My shop is for the birds.

[Enzo]

So it is a nice summer evening, I have the shop door open, and the overhead door in the loading dock open, getting some fresh air in here.

As I sit here, a hear a fluttering and find a bird has flown into the shop. Flew around a few times, then flew back out the loading dock.

An odd little distraction I wouldn't have predicted.

[bob p]

Today it's the birds and the bees, I guess.

I was working in the shop, custom fabricating a piece of G10/FR4 for a power supply rebuild, and a bumblebee flew in through the exhaust fan that I had forgotten to turn on.

I guess they know it's the first day of Summer.

[Jazz P Bass]

I was on the phone & a wasp flew by right in front of me.
It's creepy the way they fly , with there legs hanging down.

[The Dude]

Since we're on the subject of wildlife... Several years ago, when I was working at a shop that did consumer A/V, I opened up a CRT big screen and found a dead rat laying on the main PCB. The rotting corpse had eaten through traces on the circuit board. A very "interesting" repair to say the least.

[Justin Thomas]

I still like finding the living spiders in my amp chassis. But I used to find way more interesting lifeforms in peoples' cars when I worked on them. I'm also glad the cicadas are gone; now we just wait for the Stinging Pterodactyls (giant hornets) to come out...

Living things are pretty darn cool, even if they really inconvenience us sometimes.

Justin

[Tom Phillips]

Sometimes when old, dirty, strange smelling amps arrive at my shop I have them CAT scanned before I open them up.

[Enzo]

I get she can really shred too.

[Jazz P Bass]

Sometimes when old, dirty, strange smelling amps arrive at my shop I have them CAT scanned before I open them up.

My one cat has 'sniffed' every single amp that he has seen.

[Jazz P Bass]

now we just wait for the Stinging Pterodactyls (giant hornets) to come out...

The Eastern US gets treated with these bad boys.
Cicada Killing Wasps.

The only item that they are missing is 'landing lights'

[bob p]

Sometimes when old, dirty, strange smelling amps arrive at my shop I have them CAT scanned before I open them up.

when cat scanning, you've got to be careful about letting them inspect a bass rig with a ported enclosure:

[Steve A.]

My one cat has 'sniffed' every single amp that he has seen.

That beats having a dog sniff your amp! I am sure that they are going to piss on it.

Steve

[bob p]

all things considered, i think a dog peeing on the outside would be better than a cat peeing on the inside.

[Steve A.]

all things considered, i think a dog peeing on the outside would be better than a cat peeing on the inside.

At your own house, yes. But it was usually a dog that would run up as I was setting up my equipment at someone's house- or at a bar that had dogs running in and out. In my experience it was always my own cat at home who would pee or poop in my shoes (or whatever) whenever he was pissed off at me.

The big problem was that once one dog pissed on your amp or cab every other dog in the world would want to claim it as its own. I don't think that cats are quite as territorial as dogs and when they sniff at something it is not usually for them to determine if the item needs to be rebranded with its own urine.

Steve

[Leo_Gnardo]

Bats, around here. Not recently thanx goodness. When one shows up just have to not panic & open windows & doors. They always find their way back out.

Nothing like waking up 5 AM on a summer morning to find a big brown bat zooming around the room. And no I wasn't up all night partying with Hunter S. Thompson... maybe IT was.

Yes those cicada-killers are awesome. You should see them do battle. Lucky they seem to ignore humans.

Cicadas just starting to get going here in upstate NY. The woods are howling with them. Sounds like a car idling with a bad water pump or loose belt. In neighborhoods nearby their husks are piling up. The only one I've seen right here was in the beak of a satisfied-looking bird.

[Mick Bailey]

Bob, that's spooky - you sure it's your cat? There's stuff out there we don't know about.....