Something lighter as a topic. What’s around your dwelling?
How many trees do you have? Any wildlife? Interesting geological features?
We have a mediocre suburban creek as a border to the backyard. Probably about 30 trees with some massive pines and hickory. Tons of deer, couple opossum, raccoons, a fox that digs for moles, a bald eagle nest half mile up street at the park, and some years the coyotes breed along the greenway behind rhe house.
All a mile from a few 20 story buildings. Odd, quaint, we love it.
Rural farm country, so all the usual suspects. Deer are as common as cattle. Coyotes come for the sheep lately. We do have a bald eagle nearby but we don’t see it more than a few times a year. There’s been an albino buck sighted in the area but I’ve never seen it. Could be urban legend.
Foxes, hawks, and coons come for our hens, so I’ve added crows to the aviary by attracting them with peanuts. Crows fight hawks so that keeps them at bay, mostly.
Wild turkey are fairly common. Groundhogs and Trumpers are abundant.
Oh and we have a beautiful barn owl on the main farm. Always fun to see her lift off and soar just overhead and out the barn door when startled.
Besides typical birds, I could walk around my neighborhood and see alligators, snakes, lizards, peacocks, bobcats, wild pigs, ospreys, eagles, ducks, armadillos, and beavers.
Deer, raccoons, rabbits and cougars are all common sightings here. The deer here are so used to people it’s crazy. I walked my German shepherd within 15’ of a large buck the other night, it didn’t give two shits about us being there.
We also have a lot of eagles, owls, it’s not totally uncommon to see whales and otters by the water. There was a lone male wolf that used to live on a small island a few hundred meters from a popular beach, but, he was unfortunately shot a few years ago. There was a documentary made about him, I think if you look up Takaya the wolf on YouTube you’ll find it.
N. IL here. We’re about 3/4 mile from a river which is a glorified creek, and have a decent area of forest preserve and a big park close, so lots to see, critterwise. Red and black squirrels aplenty, deer, ducks, blue heron and egret by the river. Sandhill cranes passing thru at the moment. Plenty of coyotes, some foxes, possum, coons, rabbits, etc. We feed the birds, so a variety - love the red bellied woodpeckers, but hate the hairy that’s putting holes in my siding. Range of hawks, and the occasional bald eagle sighting. Reptiles aplenty- lots of turtles, including big snappers. Stopped on my trail ride to move a couple of baby red bellied snakes off the trail. Always something to see while walking the dogs.
Deep in suburbs and we have a family of deer that regularly hangs out in our backyard during the day. We used to have a lot more bunnies, but the town mowed down the hedges that used to line the back of our yard. It was a bunny massacre and they never really recovered. Occasionally a fox will play back there. Haven’t seen a bear, but they do make it into the neighborhood once every year or two.
One thing we don’t have here that we did in our last neighborhood is skunks. We watched a skunk in a standoff with a raccoon one night hoping they would just both back down. Instead it stunk for days. That stupid skunk made a nest under our deck just before we sold the house.
I’m a half hour north of downtown Columbus but in a rural area. 400+ acre nature preserve across the road. Creek 1/4 mile down the hill. State park with reservoir 3 miles south, from me to the park is continuous wooded land.
All the normal Ohio wildlife. Deer, raccoon, oppossum, skunk, coyotes, bald eagles nest just north and we see them often, rabbits live in the yard, only snakes we have seen in the yard are garter snakes, but down the hill we’ve seen 4 or 5 others. According to the Merlin app there have been 47 different species of birds.
I collect trees and bushes. Literally. My last inventory was over 100 species of woody plants on my 2.5 acres.
I think @satanellus maybe didn’t survive the snap Pretty sure he or the other resident Aussies would have strong submissions.
Here in my corner of much-tamer-than-Oz NZ, we have rabbits, possums, stoats, hawks, falcons, tui, skinks, some rare geckos, and feral cats.
Some really lovely schist rock formations that the geckos love, and lots of kanuka and manuka (you’ve either bought or seen very expensive manuka honey) that smell amazing, along with plenty of other native and invasive plants and trees. Lots of interesting mushrooms, some edible (like birch boletes).
Nearby there’s a unique species of psychedelic mushroom, but anybody reaching out to the regional mushroom experts for identification gets narced on, which is not that cool as people may be tempted to proceed without positive ID. I’ve yet to see them.
I live in a state with thousands of trees per person. I drive to work via a National Park. I see deer, racoons, foxes, vultures, hawks, lizards, Eagles, bears, armadillos, turkeys and all sorts of wildlife every day.
Live in the middle of town. This week we had a black bear in our yard, city deer are out of control, first year we had a wild bunny in our raspberry patch. Plus the usual suspects of furry beasties of the rodent family.
Lots. But the big local issue is coyotes killing pets left outdoors. The simple solution is to monitor your pets. But for some, that’s not enough.
Lots of birds. We have an owl that regularly hangs out on one of our eucalyptus trees, usually early evenings. A couple regular falcons. We’re close enough to water for water fowl. The cranes are a nice addition. I won’t let the dogs out when they’re in the back yard.
Where I grew up, we had pea fowl. They were assholes and destroyed roofs.
My terrier mix will spend hours hunting down lizards in the backyard.
Pretty sure he or the other resident Aussies would have strong submissions.
