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The "Other" things you see when Birding


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This was a first for me. We were sitting out on the front deck watching the birds Thursday evening when we heard this strange sound coming from up the road. It was short bursts spaced out at times and in rapid succession at other times. All of a sudden I spot the source of the sound as it shows itself from behind the neighbour's trees, a hot air balloon drifting through the river valley below the tree tops. We see hot air balloons all around us on a regular basis but this is the first time I've seen one give a tour from within the valley instead of from above. This thing was so low that I joked to MJ that I wasn't sure if it was floating on air currents or the river currents. The balloon is rising out of the valley at this point so I can only imagine just how low they were prior to us spotting them.

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On 6/26/2022 at 8:24 PM, lonestranger said:

 

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Once when I was about 10 we spotted one going over really low and ran out to watch it. It kept getting lower and lower so my younger brothers and I chased through the fields after it and watched it barely clear our fence where we had cattle and touch down in the neighbor's field. Boy wasn't that exciting!  Of course we jumped that fence lickety split and went to check it out. They made us run all the way back to the house to get permission but after the all OK they took us up for a ride to the end of the tether. Made some little kid's day!

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On 7/3/2022 at 9:16 PM, Chris Clem said:

Wild Cottontail Rabbit with 1 blue eye and one brown eye. He seems to be able to see out of both eyes, but the blue eye has no pupil. I have a feeling this not a good sign.

 

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I'd say the blue eye is probably a cataract. I use to have a ferret that had cataracts in both eyes. She was a sweetheart. She managed to find her way around just fine. Might cause headaches but otherwise the rabbit should be able to live a pretty normal life. Hopefully, it won't develop into glaucoma. Then it could be a problem without medical intervention.  

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On 5/26/2022 at 7:37 PM, Kevin said:

@Seanbirds

I understand it is missing part of it shell, but I don't remember ever seeing one of these. Sorry for the bad photos, it moved pretty fast.

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Maybe Enoclerus ichneumoneus or something similar in the Checkered Beetle family.

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@Kevin and anyone else interested in bug identification: I know books can get expensive especially as they relate to bugs but I highly recommend this one at least for North America: http://www.kaufmanfieldguides.com/insects.html.

No general field guide can be completely comprehensive on insects as that book would be humongous! But, this one has a nice sampling of all the main categories of insects. This if nothing else can point you in the right direction (narrow the scope of your search) on sites such as bugguide.net. Every now and then I actually find the exact bug I'm trying to id but it will definitely help get you to an id faster.  

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