Wildlife & Related

[Hummer]

With all the other hummingbirds gone, last Tuesday we had a late migrant show up, a hatch year male Black-chinned. He's been here intermittently since, feeding on flowers, feeders and the abundant fruit flies. Just before and during migration hummers build fat nearly doubling their weight which helps them in the long flight to Mexico for the winter. Note the tiny head on the big body appearance which is very different from a breeding season hummingbird. This guy is bulging with fat around the neck, belly and back. Haven't seen him this morning, maybe he's moved on....






Yesterday, my friend Kate in Cordova, Alaska, discovered an Anna's Hummingbird coming to her feeder during a snowstorm. If she's able to catch and document it today, it will be the first banding record of an Anna's Hummingbird in southcentral AK.

[Irving]

Found this guy in someone else's garden, brought it home for the kid, and we let it go in our garden. We found him again a few days later as well, so hopefully he survived the cold snaps and will get to turn into an Eagle or whatever something of this size turns into. This thing takes dumps big enough that the second time we found it, we tracked him like an elk and followed his droppings.



Here he is in the background with some normal sized caterpillar.

[buffalobo]

Found this guy in someone else's garden, brought it home for the kid, and we let it go in our garden. We found him again a few days later as well, so hopefully he survived the cold snaps and will get to turn into an Eagle or whatever something of this size turns into. This thing takes dumps big enough that the second time we found it, we tracked him like an elk and followed his droppings.



Here he is in the background with some normal sized caterpillar.

Horned tomato worm, don't think I want him in my garden.

Side note benefit-they splat really good.

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[Irving]

White-tail buck vs some poor, starving raccoons. Also, something is howling at 2:32. Doesn't sound like a coyote to me.

[Irving]

Put him in garden after the season. Thanks for the name.

[Irving]

I see these huge bees once every couple of years, usually in the mountains. What kind of bee is this monster? If ever there was a bee that the whole "Bees shouldn't be able to fly" theory applied to, it'd be this guy. EDIT: Looks like it might be an Orange Belted Bumble-Bee.

[newracer]

Looks like a Tri-Colored Bumble Bee (Bombus ternarius)

[Irving]

Yep, that is the other name according to some webpage I found. Pretty cool. Daughter said she saw it yesterday, and I saw it myself today.

[Jamnanc]

Their stingers tear off in you and some gland keeps pumping venom when you get stung, I swell like a tomato. Ask me how I know.

[Irving]

The thing I read said that their stingers are not barbed, so it doesn't pull off and they can sting you multiple times.

I find that bees generally mind their own business though. I was practically touching this one to get a decent shot of him.