naturalist or one of those guys who pick up snakes, you can skip the rest of this post. It’s just gonna piss you off.  Let’s go to the video [CAUTION: Adult language]:

Even if I’d been willing to get on a ladder and grab the snake, it would probably have brought down the nest. But friends, that was never a consideration.

And even as I fired little steel balls into the tree, the adult birds didn’t flinch or move away. They stayed right by the nest. I kept thinking I’d hit and kill one of them but I didn’t.

If this black snake had stayed out in the woods, stuffing himself with rodents and moles, he’d still be alive. But he decided to climb up my tree and eat some defenseless baby robins.

Wildlife: Copperhead

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There are lots of positives to living on a few acres of wooded land. It’s quiet and peaceful. No traffic. The sort of environment where you find deer, rabbits, turtles, wild turkeys and… snakes. (shudder) I am not fond of snakes.

This was found at the bottom of a pile of brush that the lads are clearing out today. I wasn’t there when Mark picked this copperhead up and declined his offer to “milk” the venom.

Following this little show-and-tell, the snake was dispatched with a spade. Yes, I know there’s never just one snake.

Deer gets revenge

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The thing I love most about this video is that it exists. That one of the hunter’s buddies (I assume) had a camera and the good sense to keep rolling.

My friend — and small animal veterinarian — Dr. T. Everett Mobley thinks this scene was staged:

“I think that is a staged video with a trained deer. Note that when the deer quiets down, the guy cues him with a couple of gentle kicks. The deer never uses his antlers. The deer does not appear distressed. Deer hooves are usually quite sharp.  People have had their throats cut by a kicking deer. Maybe it’s real and the guy killed his buddies with an axe afterwards, but I doubt it.”