Wildlife around your house

I live in a rather active pocket of woods. We've got squirrels that run off with tomatoes, outdoor cats that will run into your living room, a variety of noisy birds.

There is a skunk living under my neighbor's deck. Every time I mow the yard, notice that the entryway to the warren has been modified slightly from foot traffic.

 

I live in what can be said to be an inner city neighbourhood - Toronto folks would know the area of the Danforth - but if you can visualize the kind of street that was in the opening credits of All in the Family - yeah, it's like an Archie Bunker kind of place.

The most common wildlife here is the Raccoon. Bungee cords are much in demand for securing the compost bins lids.

Then mice (they like to sleep under my BBQ cover).

Bats - I built a bat house and installed it on the side of my shed

Squirrels - Oak trees in the backyard.

Birds: we feed chickadees, finches, cardinals, bluejays. I have seen a Coopers Hawk and an owl. there's tons of sparrows and starlings, cowbirds. Seagulls sometimes fly over from the lake (it's about 2 km away) and there are thousands of cormorants on the lake.

Cats: apparently there are feral cats around. I see the odd tom, but the neighbours constantly let their pets run loose in the street. Several have perished due to cars running over them or a couple have eaten mice that have in turn eaten poison and have gotten sick.

Coyotes: have made an appearance in the downtown area. they are making the news fairly often - attacking pets. even children. They live in the ravines.

Deer: My wife spooked a white tail deer that was nibbling on her peonies in our back yard. She tried to quietly slide open the glass door and screen to take its picture, but it heard and bounded over our (4 ft tall chain link) fence, into our neighbour's yard, down the driveway, across the street and holed up in a back yard there until the animal services folks came and removed it.

We think the deer made its way down through the ravines and railway right of ways to get into our street.

 

you betcha snowy. I've had my share of stand offs with those guys - The garden hose on full blast, chasing them out of the yard. there's a family of 4 kits and 2 parents living in the backyard neighbour's garage (or under it) and every night they trot out in single file to raid compost bins. I always heard their claws scrabbling up the outside of my house when I was trying to sleep. I had to put a 12 ft long piece of 6 inch metal flashing around the corner of the house ,to stop that.

they also look for grubs in the lawn, and pretty well destroy the grass by tearing it up over night.
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and to make matters worse, I think the damn things are protected. By the freaking city government. No, not the Rob Ford side show government, the previous Miller side show government.
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Oh yeah, while I'm at it, you know what else the city protects? Do you?? Fricken Canada Geese. Another form of pest er... wildlife that is everywhere here. Yeah, you can't hunt them for Christmas dinner. I'm glad when they all fly south to the US like a dependable SnowBird.

 

Feral dogs, yes, and a rapidly increasing number of feral pigs.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/wildlife_damage/content/printable_version/feral_swine.pdf

Around our house, however, we just have squirrels, rabbits, skunks, and birds.

 

My neighbors are the wildest life around here.

 

I saw a coyote about two miles from my house a couple of weeks ago. Think I posted that on PA. But it bears mentioning here. It's the first that I've seen in this area.

 

We used to have feral cats here, but the HOA started trapping them. I've heard of bear and coyote sightings here, but I've never seen one myself. It does surprise me that Wile E may be near here, same for Yogi, when I don't live in a rural area. (Orlando, Florida)

 

Are you a friend of @mixedmedia ?

 

No, I'm afraid not.

 

We have the typical:

Dogs
Cats
Mice
Coyotes
Deer
Moose
Bears
Foxes
But No rats (alberta is rat free)
Sparrows, crows, hawks, ducks and these:

 

Pelicans and loons, too.

 

No pelicans around this neck of the woods, but I'm surrounded by loons!

And they know who they are...

 

Thanks esp for those bird pictures
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Last year - right on our Patio - twice say this guy! Never imagined to see a Salamander in our home & garden

 

*laughs*

I spent my growing up years in Southern California, living on the edge of a canyon. Mom and dad are still there, and for the last 15 or 20 years, they have . . . relocated the various wildlife that often show up in their backyard. Raccoons mostly, plenty of possums, the occasional coyote or skunk.

Dad drives the caught critters across a nearby eight-lane freeway and deposits them on the edge of a golf course. We've wondered for years what the golf course groundsmen must think of the regular influx of varmints that show up on the links.

Around my place, there are lots of hawks, owls, coyotes, deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, and possums. Eagles sometimes show up. About eight years ago, I saw a bobcat on the six-mile drive into town - fortunately they've not shown up in my neighborhood. This past summer, there was a bear hanging around for a week or so. A few years ago, we had a crazy infestation of chipmunks - ten or twelve ended up in an old empty garbage can in the garage - they'd fallen in there when trying to jump across a big gap in some wall shelving. Scared the wee out of me when I walked in there one day and heard them trying to escape!

Of course, the predators concern me, as I raise chickens, and I've lost many to them over the years.

I have a loaded shotgun by the front door and don't hesitate to use it - mostly as a noisemaker to scare the predators away, but on a few occasions, I've used it to kill. While this is not a pleasant task, I will admit that I take extreme pleasure in mole assassinations. Moles are from the devil.

 

We have a couple of unusual (??) birds around our neighborhood that I used to see late at night when I walked the dogs. I'm not a bird person, but to me they looked like a cross between a heron and an egret, not as big as a heron, maybe a little bigger than an egret, and dark in color. I didn't see them feeding along the (sort of) nearby bayou, they seemed to be hunting bugs in the lawns.

 

Found this little guy on my door this evening