Squirrels Are Mean
5/03/2007
I had a great looking bird feeder until recently. It was made of wood and modeled to look like a little book shop.
The squirrel that left this mess must have thought that the seeds would come out faster if he tore the door off. Not too far from this crime scene were the rest of the scattered remains, little books, a sign that said Book Shop and some mini window boxes with little pansies in them. Oh the humanities! With all the doo-dads ripped off it's just a white house now.
It's a good thing the book store was closed at the time and no innocent readers were injured.
Squirrels of New Jersey, you suck!
Posted by Anthony 12:40 AM 12 comments
Labels: critter
Turkey Visitor
3/27/2007
I was at work the other day when my wife called. Lately when she calls, I pick up the phone and hear my 4 year old son’s voice.
"Hi, Daddy, do you want to play eye spy?" That’s good for a laugh no matter how many times I try to explain to him that we need to be together when we play eye spy. But today’s call was different.
My kids were both shouting, "Daddy, we got a turkey, there’s a turkey!"
"There’s a turkey on the porch,” my wife added. “He’s looking in the window, what do you think I should do?"
Having a turkey in the yard isn’t a big deal really. We get them all the time. I’ve even seen one come down out of my kid’s clubhouse and down the slide.
"Did you take any pictures? I can blog about it."
"He’s standing near your turkey fryer. Thanksgiving was four months ago, you think that you’d have put the fryer away by now."
"See if you can get a picture of him standing near the fryer."
"The kids want to go outside," she said completely ignoring my comment. She’s great at that. I’ve wasted some of my best humor on this woman.
"And he’s pooping all over the place. You need to clean that up when you get home."
"Just open the door and shoo him away."
"He’s hoping around, I think he’s hurt."
"Why didn’t you say so? You better call animal control if he’s hurt."
When we had a giant snapping turtle in our yard, animal control found a turtle nest with eggs across the street from my house so they said they couldn’t move the mother turtle. Hopefully, they’ll be of more help this time.
So I called back an hour later to see what happened and my wife told me that Animal Control sent a tiny little women with a giant net to capture the turkey. Really, a giant net? Like a fishing net? No, more like a butterfly net but bigger.
“So did she catch the turkey?"
"No, he hopped around and then flew away.”
“So that was it?”
"Yeah and you better clean up the porch when you get home."
Posted by Anthony 11:16 PM 11 comments
Labels: critter
Porcupine In A Tree
1/23/2007
Thankfully this is one critter that never found his way to my yard. I guess porcupines and snapping turtles don't get together much to talk about hot spots.
Actually this picture was taken the last time I took my kids to the Bergen County Zoo. But could you imagine walking out to your garden, looking up in a tree and seeing one of these 30 plus pound porcupines? Yikes!
Posted by Anthony 9:27 PM 3 comments
Turkey Invasion
11/05/2006
Yikes! The lastest critters to stop by my yard for a visit were some wild turkeys. These things are huge and creepy looking. I definitely prefer the Butterball variety.
These wild turkeys are pretty bold too. They weren't scared of me at all. They didn't even move when I tried running towards them and shouting about how much I loved deep fried turkeys. I had to frisbee some garbage cans lids their way to get them to fly away.
Let's see, this year we got visits from a Giant Turtle, the Angry Duck, the Baby Bunny and that Corn Loving Squirel.
Hmmm, it might be time to buy big dog to chase all these critters away. 
Posted by Anthony 9:29 PM 2 comments
Labels: critter
Dragonfly
7/20/2006
Posted by Anthony 2:52 PM 2 comments
Labels: critter
Grandpa's Hummingbirds
7/17/2006
Have you ever tried to take a picture of a hummingbird in flight? Well I tried unsuccessfully for way too long (as my wife was so helpful to point out). So here's a few pictures of hummingbirds sitting still. In flight, they are amazing looking but much too quick (for me anyway) to capture the moment on disk.
These hummingbirds live at my Dad's house in rural CT. Taking the kids to visit Grandma and Grandpa is always a lot of fun. 
And I think that taking a 1/2 hour sitting by the window to take some pictures for my blog is time well spent. The kids (ages 2 & 4) are going to create havoc whether I'm watching them or not. :)
Posted by Anthony 9:55 AM 4 comments
Angry Duck
5/24/2006
This duck is pissed off at me. Why? Well every spring him and his wife spend a few weeks in my pool. They have a standing reservation for the time between the ice melting and before I open the pool. They swim, they sit in the sun, they order pina coladas and enjoy my hospitality. Last year we never opened the pool so they enjoyed an extended visit. This year though, the pool is a mess and that means that their little New Jersey vacation spot is closed for renovations. Sorry ducks, no refunds. While your here though, feel free to enjoy the last patch of grass that the construction crew didn't rip out.
Posted by Anthony 9:34 AM 9 comments
Labels: critter
