Is this post #300? :). It's been fun...Scareltt you and I have moved on from FL critters to those in new areas--but we still have some of our FL critters here in TX. We still have the little geckos (remember the picture of the one in my wine glass) here, and I even see some of the shore birds, strangely, that we had in FL. Yesterday along Riverwalk I saw a baby yellow crowned night heron...all speckly like we would see in Tampa along our boardwalk, the little blue heron as well. Egrets come to a lake in one of the neighborhoods next to us so that's nice. The first gecko I saw here was on our back porch and I thought we must have transported him in our plants, worried that he would survive. LOL They are everywhere here, just as they were in FL.

Now we've added scorpions...another last night when we came in from a nice evening with neighbors. :( But good things too...deer, and lots of them in our yard...all with fawns now. I've seen two melanistic fawns...all black with no spots at all, and found almost exclusively in a very small region of Texas between Austin and San Antonio, rarer than an albino or piebald deer. Hummingbirds...we've got a feeder but they love Lantana...which loves the Texas heat and dryness and there are a few large beds of it in the front yard, attracting both the hummers and a multitude of butterflies. A little bat on our front porch..actually sort of cute! No snakes yet, happily...I planned on leaving all those in FL.

What will you have next? Orcas, seals, eagles? How cool would that be??

Speaking of bees, I discovered yesterday that bees can nest inside the wood frame of a hot tub. They don't like being disturbed.

Will there be hummingbirds in Portland?

Yikes! bees in the bath!

I don't know about the hummingbirds in Portland. There are probably no gekkos either :)

OO..I kept that photo of the Gekko in the wine glass..such a great photo and so cute! I will miss them..so will Pup.

My butterfly garden has brought in some huge Monarchs and some large acid yellow butterflies..don't know what or where they are from but they are gorgeous, floating in circles over the flowers and bird bath.

Portland will be a new adventure in flora and fauna ((F))

I'm still looking for hummingbirds in Tampa but have yet to see them. In the interim though, we have the most beautiful red-headed woodpeckers descending in record numbers. In pairs. Very sweet.

Yikes! is right. The sting under my left eye was not bad at all. The one on my stomach hurt for quite a while. The sting behind my left knee hurt like heck and swelled up. The one on my right thigh is not bad. Could have been worse, though.

Tandoori_Girl that reminds me of the birds I saw last Friday near the Costco in Channtilly, VA. There is a patch of grass on the corner of the entrance road and the main road. It is away from the parking and pedestrians, so a bit isolated, but right by the road and surrounded by pavement. There must have been one hundred Canada geese there. It was late afternoon and it had just rained, so I think they were having a feast.

This spring the drainage pond behind our house was home to upward to 60 wood ducks. They followed the Canada geese up for grains and brought their babies along.

About ten miles from where we live is a huge stand of eucalyptus trees, home to hundreds and hundreds of heron nexts. We've been able to see great egrets and night-crowned black herons in full breeding plumage, which is simply magnificent. Now chicks have appeared and are quickly growing into miniatures of their parents.

peep! peeep! peeeeeep!

that's bird talk for WOW. Birds are wnrfl. eucalyptus trees are a mess.

ducks and geese I don't see much where I am. although there's a terrific chinese market that has a walk-in oven full of hanging ducks. Hmmmm. I wonder if they've been robbing the fold.

mrwunrfl, I can only think of one thing that would have made it worse :O
Poor you!
Underhill, all those nests! Wunrfl! :D
We have mallards here, all these lakes and retention ponds, there are always a couple of interesting birds.
I have to drive down to the beach before we leave and say goodbye to the Pelican Squadrons ~

mrwunrfl:
They could be yellow jackets that you have rather than bees. Yellow jackets are actually in the wasp family but have the same coloring as bees so many people mix them up. Bees are fuzzier; to pick up all that wonderful pollen. Bees will leave their stinger in you when they sting and then will die. Yellow jackets do not leave the stinger and can sting you repeatedly. Unfortunately, our wonderful bee friends often get a bum rap because of the nasty Yellow Jackets.

Haven't seen many birds here lately, think they are all hiding in the trees trying to escape the heat as much as possible. But guess there are some bats as my kids cat killed one the other morning. My DD almost had a panic attack over the bat, LOL.

Usually there are lots of hummingbirds, but not this year. I wonder why.

We are so hot that even the birds are taking it easy. It was 104 degrees yesterday almost the entire day. And we are in drought.

We get yellowjacket nests under the eaves of the three level cedar deck in Michigan by the lake, and I clean it out every year in August so that Sept & Oct don't become unbearable. I do it gingerly with gloves on and netted.

We have nearly no mosquitoes at my lake in MI, but the yellow jackets can get fierce in fall around the grape harvest time.

Yes, there are hummers in the Portland area. We always had several in Vancouver, WA, and my in-laws have seen a few around their home in McMinnville.

Scarlett--Yes, we have hummingbirds here. I have only seen a few, but we have a cat so I have to see them in the neighbors yards. No gekkos though. Lots of frogs, slugs, and salamanders.

Here on Kaua`i, we have the cattle egrets in our neighborhood all the time. But it's best when the maintenance guy comes for his weekly mowing of the greenspace behind our house -- and as he rides around on his big mower, the egrets come to feast. So many, that I think it looks like the mower-guy has been planting egrets! 8-)

We've just had our 2nd clutch of shamas (thrush) hatch. The babies (little fluff balls with stubby tails) leave the nest while still dependent upon the parents for food. Adult shamas have a marvelous song repetoire, but the babies are "one-notes" for weeks. They make very brief flights from tree to bush to rooftop -- then give off their shrill one-note cry for "food!!" until mom or dad brings them a bug or a worm.

DH goes out in the yard to help -- uses the hoe to scratch up dirt and bring worms to the surface...while baby and parents patiently wait. :D

I just flushed a heron at the pond for the second day - so I guess he's here to stay. How very cool.

Also watched my little pup fall for a papa killdeer's distractions. She chased him at the edge of the water (and now has muddy feet). He was so adamant, I looked for mama - and moved closer. Sure enough, three tiny litte chickees running in three different directions as I approached. They were so cute and it was so much fun to watch the parents distract me and the labs. The labs weren't really paying attention at all - until one virtually stumbled on a baby. Baby hunkered down. I call for lab. Lab took a quick sniff - and came to me. I was so proud of lab - and less of myself. We all walked away so killdeer family could have some peace again.

Oh my goodness! how nice to see this again :)
starsville, I don't see herons anymore but have seen some eagles and hummingbirds :)

I thought it might put a smile on your face! :-)

I've been thinking about this thread for a couple of days now. When Mr. Heron was still there, I knew it was time to revive the "egrets" thread!

On my way into Portland this morning I was listening to the traffic report. We giggled when we heard that a mamma duck and her ducklings were crossing I-205, and so traffic was backed up as people were helping the ducks cross the freeway. Gotta love that people care!

Oh man, I am old enough to remember this thread like it was started yesterday. Problem is that it was started two years ago!

Since then Scarlett has moved on to Portland, and the rest of our lives have marched forward also.

However, the goldfinches that were diving two yrs. ago are still diving right in the same areas of my yard as they were in 6/04,when Scarlett started this thread.

Some things, thankfully, do not change.

We live more on the eastern plains in colorado and there's a farm behind our neighborhood. Lately the cows keep breaking through the fence. One afternoon last week I was sitting under my deck and 5 cows came rushing behind my house next to our fence. I love them! We've also seen pronghorn, coyotes and lots of interesting birds. However I don't care much for the frogs, spiders and mice I have seen lately.