"Hi. I live in your yard."

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This guy...

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/May/20045307779244674852565.jpg

showed up on my deck yesterday, clinging to the lowest rung of the railing. I got within a foot of him, and realized by the frozen posture and odd tufts of downy fluff sticking out from the other feathers that he's a fallen robin nestling. At one point of the day I was locked out of the house and so took a snooze. I awoke to scrabbling noises. I realized it was he/she again--standing underneath the chaise looking nearly directly up at me. Looking around I soon saw his/her mom. She was flying around and perching on the fence at the perimeter of the yard, so I have left the nestling care business to her.

Today I observed the baby robin hopping around the yard, perching on the lowest branches of our roses and whatever that plant in the picture is. His/her mom is very good at her job, bringing worms and what have you to her grounded chick. She has also done some combat with a comparably-sized shiny black bird. I am in fear that a neighborhood cat, fox, coyote or hawk will drop by for a meal.

That's the wildlife report from suburban Colorado.

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

How's wildlife in your neighborhood?

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:32 (twenty-two years ago)

possums all over the joint. cars wipe out anything else.

― ipsofacto (ipsofacto), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

rats as big as cats (tm)

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/May/20045303850437494947954.jpg
:(

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a pair of doves or something (turtledoves? Sort of pigeonlike but way prettier) that would roost nuzzled up together on a tree branch right outside our living room window for a long time (seemed to noticed them mainly on weekends, tho that was probably because I was there in the daytime).

Lately there's only been the one bird who sits folornly puffed up against the cold. I wonder where it's mate is and get sad, thinking a cat or car got to them :(

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

possum living in roof. blue tongue under the rear deck. kookas seem to have gone for the winter. children in the front bedroom.

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 31 May 2004 03:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I think my personal twee-est moment ever was listening to a really spectacular extended recording of some hawaiian bird's mating call on the radio. I don't care so much (and know even less) about birdcalls, but it was impressive. The announcer then said "that is the mating call of the male [bird x]-- in vain, since the last female [bird x] died three years previous." Holy crap that's a sad sad thought.

The dove calls are great around here, so soothing. My uncle hunts doves, and I always have wondered how much meat you can get off a freakin' dove?

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:03 (twenty-two years ago)

My cat brings me smaller animals nearly every night now; not amusing. She killed a chipmunk last night, and there as a decapitated mouse on the porch this morning. Other mice and birds also appear regularly.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

i've got the biggest spiders i've ever seen in my back yard! 100s of them!

― duane, Monday, 31 May 2004 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

o fuck i forgot the spiders! me too!

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, yeah, definitely spiders and moths as well. sometimes mosquitos.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I sprayed a squirrel with the hose today. It was in a palm tree less than 10 feet from me, and so couldn't move fast. I eventually got into different, much taller palm tree, out of hose reach. PH34R M3, fucker!!!

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:48 (twenty-two years ago)

It eventually got ...

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh. I had a vision of you in a tree next to squirrel's tree, mocking it roundly from above :D

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 31 May 2004 04:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The wildlife that has been spotted in my back yard thus far:

Three (3) neighborhood cats
One (1) indoor dog (i.e. ours)
Many, many ants
Lots of Bees That Sting
Some little spiders
Assorted birds
Two (2) deer
Numerous squirrels

We only live about ten miles away from the center of town.

― Those Beautiful Lines (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 31 May 2004 06:26 (twenty-two years ago)

BTW, the bird you spotted and took a photo of is adorable.

― Those Beautiful Lines (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 31 May 2004 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

My cat's been wailing and howling through the window at *something* that's on the deck outside our bedroom; I can't see it in the dark, but I suspect it's the neighbor's cat.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Monday, 31 May 2004 06:56 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.theminorthirds.com/ilx/birds.jpg
These fellows are outside our bathroom window in the morning. There are many of them. They chirp chirp chirp away!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 31 May 2004 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

a giant pigeon repeatedly knocks into the third-story windows at the office and honks very loudly. happens about every other week.

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Monday, 31 May 2004 07:13 (twenty-two years ago)

a few very healthy squirrels
a couple of possums
some wasps
some WASPs

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 31 May 2004 07:22 (twenty-two years ago)

matos are you sure its a pigeon and not strongo?

