My Backyard Is Becoming A Wildlife Refuge

di and bob

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We live near a walking trail which is wooded, but in town. We have raccoons., feral cats, opossums, owls, hawks, lots of deer, and vultures. I can hear the coyotes in the distance, I hope they stay there!
 
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MoonstoneWolf

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We live near a walking trail which is wooded, but in town. We have raccoons., feral cats, opossums, owls, hawks, lots of deer, and vultures. I can hear the coyotes in the distance, I hope they stay there!
When I did volunteer work years ago at the Wildlife Rescue Center we had a coyote brought in. Made him well and released. 2 weeks later he came back (on his own). So we took him farther out and a month later we found him sitting at the door waiting. This time we took him out 40 miles. 3 months later he had found his way back to the Center. So we released him yet again and circumstances (not coyote related) forced us to move location 30 miles. Sure enough somehow the coyote found us. We decided the heck with it and he became the resident coyote. Nothing like going in to do your volunteer work to be greeted by a coyote wagging his tail.
 

Talien

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It's interesting seeing a bunch of different animals going through my yard, but living out in farm country it's just normal. Rabbits, Deer, field Mice, Opossums, Racoons, Cats, Dogs, Foxes, Coyotes, Vultures, Hawks, Herons, even Bats. I doubt we'll ever see Bears though, rarely see them in Michigan aside from the UP.
 
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MoonstoneWolf

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Not too far from my house we had a black bear cub go into an elementary school. The doors were open and the cub just wandered in. Kids were on lockdown because Mom was sure to be not too far behind.
 

Purr-fect

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Im in an suburban area, so no bears here. We do have coyotes, which I keep away from greg and arnold when we are outside together.

Because of the danger of coyotes and foxes, last year I fenced about 1700 sq feet of the yard and turned it into a retreat for the boys. Hostas to hide under, numerous trees filled with birds, squirrels and chipmunks, corners to explore, fences to view the world thru. The retreat was alive with chatter and activity.

A year latter, it is silent. Not a bird, no chatter, no wildlfe.....just silence. I think the boys have hunted and chased all the wildlife away. Up until about 2 weeks ago we still had squirrels running along the fence top and thru the trees. Suddenly they was gone also.

Arnold had caught a squirrel. I heard it cry terribly; a sound I had never heard from a squirrel. I jumped up between arnold and the squirrel, but now greg was in on the hunt. Some how I was able to slow the boys slightly and the squirrel squeezed under the gate and escaped. I have not seen or heard a squirrel in the yard since! It was as if the others somehow knew to stay away. The boys are now down to hunting bugs.

Our previous cat was very peaceful and could coexist with wildlife. These boys are territorial and love to hunt.

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mightyboosh

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Of course the cats, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, possums and groundhogs. Now we have black bears moving into the suburbs, wild turkey, barred owls and recently spotted armadillos. I'm waiting for the giraffes and elephants to show up next. lol
Jeeez, it's so boring here. We may see the odd fox, deer or badger but nothing of what I would call exotic. We/the climate, whatever, killed all the good stuff off hundreds/thousands of years ago.
 

Maria Bayote

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Honestly, I would give anything just to live in your kind of place even for just a day. Just a day. It’s on my bucket list actually.

Here all I see when I look out the window are neighbors coming and going, cars, street cats , occasional pigeons and sometimes, sandstorm.
 

amethyst

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We see all kinds of wildlife on our property here, or at least within a few miles. With all the rain we have been having here this year we haven't been able to mow the lawn, so in some areas it's chest high now. I think the wildlife have decided my property is a nice meadow. The deer are just wondering around and even sleeping on the lawn now. Seeing a deer here has kind of become like seeing a squirrel, not that interesting, I've even had deer within like 50ft of me just standing there looking at me, I've told them they are lucky I don't hunt. We have white tail deer, mule deer, elk, moose, all wander through the yard. We also have wolves, coyotes, foxes, hawks, owls, eagles, bats, bears, moutain lions (never seen one on the property though), lynx, porcupine, skunks, rabbits, grouse, stoats, ducks, geese, I've seen swans fly over, the list goes on and on. We don't have a feral cat population around here, I see cats get dumped here every year, but most don't make it.
 

GaryT

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I am in the "boonies" so I have fox, turkey, deer, skunk, possum, squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, and even a bear that caused me to stop feeding the birds (he tore down my feeder). The deer eat EVERYTHING!
 

