wildlife

David Parsons spotted these mobile party platters in Wakefield the other day.

Copyright David Parsons. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Good Morning Gloucester posts photos of baby lobsters (and yes, they were released back into the water).

Video of a Boston hawk chowing down.

Good Morning Gloucester posts photos of a rare golden sea robin, which is not something you'd ever want to have in your dreams.

Jef Taylor shows us a Phiddippus audax:

I don't pick favorites very often, but this is a very charismatic spider. Jumping spiders in general, with their big forward-facing eyes and little forelimb gestures, are pretty endearing. They are some of the only spiders that really seem to acknowledge humans, turning to face us when approached, putting up those front legs in a threatening manner, and then jumping away (or sometimes toward us) at the last moment.

Phidippus audax also has those great big green fangs and three white dots that look like a face staring up from the abdomen.

Judy Leher Jacobs shows us one of the Heterocampa umbrata caterpillars that is changing colors now; you can find them in pink, green and orange.

One passenger on the Blue Line in Orient Heights seemed a bit squirrelly this afternoon. In fact, the Animal Rescue League of Boston had to be called in.

ARL volunteer Margaret Wirth reports T workers found a baby squirrel running around a Blue Line car around noon. Boston Animal Control worked with the league to corral the critter, whom they promptly named Charlie, of course.

Wirth says Charlie is headed to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Weymouth, where he will be prepared for a life in the wild. She adds that kindhearted T inspectors did not charge him with fare evasion.

Charlie off the MTA:
Photo by the Animal Rescue League.

The Boston Public Health Commmission reports a raccoon found in Jamaica Plain on Sunday has tested positive for rabies and that a person exposed to the animal is now receiving rabies shots.

The commission plans to distribute leaflets in the neighborhood warning residents about the issue and telling them what to do if they think they've come in contact with a rabid animal. Basically: Stay away from wildlife, make sure your pets' vaccinations are up to date, and beware of bats in your house.

Questions? Contact the commission's Infectious Disease Bureau at 617-534-5611.

Anecdotal evidence (more dead deer by the side of the road) seems to indicate a growing deer population in the large reservation just south of the city. The Friends of the Blue Hills reports the state Department of Conservation and Recreation is getting ready to do some serious studying to determine if there are more deer than the reservation can support and, if so, what to do about them. The process could take several years - one thing the DCR might do is fence in some small pieces of forest to keep deer out and compare the plant growth on either side of the fences.

The Animal Rescue League of Boston has technicians out in Lancaster, building a trap to try to corral a wily llama. No word if it's looking for its mama.

UPDATE: Dedham's safe for granny again: They grabbed the gator.

Channel 5 reports a canoeist spotted a decent-sized gator on a log in the Charles yesterday. With photo to prove it.

So, to recap: We've got coyotes and turkeys up the wazoo, emus running amok, wild parakeets ruling the roost, jellyfish in Walden Pond and a pig rooting around the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. And now an alligator. Maybe the state could make some money by declaring greater Boston a wildlife preserve and putting up admission booths around 128.

Wicked Local Concord reports that a) there are freshwater jellyfish and b) they've been found by the thousands in Walden Pond.

Around 3:45 p.m. today, the Animal Rescue League of Boston tweeted:

A call for a bat swimming in a toliet in Beacon Hill came in...ARL en route.

Less than ten minutes later we learned the bat was successfully rescued.

Melophobe02120 snapped this raccoon around 5 a.m. this morning on Warwick Street in lower Roxbury - after being awoken by the dog going crazy.

Copyright Melophobe02120. Posted in the Universal Hub group on Flickr.

Fabulously Out There reports she was sprayed by one of the gazillion skunks that have made Jeffries Point their home - as she was walking home, minding her own business one night on Webster Street:

Oh. My. Fucking. God. The smell was just awful. I raced home and managed to get rid of the smell by using a layer of multiple body scrubs and shower gels. No one will ever call me a product whore again and laugh. Then, naturally, I figured out that Fabulous Dog also had a patch of skunk on his back and Lani also had one, on her head…so then we had to do the same body scrub/shower gel treatment on both dogs.

And now she's on a mission to, among other things, get the city to do something and get people to stop putting out food for stray cats:

YOU ARE FEEDING THE SKUNKS. I can't even tell you how often I have seen skunks eat the cat kibble while the cats stay in safe distance. Stop it.

AlertNewEngland tweets that a large brush fire that erupted this afternoon in Stony Brook Reservation between Reservation Road and Turtle Pond Parkway in Hyde Park flushed out a herd of deer, last spotted running down Reservation Road.

Rodent of unusual size

I was sitting on our porch a little while ago (yes, of course I was working), when I spotted this large furry thing, about the size of a small beaver, ambling across our neighbor's yard. In fact, at first I wondered what the hell a beaver was doing there, since we're up on a hill, at least three-quarters of a mile away from the nearest body of water. I couldn't tell what kind of tail it had, though (neighbor's lawn is a bit bushy these days). Anybody have any clues from this meh-ish photo what it was? Sure looks a lot like this beaver, only dry. And yeah, life here in the country is never dull.

UPDATE: As you'll see in the comments, people who actually have experience with country life report it was more likely a woodchuck than a beaver.

Welcome to Mummified Squirrel National Park on Elm Street (caution: video contains scenes of Skippy the Mummified Squirrel):

Via Davis Square LiveJournal.

The Outraged Liberal takes swift action when a bat starts flapping around his house.

Left Bank of the Charles videos a three-inch-long tubish thing making its way through some grass off Concord Avenue in Cambridge.

Sarah Potts snapped a photo of the large turtle for whom State Police blocked off the outbound side of Storrow Drive this evening so that it could cross the road without being flattened.

Via BostonTweet.

Wicked Local Newton reports fishers are out and screaming in Newton Highlands - and cats and ducks are some of their favorite meals.

You're not allowed to keep a coyote in a cage in your house.

Must've violated parole. Channel 7, of course, sent its own helicopter, and you can watch the hunt for the poor thing live (wouldn't it be awesome if the shark jumped out of the water and bit one of the copters?)

UPDATE: Channel 4 ruins our fun by reporting at 12:39 that while, yes, the State Police helicopter is frantically zooming around the mouth of the Merrimack it has, in point of fact, yet to actually find a shark. Chief Brody is unavailable for comment.

Skunk wins, as shown in a series of photos.

Via Swellesley Report.