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 31 May 2004 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm planning my snake-spotting trip to Richmond Park, but I haven't found details of how to track them most effectively. Any tips? I also discovered that the smooth snake is actually the third and final British snake species, and the slow worm isn't a snake at all but a lizard with no legs, which means that I haven't ever seen a snake in Britain. Boo.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 31 May 2004 10:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Minimal, luckily. I see rabbits and ducks outside fairly regularly though. A giant mutant fly got in here when I opened the door to the porch the other day, but I think the non-retarded cat killed it.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 31 May 2004 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i saw a HUMMINGBIRD in my moms yard today. Drinking honeysuckle nectar. is it true they can't stop flying or they'll die? They must sleep...y'know?

― aimurchie, Monday, 31 May 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I think that's sharks with swimming.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 31 May 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I get a lot of rabbits and squirrels in the backyard, since we don't have any dogs to bother them like most of our neighbors do.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 31 May 2004 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

This afternoon, in the garden, a glossy soft brown lady blackbird was hopping about fearlessly across grass and into the undergrowth. She barely seemed to notice me walking by.

But then the cat came out and looked a bit too interested, so I was all 'sweetie, don't even think about trying it' and the blackbird flew away. I think her nest is in the birchtree in front of my house: there've been blackbirds singing there every morning. It's pretty worrying, because the cats in my area are savage.

― cis (cis), Monday, 31 May 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuck the yard, these guys live in the house:

Mosquitoes
Ants
Mosquitoes
Flies
Mosquitoes
Spiders
Mosquitoes
Random Cockroaches
Mosquitoes
Moths
Mosquitoes
More mosquitoes

Cis, you went all Marcello on your cat. You go, girl.

― Crickets Dance On Tequila Booty (Barima), Monday, 31 May 2004 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Mm, she was oddly unimpressed.

― cis (cis), Monday, 31 May 2004 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.nps.gov/cuva/kidstuff/alphabet/images/boxturtle.jpg

I discovered one of these in my yard when I was a kid.. around 10. I was soooo excited. I used to feed it sowbugs and strawberries all the time. The turtle LOVED the strawberries. Then one day, I made the mistake of introducing the turtle to the family's hyperactive Alaskan malamute named Gemini. A few days later, I never saw the turtle again, thinking it escaped into a neighbor's yard.

Seven years later, when my family redid the backyard, they found an overturned and severely scarred and overbitten turtle shell in the corner. Apparently, the dog had encountered it, played it, and left it overturned for dead. Ironically, this was just a year after the dog himself had to be put to sleep due to a irrecoverable slipped disc. :(

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

My cousin lives in the middle of New Jersey just outside Morristown, whenever I stay with her (I'm a Scot living in London) I'm blown away by the sheer volume of wildlife that lives in and around the grounds of the house. Deer, chipmunks, ants, squirrels, HUGE CENTPEDES, snakes, mad tick-like things that fall out of trees and bury into your head, treefrogs. I seriously think I'd go a bit mad. How do you American ILXr's cope??

― mzui, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

The neighbourhood cats are nice, apart from the one that is now STALKING me since I fed him a couple of weeks ago - he lurks on the back porch and scratches at the kitchen door whenever I'm in there. There are a couple of squirrels who dance in tandem across the porch railing (which is very entertaining) and live in a big tree a couple of gardens away. Other assorted birds.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 11:59 (twenty-two years ago)

No beasties around my apartment specifically, but there are various birds in the nearby trees here and there.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and there was a sweet tiny bird that I've now identified as some kind of wagtail in the garden yesterday.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

every couple of weeks I see some wild turkeys in my backyard. Last week there was 15 of them.

― Chris 'The Velvet Bingo' V (Chris V), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.bickelboys.com/sites/RANGERRK.GIF
^ TWEE AS FUCK

― Be sure to Loop! Loop, Loop, Loop. (ex machina), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:31 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000083GHM.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
^ Twee in Oceania

― Be sure to Loop! Loop, Loop, Loop. (ex machina), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

The only birds I've seen in my garden are magpies. The large local cat population may account for this. Once I got up really early, around 6am, and saw a fox.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

feathers are scattered all over my garden!

in february the mama fox at my new(ish) place in Brixton had babies!! we have discovered that their den/hidey hole is actually inside our garden, right at the back, although we've never actually seen them in there. big hole, dug into the ground... what else could it be?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

BADGERS!

