Wildlife around your house

This baby robin was so proud that it could half-hop, half-fly up to the top of my Big Green Egg. It sat up there for a solid 20 mins chirping away. At one point I walked within 4-5’ of it (slowly) and it never moved.














It’s mom finally came by and got up there with it, and it followed her to the back of the yard to hop up in the wood pile under an oak tree.

 

This baby bunny has been showing up in our yard the last two weeks. I think it lives under one of our evergreen trees.

Today, this dove hopped around near the bunny for nearly ten minutes.

 

This baby bird flew straight at my head like it didn’t realize I was here. Then it landed on the back of the chair I was sitting in and remained there for probably 4-5 minutes while I watched it in the reverse camera of my phone.

 

We believe they are grackles. The adults are only about 10-12” tall at most. They also have a more purplish head.

Very similar to crows, but smaller.

 

Our squirrel feeder has been very busy the last week or two. I think at least one new mama squirrel has moved into the neighborhood.

 

We have a nest of bunnies that are starting to get out and explore our yard a bit. I’m going to have to set up a barrier on mowing day, and hopefully our neighbor’s indoor/outdoor cat stays away for another week or two.

 

Cute!

 

As can partially be seen above, we have added a couple bird feeders and a squirrel feeder to our back yard. I’ve been experimenting with different types of food to see what attracts different birds. Squirrels are easy, as they are greedy for just about anything we put out, lol.

Pro tip for anyone who enjoys watching the birds, but isn’t yet an expert on them. There is a free app called ‘Merlin Bird ID’ that identifies birds by their songs. Obviously the quality of the microphone on your phone matters, but I can sit 30-50’ away from birds chirping at fairly low volume and it easily identifies them. Worth checking out if you like that sort of thing!

 

This is one of the younger squirrels that visits us. I believe it was born late spring or early summer this year.

It already has one nut in its mouth, and was trying to stick a whole walnut in at the same time.

 

We have bulk sunflower seeds for the birds and squirrels, and sometimes we will throw a handful out on the back stoop. The birds and squirrels come eat them and it’s fun to watch up close.


Sometimes, if the seeds aren’t gone by nightfall, we wake up in the morning to cecetropes where the seeds were, so we assumed rabbits came in the night to eat them.


Last night I opened the curtain in the kitchen to peek out and see if the seeds were gone. Saw this guy staring back at me. He wasn’t too concerned that I was there. :jest:

 

The good thing about them is that they keep other rodents and lots of types of bugs down. I’d rather have them than raccoons or rats.

 

Opposite are generally very docile and avoid confrontation. The playing dead thing is very real.

Not sure if I posted about it years ago, I think I may have, but I saw it up close once. Some may remember the bullmastiff I had many years ago. Very well behaved, but a dominant personality. One night he was in the yard before bed, standing over something near the wood pile. I called for him to come in. He refused, which was very unlike him. This is a dog that I could tell not to eat a raw steak, leave home for two hours, and he wouldn’t have touched it. But he wouldn’t listen to come in, no matter what. I get dressed and go to see what he’s standing over. It was what I thought was a dead opossum. It has to be dead, as it’s had a 140lb dog growling and standing over it for several minutes. I shine a flashlight in its face, nudge it with my shoe, stand over it for 3-4 mins less than a foot away, get no reaction to anything. I bring the dog in, get gloves and a shovel, and go back to shovel the opossum into the garbage.


It was gone. It was ‘playing possum’ the entire time.




There are a few diseases they can carry, just like pigeons or squirrels or any other wildlife. But, assuming they aren’t living in a structure you want them out of, or aren’t completely infesting everything, I’d take a random opossum here and there over most other rodents.