Have you ever seen any animals in unexpected places?
Perhaps an escaped pet, perhaps a native animal out of its normal range, perhaps an unexpected feral.
How many?
mollwollfumble said:
Have you ever seen any animals in unexpected places?Perhaps an escaped pet, perhaps a native animal out of its normal range, perhaps an unexpected feral.
How many?
I guess not. Not very unexpected.
I mean there is a group of unusual chestnut brown pigeons in the East Perth area, but I assume they escaped from a collection at some stage.
I saw a blue winged kookaburra outside of its supposed range in NSW.
mollwollfumble said:
Have you ever seen any animals in unexpected places?Perhaps an escaped pet, perhaps a native animal out of its normal range, perhaps an unexpected feral.
How many?
Yes. Thousands, displaced by flood or fire.
Also a few hundred trapped in all sorts of stupid ways.
Were you interested in anything particular?
mollwollfumble said:
Have you ever seen any animals in unexpected places?Perhaps an escaped pet, perhaps a native animal out of its normal range, perhaps an unexpected feral.
How many?
I had a pet rabbit when I was little; one day it disappeared, and my parents told me it had escaped. It later turned up on my (and their, and my brothers’ and sisters’) dinner plate — a most unexpected place.
do clowns in national leadership positions count
I could a fish off the rocks in Nowra and the fish was supposed to live in Queensland and maybe south of the Queensland border coastline marginally.
A horse once escaped a paddock and walked down our suburban street.
Crab in a car park in the city
Mrs Cymek found one on a train
Sheep swimming in the ocean, people from surf club rescued it
Date: 13/10/2020 21:10:04
From: monkey skipper
ID: 1632795
Subject: re: Forum survey – Animals in unexpected places
I could a fish off the rocks in Nowra and the fish was supposed to live in Queensland and maybe south of the Queensland border coastline marginally.
A horse once escaped a paddock and walked down our suburban street.
(Good examples. I like them)
Rule 303 said:
mollwollfumble said:
Have you ever seen any animals in unexpected places?Perhaps an escaped pet, perhaps a native animal out of its normal range, perhaps an unexpected feral.
How many?
Yes. Thousands, displaced by flood or fire.
Also a few hundred trapped in all sorts of stupid ways.
Were you interested in anything particular?
I’m just interested in how common the three types of experiences are.
I’ve seen a Eurasian collared dove on a Canberra rooftop. A Cockatiel (normal colouring) on a rooftop two blocks from where I live.
Both obviously escaped pets.
I’ve seen a Canadian goose on a Melbourne golf course. It took me about a year to figure out that there was a menagerie just 250 metres away that had Canada geese. So clearly an escapee. It hit the news when seen by professional birders two days later some 8 km further south.
A brown quail walked down an inner suburban Frankston street in front of mrs m and me. It poked its nose into my neighbour’s garage before disappearing under a gate into his back yard. Made our year, brown quails are so cute, and this one was really friendly. Escapee, probably, but possibly a native looking for its local swamp.
That plumed whistling duck I saw a few months back in Perth kicked this line of thought off. It was way south of its normal range in the Kimberleys.
Then there are animals that have set up home. The same one magpie goose lived under the Edithvale bird hide in Melbourne for at least 5 years, I didn’t see it last year but somebody else did. And a pair of pink eared ducks haven’t moved for at least 3 years from a single pond in Springvale Cemetery in Melbourne.
Then there are the ferals, clearly within their normal ranges and nothing exceptional, but I was surprised to see them. The deer in Sherbrook forest, cat in the Grampians national park, and fox in the Werribee sewage treatment plant.
Looking for others with similar experiences.
Oh, so we’re not talking about gerbils then.
saunters off
mollwollfumble said:
Date: 13/10/2020 21:10:04
From: monkey skipper
ID: 1632795
Subject: re: Forum survey – Animals in unexpected placesI could a fish off the rocks in Nowra and the fish was supposed to live in Queensland and maybe south of the Queensland border coastline marginally.
A horse once escaped a paddock and walked down our suburban street.
(Good examples. I like them)
Rule 303 said:
mollwollfumble said:
Have you ever seen any animals in unexpected places?Perhaps an escaped pet, perhaps a native animal out of its normal range, perhaps an unexpected feral.
How many?
Yes. Thousands, displaced by flood or fire.
Also a few hundred trapped in all sorts of stupid ways.
Were you interested in anything particular?
I’m just interested in how common the three types of experiences are.
I’ve seen a Eurasian collared dove on a Canberra rooftop. A Cockatiel (normal colouring) on a rooftop two blocks from where I live.
