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The "Other" things you see when Birding


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Okay so don't be sending any body with straight jackets to come and take me away because my husband saw them clear as day also. We are driving west on I-10 heading to our birding destination for the day. When suddenly out the passenger window I see a LARGE herd of ELK. Yep ELK one even had a good size rack! I was shocked. Got Hubby's attention and he turned and saw them too. Okay so instantly I think these must be captive animals but they were on the wrong side of the fence. The fence had a huge opening that didn't seem to have a gate. Perhaps they all wondered out of the opening. I don't know probably. I didn't think Florida had Elk so I googled it after we passed them. Apparently, Florida use to have ELK but they were killed off long ago. Some were introduced in Florida and the research I did showed there are 10 in Florida. But, I don't think where they were talking about is anywhere near where we saw them. I fear they were probably captive animals released into a larger area for sport hunting. Any way they were a beautiful sight for these some times home sick eyes for Colorado which has the largest population of these majestic creatures. Sadly, no photos! If we had tried to stop we would have had to lay down enough rubber we would need new tires. I did not see a frontage road we could access had we turned around and come back. And they probably would have disappeared into the trees if had turned around. Elk in Florida who knew?

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On 11/10/2021 at 5:52 PM, Kevin said:

I brand new baby llama born today! Just a few hours old and she is already sold. 

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Adorable!!  I would buy one if it stayed that small. ?  I'm a sheep person.  Here is one of my ewes posing for a photo with her lambs.  This was nearly ten years ago.  I still have the mother and she is almost 14 years old now.

51680007894_0c00600524_b.jpg

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16 hours ago, The Bird Nuts said:

Adorable!!  I would buy one if it stayed that small. ?  I'm a sheep person.  Here is one of my ewes posing for a photo with her lambs.  This was nearly ten years ago.  I still have the mother and she is almost 14 years old now.

51680007894_0c00600524_b.jpg

Awwwwwwww!

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East of Cape Town South Africa along the Southern Ocean there are several colonies of African Penguins.  We were surprised to find these critters living in the colony along with the penguins.  Our host called them Rock Badgers, but in reality they are Hyrax (the closest living critter to Elephants.  They are herbivores and mot a threat to the penguins and obviously, pretty used to bird watchers.1980874503_RockBadgerSA.thumb.jpg.6fba87d9cdbcdc739a1a50ad80ee4375.jpg

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On 11/16/2021 at 7:13 AM, smskelton said:

East of Cape Town South Africa along the Southern Ocean there are several colonies of African Penguins.  We were surprised to find these critters living in the colony along with the penguins.  Our host called them Rock Badgers, but in reality they are Hyrax (the closest living critter to Elephants.  They are herbivores and mot a threat to the penguins and obviously, pretty used to bird watchers.1980874503_RockBadgerSA.thumb.jpg.6fba87d9cdbcdc739a1a50ad80ee4375.jpg

Don't these have tusks?

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When we were on safari in Africa our guide and native tracker were really respectful of all animals, including not shining lights into the eyes of animals at night.  We were surprised when we spotted this Chameleon. Our driver said if we stopped the tracker would kill it.  We didn't stop.  Many African tribes believe that Chameleons are devils or witches and that they bring bad luck if you see one.  The Zulu's believe that God sent a Chameleon to tell humans that they would live forever, but the Chameleon was so slow that before it got there to deliver the message, God changed his mind.  God sent a lizard to tell humans the news and it became a race.  The lizard won2147233372_AfricanChameleon.thumb.jpg.bde854a290628415ead2faf6ade559d3.jpg with the message of mortality.  All that said, Chameleons are quite unique.  Their eyes operate independently and can rotate so they can see things through 360 degrees.  They also have weird feet.

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