Are there wild things in your backyard?

[tyty333]

We live a little bit out in the country and I love when wild animals come to visit (as long as they dont stay

).
I know some of you live out in the wild, wild west and some of you live in wild New York City, so...what
kind of wild animals have you seen in your "backyard"?

We''ve seen
a bobcat
2 otters (we have water close by)
a fox
gopher turtles
sandhill cranes (3 feet tall birds)
an iguana
a coral snake (venemous but pretty colored)

and the more common
raccoons
possoms
armadillos

 

[soocool]

I thought a black bear was scary, but a bobcat?! Wow!

Ok, I''ll see a black bear once in a blue moon (thank goodness!)
- deer (lots)
-horses (not wild, but lots of people around me have horses and some miniatures- soooo cute!)
-wild turkeys ( a neighbor keeps 2 as pets)
-pheasants (usually travelling in families old to young)
- hawks
- bats (ugh!)
- rabbits
- groundhogs
- chipmunks
-foxes (lots lately)
- smelled but haven''t seen skunks (unless they are roadkill)
-frogs
-snakes
turtles (pulled a dead one out of my dog''s mouth yesterday-gross!)
Ok and Canadian geese (they are everywhere)

BTW, I live in a rural area of southeastern PA

 

[KimberlyH]

We live in a rural part of San Diego County. Our neighborhood hosts (or they host us!):

coyotes
horses (not wild)
ground squirrels
scorpions (not a fun find in your office at 5 in the morning; we've found 3 or 4 in the house in recent months)
a peacock (he belongs to the neighbor and takes walks through our yard frequently, stares at himself in tne windows, makes some noise to announce his presence, then leaves; we've also seen him walking down the street on a few occasions; he is my favorite)
Rattle snakes
Garden snakes
turkey vultures
goats (pets)
sheep (pets)
chickens (pets)
turkeys (pets)

 

[MonkeyPie]

We have raccoons, skunks, coyotes and bobcats here. For the most part though I never SEE them - just evidence that they were about.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Great topic, tyty333!! May I ask what state or country you live in to see such a menagerie in your backyard??

I live out in the woods in Connecticut, and I've seen:

deer
wild turkey
various little froggies
squirrels
the cutest little chipmunks
rabbits

And, all summer, we've heard, but never seen, what we suspect is a big old turtle!

 

[dragonfly411]

My backyard is lacking but my grandparents have animals in abundance which is where we were before. We had:

2 foxes with 3 babies
a barn owl
an opossum (or a possum as we say down here lol)
two bald eagles

raccoons in abundance
15 turkeys
someone''s pet pot bellied pig that got loose and survived
2 nesting pairs of red tailed hawks
a nesting pair of kites
a nesting pair of kestrels
several hundred bats
blue jays
eastern blue birds
cardinals
black capped chickadees
tit mouses (I suppose it would be tit mouses, they''re a bird)
field mice
crows
robins
eastern wrens
some kind of yellow bird?
black snakes
and some cats

 

[tyty333]

Date: 9/24/2009 10:48:06 AM
Author: Loves Vintage
Great topic, tyty333!! May I ask what state or country you live in to see such a menagerie in your backyard??

I live out in the woods in Connecticut, and I''ve seen:

deer
wild turkey
various little froggies
squirrels
the cutest little chipmunks
rabbits

And, all summer, we''ve heard, but never seen, what we suspect is a big old turtle!

I live in Florida...I would love to see chipmunks everyday...they are sooo cute. I forgot to mention we have
the usual squirrels. For some reason we dont see to many birds...mostly just blue jays, red birds and mocking
birds. I have a birdfeeder but it doesnt seem to attract to many. We did see a male painted bunting once!
So cool!

 

[tyty333]

Date: 9/24/2009 10:38:14 AM
Author: soocool
I thought a black bear was scary, but a bobcat?! Wow!

Ok, I''ll see a black bear once in a blue moon (thank goodness!)
- deer (lots)
-horses (not wild, but lots of people around me have horses and some miniatures- soooo cute!)
-wild turkeys ( a neighbor keeps 2 as pets)
-pheasants (usually travelling in families old to young)
- hawks
- bats (ugh!)
- rabbits
- groundhogs
- chipmunks
-foxes (lots lately)
- smelled but haven''t seen skunks (unless they are roadkill)
-frogs
-snakes
turtles (pulled a dead one out of my dog''s mouth yesterday-gross!)
Ok and Canadian geese (they are everywhere)

BTW, I live in a rural area of southeastern PA

A bear would scare me way more than a bobcat! I dont recall exactly but I think the male bobcats only get
up to 30lbs max. The one we saw had a beautiful perfect face with his wiskers and all his facial markings.

