New Animals where you live?

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tigerhunter

tigerhunter

Member
Feb 11, 2018
386
34
michigan, United States
So I'm sitting on my deck enjoying a beautifully Sunny warm Cinco de Mayo in Michigan and listening to the sandhill cranes circling overhead with their crazy song and it got me wondering if everybody else has noticed like I have the change and Wildlife where you live. I have lived in Southeastern Michigan my entire life and never saw a black or grey squirrel until I went to Canada when I was a kid so probably around 1970 they were there in Windsor and other parts of Ontario obviously but we never saw them in the woods of Oakland County Michigan where I live. and now I see more gray and black squirrels than I do fox squirrels. sandhill cranes have only been here in Michigan this part of Michigan 5 to 10 years at the most the brown-headed cowbird was non-existent when I was a kid and now they're here in the Millions screwing up our Songbird populations and the Kirtland warbler. 
 
I live in NY grey squirrel in not native to the US I think the British introduce them for what I’m not sure. They are aggressive to other species of squirrel and push them out. I rember when red squirrel were common now I don’t recall the last time I saw one. If I did come across one I wouldn’t shoot it. I just go for the grays and the black grays
 
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I live in NY grey squirrel in not native to the US I think the British introduce them for what I’m not sure. They are aggressive to other species of squirrel and push them out. I remember when red squirrel were common now I don’t recall the last time I saw one. If I did come across one I wouldn’t shoot it. I just go for the grays and the black grays

i just checked and greys are natural to eastern US the British made a problem in Europe by introducing grays causing red problems now I’m confused I don’t know if the red we have are a problem or not I like watching them atleast I used to now I don’t see them around.

it always amazes me the complex interweaving of the different animal species and how small changes can upset the natural order.
 
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Actually the gray squirrel is native to south eastern US and Canada and is an invasive species in the UK, South Africa, Italy, and western North America.
Click to expand...

Where I had gotten my signals reversed on this was when Matt from South Africa said in one of his videos that the British brought them into S Africa. So I erroneously thought the same for US.
 
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Cant speak to new area species, invasive or otherwise, but for the past ten years I've done little but plant and propagate tress as money allows. My personal pine forest getting the highest priority but my 'reforestation' of a different area has been more successful in numbers and size/growth rate of trees. All told, prob close to 1200 + trees on my prop in recent years.

Back to animals, more squirrels but not nearly as many as I hoped for. I don't shot them, I want more to help spread seeds over the neighborhood. TONS more birds. Cardinals, Bluebirds and the yellow/black finches?? seem to really like what I've done here tons of each and the Cardinals and Bluebirds stay local year round....I've also seen more fox. They don't bother me a bit but I do watch were the dig their burrows.... i'll scare them out and fill the holes if they get to close to the house. I think I won the vole war, short term at least, havent seen a ground hog in a couple years but I think they have migrated to where I've be replanting the land. as my neighbors mention still mention them.
 
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Here in sw MO we didn't use to have armadillos, but boy, do we ever have them now. Those armored suckers are really hard on my yard, and are hard to catch them doing their thing. My dog cornered one, and I got to dispatch it with my .22 Buckmaster. He ran a second one into the ditch out front, and I told him to keep it there while I got my gun, but the critter went in the culvert under the drive and I couldn't get a shot at him. They dig holes about 2-3" across and deep looking for grubs, and you can't trap them, and I'm not going to sit up all night looking for them.
 
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What I notice most here in Montana is the starlings. Always been here, but more and more as the years go by. They seem to get here early in January...some of them even stay all winter. Cavity nesters stealing all the good spots from everyone else. Flickers in decline in all but three states. I like Teds videos about starlings...he says shoot the female and it’s two broods for the year! Another thing that I noticed that’s different here in Montana is that I caught four praying mantises last summer, never had any before. I even have a egg sack from one that I saw laying it! Shoot them starlings! And pocket gophers!! How do you deal with them??!! 
 
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On the farm I grew up on in North Central Florida, there were definitely less animals of all sorts when I was growing up than there is now. As a child I was very aware of the animals around me. There were few varmints and hardly any reptiles or amphibians, except that there were a few gopher tortoises around.

In the years since I moved away, the animal population grew significantly. The farm was "wilder" back then with less development around, but primary factor I see now that changed is that back then is that back then we had free-ranging livestock, including dogs, chickens, and a cat. All of those domestic animals are gone now except for cows. I think the dogs, cats, and chickens kept the smaller animals beat back. 

Now its common to see dozens of toads around the farm house in the evenings and snakes coming onto the porch to hunt them. Lots of other animals like that I never saw as a child when I was purposely looking for those animals (I was always into reptiles and amphibians). 

