When nature meets the city

DrewJD82

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One of our tenants informed us last week that we have some burrowing owls who made a home in the corner of one of our buildings-

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I don’t have any better pics, but that’s the mama and my lord, such a beautiful, tiny thing! There’s a father as well but no one has seen the babies yet. I heard them this morning when I roped off the area to prevent our landscapers from taking them out.

Tag this one as “Stuff added to my list of work I could never anticipate”. The tenant had done their research and informed us it’s a protected species and wanted to know what we’d do to protect them, we try to be as non-evasive as we can across the property, part of my job is maintaining our LEED/Green certifications and it’s certainly something we take a lot of pride in as a company, so this is just an extension of that, IMO. So I had to figure out how long they’ll be around for and what their nests look like, in the end I just caution tape’d the whole area off.

Hahaha the employees that work in the area that pic was taken are SO protective of them that when I went to put caution tape out a couple came running out thinking I was having the trees cut down. :rofl I went inside so I could get a better look without scaring it and immediately realized that these owls are their version of that episode of The Office where everyone is waiting for the words in the screensaver to hit the corner of the screen.:ROFLMAO:

Kind of interesting it found it’s way here as there‘s actually plenty of areas where they can be surrounded by trees in the vicinity, especially being that we have an airport directly across the street and the noise outside gets pretty crazy, but we’re happy to have them here for a little while!
 
Wow! I wanna see some owl sexy time. Boom chaka chaka...

I dunno dude, I saw a picture of an owl without it’s feathers once and I think I’m better off as an observer of owls doing regular owl sh*t than getting to know them any better. :rofl
 
That's awesome. We have some Owls in our neighborhood as well. More than likely Great Horned Owls as I am in Peoria, AZ. They are big and I think our old cat became dinner a year or so back. We got back from a vacation and went shopping to get our supplies back up and while bringing the groceries in she wandered outside. A couple minutes later I am outside trying to find her and she just up and disappeared never to be seen again. Occasionally, I see them on light poles at dusk and flying around not to mention the "hoots" early in the morning. Everyone knows to keep their pets inside or watch them very closely. Owls are apex predators.

Edit: Someone took a photo of 1 of our neighborhood Owls.
PeoriaOwl.jpg
 
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That's awesome. We have some Owls in our neighborhood as well. More than likely Great Horned Owls as I am in Peoria, AZ. They are big and I think our old cat became dinner a year or so back. We got back from a vacation and went shopping to get our supplies back up and while bringing the groceries in she wandered outside. A couple minutes later I am outside trying to find her and she just up and disappeared never to be seen again. Occasionally, I see them on light poles at dusk and flying around not to mention the "hoots" early in the morning. Everyone knows to keep their pets inside or watch them very closely. Owls are apex predators.

Yeah, they don’t mess around!!!

Growing up in Maine, which has plenty of unpopulated areas, we all kind of knew since birth-

Don’t f*ck with raccoons.
Don’t f*ck with a moose.
If you’re close to the woods, be prepared to lose an outdoor pet to whatever animals are hungry in the woods.
Really, don’t f*ck with raccoons.
 
Reminds me of a time a few summers ago. A small raccoon had gotten in to our hugely oversized trash bin (the tall flappy top kind) and apparently gotten stuck. We didn't realise it was down there until it was very late in the afternoon on a super hot day!

Poor thing was stuck in there for probably 12 hours or something at 32 degrees celsius / 85% humidity.
We managed to get him out and left some water for it to drink. It eventually walked into the woods and (hopefully) didn't die. :cry:
 
Reminds me of a time a few summers ago. A small raccoon had gotten in to our hugely oversized trash bin (the tall flappy top kind) and apparently gotten stuck. We didn't realise it was down there until it was very late in the afternoon on a super hot day!

Poor thing was stuck in there for probably 12 hours or something at 32 degrees celsius / 85% humidity.
We managed to get him out and left some water for it to drink. It eventually walked into the woods and (hopefully) didn't die. :cry:

We get possums stuck in our trash cans all the time here, I just get the poles we use to wash windows with, stand about 20 feet away and push the trash cans over because those things are FIESTY!!! They’re also all greasy and look like they’re very willing to f*ck you up. :rofl
 
About this time last year I was cleaning up some leaves in the backyard and found this little guy. Saw his little rattle going back and forth and thought it was a worm cause he blended in so well. Getting bit by a small Diamond back is worse than an adult because they haven’t learned venom management. You get a full dose.
 

