Local flora and fauna yesterday

[TwoTankAmin37]

Who is watching who?

This one thought we would let it in. This is just outside the front door.

The Azaleas are in bloom.

(edited for typos, of course)

 

[Back in the fold1]

Your Azaleas are beautiful !

 

[fishorama39 14]

Gee, I hope that's an old chipmunk pic with snow!! It's May!

Yes, your azaleas are beautiful!

 

[GaryE3 1]

If I stand outside my door and look left, I see an industrial complex, with stacks and lights all night. Over that way is a pulp mill and oil refinery, with a city of 70,000 I'm on the very edge of. If I look ahead, it's all nature. In the past week, I have finally seen one of the elusive bobcats whose scat I've noticed for years. I have deer sleeping in my backyard, annoying groundhogs, red squirrels, unwelcome but uncommon skunks, rowdy raccoons, cryptic and smelly weasels, insects galore, wily coyotes, field mice, weed rats, and all manner of birds. If I cross the road, it's fish, crabs, harbour porpoises and seals. It's remarkable how much non human life can survive on the edges of the mess we make.

 

[TwoTankAmin37]

I get to see a lot of the same critters as GaryE. I have to put up fences in the fall to prevent the deer from eating our plantings around the house. It is said there are now more deer living in this area than there were when the only people here were native "Americans." We allow a bow hunter who shoots deer on the property during the open season. It is illegal to use guns to kill the deer as a miss could end up in somebody's house. The hunter comes in before the season starts and places a number of small cameras on trees which are motion activated. He wants to see where the deer are moving to know where to set up his blind for the coming season.

One day last year he came by to check the cameras. He showed up at the front door with one of them in hand to show us the picture of the side of the head of a large bear. We get some wild cats, but I have never spotted any.

I have seen turkeys, foxes, tortoises, rabbits, ground hogs and a few other small similar animals. We have eagles, hawks and big owls flying around. There are several large bird sanctuaries around us as well. It is all woods and the zoning per residence requires a minimum of 4 acres. Our house is atop a ridge and the driveway runs 1/8 of mile from the street and it serves 3 homes. Another 2 homes are on the ridge accessed using another driveway.

I am also a 20-25 minute drive to some medium sized urban areas and about 40 minutes to the border of NYC. Within a 40 miles radius there must be about 15 million people likely I am underestimating this. And yet here we are living in the woods with a lot of animals.

 

[TwoTankAmin37]

I turns out these guys are living under the deck, My bro snapped this shot. Soon after a third kid joined the group but no pic. Does anybody know what they are? Ground Hogs? Hedge Hogs? Giant Rats

 

[GaryE3 1]

Rodents of extraordinary size.

 

[anewbie]

If I stand outside my door and look left, I see an industrial complex, with stacks and lights all night. Over that way is a pulp mill and oil refinery, with a city of 70,000 I'm on the very edge of. If I look ahead, it's all nature. In the past week, I have finally seen one of the elusive bobcats whose scat I've noticed for years. I have deer sleeping in my backyard, annoying groundhogs, red squirrels, unwelcome but uncommon skunks, rowdy raccoons, cryptic and smelly weasels, insects galore, wily coyotes, field mice, weed rats, and all manner of birds. If I cross the road, it's fish, crabs, harbour porpoises and seals. It's remarkable how much non human life can survive on the edges of the mess we make.

If i look outside in the afternoon i usually see a deer napping on the lawn. Lazy sob always asleep. Every now and then he brings a friend to take a nap with him.

 

[TwoTankAmin37]

This is not the Fire Swamp, there are no R.O.U.S.s here and neither fire spurts nor electric sand. But, I can offer you a sip of Iocane.

 

[anewbie]

This is not the Fire Swamp, there are no R.O.U.S.s here and neither fire spurts nor electric sand. But, I can offer you a sip of Iocane.

The most annoying thing are the bloody turkeys - do you have wild turkeys but there ? I find them very bossy and at times very noisy. Worse they mostly show up at sun up - walking across the neighbor land - a whole herd - usually 20 or 30 yaddling away.

 

[TwoTankAmin37]

Yes, we have turkeys and they travel in groups, We have deer, foxm coyotes and now bears. I hear we have some big wild cats (not the house cats). We have a variety of small mamals and non-poisonous snakes. Also mist of our neighbors can buy us completely with just tjeir pocket change. We are the shack among the mansions. But we have been here since 1961 and the longest standing neighbor has been here maybe 10 years.

