Awesome Backyard Wildlife: Share Your Stories!

I'm lying in bed, browsing threads, and I just realized that I've been listening to an owl calling for 20 minutes now. What a neat experience! Owls always seem so mysterious, like you'd never encounter one in real life. Our home backs up to a woodline, and there's a herd of deer that graze along the ravine every night. There's even a piebald deer in their midst, which is SO COOL to see.

What neat stories do out folks have about your backyard buddies?

I grew up in northern Minnesota, used to have animals wonder through town all time. Had a moose in my parents back yard when my buddies were bring me home from a party when I was in 11th grade. Three drunk people an one sober driver all in a car making honking (with mouths) and mooing noises at him, he didnt seem to find it awesome an after a bit moved on to my neighbors yards so I could go home. I've also watched a wolf pack running around my old town it was cool to see that, they were running down the roads

I would love to see a wolf in the wild.

I don't have any cool stories but I can add a few visuals to the thread.
Here are a few Owls I got to work with a couple of summers ago.
Hope you don't mind...

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/y2u9a5ep.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/8u2y4unu.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/raqyhyvu.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/na3y9asy.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/5ahuhuma.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/evu3y4a6.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/18/ese7a6et.jpg

Wolves are beautiful but there a big problem up where I'm from. They will tear through a small town in the night an people will have dead dogs if they left them out on a chain that night, I know people who've had their dog get prego by wolves their dog is normaly bit up some but they give birth. The hybrid dogs are hand fulls. That's not even toching the problems they cause for farmers. Took down my cousins horse few months ago

Had this in my backyard right next to the house last summer. I thought it was pretty neat. We live right next to an apple orchard so we've always got deer coming through and also the occasional fox or coyote. Also have a local flock of wild turkeys that come around at least once a week.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...crap/fawn2.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...ap/Foxes_2.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2.../Turkey3-1.jpg

MarkS
Cool photos!! I have to take in all wildlife at work. I do have a few birds and some Blue Tailed Skinks around the house.
Here is what I get to look out and see all the time :(
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/19/8epapury.jpg

I'm sure his life is pretty wild.

We had a pair of Cardinals last year :)
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/19/rupyma5a.jpg

A Dove is sitting on eggs now but I can't get a clear shot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3skulls

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/19/8epapury.jpg

---

LOL, looks comfortable!

LOL, I hope he was okay. :D

If he took a few days to sober up, I'm sure he would be fine :p

Really great contributions, guys! Gosh, barn owls are my all-time favorite raptor. So beautiful. No owls out tonight that I can hear, although I'm certain the deer are foraging down there.

we had a fox problem here last summer, my parents say. I think they just got tired of the yelping at night. I miss that sound though.

Magnificent owl photography!

I am obsessed with owls just now. I got started when I saw Legend of the Guardians with my daughter, now I am slowly collecting the books. Yes, I know I'm a little old for them, but I love them just the same.:P

We had a tame fox here a few summers ago. He would come up and eat the scraps our neighbors put out for the wildlife. At first he only came at night, and we got some cool infared video of him. Later he started coming up at dusk. Eventually he came around in the late afternoon. We called him Fearless. By late summer he found a mate and we didn't see him again.

Gale

That's cool about the fox, the ones in my picture actually raised a litter of pups underneath my neighbors deck. He was telling me how the pups would come out in the evening and sit on the deck staring at him through the sliding glass door while he was sitting in his living room. Kind of like a reverse zoo :)

I'm sorry, I'm sure I already derailed this thread enough.
Came home to some more "wild life" today.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/24/amuju6e8.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 3skulls

I'm sorry, I'm sure I already derailed this thread enough.
Came home to some more "wild life" today.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/04/24/amuju6e8.jpg

---

And yet, I am more amused with every derailment. :D thanks, 3skulls!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Archimedes

And yet, I am more amused with every derailment. :D thanks, 3skulls!

---

We are not all lucky enough to have wolves and deer and elk :p

Haha.

