Animal Sightings

Most magpies are pretty distinctly black and white rather than black and gray, but I couldn't make any guesses about other possibilities without knowing what general area of the world you're in. [/unsolicited bird opinions]

 

You're in Germany, right? Or am I confusing you with someone else? If so, that might be a hooded crow.

 

Northern Germany, yeah. There's a few of us around.
Hooded crow looks about right from what google shows me. Big birb.

 

the team who played before us at baseball... we walked to the bench zone (look i dont actually understand baseball) and there were 3 dogs! Three sports friends. Plus one of our players's doggos, Ivy the anxious german shepard mix.

And then... i noticed there was another doggo

One of my teammates was holding a puppy of gr8 smolness, idk if she was on the bench or like the ground but her owner says shes only 8 weeks old and she ran around for like their whole game and was sleepy. Shes apparently a v good mutt and will be like 120lb when shes fully grown... part italian mastiff. A tiny lorg

Edit: i pet the puppy of course. V soft, v puppy. Her name is Pinot, like the wine

 

Might've been hooded crow or one of the hybrids, Berlin is right in the contact zone for the european populations of hooded and carrion crows. it's super interesting because we do actually get hybrids here, despite the two species/Morphs (since they're according to sequencing entirely genetically identical except for the expression of a single gene) usually not interbreeding!

 

also we had a mouse as a houseguest under our couch for a few days. Lil mousie was very very cute but didn't ask at all if they could live with us so I chased them out. I have a picture of their FIRST attempt at breaking and entering tho and can upload that at some point.

 

there's some sort of bouncy brown wren living in our backyard and I've named her Jennifer. i love her.

 

There are chipmunks in my yard! They are very cute.

 

The rabbits (there are like, at least four of them! Tiny brown rabbits!) keep crossing the driveway when I need to leave for work. I understand that there's delicious plants on both sides of the driveway, and that the tiny brown rabbits are tiny and therefore cannot move very quickly. I just wish they would pick a different time of day to cross the driveway.

 

I got yelled at by our wren twice in the past week! Considering how shy they are normally, I can only assume that it means she has chicks or eggs in a nest somewhere in my garden :D

Our coversations go like this -

Wren: ZZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIII ZZZZIIIIIIIIIII ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Me: okay dude nice to see you too
Wren: ZIIIIIIIIIIIII ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Me: chill yo beak bro even if I did know where you nest was your eggs are way too bitty for me to have an interest
Wren: ZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Me: okay now I'm getting worried you'll blow them little pipes out, omg

 

Also!!! I was sitting an the roof and a hummingbird flew by, about a foot from my face!!! It was magical.

 

Saw a baby collared dove in a tree on the high street the other night! Very cute little pigeony puffball

 

We've been getting a LOT of wild turkeys around lately, complete with a large brood of cute turkey babies! Here are some pics my mom took!

Spoiler: TURKEY FRIENDS

And here's a big group pic I took from my deck:

 

WALKING DUSTMOPS I LOVE THEM

 

Wrens are nesting at my family in laws' place! Very small, very shy.

Yesterday I saw a babby robin that was just starting to fly and was screaming at one of its parents (presumably "FOOD NOW" or maybe "HOW FLY??").

We seem to be having an influx of monarch butterflies (or at least their lookalikes). I also saw a bee carrying a bit of leaf into its nest? Not sure what kind, or if it's native.

 

A mourning dove seems to be living somewhere near my backyard! Mourning doves are all over my neighborhood but I usually only hear them in the distance or see their silhouettes on someones chimney. But lately I've been seeing one hang out on my fence, or roof! They coo in the distance and it sounds really cool, but when they fly right overhead they sound like this.

 

Im. I wasnt expecting that when i clicked it at all.

 

Visited the Hawk Conservancy the other day and saw SO MANY good, good birds! Also got bapped gently on the head by several vulture wings and also ended up participating in one of the flying shows as a "tree" to help demonstrate Great Grey Owls' ability to fly through really narrow spaces!!!

Spoiler: big bird photos!!!

 

What great birds!!!! I love them! I got to see some birbs at a raptor center demonstration at a con this weekend

Spoiler

 

Update on the wren - she came so close when I was gardening today that I saw her grumpy little eyebrow markings :P

Spoiler: tw:adorable grump birb (not my pic)

Also I got to meet a very special lady!

Bee-people/bug people - would that funny split wing be an old injury, maybe when she was a grub, or an outright mutation? She seemed to be doing fine with it - she rested more than most bumbles I've seen, but idk if that was queen behaviour or a result of her disablity. She certainly seemed happy to land and rest on my wrist while I took a pic, then transported her to the nearby flowers where a whole bunch of her people were congregated XD