Very odd. No birds.

Not large. Like 2.75" scl. I have seen sandhills take down small turtles before. They mostly poke around for other stuff, but a turtle that small is not all that hard, either. Not especially crunchy. Even without adding milk. Plus albinos stick out and you can get pretty close to them with the difference in vision, so they are at a relative disadvantage. Not saying it was the bird, but not saying it was not. My turtle pond, while modest in size, makes it sometimes difficult to locate some animals. Had a female that was maybe 5.5" and she vanished for four-to-six-week spans. Even when I would dredge it, I did not find her. The albino could still be there, but they are usually a bit too dopey to remain that secretive for a long time, so I am thinking something (whatever it was) took it down for a snack. I agree, too. I would rather have it go to "use" than have it just die on a road or something (I have a very frustrating story in that vein).

Saw the indigo today again, too, maybe fifty feet from the pond. I found a racer right by my largest phayrei (she was sleeping, so the racer had good fortune today; the tortoise catches birds and ringnecks). Went back in to grab my camera. The indigo took off, as did the racer, but I found the racer again later while doling out food to my various colonies and got a few photos. Flash ruined some of the shots. As with the turtles in the pond, various burrows and vegetation-laden areas tend to allow even 16-20" tortoises to seemingly disappear for weeks at a time. I have included two shots of just fractions of areas encompassed by pens for tortoises and other creatures. I have other varied forested spaces and meadow-like spaces in this particular pen along with other pens. I have an elongata that I have not seen in around six weeks.... lol This keeps the species I work with really "happy" despite the difficulty it gives me in locating them.

Those squirrels are adorable. I got to pet a captive one yesterday because someone had one at a show. Thought it was one of the gliders out of the corner of my eye, but I am glad I took the time for a second look. So cute. I like all sorts of squirrels. General arboreal, flying, and ground. I always find it neat to run into an especially beefy fox squirrel. They get huge out in Citrus county. I will see them walking around like bulldog-ish monsters right by cows, turkey vultures, and so forth.

I need to take and add more bird photos to the thread. This is a really nice thread.

Originally Posted by snowgyre

And Brian, those are super cute! Have you tamed them at all or are they still pretty wild?

For the most part, they are wild. Some of them will let me pet them, but not pick them up. The first two I got were small, and the tree they were living in was cut down by one of my crews. Their mother ran off, so I took them home. They were really skinny when I saved them. They ended up being a male and female. Someone else was moving out of state, and he had a male and three females. I gave him a small re-homing fee for them, and added them to the group. The cage is pretty big. So, I had six. Now there is nine. I'm still trying to figure out where the other three came from. lol

Well, as far as birds are concerned, looks like a half dozen of the gold finches came back and are hanging around the feeders again. Maybe they headed up north and decided that the cold weather still not to their liking.

I am enjoying the photos and discussion in this thread.

We live in the middle of the city, there's a nearby creek and an empty lot between our place and the road. Deer and turkey come up from the creek to graze in the lot. It's always surprising to see them. No wonder the homeless guys don't seem hungry! (joking, maybe.) The turkeys can be annoying and loud in the early morning hours. I can get about 3' from them before they start moving away. Used to be a whole gang of raccoons around here but ever since the turkeys started showing up regularly, the raccoons are no where to be seen?
Photos from a few months back.

Love it! Great photos.

Pileateds. Pileateds everywhere.

Checked the game camera this morning. Man, these two wood peckers sure look forlorn! You an almost see them thinking "Hey man! What happened to the food that is usually here?"



Well, here's why.......



Connie wire tied the front door closed this time, so that possum is going to have to really work at getting at the food block this time around. Of course, he might just rip it apart. Then I break out the live trap and relocate his butt out to the national forest like I had to do when the possums were feasting on our tangerines this past fall.

The possums steal leftover food from the tortoises here every night. Kind of annoying since I pay money for that food. At least they cut the ticks down. Those woodpeckers do indeed look none too pleased.

One of the murderous residents. Hot day.

Shameless water thieves abound, but almost everyone is too lazy to care.