Question Of The Day, Monday, April 24, 2017

[jcat]

Good morning! We've just spent another night listening to raccoons scampering around on the scaffolding currently surrounding the house. It was a surprise to discover how many we have. In addition to birds (blackbirds, sparrows, titmice, crows, magpies, and occasionally ravens), hedgehogs, martens, shrews, and mice in the yard, what we usually see are foxes and once in a while wild boar from the forest surrounding our town. There are plenty of deer, but they don't come to town like the boars do.

What wildlife do you see around your home?

 

[denice]

Mostly raccoons, squirrels, and rabbits. We usually only see deer in late fall and not to often. I seen a skunk once, it wasn't an adult which is probably why I seen it.

 

[jennifurr]

Where I live, we have mostly deer, geese, birds, and squirrels. Some of the rarer ones I have encountered include a fox, a coyote, a heron, a raccoon, and even a skunk.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

rabbits, deer, lots of smaller birds, hummingbirds during the summer months. we rarely see any squirrels. i've never seen a racoon here. one year a Canada goose couple nested between my house and driveway -- that didn't end well, nest was raided by some predator and eggs were broken open/eaten. there definitely are predators in my area, though we don't actually see them often -- of course, if we see them, that can mean they're ill.

oh yeah, we have skunks too.

 

[Norachan]

Loads of things! Deer, hare, tanuki (A kind of Asian wild dog) fox, squirrels, all kinds of wild birds, civet cats, pole cats, wild boar and I once saw a bear.

The deer are my favourite. The same family has been living here for the past few years and I think they recognise me now. They don't run away anymore, just stand there and stare at me.

 

[Winchester]

Deer, we have a lot of deer hanging about, bears, fishers, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, possums, foxes, coyotes, groundhogs, lots and lots of bunnies.
Birds, we have Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal who live in the weigelas by the pool. The inevitable black crows, lots of raptor-type birds, like turkey vultures. Turkeys.

 

[AbbysMom]

Rabbits, squirrels, deer, groundhogs, fox, coyotes, chipmunks, mice....I know I am forgetting some. Lots and lots of birds of all types also.

 

[Freedom]

"George" is my resident groundhog. He has a huge entryway to his maze of rooms below my yard. He's lived here over 4 years. And no, I really have no idea if it is a male or female, lol. These pics were taken through my bedroom window, so you can see a bit of a reflection, but you get the idea.

We have skunks, as I've "smelled" them. Lots and lots of rabbits. A local fox had a litter last Spring, and we had 2 fox kits playing early every morning, they were so cute! Lots of birds and small mammals. And a coyote now and then.

 

[jcat]

Freedom George is adorable!
There's no comparison to the badger that lives near the shelter where I work. He scares me (and everybody else), because he looks like he's going to become aggressive any minute.

 

[sivyaleah]

Lots of birds, bunnies and squirrels mostly. The squirrels are bane of my existence. They eat into the wood fascia boards of my roof and create big holes that in turn cost me money to fix. Then birds use them as nesting after. Last year my porch was constantly being crapped on. Ugh.
We also have raccoons. Once they took up residence on the side of my house and I had to have an exterminator come and trap them.
I've seen a possum or two through the years also.
Not much else as I live in a town which is small and filled with old trees, but densely populated. Larger animals don't come around in my neighborhood. Those that do keep our cats entertained which is a good thing!

 

[artiemom]

Living in on a marsh in the middle of a city, it leaves a lot to be desired for wildlife but:
Birds... mourning doves, cardinals, blue jays, finches, ravens, black birds, not many pigeons..the doves out number them.
A resident family of groundhogs
squirrels.
occasional geese overhead
Cranes in the river, ducks in the river
Seagulls
an occasional hawk
saw a bunny rabbit once
raccoons
possum type animal

 

[Freedom]