I now live in far North Florida on a farm in the woods and have so lived for over 2 years. I notice animal species come and go in responses to changes in the habitat and in variables I introduce, such as mowing a field or leaving an area alone for weeks at a time.

Last week I saw a dove that was bigger than a peregrin falcon and only a hair smaller than the woods hawks around. It wasn't colored like a collared dove, but had the shape of one, just larger than what I've seen. 

Deer and turkey come and go depending on food sources on the farm and the presence of predators, as well as other factors I haven't identified yet. 
 
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Not new, but there are more rabbits this year then I've seen in the 40 years I've lived on this property. It's definitely a peak population year!

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Yesterday for the first time in a few years I saw a red tail hawk in a tree in my yard they are a beautiful bird, i wonder if they taste like chicken. only kidding even it was legal I wouldn't shoot such a beautiful raptor. 

That same day I saw a group of 3 coyote puppies scampering around so I guess that hawk is going to have a nice meal.

The real killer in my sightings is when hunting the wildlife seems to be wary abut when I'm not hunting they are everywhere
 
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I lived the majority of my life in Central NY and all we had were gray and red squirrels..
I moved to Upstate NY last year, and for the first time in my life, I saw a Black squirrel here! [in Fulton]
For me, that was pretty crazy.. I think the black squirrels are usually only around Downstate NY, CT, MD, and farther south?
It was pretty cool. We were also seeing different birds..

Last year I also came across a 'Fisher Cat'..
I was down by a local [Tioughnioga] river shooting eagles, hawks, etc. [photography] when something jumped into the water.. 
It was BIG, and scared the piss outa' me. lol I spotted it out of my peripheral, so crept as close as I could to get some better shots.. 
At first I thought that it was a ferret, but it was way too big.. I just assumed that it was a mink or weasel - as it was a 1st for me.. 
Anyways, it swam really close, then out of the water onto a fallen tree, then jumped back into the water, did some loops, 
swam back up and out, up onto the tree, and repeated that a few times.. Each time, I kept getting closer..
I got some cool shots, and showed some people when I got home.. They were stumped too, so showed the shots to friends.. 
Annnd... that's when one of their friends who worked for the D.E.C. told us what it was, and sort of yelled at me for getting near it..
Apparently those things are M-E-A-N!! Oops.. I had no clue.. So I guess I learned about a different/new animal that day.
I'm also the same derp that went face to face [about 6 -8 inches away] with a snapping turtle while laying in prone position on the ground 
to get a macro shot of my reflection in it's eyeball.. I had no clue what it was - It was just 'a turtle'... hahaha

This year is going to be a trip! I'm living near Montezuma NY [The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge] so there's no telling what I'll spot.

Can't wait, and, if I run across anything new and/or unusual, maybe I'll start a thread on here somewhere to share some of my shots..

🙂👍 

Sam -
 
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Yup, but mostly invasive species due to human stupidity. Growing up in S. FL. there were no Burmese Pythons in the Everglades. Now they are everywhere and very difficult to get rid of. Same story with the Iguanas and Lion Fish. These animals are creating havoc down there, I live in GA now, but S FL is always “Home” Then there’s the new breed of humans that make the place not really worthwhile living in anymore, but I digress. 
 
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Ahhhh...
"The new breed of humans" - Yuuup, we have an overpopulation of them around here too.. 
They really need to start issuing some type of permit for them, or maybe even a free-day like in The Purge movies.. 🤣 

I didn't even think to bring up some other odd things like insects, etc..

NY state has seen a lot more spiders and snakes that we hadn't seen before also.. Really weird insects too.. 
Years ago - I swear the damn thing still gives me the chills just thinking about it.. My neighbor caught an enormous bug.. 
We took it to SUNY Cortland to have it identified, and it was called a "Eastern Dobsonflies (Corydalus cornutus)"
They pretty much look like they can kill you and devour you.. haha 
No clue where it came from or how it got here - they claimed most likely traveled in a tree/log - lots of logging in NY. Yuck..

Just think.. Some people get to deal with even crazier things like those creepy praying-mantis-wasp-hybrids.. *cringes* 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3212713/The-stuff-nightmares-Insect-looks-like-wasp-crawls-like-praying-mantis-captured-devouring-fly-ripping-prey-s-legs.html 

**Crosses Fingers** C'mon... Somebody bring up some Sasquatch sightings!!!

😁
 
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I too live in southern Michigan and while out morel mushroom hunting on my buddies tree farm last weekend, I kicked up a quail. I and everyone I know have never ran across any quail in this area or any area close so I got to thinking. Maybe someone local bought some and released them? Or maybe someone trapped some from the wild and released them like the DNR has done with turkey in the area to try and build a self sustaining population? Or maybe over the years some have just managed to work their way down this far.? None the less it was nice to see it and I hope whatever the case is it makes it and creates a population that can one day be hunted. 
 
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