Thread: Tell Me About Your Backyard Wildlife

Look what Red found on the deck this morning...

Haha, I like how the frog just doesn't care that a massive dog is sniffing it Red's nose is about the same size as it as well

hehe yeah, in that last pic I bet he's thinking, "why are you making me pose next to this thing?" lol

Oh Lord, TS! I was enjoying your pictures of the animals... the mouse was actually really cute! Then I got to the spiders.... And I wanted to cry.

Burns, your pictures of the frog and Red are so cute! The first picture of Red and the frog looked like Red wanted to eat the frog, then it looked like he was kissing him lol.

The only wildlife I get in my suburban backyard is butterflies and birds. How exciting!

We see a few frogs (usually when it rains) and there's a rabbit that lives somewhere in the field behind my house that sometimes runs through the gardens. I've seen a fox a couple of times too in the field. Other than that there's really nothing else worth mentioning.

I took all of these pictures in my backyard last summer. This first is some young bird, not sure what kind.



The second is a snapping turtle, good sized one too.




The next few are of my pond. For eight years I caught goldfish from another lake, about four fish at a time, and put them in my own pond. For years I never saw them again. In the last few years they started grouping up in early spring and coming back to where I released them. The very first time this happened, the entire shoreline was solid orange with fish! Their numbers have gone down recently but there's still a lot. I'd say I only put in around 40 fish, maximum. Looking at the pictures, their doing quite well. I think the orange colored ones get eaten first because they stand out more and the dark brown colored ones stay and do most of the re-populating.(just my thinkin)

And by the way, what I've done is HIGHLY illegal...








yup, I counted

I just found this thread!!

Truly beautiful pictures guys!

(our members are just so talented!)

will, what a beautiful bird photo! And that snapping turtle looks humungous (and quite grumpy!)

OMG @ all the goldfish!! That's amazing how well they've done in the wild!

I wish I had a pictures, but I don't. Just a story.

I've always been pretty interested in all the animal antics that go around in your backyard. When I lived in my older house we used to have a family of bluejays that would come and nest in the tree right in our backyard every year. The parents would come, lay their eggs, eggs would hatch, chicks would grow and fly away, and the process would repeat for the six years we lived there.

Anyways, one of the years there was this massive thunderstorm, and the nest got knocked out of the tree (which was waaaay up there). My sister had noticed that it was now laying face down on the grass in the backyard. My mom wasn't home so I went out and tried to see what I could do.

I flipped the nest over and found about six of the ugliest featherless things I've ever seen. Their eyes hadn't even begun to open yet, they didn't chirp, just opened their beaks really wide as if waiting for food. They were blind and cold, the parents were gone. They were scattered around the nest. So I flipped it back over and started gently picking them up and placing them inside, and this is when I noticed two were dead. It made me kinda cringe a bit just thinking that two little baby birds had died without ever having a chance, they lay there motionless as I put them inside too.

Once they were all inside I put them on a lower branch in the tree.

The interesting thing was that later on, perhaps a couple weeks later, the surviving chicks were learning how to fly. Again, at one point of a particular day, my sister noticed that one little bluejay was standing on a rock in the garden. I was like, oh cool, so I went out and looked at it. It was (and note I don't use this word ever in a serious context) the cutest thing I've ever seen... all covered in baby down and just beginning to sprout feathers. It wasn't even afraid of me. I went even closer; it just looked at me curiously, then did a little one-two hop and jumped off the rock onto the grass... probably about a foot. It flapped it's tiny little wings a bit and hit the grass head first, and did a little roll. I felt bad for the thing because the parents weren't around so I picked it up and it promptly took a sitting position in my hands. I was amazed, this wild animal (who I had saved before, no less) was perfectly fine with being around me.

I eventually got a chair and climbed up to where the nest was, and tried to dump the bird into the nest, but it didn't want to. Every time I moved my hand left, it'd go right, and when I went right the bird went left... it was like miniature logrolling. And the coolest thing about it was that mother bird finally returned and swooped down to a branch right above my hand and just looked at me. It was surprising she didn't attack me because they're VERY protective of their offspring. It took a couple tries but I eventually got the little bird into the nest.

Cool thing about it was I got it on video. And that's it for my totally awesome story.

Don't hold out on the video! That was a great story. Did the blue jays come back the next year?

CoLd BlooDed, maybe it thought you were daddy!

I'm with Burns.. that was an amazing story.. so heartwarming!!

I want video .. I want video!!

Oh man (and woman), my backyard is a safe haven for all kinds of wildlife...lots of shrubs, a pool, and forest, so naturally, there would be.

We have

:groundhogs
:chipmunks
:squirrels
:deer
:butterflies
:racoons
:possums
:skunk
:the occassional frog as well
:and who can forget my doggy "Pickle"

There may be more, but that's just off the top of my head.

Mind you, we've had many a deer poke holes in our pool cover in winter, we've gotta sew it up so we don't wind up with a half frozen deer rotting in there...

Sounds like some of you have also got some interesting wildlife...

Originally Posted by bro

Mind you, we've had many a deer poke holes in our pool cover in winter, we've gotta sew it up so we don't wind up with a half frozen deer rotting in there...

egh, sounds like it's happened before...

Sounds like you have quiet the wildlife menagerie! Careful of those possums and raccons, they can be vicious if they have babies in tow!


Another thing we have in our backyard every evening is bats - lots of bats swirling and diving into the trees. I like them because they are eating mosquitoes. But they are definitely a rabies health risk to the dog so I'm always watching if he is outside when all the bats start coming out. I wish I could get a pic of one, but they are way to quick for me!

Originally Posted by Burns

egh, Another thing we have in our backyard every evening is bats - lots of bats swirling and diving into the trees.

Thanks Burns and Clairity.

Originally Posted by Burns

Did the blue jays come back the next year?

You know, I never saw the baby again after that day. I don't think they came back the next year, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Clairity

CoLd BlooDed, maybe it thought you were daddy!

That sounds reasonable. Heh, I just think it was cool because even the mother didn't attack me (even though she divebombed my cat a couple of times when he was in the backyard).

Also, the video is on an old school camcorder. I'll have to see if I can somehow get one of the tapes onto the computer.

Am I the only one that lives on the beach?

Originally Posted by Clairity

Well, it's not like a Batman movie or anything, but maybe 5 or 6

Bats are a godsend, nothing better to get rid of mosquitoes. I don't have any around my house (unfortunately), but I've been to places that would get absolutely swarmed by mosquitoes at dusk. A few minutes later, the bats would show up, probably over a hundred of them, and ten minutes later, no more mosquitoes .

The last place I lived had plenty of bats, and LOADS of other creatures as well; it backed up on a reservoir. The coolest denizens were a pair of bald eagles. I moved about 2 miles away from there and now I look out my back window and see drunks on crack and alley cats. I have adopted one of the cats - she's quite a character. I'll post pics later.

I dont have a garden

Originally Posted by Adam

I dont have a garden

I don't either... I have a backyard

Meh - here we have gardens, well I dont

isn't a garden something you grow vegetables in?

In my garden i have experienced the following.

-Frogs
-Sheep
-Cows
-Squirrels
-Many Spiders
-Pheasants
-Mole
-Mouse

There is probably more, i wish i could take pictures but things are rare in my back garden, to have a camera is even rarer.