Both obviously escaped pets.I’ve seen a Canadian goose on a Melbourne golf course. It took me about a year to figure out that there was a menagerie just 250 metres away that had Canada geese. So clearly an escapee. It hit the news when seen by professional birders two days later some 8 km further south.
A brown quail walked down an inner suburban Frankston street in front of mrs m and me. It poked its nose into my neighbour’s garage before disappearing under a gate into his back yard. Made our year, brown quails are so cute, and this one was really friendly. Escapee, probably, but possibly a native looking for its local swamp.
That plumed whistling duck I saw a few months back in Perth kicked this line of thought off. It was way south of its normal range in the Kimberleys.
Then there are animals that have set up home. The same one magpie goose lived under the Edithvale bird hide in Melbourne for at least 5 years, I didn’t see it last year but somebody else did. And a pair of pink eared ducks haven’t moved for at least 3 years from a single pond in Springvale Cemetery in Melbourne.
Then there are the ferals, clearly within their normal ranges and nothing exceptional, but I was surprised to see them. The deer in Sherbrook forest, cat in the Grampians national park, and fox in the Werribee sewage treatment plant.
Looking for others with similar experiences.
Ahhh.
I saw a Malamute getting stuck into the bin at a road-side stop (where the only feature was the rubbish bin) roughly half way between Balladonia and Caiguna. MrsRule stopped me from shooting it, which I have regretted ever since.
sibeen said:
Oh, so we’re not talking about gerbils then.saunters off
They slipped is the explanation
sibeen said:
Oh, so we’re not talking about gerbils then.saunters off
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
A peripatus in my back yard in Armidale, NSW. Found by my (then) 4-year-old son who brought my attention to the brightly coloured Onychophoran.
Michael V said:
A peripatus in my back yard in Armidale, NSW. Found by my (then) 4-year-old son who brought my attention to the brightly coloured Onychophoran.
OMG. Wow.
In the past year, a flock of rainbow lorikeets has set up in my locale. It was only a matter of time because they’d been building up in the local city for a decade or more where they now dominate the skies. Where huge flocks of galahs and budgerigars used to be is now lorikeets.
Cymek said:
Its a farken menagerie. Who looked after these while you were away or did you take them with you?
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:
Its a farken menagerie. Who looked after these while you were away or did you take them with you?
I was home, there is also 4 guinea pigs and 4 chickens as well
When I was a kid, my sister had about twenty guinea pigs. One day, a dog got into the yard. Two guinea pigs survived: one was found hiding under a bush and the other had escaped to underneath our neighbours’ house. We never caught the second one.
And I once saw a kangaroo hopping down the Main Street of North Lakes, right past the Westfield.
My sister found a tree snake in her butler’s pantry.
Divine Angel said:
!
When I was a kid, my sister had about twenty guinea pigs. One day, a dog got into the yard. Two guinea pigs survived: one was found hiding under a bush and the other had escaped to underneath our neighbours’ house. We never caught the second one.And I once saw a kangaroo hopping down the Main Street of North Lakes, right past the Westfield.
My sister found a tree snake in her butler’s pantry.
Divine Angel said:
When I was a kid, my sister had about twenty guinea pigs. One day, a dog got into the yard. Two guinea pigs survived: one was found hiding under a bush and the other had escaped to underneath our neighbours’ house. We never caught the second one.And I once saw a kangaroo hopping down the Main Street of North Lakes, right past the Westfield.
My sister found a tree snake in her butler’s pantry.
My older sister often has wallabies and possums in her garden and she’s in South Hobart, only about a five minute drive from the CBD.
The wallabies just hop down the street. They can get into her garden via a carport but often can’t find their way out again.
Bubblecar said:
Divine Angel said:
When I was a kid, my sister had about twenty guinea pigs. One day, a dog got into the yard. Two guinea pigs survived: one was found hiding under a bush and the other had escaped to underneath our neighbours’ house. We never caught the second one.And I once saw a kangaroo hopping down the Main Street of North Lakes, right past the Westfield.
My sister found a tree snake in her butler’s pantry.
My older sister often has wallabies and possums in her garden and she’s in South Hobart, only about a five minute drive from the CBD.
The wallabies just hop down the street. They can get into her garden via a carport but often can’t find their way out again.
One full moonlit night, I happened to be in my shed oxy welding a ladder to drop down an opal mine shaft. Heard a thump outside that could have been big enough to be a human. Investigating, found a kangaroo sitting on my nursery of native plants in tubes. Standing there watching, it came over and sat down beside me. We looked for quite a few moments at the full moon together which all came to an abrupt end the moment I decided that this thing must be someone’s pet and moved my hand to touch it. Two bounds and it was gone.