Owls are nice to hear, so are whipoorwills and, the haunting calls of loons.
But, I can't beat where I work.
We have bald eagles, the odd golden eagle, turkey vultures, an assortment of hawks, turkeys and tame ravens.
The ravens can identify who will feed them and who will shoo them away. They aren`t shy about scolding you(vocally) if you don`t have food for them either.
White tails are common and we have even had moose wander into the mill.
The most interesting to watch have to be the wolves and the river otters though.

Backyard buddies in Maine... hmmm, here are a few.

1) When I was younger, my mom kept horses in the field behind my house. One afternoon, a bull moose decided he didn't like the horses, so he busted through the fencing and chased them around. My mom and my grandfather had a fun time getting the horses into the barn after that!

2) There's always been a black bear wandering through the field across from my house every summer. One day, when I was probably 14 or 15, my mom and I (mostly my mom) decided to videotape him. We hopped onto the four-wheeler, her driving and me operating the camera, and sped through the field toward the bear, stopping about 150 feet from him. I started taping and everything was fine until the bear looked up at us and took a step toward us. My mom freaked out, yelled "Hold on Timmy!" and gunned it down the field toward our house, almost throwing me off. The camera recorded the entire scene of me holding on for dear life as my mom turned into a backyard NASCAR driver, almost throwing me off multiple times as she seemed to hit every bump in the field at full speed (her driving scared me 1000x more than the bear :P). I'll need to find the tape the next time I'm home to relieve that wonderful moment. On a side note, the bear didn't move from his spot and continued on his merry way across the field.

3) Other wildlife I've encountered include: a baby raccoon, coyotes, garter snakes, deer, foxes, and a host of others. At my girlfriend's, it's common to come across a rafter of turkeys, deer, a bear, coyotes, and a few months ago a Canadian Lynx (I believe that's what it was) stopped by on their front porch.

Hey did you ever catch a glimpse of a Lynx?

We get the occasional skunk and possum at the back door, we have coons that like to hang in the oak tree down by the corner of our property or down by the creek. We have coyotes that I can hear some nights. Oh and we had a fox that hung around for a while. Once in a blue moon I'll see deer near my house.
Let's see... I found the body of what appeared to be a small ferret like critter that one of the cats had caught. There is a group of 5-10 turkey vultures that live in the area. I know there are owls in the area because twice last summer my windshield had close calls with them. And if I'm lucky I can find a big bull snake.
I'll try to get some pictures this summer though. I do have a video of a group of deer near the lake (including a 3 legged deer my friends have named Flower) if anyone want's to see it.

Not much wild life here.

I'll see deer on my way home from work and we've had moose in our front lawn.

We had a massive porcupine we named Chewy. He'd come and eat the bird seeds on the ground by the feeder. We think he found a girlfriend though. Haven't seen him this year.

We were driving at dusk one evening down a country road and hit an owl! He/she flew right across the road and hit our windshield quite hard--it was like slow motion. Very sad. I've never heard of an own getting hit by a car. Felt just terrible.

We don't have much where I live now (San Jose), but there is a nearby park where my dog & I sometimes encounter wildlife... mostly Coyotes, and recently a HUGE owl flew over my head and perched on the water tower for a minute. I snapped a photo, but iPhones in the dark don't accomplish much. I also have a cool sound recording of the Coyotes howling away, and will try to upload/post that later.

But when I lived up in Lake Tahoe, I had more than my share of wildlife experiences! Once I was getting out of my car, in the dark, when something ran past me and brushed my leg - thought it was a dog at first, but quickly realized it was a Coyote. Then there was the day my cats were sitting in the windowsill, and suddenly went flying across the room with their fur poofed out x5. I was like "what on earth scared them?" So I looked outside, and saw a gorgeous baby bear drinking from the birdbath. My neighbors and I walked outside to watch him for a while, but kept a safe distance - since (as every mountain-dweller knows) where there's a baby bear, there's usually a momma bear lurking nearby. :oops:

P.S. I did get a couple pics of that baby bear, but this was before the days of digital cameras... so I'd have to get it scanned to share here.