KimH - a peacock would be fun to see but I hear that can be loud and leave little gifts in your yard? Does
he put up his tail when he is looking at himself?

Dragonfly - what parts are your grandparents in? We have a lot of those things in FL. We do see bald eagles
occasionally, American Kestrals, Crested Cara Caras, hawks and kites. Mind you these are more in our area and not
in my yard. Always a thrill to see though.

 

[Camille]

horses
rabbits
foxes
bat [zero mosquito] that I''m trying to like

owl and hawlk hunting birds that we feed
racoon by the edge of the pond
frogs
wild turkey time to time

 

[radiantquest]

Wow, you all have all sorts of animals. We have

2 groundhogs. I believe them to be a couple
Rabbits
squirrels
chipmunks
moles
assorted birds
1 peacock. He is gone now, don''t know where he went. He didn''t even belong to anyone.
opposums sp?
raccoons

 

[Ara Ann]

We live in a subdivision (in Michigan), but have heavily wooded areas surrounding us, as well as a ''pond'' wetland commons area behind our yard...so we have both woodsy and water creatures! We are also very close to several lakes and have a lot of ''stop over'' water birds in our yard, we''re kind of a pit stop for them, LOL.

While living here I have seen:

Deer (running down our walking path, which runs along the commons area in the back). We also had two walk across the street in front of us on our way home one evening, that was weird.

Cranes and herons

Ducks (who had baby ducklings in the pond a few years back, SO cute!)

Geese

Swans (they look strange in flight!)

Woodchucks

HUGE turtles

Fat bunny rabbits

Bats

Hawks (beautiful red tailed hawks, gorgeous in flight!)

Snakes

Lots of FAT toads and cute tree frogs...I love it when they sing at night, we feel like we are camping in the woods!

and all kinds of birds too.

We have also seen coyote tracks, back when the houses were under construction, but I have not seen one in person.



Pretty neat for being in a developed area, we get lots of nature in our own back yard!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

We have: squirels, raccoons, cyotes, and bobcats. Well, actually, the latter two were seen before we moved to our current house. Now, we have HOA rules that stipulate no feeding the raccoons!

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 9/24/2009 11:49:47 AM
Author: tyty333


KimH - a peacock would be fun to see but I hear that can be loud and leave little gifts in your yard? Does
he put up his tail when he is looking at himself?

Ty, our yard is mostly dirt, so any present he might leave would goes unnoticed. He is definitely loud, but we live on 2+ acres and he lives at a horse boarding facility so there''s enough distance that the noise is not obnoxious. He does put up his tail, and he talks to himself. We have lots of windows and doors with full window panes in them and he stares at himself for long periods of time; it''s so funny to watch.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 9/24/2009 1:36:56 PM
Author: KimberlyH

Date: 9/24/2009 11:49:47 AM

Author: tyty333

KimH - a peacock would be fun to see but I hear that can be loud and leave little gifts in your yard? Does

he put up his tail when he is looking at himself?

Ty, our yard is mostly dirt, so any present he might leave would goes unnoticed. He is definitely loud, but we live on 2+ acres and he lives at a horse boarding facility so there''s enough distance that the noise is not obnoxious. He does put up his tail, and he talks to himself. We have lots of windows and doors with full window panes in them and he stares at himself for long periods of time; it''s so funny to watch.

A man down the street owns a peacock, and he trills every morning. It sounds like he''s shouting, "Help! Help!" In fact, I once had a dream where someone was shouting that at me, and woke up to realize it was the peacock!

I love him, he''s gorgeous and he isn''t a pest, but he''s always in the road and I am so scared someone will hit him.

 

[Skippy123]

I live by this big area of dirt and natural scenery; there are
jack rabbits
coyotes (3 I have seen that are a family)
lizards
tons of road runners
hawks
skunk

 

[that_someone_special]

Well, at my parents I''ve seen deer, fox, rabbits, mice, shrews.... and in the pool we get A LOT OF frogs, ducks, geese (they think it''s a pond), more mice, ...