Bubblecar said:
My older sister often has wallabies and possums in her garden and she’s in South Hobart, only about a five minute drive from the CBD.
The wallabies just hop down the street. They can get into her garden via a carport but often can’t find their way out again.
I don’t know why, but I’m always surprised to see kangaroos in suburbia. But hopping past Westfield was pretty funny.
Divine Angel said:
Bubblecar said:My older sister often has wallabies and possums in her garden and she’s in South Hobart, only about a five minute drive from the CBD.
The wallabies just hop down the street. They can get into her garden via a carport but often can’t find their way out again.
I don’t know why, but I’m always surprised to see kangaroos in suburbia. But hopping past Westfield was pretty funny.
If you spend time enough out on empty streets at night, you will invariably see wildlife tthat is nocturnal and these are most often big enough to see. ie: kangaroos and wallabies.
Cymek said:
How you get into my bedroom and why you take photo of my cat?
mollwollfumble said:
Cymek said:
How you get into my bedroom and why you take photo of my cat?
Clearly he’s hanging upsdie down from the ceiling.
I remember when I was a child that a swan (pretty sure if was a swan anyway) landed in our backyard exhausted, couldn’t fly and barely moved.
We bought it inside in a cage overnight so it could rest and released it in the morning, flew away quite fine
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:
Cymek said:
How you get into my bedroom and why you take photo of my cat?
Clearly he’s hanging upsdie down from the ceiling.
Uploading from the phone turns them on their side for some reason
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
mollwollfumble said:How you get into my bedroom and why you take photo of my cat?
Clearly he’s hanging upsdie down from the ceiling.
Uploading from the phone turns them on their side for some reason
Yes. You do have to rotate them around a bit and save the image to computer before uploading.
When we had a number of chicks (gee they proliferate when you have a couple of roosters and a number of hens) in a small wire enclosure to stop them wandering everywhere a wedge tail eagle got in and couldn’t get back out again. We found in there in the morning, let it go but shows they are about or where back then.
Cymek said:
When we had a number of chicks (gee they proliferate when you have a couple of roosters and a number of hens) in a small wire enclosure to stop them wandering everywhere a wedge tail eagle got in and couldn’t get back out again. We found in there in the morning, let it go but shows they are about or where back then.
Which year was this or which decade?
Wedge tailed eagles never really went away. There was a long period in which they were shot at for a bounty that was on the tailfeathers. It was only in the early seventies that this bounty was removed when it was announced that the eagles didn’t prey on sheep as much as they did rabbits.
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:
When we had a number of chicks (gee they proliferate when you have a couple of roosters and a number of hens) in a small wire enclosure to stop them wandering everywhere a wedge tail eagle got in and couldn’t get back out again. We found in there in the morning, let it go but shows they are about or where back then.
Which year was this or which decade?
Wedge tailed eagles never really went away. There was a long period in which they were shot at for a bounty that was on the tailfeathers. It was only in the early seventies that this bounty was removed when it was announced that the eagles didn’t prey on sheep as much as they did rabbits.
15 years or more
Cymek said:
roughbarked said:
Cymek said:
When we had a number of chicks (gee they proliferate when you have a couple of roosters and a number of hens) in a small wire enclosure to stop them wandering everywhere a wedge tail eagle got in and couldn’t get back out again. We found in there in the morning, let it go but shows they are about or where back then.
Which year was this or which decade?
Wedge tailed eagles never really went away. There was a long period in which they were shot at for a bounty that was on the tailfeathers. It was only in the early seventies that this bounty was removed when it was announced that the eagles didn’t prey on sheep as much as they did rabbits.
15 years or more
It must have been a hungry eagle. Wedgies are like a jumbo jet in that they need a long runway to take off again.
Ooh, just remembered. Some years ago someone here in Penshurst got a camel and walked it around town on a lead. They weren’t here for long. Don’t know where they went.
buffy said:
Ooh, just remembered. Some years ago someone here in Penshurst got a camel and walked it around town on a lead. They weren’t here for long. Don’t know where they went.
Tamb said:
buffy said:
Ooh, just remembered. Some years ago someone here in Penshurst got a camel and walked it around town on a lead. They weren’t here for long. Don’t know where they went.
This isn’t a sight you see often in FNQ.
Love them, both.
mollwollfumble said:
Tamb said:
buffy said:
Ooh, just remembered. Some years ago someone here in Penshurst got a camel and walked it around town on a lead. They weren’t here for long. Don’t know where they went.
This isn’t a sight you see often in FNQ.Love them, both.
Well, slap my ass and call me Sally (or words to that effect). This one beats all.