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:41 (twenty-two years ago)

i thort badgers needed to be near rivers or something

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I know, but it would be nice. You could bait them.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"oi badger! your mama's got a wet nose!" aww poor badgers. i think of them as like big broad-shouldered country galoots, rather than the dapper Urban Foxes who twirl their moustaches at you and snicker

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

lots of top badger 'action' on bbc2's wildlife fortnight thing tonight and every night for a while on bbc2. think of it as animal big brother 5.

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a pair of doves or something (turtledoves? Sort of pigeonlike but way prettier) that would roost nuzzled up together on a tree branch right outside our living room window for a long time

Mourning doves, perhaps? (BTW, pigeons are a species of dove.)

http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/patrick/lay/images/birds/Bird%20Gallery%20Photos/Mourning%20Doves.jpg

I've seen possums and deer in my neighborhood. There are probably raccoons in the area, but I only see them dead at the side of the road.
:^(

As for "rats as big as cats" stories, I suspect that at least some of those sightings are actully possums. I know that they're marsupials, not rodents, but in a dim light they could be mistaken for very large rats.

My twee-est sighting ever, though, was one spring when I saw a cardinal hopping around -- and then a couple minutes later saw a girl cardinal hopping around with him. Aw...they were mating.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

In Wiltshire, where I've been for the weekend, erm, badgers, rabbits, pheasants (HSA's mum calls him Charlie, though there's more than one, they are all called Charlie), erm... grey squirrels. And a poacher.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

My family has rescued a number of injured birds in our time, though very few of them live very long. Our tweest bird moment was when we we nursed a newly-hatched cardinal who fell out of his nest to adolescence. My mom and I fed him baby cereal from a demitasse spoon and he'd open his mouth and flutter his flightless wings even when he looked almost like a full-fledged adult bird. He died, probably from some germ humans have protections against but cardinals don't.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

all woodland creatures are called Charlie, ergo I am a woodland creature.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and there was the time I found a baby swan in our creek, screeching in a panic because he had a fishing hook caught in his beak. I got into a rowboat with my neighbor, raced after the swan family with a pool skimmer, avoided getting attacked by the huge, vicious swan parents, and bought him into our house, where he plopped on the basement floor. Eventually the hook just fell out of his beak without any injury.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

My mom has moved further out on Long Island and now she gets regular visitations by all sorts of tiny birds she'd rarely see when she was closer to the city, plus all sorts of small mammals and even a doe creeps through the forest every now and then.

I live in an apartment so I don't really have a backyard. The park nearest to me has some pretty disappointing wildlife, probably because of all the damned dogs in the neighborhood, though in the mornings I can hear birds with some pretty complex song, and every once in a while I'll see ducks in the river, and not just mallards, too.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

This weekend I took a daytrip to the Chesapeake Bay. Among the sights were people feeding a mother duck with about a dozen fluffy little ducklings in tow. Then, probably because people were feeding birds, a number of geese and their goslings came over to get their share. Upon seeing this, Mama Duck immediately rounded up her little ones, probably the ducklings were so small that an adult goose could maybe eat one by accident.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

there are rabbits and crows and magpies

i miss the monastary:foxes, cardinals, jack rabbits,eagles, buzzards,chipmonks, squirells, possums, these little lizards, bull frogs, fire flies, etc etc etc.

more then any place i have lived.

― anthony, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:58 (twenty-two years ago)

oh and how are geese and ducks related taxonamically ?

― anthony, Tuesday, 1 June 2004 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

lots of cats and birds on my block, and a few squirrels here and there. The roses have just bloomed, so the entire neighborhood looks and smells beautiful. Up in Greenpoint at my girlfriend's place, there's a nightingale outside her window who likes to imitate the sound of car alarms.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.digitalprozac.com/images/gallery/moviepics/peeweebiga/PWSNAKE2.JPG

― Be sure to Loop! Loop, Loop, Loop. (ex machina), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Indiana Jones: Give me your torch. Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps. Very dangerous. You go first.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Pretty closely, Anthony. They're both members of the same bird order and family. (Check here for their placement within the tree of life -- they're both Anseriformes.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 14:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't have a backyard or even yard at all, but the grassy strips along the sidewalks in my neighborhood have the occasional mallard duck couple or small herd of Canadian geese.