 

[GaryE3 1]

I have spent years building my resistance to iocane.

I mentioned in another thread I saw the birth of a deer this morning, in my backyard. I got to see the fawn stand for the first time on wobbly legs. They are pests with some of the things I want to do in the garden, but I guess we get in their way more.

There's a pair of mallard ducks sitting under my bird feeder right now. This is the second year they've come around. They're a kilometre away from freshwater. Go figure.

@TwoTankAmin I may have mentioned that I think I've been to your area. We flew out of an airport there and drove around looking for a restaurant, maybe 20 years ago. We found one, but also saw some impressively large houses in a nice setting.

 

[TwoTankAmin37]

We live on a small piece of what used to be the Estate of the Scribner Publishing Family build in the 1800s. It was probably 200 acres and included a lake. In the late 1950s it was purchased by a local investor who subdivied it and sold it all off. My folks had just move back into NYC and were looking to establish a place outside of the city for week and summer use.

The main driveway and ewhat became of our land was owned by a local mid-level mod guy. He approach the developer and asked if he could sell of the 7.5 acred my folks ultimately bought. there already another propery on the driveway alread owne, it had started as the gate keepers cottage.

My folks got the land. The main house had a great view and my folks were told if the trees on the hill in fron of where they wouy;d put the house would share that view. My dad asked how he knew this was true/ The developer lucked into the fact the McCulloch company came out with new blades oand or saws and wanted to test them. They cit down a tion of trees on the hill. Then the cut them into fireplacesided logs. It did not stop there. Each loh had a number of cuts made but not 100% through. So the ended up with a slie and space and slice the length of the logs.

Once these dried out we could start a fire using only some newspapers balled up inder the grate and no kindling. These lasted us for a lot of years, And the view qwa magnificent. We are about 15 miles fron the hudson river on the NY side. We could see the NJ hills on the far side of the river. Thta view is long gone as the tress on other golks properties grew i[p into the view.

The Mob guy in the main house owned a blood bank. He was arrested for redated expired blood and selling it and wemt to prison. Since then there have been multiple owners. One was the doctor for the Bedford Womens Prison within 10 miles of us. We have had sever, very rich folks own both of the two other houses om the driveway. Seema Boesky, She donated the Seema Boesky Heart Center - Northern Westchester Hospital which is 5 minutes from us and which we used to see from out living room before the trees grew.

While we are here since 1961 all the other properies on the ridhe from two driveways have changed hands from 3 to 5 times. My brother an I now live here we are two old bachlors. If we did not inheret the place we could never have afforded to buy it. In fact when we inherited it we took out a $200,000 mortgage to bring it up to dayep windows silign doors, roofing bathrooms and kitchen. We started with a 30 year mortgage at 3.9% but three years later we did a refi into a 15 year at 2.375%. We had to pay down some of the 1st mortgageto keep the payments with a few dollors of the 20 year. But the stock market was good to use and we could afford this.

This are has changed a lot since 1961. The one thing that has not changed is the fact there are a ton of very rich folks living in estates in this area. Seema bought the property she did to upgrade and resell it. hwe main home is a 100+ acre estate in the area.

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https://nwh.northwell.edu/heart

 

[fishorama39 14]

I know you live on a very nice property in a very nice place

But back to your big rodents, I believe they are woodchucks. Cute striped 1s! We had them in DE, 1 gray, 1 brown in the park behind our 1st house. They would lay on their back to sun their tummies. At least 1 was a Roma tomato lover, but only Romas not other kinds. Plants were eaten down to the ground. But plants came back in almost bonsai form & had what we'd call grape tomatoes these days. We never saw baby 'chucks, but I know they like the area under decks,, sheds, etc. If you don't want them under there, you need to block their way in with something they can't chew through like wire mesh. Their borrows can be deep.

 

[anewbie]

Yes, we have turkeys and they travel in groups, We have deer, foxm coyotes and now bears. I hear we have some big wild cats (not the house cats). We have a variety of small mamals and non-poisonous snakes. Also mist of our neighbors can buy us completely with just tjeir pocket change. We are the shack among the mansions. But we have been here since 1961 and the longest standing neighbor has been here maybe 10 years.

I think you would be surprise at the relative prices after all while i don't know that area in cambridge a 1/4 acre lot would go for 2 million - it wasn't the home there but the land....

Of course cambridge ma is completely built up so the situation might be different.

Also shocked you don't have a few poisonous snakes ....