Sidewinder

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Had to take down half a dozen hummingbird feeders in my yard due to the bee situation... at first, the bees merely congregated on my birdbath and treated it like some Club Med pool, with 20 or 30 bees hanging out on the rim and others diving into the water. I swear upon a stack of old Skateboarder Magazines, they were SWIMMING in the birdbath, deliberately landing in the water and then crawling out on the edge, or on the wooden cheese knives I threw in as floats. Once they pinged on the hummer feeders, they started gathering on those, to the point where the hummers couldn't access the feeders. I let 'em slide for awhile, with an uneasy truce in effect, but then one of the little winged varmints stung me... under my arm in a sensitive spot, it was red and swollen for days. I finally conceded and took down the feeders... I left the suet feeders up, the bees don't go for those, so all the songbirds still show like Swiss clockwork, but the hummers are bummed over the missing feeders. Hummers still show to hit the flowers in my yard, but I have to wait until the bee situation eases before I put their feeders back up where they belong. :sigh:
 

GaryT

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Had to take down half a dozen hummingbird feeders in my yard due to the bee situation... at first, the bees merely congregated on my birdbath and treated it like some Club Med pool, with 20 or 30 bees hanging out on the rim and others diving into the water. I swear upon a stack of old Skateboarder Magazines, they were SWIMMING in the birdbath, deliberately landing in the water and then crawling out on the edge, or on the wooden cheese knives I threw in as floats. Once they pinged on the hummer feeders, they started gathering on those, to the point where the hummers couldn't access the feeders. I let 'em slide for awhile, with an uneasy truce in effect, but then one of the little winged varmints stung me... under my arm in a sensitive spot, it was red and swollen for days. I finally conceded and took down the feeders... I left the suet feeders up, the bees don't go for those, so all the songbirds still show like Swiss clockwork, but the hummers are bummed over the missing feeders. Hummers still show to hit the flowers in my yard, but I have to wait until the bee situation eases before I put their feeders back up where they belong. :sigh:
I had the same problem with mine and it was keeping the hummers away. I think I got the nest so I don't see them as much but the hummers are not around the feeder as much. They have the trumpet vines tho which are covered in red flowers now. Hummers LOVE that vine and fight over it.
 

Sidewinder

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Yeah, at least I still have a number of flowering plants in the yard so the hummers haven't stopped their visits, but I can tell they miss the feeders!!! I have hummers flying UNDER the metal awnings to look around and hover right in front of my face, staring intently at me with soulful eyes as if to ask: "DUDE, WHERE ARE THE FEEDERS?!?!?" o_O

I've been hanging bird feeders in various yards for decades, ever since my brother in central Missouri clued me in to the situation... amazing number of birds on the Central Flyway, ya know? I used to stop there and pull 34-hour trucking restarts, BBQing and drinking beer while hanging out on the 2nd-story deck overlooking his yard. I even saw some Pileated Woodpeckers in the tree line below his property, those birds are magnificent!!! Their pecking sounds like distant machine gun fire, LOL. :noway:

Here in AZ, we have woodpeckers, tanagers, and many other colorful birds, they put on a good show for the kittehs lounging in the yard. Tiger keeps trying to catch a bird but thankfully he isn't a proficient hunter, he only manages to give some birds a bad fright when he bursts forth from the bushes, LOL. Of all the songbirds, the woodpeckers & tanagers are my favorites... back on the coast, the mockingbirds took full honors with their beautiful singing, yeah? Even though one bird habitually broke into song at 0300, I never complained, LOL. :rolleyes:
 

Purr-fect

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Had this deer in greg and Arnolds compound. I thought it was really cute. Then arnold got a deer tick. It was the only one ive seen in my life. No more deer allowed in the boys yard. One did come into the yard recently, but he politely stayed on the outside of the compound.......and ate my hostas.

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DreamerRose

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Had to take down half a dozen hummingbird feeders in my yard due to the bee situation... at first, the bees merely congregated on my birdbath and treated it like some Club Med pool, with 20 or 30 bees hanging out on the rim and others diving into the water. I swear upon a stack of old Skateboarder Magazines, they were SWIMMING in the birdbath, deliberately landing in the water and then crawling out on the edge, or on the wooden cheese knives I threw in as floats. Once they pinged on the hummer feeders, they started gathering on those, to the point where the hummers couldn't access the feeders. I let 'em slide for awhile, with an uneasy truce in effect, but then one of the little winged varmints stung me... under my arm in a sensitive spot, it was red and swollen for days. I finally conceded and took down the feeders... I left the suet feeders up, the bees don't go for those, so all the songbirds still show like Swiss clockwork, but the hummers are bummed over the missing feeders. Hummers still show to hit the flowers in my yard, but I have to wait until the bee situation eases before I put their feeders back up where they belong. :sigh:
At least you've got the bees. There's been a lot of colony collapse here, and we have very few wild bees. The only bees around are the solitary bumblebees.