I had three minutes left of my birdwatching at my nearest large park and was just about to give up when I saw the distant bow waves of a couple of ducks swimming towards me. Grab the binoculars. One was a blue-billed duck, exciting because I only see one or two a year, some years none.
The other one didn’t look like a blue-billed duck. The blue billed duck swam out of view but the other one stayed in full view. It had a wide black stripe over the top of its head extending all the way down the back of its neck. And when it flapped its wings facing me I could see that its beast was yellow!
Check the bird book at home. A perfect match for the Spotted Whistling Duck. Dendrocygna guttata. Behaviour matches, too.
Only thing is, the Spotted Whistling Duck doesn’t come south of Cape York, it’s a PNG and Indonesia bird mainly. And I’m not in PNG.
mollwollfumble said:
Well, slap my ass and call me Sally (or words to that effect). This one beats all.I had three minutes left of my birdwatching at my nearest large park and was just about to give up when I saw the distant bow waves of a couple of ducks swimming towards me. Grab the binoculars. One was a blue-billed duck, exciting because I only see one or two a year, some years none.
The other one didn’t look like a blue-billed duck. The blue billed duck swam out of view but the other one stayed in full view. It had a wide black stripe over the top of its head extending all the way down the back of its neck. And when it flapped its wings facing me I could see that its beast was yellow!
Check the bird book at home. A perfect match for the Spotted Whistling Duck. Dendrocygna guttata. Behaviour matches, too.
Only thing is, the Spotted Whistling Duck doesn’t come south of Cape York, it’s a PNG and Indonesia bird mainly. And I’m not in PNG.
Escapee from a southern bird sanctuary?
PermeateFree said:
mollwollfumble said:
Well, slap my ass and call me Sally (or words to that effect). This one beats all.I had three minutes left of my birdwatching at my nearest large park and was just about to give up when I saw the distant bow waves of a couple of ducks swimming towards me. Grab the binoculars. One was a blue-billed duck, exciting because I only see one or two a year, some years none.
The other one didn’t look like a blue-billed duck. The blue billed duck swam out of view but the other one stayed in full view. It had a wide black stripe over the top of its head extending all the way down the back of its neck. And when it flapped its wings facing me I could see that its beast was yellow!
Check the bird book at home. A perfect match for the Spotted Whistling Duck. Dendrocygna guttata. Behaviour matches, too.
Only thing is, the Spotted Whistling Duck doesn’t come south of Cape York, it’s a PNG and Indonesia bird mainly. And I’m not in PNG.
Escapee from a southern bird sanctuary?
Or misidentification?
PermeateFree said:
mollwollfumble said:
Well, slap my ass and call me Sally (or words to that effect). This one beats all.I had three minutes left of my birdwatching at my nearest large park and was just about to give up when I saw the distant bow waves of a couple of ducks swimming towards me. Grab the binoculars. One was a blue-billed duck, exciting because I only see one or two a year, some years none.
The other one didn’t look like a blue-billed duck. The blue billed duck swam out of view but the other one stayed in full view. It had a wide black stripe over the top of its head extending all the way down the back of its neck. And when it flapped its wings facing me I could see that its beast was yellow!
Check the bird book at home. A perfect match for the Spotted Whistling Duck. Dendrocygna guttata. Behaviour matches, too.
Only thing is, the Spotted Whistling Duck doesn’t come south of Cape York, it’s a PNG and Indonesia bird mainly. And I’m not in PNG.
Escapee from a southern bird sanctuary?
The same menagerie that the Canada goose escaped from?
Perhaps, let’s see. From their website. https://www.capitalgolfclub.com/sanctuary.html
“peacocks peer in through the Clubhouse windows and strut the grounds while permanent wetlands residents include Cape Barren, Egyptian, Canadian and magpie geese and an exotic mix of wild and domesticated ducks. Among visitors to create excitement are rare blue billed ducks, kites, egrets, falcons, harriers and kestrels, along with the always welcome kookaburras, cockatoos, rosellas and galahs.”
It could be. The blue-billed duck could have come from there, too, even though it’s also a local native.
That menagerie is not at all far away. The distance from there to the lake I saw the Spotted Whistling Duck in is (check Google Earth) 2.5 km.
mollwollfumble said:
PermeateFree said:
mollwollfumble said:
Well, slap my ass and call me Sally (or words to that effect). This one beats all.I had three minutes left of my birdwatching at my nearest large park and was just about to give up when I saw the distant bow waves of a couple of ducks swimming towards me. Grab the binoculars. One was a blue-billed duck, exciting because I only see one or two a year, some years none.
