wildlife

About the last thing you expect to see while you're driving on an interstate is a live turkey in the car next to you, giving you the eye. But there the bird was, around 7:30 p.m. in a Hyundai with Maryland plates, heading north on I-95 in Sharon.

Photo by Greta Gaffin.

DotRat photographed a coyote wandering along Wollaston Beach today:

The poor fellow was very skiddish ... afraid of all the traffic and very weary of people…as he should be. This coyote was just a pup and probably got separated from its crew. Called Quincy PD because I didn’t want any kids approaching it and they said couldn't do anything because it was a protected species?? I really wasn't looking for a sniper and a swat team…just someone to maybe get it back to the woods ... but whatever. Maybe he just wanted some fried clams ... or maybe he was going to see Pauly D. at the Ocean Club tonight.

Sometimes it pays to get pissed off, but given the relative lack of lions around here, will coyotes recognize the scent?

A report on a cat on Cape Ann that survived getting chomped by a coyote. Complete with photo of the tooth hole the coyote left behind in the cat's head.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on a terror raccoon that took over Hull and Sheafe streets before it died under somebody's porch last week, creating "a nasty, putrid state of air for days."

A collection:

In the fall of 2008 I began photographing caterpillars. These larval insects demonstrate a diversity of morphology and behavior better than perhaps any other group of animals in this region, and yet, they remain relatively unknown to even the most dedicated of naturalists. Through my photography, and through documenting the life histories of the species I find and raise, I hope to share some of what I have learned about the quality of our native biome.

Via Jef Taylor.

Mike the Mad Biologist chronicles the adventures of the mama duck for whom park workers built special housing in the Public Garden.

We drove into Dedham Square late this afternoon and saw what looked like a couple of hawks lazily circling overhead. But when we pulled into the parking lot by Rte. 1, it was obvious those were no hawks - they were too big. They decided to perch on a light pole across the highway - between Staples and that building with the porno place. Thank goodness for cameras with zoom lenses!

A few days after a moose ambled into Wellesley, a moose appeared in a Weston backyard yesterday.

Both Jon Keller and Julia Spitz have interviews with the Cape/Brookline Bear:

"So, there's been some speculation about what to call you. What's your real name?"

"You couldn't pronounce it. No human can. Except that Boston mayor guy. I don't think he was trying to say my name, though. I'm not really sure what he was trying to say."

"No one ever is. So you've talked to Mayor Menino?"

"Dude, he was out of control, accusing me of doing guerrilla marketing for 'Ted.' He said he'd sic the cops on me if I was going guerrilla anywhere near his city."

"Is that why they tracked you down in Brookline?"

A concerned citizen reports:

federal bldg. causeway at lomasny. some sort of giant rat like creature walking around. looks like rat with a raccoon body the size of a med size cat!

Bird is the word.

Update, 10:09 a.m.: Animal Rescue League on its way.

At 8:42 a.m., butterh urgently tweeted from his Dorchester apartment:

Bird in my apt. Live adult, injured, ARL not open - What do I do?! We're freaking each other out. Need help.

Cyn Donnelly replied:

A towel or light blanket over the bird will let you pick it up and put it in a box or bin until someone can get it.

Ryan Schulteis at WHDH reports state wildlife officials say the bear somehow made it back east from where they brought him after he was captured on the Cape and are depositing him at an unspecified location even further west this time.

UPDATE: Around 9:30, environmental police shot the bear with a tranquilizer. He ran up the tree, then, after the drug took effect, fell out of the tree, to be carted away to someplace a bit more rural.

Resting bear. Photo by Brookline Police.

The wandering, ambling bear fell asleep in a tree on leafy Pine Road, just off Hammond, which means it veered off a path that would have put it right at the Bertucci's in West Roxbury and could instead put it on a line for the Rte. 9 Star in search of some breakfast. Brookline Police tweeted at 7:36 this morning:

Officers on scene keeping quiet. Shhhh.

They then followed up with a couple of photos:

Black bear black bear what do you see? I see Brookline police looking at me.

Stephen Walsh reports the bear has been spotted tonight near Skyline Park near the West Roxbury Parkway.

UPDATE: Spotted at the Baker School, really just a hop, skip and a jump from Hancock Village and the West Roxbury line.

UPDATE: Photo of the moose.

Stephen Jones reports Wellesley Police are investigating a moose sighting near Reeds Pond close to the Natick line.

Everybody stopped to stare out at Harvard Square
When she pulled up a seat at the juice bar
Could I please have a juice for this thirsty moose
She's been jogging cuz' she doesn't have a moose car

-- Moose in Moosachusetts

Separately, a Wellesley woman was stung by a scorpion, although it apparently hitched a ride in her luggage back from Italy.

Philip Borenstein reports the town just robo-called residents to alert them a bear (which found Dedham too boring?) was spotted this morning in the area of Second and Highland avenues by the Charles River - and the Panera Bread.

Text of Needham reverse-911 call.

But, hmm, if it can get from Dedham to Needham like that, how long before it winds up in West Roxbury?

These signs are pretty much the first thing you see after turning onto Truman Parkway from Neponset Valley Parkway in Hyde Park.

Earlier:

• Little deer in the big city
• Deer hoofs it to Beth Israel bike cage

Shortly before 7 a.m. today, Ben Ostrander tweeted:

Whoa, I just saw a black bear on the side of 95 south in Dedham near Legacy Place!

Sheeps Eating Me followed up around 9:20 a.m.:

I just saw a BLACK BEAR on Rt 109 in Dedham by 128. What???

About 8 minutes later, Nichole Davis tweeted:

Environmental police have been dispatched to find the bear roaming on 109 near 128 in Dedham. Stay safe Cape Cod Bear, or warn your cousin.

The bear sightings come just a day after residents in Medfield - just down 109 from Dedham - spotted a bear.

Ed. question: You think maybe the bear is trying to find Ursuline Academy?

Jesse Haley noticed this hawk perched at Boylston and Arlington this morning, "attracting tourists and scattering squirrels."

The Massachusetts Wasp Watchers project is an effort to detect and do something about, no, not wasps, but emerald ash borers, a bright-green bug that eats the leaves of ash trees - and deposits eggs that turn into bark-eating larvae. And it's looking for volunteers.

Seems the smoky-winged beetle bandit wasp, native to these parts, just loves it some beetles, which it carries back to its nest to yum up before tossing the discarded beetle shells. Volunteers monitor wasp nests and collect the beetle husks for analysis by state experts - who are worried that the emerald ash borers, now in New York just 25 miles from the border, will get here and decimate the trees.

The wasps, commonly found in "baseball fields, parking lots, and other places where hard-packed, sandy soil is found," don't sting, so you don't need to worry about making any sacrifices for science.

Somebody in Davis Square has some issues with an unknown neighbor:

[O]n the side street where we park, people throw tons of bread, bird seed, and other random food items [once someone left an entire plate of spaghetti] out several times a week in order to feed a flock of pigeons. As it is, it's pretty disgusting. The street and sidewalk are covered in bird poop and you risk that happening to your car if you park in the four or so spots that make up the "pigeon zone". In the last few months, the feedings have increased and the pigeons are everywhere. Now we're starting to see rats in the neighborhood, presumably eating all the food that gets strewn about.

Sweetz reports a deer was foraging this morning in a yard on Woodley Avenue near Stony Brook Reservation - where deer have been spotted before.

Thought it was fake at first until it moved.

Good Morning Gloucester has the photos and video to prove it.

Kevin Wiles, Jr. posts a photo of a deer that somehow wound up in a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center bike cage today. Yes, in the medical area.