On my initial train ride back from Portland (this is last week), the train was delayed at Tacoma because a GIANT herd of Canadian geese were blocking the tracks, thankfully near enough to the Tacoma station, such that the train could slow down and not run them over. They were all whiny and pissed off that they had to be scattered aside.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/screensaver/critters/pict0011.jpg

A very common site along the river near Fremont, and occasional on my street block, as mentioned above.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

last May during our Derby trip ILXors saw deer in my parents' backyard!

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

(at my boyfriend's) - always squirrels and nondescript birds. A cardinal is usually hanging around as well.

tiny salamanders on the porch.

and sometimes chickens and roosters that escape from the neighbor's yard

(my place) - opossums and rats. bleh.

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

When I lived in Florida, we had many, many lizards, frogs, toads, garter snakes, corn snakes, pygmy rattlers, turtles, rabbits, mice... When I was a kid there were also indigo snakes and gopher tortoises, but they are no more. My parents' house is on a man-made lake, wherein lives quite a nice sized alligator.

I visited some friends last week who live on a lake; they have an otter that comes by sometimes!

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 02:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Seen in the grounds of my place of work:

* Many tiny ickle fist-sized rabbits
* A bunch of Canada geese. They are currently sprogging so I occasionally get hissed at by concerned parents protecting their delicious brood of goslings
* Moorhens - also with kiddies that look like tiny bite-size versions of mum and dad
* A couple of evil-looking herons
* A fox

― robster (robster), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 09:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Herons are the Bond villains of nature. With grumpy wideboy henchgeese.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 09:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Sad update: I found a dead adult robin in the yard yesterday, I think it is the mother of the downed nestling. No sign of trauma, just dead bird. I put it in a ziploc and called the county health office, because they are testing many species of bird found dead for West Nile disease, which is a huge problem in Colorado.

No sign of the little guy anywhere.

― Hunter (Hunter), Tuesday, 8 June 2004 03:09 (twenty-two years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Madly in love w/ the nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons that live in the Brooklyn detention center

― ein Sexmonster (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Thursday, 8 June 2017 00:33 (nine years ago)

four years pass...

there are (at least) six (6) foxes living in my backyard

four (4) are v young and seem to just play tag and wrestle each other nonstop it is wildly cute

― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 24 May 2022 23:28 (four years ago)

please please please post video, pictures, vital statistics, anything you possibly can about these foxes, it is necessary to the functioning of the universe that you do this

― Society for the Preservation of (cat), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 00:20 (four years ago)

I live in Atlanta. A few weeks ago, a fox was sitting in the driveway across the street as I pulled up, just chilling, sitting on its hindquarters like a dog. I got out and took its picture. It was totally unperturbed.

We have foxes, deer, coyotes (often heard but never seen), possums, bats, raccoons, owls. Keep in mind that we are still in the metro area, not far from two major interstates.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 00:41 (four years ago)

not the greatest quality but here are some vids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWiLrVMG3Gk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaF5ApP3FP0

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 25 May 2022 01:34 (four years ago)

Amazing!

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 01:41 (four years ago)

oh my dear god i am legit crying tears of happiness at these goofy rompsters thank you so much

― Society for the Preservation of (cat), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 02:29 (four years ago)

(mute if u dont wanna hear my dog bark @ them)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfVWhrlTgiE

― johnny crunch, Friday, 27 May 2022 00:43 (four years ago)

This is primo content. They are so damn cute.

― PBKR, Friday, 27 May 2022 00:48 (four years ago)

awwww thank you

― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, 27 May 2022 00:51 (four years ago)

🦊🦊🦊
ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT VULPINALIA
🦊🦊🦊

leave out a toy for them?

― Society for the Preservation of (cat), Friday, 27 May 2022 01:49 (four years ago)

“hi im passing thru your yard”

https://postimg.cc/06jfjKvH

― johnny crunch, Sunday, 29 May 2022 17:29 (four years ago)

https://postimg.cc/06jfjKvH

― johnny crunch, Sunday, 29 May 2022 17:33 (four years ago)

"hi i live in your neighbors yard"

https://i.ibb.co/6Ddt6WB/5-D737162-7-FD6-4329-8459-FB7-BF1-A3-C07-F.png

― johnny crunch, Sunday, 29 May 2022 17:38 (four years ago)

six months pass...

RIP to legendary P-22

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 18 December 2022 02:08 (three years ago)

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