The other one didn’t look like a blue-billed duck. The blue billed duck swam out of view but the other one stayed in full view. It had a wide black stripe over the top of its head extending all the way down the back of its neck. And when it flapped its wings facing me I could see that its beast was yellow!
Check the bird book at home. A perfect match for the Spotted Whistling Duck. Dendrocygna guttata. Behaviour matches, too.
Only thing is, the Spotted Whistling Duck doesn’t come south of Cape York, it’s a PNG and Indonesia bird mainly. And I’m not in PNG.
Escapee from a southern bird sanctuary?
The same menagerie that the Canada goose escaped from?
Perhaps, let’s see. From their website. https://www.capitalgolfclub.com/sanctuary.html“peacocks peer in through the Clubhouse windows and strut the grounds while permanent wetlands residents include Cape Barren, Egyptian, Canadian and magpie geese and an exotic mix of wild and domesticated ducks. Among visitors to create excitement are rare blue billed ducks, kites, egrets, falcons, harriers and kestrels, along with the always welcome kookaburras, cockatoos, rosellas and galahs.”
It could be. The blue-billed duck could have come from there, too, even though it’s also a local native.
That menagerie is not at all far away. The distance from there to the lake I saw the Spotted Whistling Duck in is (check Google Earth) 2.5 km.
Sounds like a great place for a duck.
PermeateFree said:
mollwollfumble said:
PermeateFree said:Escapee from a southern bird sanctuary?
The same menagerie that the Canada goose escaped from?
Perhaps, let’s see. From their website. https://www.capitalgolfclub.com/sanctuary.html“peacocks peer in through the Clubhouse windows and strut the grounds while permanent wetlands residents include Cape Barren, Egyptian, Canadian and magpie geese and an exotic mix of wild and domesticated ducks. Among visitors to create excitement are rare blue billed ducks, kites, egrets, falcons, harriers and kestrels, along with the always welcome kookaburras, cockatoos, rosellas and galahs.”
It could be. The blue-billed duck could have come from there, too, even though it’s also a local native.
That menagerie is not at all far away. The distance from there to the lake I saw the Spotted Whistling Duck in is (check Google Earth) 2.5 km.
Sounds like a great place for a duck.
I think you’re totally right. I’ve sent off a quick email to the capitalgolfclub asking if they are missing a Spotted Whistling Duck or Blue-Billed Duck. If they have, and it’s not too late, the Kingston Council may be able to help them retrieve it before it flies too far.
mollwollfumble said:
PermeateFree said:
mollwollfumble said:The same menagerie that the Canada goose escaped from?
Perhaps, let’s see. From their website. https://www.capitalgolfclub.com/sanctuary.html“peacocks peer in through the Clubhouse windows and strut the grounds while permanent wetlands residents include Cape Barren, Egyptian, Canadian and magpie geese and an exotic mix of wild and domesticated ducks. Among visitors to create excitement are rare blue billed ducks, kites, egrets, falcons, harriers and kestrels, along with the always welcome kookaburras, cockatoos, rosellas and galahs.”
It could be. The blue-billed duck could have come from there, too, even though it’s also a local native.
That menagerie is not at all far away. The distance from there to the lake I saw the Spotted Whistling Duck in is (check Google Earth) 2.5 km.
Sounds like a great place for a duck.
I think you’re totally right. I’ve sent off a quick email to the capitalgolfclub asking if they are missing a Spotted Whistling Duck or Blue-Billed Duck. If they have, and it’s not too late, the Kingston Council may be able to help them retrieve it before it flies too far.
I’ve had a reply from capitalgolfclub. They don’t think it’s one of theirs. They stressed how secure their site is :-(
So that’s strange.
mollwollfumble said:
PermeateFree said:Sounds like a great place for a duck.
I think you’re totally right. I’ve sent off a quick email to the capitalgolfclub asking if they are missing a Spotted Whistling Duck or Blue-Billed Duck. If they have, and it’s not too late, the Kingston Council may be able to help them retrieve it before it flies too far.
I’ve had a reply from capitalgolfclub. They don’t think it’s one of theirs. They stressed how secure their site is :-(
So that’s strange.
From photos on the web, I can see that the bird book has got the breast colours of the whistling ducks wrong. Then this would be a Wandering Whistling Duck. Sometimes seen in Victoria according to https://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Dendrocygna-arcuata. So the darned CSIRO Australian Bird Guide has got both colours and ranges wrong for these birds. I don’t know why people like it. PS Also found out today that it’s missing “sharp-tailed sandpiper”.
Today’s best bird has been the Black-tailed Godwit – unless the CSIRO Australian Bird Guide has got it wrong for a fourth time!