Oh! When I lived in RI, a possum came in to the fenced in backyard in Feb, 2015 - that winter we had well over 8 feet of snow on the ground. Food was scarce, and I suspect she (definitely a female) was looking everywhere for food. My dogs didn't quite know what to make of this intruder in to their area! I did try to get my dogs, but I fell in the deep snow; and realized I was fortunate I fell backwards to a sitting position! Wouldn't want to fall forwards and have my face within reach of her nails or teeth! So I went inside for treats, so I could call my dogs off; got the camera as well. And one by one, I got a dog, carried him / her in the house, then back out to try again. Long stressful 20 minutes. Once they were all in, I just left her be. She was so exhausted she sat there a good 10 to 12 minutes before moving to the back, climbing the chain link fence, and toddling off. She walked along the TOP of the chain link fence, to the left in the first photo, and must have climbed down after she was out of our area.

Here is a distance shot; I already had 1 dog in, still 3 to get in. You can see they did pay attention to ME when I called them.

She did a LOT of hissing.

My girl Riley had to get up close and stick her nose under the fur, to get a good sniff. I could just imagine her, "What ARE you? I need to smell you!"

They had quite a conversation going.

"You called, Mum?"

Riley was the last one to "come" so I could get her in. She did a "play bow," trying to get a game going!

Last one before I got her inside.

Once I saw that she - the oppossum - was alright and toddled off, then "I" needed to sit down and have a rest! What a morning that was.

 

[cheeser]

We just have birds, squirrels, and possums. Oh, and the occasional snake, which I could do without. I don't care what they say, there's no way a snake is more afraid of me than I am of him.

 

[neely]

Once I saw that she - the oppossum - was alright and toddled off, then "I" needed to sit down and have a rest! What a morning that was.

OMG, I would have totally freaked if that was my dog.

We are near a reservoir so get coyotes, foxes, deer, raccoons,skunks, opossum, hawks, squirrels, chipmunks and birds. We had a raccoon in our attic at the previous house and that was not fun. Our cat at the time kept jumping up on the wall when he would hear it scurry about.

 

[Willowy]

I have an acreage so I have a fair amount of wildlife. One year a red fox family had a den under the shed way in the back of the property, where the groundhogs usually live (not sure what the groundhogs thought of this). I haven't seen them since but I do smell the male now and then (kind of skunky but. . .muskier? I know it when I smell it anyway) so they must be in the area. There are a lot of raccoons and possums, the funny thing is that I never see a raccoon; I didn't even know they were here until I started to trap the farm cats for TNR. I trapped one raccoon and one possum, and after that I put a game camera up to keep an eye on the cats, and the raccoons come every night to eat the cat food. But I never ever see them except on camera. I do see a possum occasionally, they aren't as smart as raccoons so they get caught out in the open sometimes. I have only seen a groundhog once or twice, but I know they're there because of the tunnels under the back shed. I smell a skunk now and then but have never seen one (or had a dog sprayed by one).

Some redtailed hawks roost in my shelterbelt every night, about 8-10 of them I think. Of course there are a zillion other little birds of all types. The barn swallows have quite a community going in the machine shed. I haven't seen them yet this year, but I think they'll come back soon. Deer don't come to my property because I'm too far from the river. They like to stay near water. There are just zillions of rabbits this year---I'm not sure if the farm cats lost their taste for baby bunnies or a bird of prey moved away or what. Anyway there are plenty of them. Also squirrels, ground squirrels, and mice, of course :/. Now and then a particularly brave (or stupid!) mouse will come inside and the cats will be amused for a while. There are snakes but not nearly enough of them, IMO. I like snakes.

My parents live in town, but they have a resident possum who eats the cat food. He's been caught in the yard by the dogs a few times. Their dogs aren't small, but aren't big either---around 35-40 pounds---and the possum is large, so they can't really hurt him. At this point they have a routine: the dogs run out before the possum can get over the fence, the dogs jump on the possum and bite him so he faints, my mom goes out, shoos the dogs away, picks the possum up by the tail and puts him over the fence. He recovers and waddles off. At this point he's so used to it that he doesn't even fully faint, just fakes it until he's put over the fence.

