Texas Treasures 2: He's 6' tall, wingspread 7 1/2', 'Ghost cat', Unchanged for 200M yrs

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department ^ | 2/16/14 | Patriot08

[mylife]

The quail got wiped out by fire ants too.
Saw a gaggle of “Prairie chickens”? last summer

[JoeProBono]

[patriot08]

"I’ve seen pink flamingos (I think that’s what they are) flying about down here in Texas. Also big vultures that swoop down for my dog. At least I think it was a vulture. Twas a huge thing, huge wing-span, middle of the night. Just came down and almost got my dog. Was gone after it failed."

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The pink birds were Roseate Spoonbills.. There's a lot of them around here:

The bird that was after your dog was probably some kind of bird of prey like a huge hawk. Glad your dog's ok. Scary

[patriot08]

Cool..seen those efforts to teach them to migrate.

[Monkey Face]

:o])

[Hot Tabasco]

Several years ago I was hunting up in the thumb area when I saw a small flock of about 8 cranes flying south. Until then I had never seen or heard of cranes being in Michigan so I naturally thought they were geese at first.

But the more I watched them they were too long and their wings too long and narrow to be geese. Plus, they didn't sound like geese either.

So as soon as I got home, I checked the internet and sure enough they were cranes. I don't know which cranes they were tho......

[patriot08]

Thanks for the input. Interesting.

[Hot Tabasco]

A few Whooping cranes have been showing up here in Michigan over the last few years.

Evidently there's a large sanctuary over by Jackson where cranes congregate......

[Hot Tabasco]

He's 6' tall, wingspread 7 1/2'

My first thought was a small NBA point guard....LOL!

[Mercat]

And they do spit blood from their eyes. I picked one up once and it scared me to death.

[patriot08]

.
Tx horned lizards are different from Arizona horned lizards.
There’s a good discussion about that (and some very funny stuff and pics) on my first ‘Texas Treasures’ post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3118606/posts

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[patriot08]

The quail got wiped out by fire ants too.

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Wish they could eradicate those &*%#@ ants.
Are they all over Texas now?

[CatherineofAragon]

Thanks, y’all.

That’s a beautiful little cat. I like that little tortoise, too.

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Ah! That’s the bird! I really need to get educated about Texas wild-life!

[cripplecreek]

Sandhill Cranes are everywhere around here.

[patriot08]

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“And they do spit blood from their eyes. I picked one up once and it scared me to death”
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Yeah, they really do. I’ve seen it aimed at one of our dogs.
They only use this defense to confuse and frighten a predator as a last resort.
The blood is harmless but it’s mixed with some kind of chemical to taste very bad to anything that tries to eat it.

My mother always told us if they spit blood in your eyes that you’d go blind. (shades of A Christmas Story and the BB gun- LOL) She just told us that ‘cause she didn’t want us messing with them.

We’d pick them up and hold them away from us for a bit to let it relax.

They’re really quite docile. If you turn them over in your hand and rub their tummy, they’ll go to sleep. They get used to you quite rapidly.

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[Slings and Arrows]

They’re both cuties.

[patriot08]

“That’s a beautiful little cat. I like that little tortoise, too.”

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Aren’t they beautiful? Salvadore Dali had one as a pet. (Ocelot)

[patriot08]

Ah! That’s the bird! I really need to get educated about Texas wild-life!

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They’re beautiful birds. ..especially in a group flying over. How pink they are depends on what they eat. :)

[Tailback]

I read a book written by some exotic hunter that hunted with his pet cheetah and ocelot. I wish I could figure out the title or author. He also hunted with a blowgun in Africa. Cool stories.