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About this time last year I was cleaning up some leaves in the backyard and found this little guy. Saw his little rattle going back and forth and thought it was a worm cause he blended in so well. Getting bit by a small Diamond back is worse than an adult because they haven’t learned venom management. You get a full dose.
Where does this fall on the snake scale? :unsure:

snekguide.jpg
 
About this time last year I was cleaning up some leaves in the backyard and found this little guy. Saw his little rattle going back and forth and thought it was a worm cause he blended in so well. Getting bit by a small Diamond back is worse than an adult because they haven’t learned venom management. You get a full dose.

Daaaaang!!!

I’ve only seen them in the wild once; I was 13 or so and helping some of my parent’s friends clean up their farmland. A shed had fallen down years prior, we lifted up one of the walls and I thought it was a cicada or something…..nope! Farm owner looked at me and goes “I got the wood, don’t turn around, just slowly back away, no fast movements”

I was a bit spooked but not nearly as bad as the night I found the big ass mama Brown Recluse herding about 100 of it’s babies across my bathroom floor.
 
Yeah, they don’t mess around!!!

Growing up in Maine, which has plenty of unpopulated areas, we all kind of knew since birth-

Don’t f*ck with raccoons.
Don’t f*ck with a moose.
If you’re close to the woods, be prepared to lose an outdoor pet to whatever animals are hungry in the woods.
Really, don’t f*ck with raccoons.
Racoons and Moose will jack you up in different ways, but will jack you up nonetheless.

  • Racoons, chew, shred and scratch whatever part of your body they can get ahold of.
  • Moose either charge and ram you, or combination of charge then stomp your butt into the ground - they're huge and appear docile.
    • If they feel threatened, you're within range and you are the perceived threat, I hope you're prayed up, because you're not outrunning them.
 
That's awesome. We have some Owls in our neighborhood as well. More than likely Great Horned Owls as I am in Peoria, AZ. They are big and I think our old cat became dinner a year or so back. We got back from a vacation and went shopping to get our supplies back up and while bringing the groceries in she wandered outside. A couple minutes later I am outside trying to find her and she just up and disappeared never to be seen again. Occasionally, I see them on light poles at dusk and flying around not to mention the "hoots" early in the morning. Everyone knows to keep their pets inside or watch them very closely. Owls are apex predators.
Wow, thanks for that info. We have owls in the woods adjacent to my house, but I've never seen them so not sure if they're large enough to take my cat, but since he's all white, he would be easy prey. I've only let him out twice in the year I've had him, and that was during the day while I was also outside working. But this has made me rethink even doing that.
 
Wow, thanks for that info. We have owls in the woods adjacent to my house, but I've never seen them so not sure if they're large enough to take my cat, but since he's all white, he would be easy prey. I've only let him out twice in the year I've had him, and that was during the day while I was also outside working. But this has made me rethink even doing that.
If the cat is on the younger side they have a fighting chance but against a big Owl and caught in the open...... It's a tough call for sure. Our poor girl was a senior citizen and very light. I am sure it was quick at least that is what I tell myself.
 
Racoons and Moose will jack you up in different ways, but will jack you up nonetheless.

  • Racoons, chew, shred and scratch whatever part of your body they can get ahold of.
  • Moose either charge and ram you, or combination of charge then stomp your butt into the ground - they're huge and appear docile.
    • If they feel threatened, you're within range and you are the perceived threat, I hope you're prayed up, because you're not outrunning them.

Absolutely!!

Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can be within 100 feet of a moose and do anything other than stand there and say “Holy f*cking sh*t, that thing is HUGE” and just want to observe. I used to go hunting with my stepfather and we’d see a lot in the woods, if you’ve ever heard one run and the sound their hooves make hitting the ground of the forest…..well, that’s enough to know you do NOT want to be under one when it’s pissed.

Every time I’ve seen one I’ve felt like I was witnessed a 1,000 year old forest wizard. :rofl
 
If the cat is on the younger side they have a fighting chance but against a big Owl and caught in the open...... It's a tough call for sure. Our poor girl was a senior citizen and very light. I am sure it was quick at least that is what I tell myself.
He's 3. But he's a pussy. Ehh, but then again, he does go a little wild when he's out. He does love it. Bugs the shit out of me for days after.
 
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