mooseandsquirrel's Favorites

Apparently planthoppers in the family Issidae have these insane tufts emerging from their backsides when they're nymphs. How crazy is that.

ID provided by Andy Hamilton on BugGuide.

I’ve never seen a coyote and a mule deer interact before! The coyote was just lying down resting, and then the deer slowly grazed it’s way towards the coyote and sniffed at it while it was lying down. The coyote looked a little fearful and moved a few steps away, then the deer gently stamped its front feet at it, and the coyote ran further away. That’s definitely the closest I’ve ever seen them come to each other.

For iNaturalist, do I ID the coyote or the deer? 🤔

This coyote was hit and the person driving did not check to see if it was still living. When I came upon this animal, I thought it was roadkill, but when I got closer, I could see she was breathing and her eyes were responsive. It turned out her hind legs were paralyzed and her front right leg. I called Project Wildlife who referred me to SD County Animals Services. I waited about 45 minutes until the truck arrived. The animal-technician noose-poled the coyote and gave her a euthanasia-shot.

Although adults usually can be recognized by the trademark reddish-brown tail(shown in the third photo), the rest of their plumage can be quite variable, especially west of the Mississippi. Juvenile Red-tails often have brown tails crossed by darker horizontal bars(shown in the first photo). The tails on the Harlan's subspecies are pale and mottled, and usually lack any sort of red.

The second photo shows the strange pose of the first photo ... having lunch with a squirrel?

Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are red-tails. A Red-tail with its superb vision will fold its wings against its body and power dive at speeds of up to 100 miles an hour to catch a variety of lizards, snakes (including rattlesnakes), rodents and birds.