You don’t even have to go off in the woods! Used to have tree frogs on the porch, catching a free lunch off the bugs coming to the porch light. Now I rarely spray off the lights and there are zero tree frogs.
Used to see Indigo snakes in the bushes now and again. Found a foot-long baby last year, that’s it.
And as to the woods, tromped around our 2.5 acres of swamp this afternoon, way in the boonies. Saw 4 squirrels, that’s it. Not another animal, of any sort, not even much evidence of animals. OK, there’s something tiny popping around under the water, no clue, can’t ever see them.
I saw fire ants move in, then armodillos moved north to us, around five years ago I found my first gecko.
The woods smelled and sounded different by then as well. Insect patterns have drastically changed.
The woods just feel different now, in the South.
Anyone who doesn’t see it either doesn’t spend as much time in the woods as they claim or are willfully ignorant.
It’s scary.
You don’t even have to go off in the woods! Used to have tree frogs on the porch, catching a free lunch off the bugs coming to the porch light. Now I rarely spray off the lights and there are zero tree frogs.
Used to see Indigo snakes in the bushes now and again. Found a foot-long baby last year, that’s it.
And as to the woods, tromped around our 2.5 acres of swamp this afternoon, way in the boonies. Saw 4 squirrels, that’s it. Not another animal, of any sort, not even much evidence of animals. OK, there’s something tiny popping around under the water, no clue, can’t ever see them.
As a fellow Southerner, you might like this:
https://old.lemmy.world/post/24174920