I like possums, I don't know why so many people hate them and hurt/kill them. They're gentle and passive, don't generally bite or scratch humans or pets (their main defense is fainting), and have a lower chance of rabies than most wildlife (marsupials have a lower body temp which isn't very hospitable to rabies). No reason to hurt the poor guys!

 

[verna davies]

All sorts of birds, squirrels, foxes, deer, hares, mice ,voles; bats and on one occasion I saw a weasel running past my window. Who needs TV

 

[muffy]

Excellent question.

I live 25 miles outside of DC and I have seen the following wildlife in my yard:
possums groundhog (once) Eastern squirrels deer rats
raccoons turtles skunks fox
rabbits deer chipmunk (once) snakes
birds flying squirrels weasel (once) toads

I leave out cat food, nuts, sun flower seeds and fruit. That's why I've seen so much wildlife in my yard. I've never seen a skunk but I have smelled them. My favorite are the raccoons, possums and the squirrels. I try to put out a fruit plate for the raccoons and possums every night. (Yes, I'm crazy). I want them to have a healthy diet. The turtles love Fancy Feast. They eat the whole can.

Muffy

 

[muffy]

I have an acreage so I have a fair amount of wildlife. One year a red fox family had a den under the shed way in the back of the property, where the groundhogs usually live (not sure what the groundhogs thought of this). I haven't seen them since but I do smell the male now and then (kind of skunky but. . .muskier? I know it when I smell it anyway) so they must be in the area. There are a lot of raccoons and possums, the funny thing is that I never see a raccoon; I didn't even know they were here until I started to trap the farm cats for TNR. I trapped one raccoon and one possum, and after that I put a game camera up to keep an eye on the cats, and the raccoons come every night to eat the cat food. But I never ever see them except on camera. I do see a possum occasionally, they aren't as smart as raccoons so they get caught out in the open sometimes. I have only seen a groundhog once or twice, but I know they're there because of the tunnels under the back shed. I smell a skunk now and then but have never seen one (or had a dog sprayed by one).

e redtailed hawks roost in my shelterbelt every night, about 8-10 of them I think. Of course there are a zillion other little birds of all types. The barn swallows have quite a community going in the machine shed. I haven't seen them yet this year, but I think they'll come back soon. Deer don't come to my property because I'm too far from the river. They like to stay near water. There are just zillions of rabbits this year---I'm not sure if the farm cats lost their taste for baby bunnies or a bird of prey moved away or what. Anyway there are plenty of them. Also squirrels, ground squirrels, and mice, of course :/. Now and then a particularly brave (or stupid!) mouse will come inside and the cats will be amused for a while. There are snakes but not nearly enough of them, IMO. I like snakes.














My parents live in town, but they have a resident possum who eats the cat food. He's been caught in the yard by the dogs a few times. Their dogs aren't small, but aren't big either---around 35-40 pounds---and the possum is large, so they can't really hurt him. At this point they have a routine: the dogs run out before the possum can get over the fence, the dogs jump on the possum and bite him so he faints, my mom goes out, shoos the dogs away, picks the possum up by the tail and puts him over the fence. He recovers and waddles off. At this point he's so used to it that he doesn't even fully faint, just fakes it until he's put over the fence.

I like possums, I don't know why so many people hate them and hurt/kill them. They're gentle and passive, don't generally bite or scratch humans or pets (their main defense is fainting), and have a lower chance of rabies than most wildlife (marsupials have a lower body temp which isn't very hospitable to rabies). No reason to hurt the poor guys!

I love possums. They are so sweet.

Muffy

 

[Freedom]

Opossums eat bugs, and especially TICKS! Anyone with a dog, or even outdoor cats, knows how helpful THAT is! LOL

 

[Primula]

I live in a major city. We have loads of stray cats, squirrels, geese, ducks, possums, skunks, raccoons, bats, cardinals, red-tailed hawks, there are foxes in town, but never seen one, blue jays.