We also have skunks, and they are a real pain. Got my dog in the eyes twice. A neighbor has a brush pile where a family of racoons live. They clambered over the roof the a couple of nights ago and sounded like a herd of elephants. The cats were on full alert, but couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from.

Jeeez, it's so boring here. We may see the odd fox, deer or badger but nothing of what I would call exotic. We/the climate, whatever, killed all the good stuff off hundreds/thousands of years ago.
People are working on bringing the auroch back.

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vyger

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Wild Turkey's are a game birds like pheasants and you can eat them. You would have to check for when the season is. If you were really interested in that someone who does bow hunting might be willing to trade you a turkey for permission to hunt them on your property. For the black bears you might want to contact your fish and game people. They might want to relocate them. Some places allow hunting of bears so they can control the numbers but the people who hunt them tend to be more experts. Usually they just move them to less inhabited places.
About the bees. My son has discovered a hive underneath an old shop building he has. We are considering relocating it into a hive super. Bees require a lot of water. You would think they would get what they need from the nectar but apparently not. Wild hives are helping to keep the populations up so I would love to have some around.
 

kashmir64

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I have a lot of wildlife on my property. Of course the little ones like rabbits, chipmunks, tarantulas and snakes. But we also have wolves, coyotes, javalina, antelope and common visitors like badger, cougar, black bear and fox. Also the flying ones, hawk, owl and in the winter, bald eagle. Don't have skunk or raccoons as they require running water and there's no streams in the area. Oh and bugs...so many bugs.
 

supermax1943

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When I did volunteer work years ago at the Wildlife Rescue Center we had a coyote brought in. Made him well and released. 2 weeks later he came back (on his own). So we took him farther out and a month later we found him sitting at the door waiting. This time we took him out 40 miles. 3 months later he had found his way back to the Center. So we released him yet again and circumstances (not coyote related) forced us to move location 30 miles. Sure enough somehow the coyote found us. We decided the heck with it and he became the resident coyote. Nothing like going in to do your volunteer work to be greeted by a coyote wagging his tail.
What a great story! When I just started helping the feral cats there was a yellow I trapped that was so vicious in the cage it was just super scary. His tail was mangled so his first stop was to the vet to have his tail fixed. Most of his tail had to be removed so he just had a little stub, hence the name: Bobtail.

I went to see him each day while he was recovering. He wouldn't growl at me...just stare at me as though I had just ruined his life (he was fixed too.) The vet had worked with Lions and Tigers in her younger years and she told me there was no hope of taming Bobtail. She thought it best if he became someone's barn cat.

I have a friend who has a barn, and she agreed to let him be her barn cat. I picked him up from the vet and dropped him at the barn, about 8 miles from my house. Just as I was leaving, I opened the cage door, gave him a sad farewell, and wished him luck in having a long and happy life.

At 2:00 a.m., about nine hours after I left him at the barn, I woke to a cat crying outside my window. It was Bobtail who somehow had made it all the way back to the house after crossing over Highway 1 in California (a very big, very busy highway). He became one of my favorite cats. It wasn't long before he slept next to me every night. And he was a complete lap cat. Never saw a cat give up the "feral life so quickly and so happily!
 

Purr-fect

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What a great story! When I just started helping the feral cats there was a yellow I trapped that was so vicious in the cage it was just super scary. His tail was mangled so his first stop was to the vet to have his tail fixed. Most of his tail had to be removed so he just had a little stub, hence the name: Bobtail.

I went to see him each day while he was recovering. He wouldn't growl at me...just stare at me as though I had just ruined his life (he was fixed too.) The vet had worked with Lions and Tigers in her younger years and she told me there was no hope of taming Bobtail. She thought it best if he became someone's barn cat.

I have a friend who has a barn, and she agreed to let him be her barn cat. I picked him up from the vet and dropped him at the barn, about 8 miles from my house. Just as I was leaving, I opened the cage door, gave him a sad farewell, and wished him luck in having a long and happy life.

At 2:00 a.m., about nine hours after I left him at the barn, I woke to a cat crying outside my window. It was Bobtail who somehow had made it all the way back to the house after crossing over Highway 1 in California (a very big, very busy highway). He became one of my favorite cats. It wasn't long before he slept next to me every night. And he was a complete lap cat. Never saw a cat give up the "feral life so quickly and so happily!

Wow......what a great story and happy ending.
 
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