The thing is ... is that they live next to a nature reserve, so when the deer get hungry they go out walking the front of it into the streets... the suburban streets It''s quite funny (and late and night, when you ahve 3 bucks on your front lawn and you need to get in the house, scary).

 

[Loves Vintage]

Date: 9/24/2009 4:29:13 PM
Author: Skippy123
I live by this big area of dirt and natural scenery; there are
jack rabbits
coyotes (3 I have seen that are a family)
lizards
tons of road runners
hawks
skunk

Road Runners!?!?!?!

Maybe you can take some pics for us, Skippy?!?! I''m sure I''ve never seen one! I just google Road Runner, and they seem quite small . . . compared to the cartoon character, anyway . . .

 

[Elmorton]

Currently, I feel like all I see is big, icky spiders and cicada shells.

Typically, we have:
Robins, blue jays, crows, sparrows, mourning doves, woodpeckers, hummingbirds
Tons and tons of brown/gray bunnies
Squirrels - before we moved here, I''d only seen brown and red, but in our backyard, all black is the predominant variety
Feral cats
Every now and then I''ll spot a possum or raccoon in our neighborhood, but not often.

At DH''s first apartment, outside his bedroom window was a forested area where deer would go to eat late in the evening. I used to love peeking out of the window and watching them. Deer are so beautiful (when you''re not behind the wheel, driving at night - then they''re just scary).

 

[mayachel]

I'll chime in from the "wilds of Brooklyn". Having grown up in the a very wooded suburbs, I've been surprised by who much wildlife I do have in my back yard.

-Cicadas
-Peepers
-Slugs the size of my hand!
-snails
-feral cats
-squirrels
-Blue Jays
-Robins
-Mocking Birds
-Sparrows
-Hummingbirds
-pigeons
-crows
-bats

 

[Luckyeshe]

I live in Fl and I see:

alligators
a fox
gopher turtles
snapping turtles
tortoises
ibis birds
cranes
morning doves
racoons
squirrels
crows
humming birds
blue jays
wood peckers
coral snakes
garden snakes
boa pythons (people let there pets loose

)
bats
falcons
ospreys
vultures
sandpipers
horses (not wild)
cattle
wild turkeys
deers

 

[AdiS]

I envy you, gals! All we have around here are a few wild grannies.

 

[tyty333]

Date: 9/24/2009 5:48:15 PM
Author: mayachel
I''ll chime in from the ''wilds of Brooklyn''. Having grown up in the a very wooded suburbs, I''ve been surprised by who much wildlife I do have in my back yard.

-Cicadas
-Peepers
-Slugs the size of my hand!
-snails
-feral cats
-squirrels
-Blue Jays
-Robins
-Mocking Birds
-Sparrows
-Hummingbirds
-pigeons
-crows
-bats

Mayachel - whats a peeper?

I forgot to mention the way larger-than-life size mosquitos we have here in FL and the new breed of lizard that
my cat has created - the tailess anole lizard!

 

[mayachel]

peepers are a type of frog. It turns out that wikipedia has a great page about them, that includes what they sound like. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Peeper

 

[dragonfly411]

I wish we had swans, I love them.

I live in Florida as well and have only ever seen a chipmunk once.

 

[purrfectpear]

We have roughly 6000+ bunny rabbits in a gated community of 9000 people, and have had since 1962. Other than that, we get the odd coyote or two that gets lost.

 

[Novel]

Oh my! Some of you live in wild places. When I lived in CT, the craziest things we saw were:

wild turkeys (not so bad)
coyotes (worse)
rattle snakes (my dog once brought one home. SCARY)

 

[Luckyeshe]

Date: 9/25/2009 10:57:58 AM
Author: dragonfly411
I wish we had swans, I love them.

I live in Florida as well and have only ever seen a chipmunk once.

Dragonfly, there''s swans in some of the lakes in Orlando...ok, more like ponds. But I didn''t add those to my list since that''s where my family lives but not me. Have a drive around Orlando and I''m pretty sure you''d find them there!

 

[tyty333]

Mayachel - cute little frogs...they look like some of the green tree frogs we have around here with the little padded
feet.

purrfectpear - I would think the coyotes would love your neighborhood with all those bunnies!

 

[Elmorton]

Novel, I saw wild turkeys on my way to work today - I''d never really seen them before, I don''t think. These guys were HUGE - I thought I was going to get in an accident because I just wanted to keep watching them!

 

[Dancing Fire]

women!! in the neighbor''s backyard.