Remnants of squirrel activity. Found almost on a daily basis. This is on our back porch. We have no pecans right now so I assume he/she/they are digging them up- probably from my gardens. Then hopping on the back porch onto a chair making a mess. I’m sure giving me the finger the entire time. Furry bastards.
Yesterday I saw this guy in the shade of my front yard. He stayed there for about 6 hours. It was a scorcher yesterday so he had a buddy drop by for the afternoon. My son is a commercial diver who works off the coast of Vancouver Island. He often sees wildlife and sends me pics. Last Wednesday he sent me this bear pic and a video of orca's surfacing (sorry, video is too long to load). After I commented that he's sure having a great day at work, he told me that the chatter on the ship's radio was about a pod of orca's playing volleyball with a seal. I tried to picture that. Then yesterday I was looking online at our local news and ran across this story. From the article: It was a case of wrong place, wrong time, for one seal off the coast of Vancouver Island. On Monday, Five Star Whale Watching posted images captured during a recent tour of an orca punting a seal clear into the air. “Watching the brutality of Mother Nature can be hard and sad but also amazing,” commented the company on the Facebook post. “We don't post many images like this because we understand they can be upsetting. However, this image was just too amazing not to share but we felt it prudent to post the warning.” (https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/news/news/Around_the_Web/PHOTOS_Orca_launches_seal_seal_high_into_the_sky_during_BC_whale_watching_tour/#fs_89404) I feel bad for the seal but what an amazing sight!
@gambler That's a beautiful buck. We don't often see the bucks around here. They stay undercover I think because of the hunting in the area. They are around though because they have scraped the velvet off their racks on several trees in the yard Does and fawns aren't as threatened apparently because we see them in the yard almost everyday. Fun to watch the little ones play down at the small stream at the edge of our yard. That's a bad day for that seal.
Oh that poor seal!! We often see deer resting under our trees on hot days but that's the first time I've seen their velvet so close. That deer was resting in the shade right under my living room window and I was surprised at having such a close up view. A couple days ago we had a fawn taking shelter in our front yard. From the time we noticed it to the time it left was about 4 hours. The first time I noticed the fawn it was nibbling on my Japanese Maple. The second time I checked, it was pruning my cedar hedge. The third time he was sleeping and probably waiting for mama and the forth time he was gone. I love seeing the wildlife in my yard. When you mentioned watching the little ones playing at the stream, it made me smile!
This praying mantis stopped to visit when I was sanding the deck. It's big enough to qualify as wildlife, I think.
@gambler We've had the same situation where on some really hot days Mama deer would bring her little ones and place them in the shade of the trees of our bottom yard and they would spend the afternoon just lounging there. The trees were pretty small so they didn't cast a lot of shade so each deer had its own tree. My MIL and FIL live in the outer Chicago suburbs and have a backyard that has very mature landscaping that makes it fairly secluded from the neighbors. They have a Solarium on the back of the house. For the past several years at least four deer have been coming and spending sometimes most of the day just hanging out there. Sometimes the deer are only 4 feet from the windows. My in laws are 90 and don't leave the house much so it gives them some much needed entertainment. I'll have to dig up the photos of our dog sitting on the back of the sofa by the window just patiently watching the deer. Yesterday's entertainment here was in the morning watching a bald eagle lazily loop over the house on the wind current. In the afternoon a baby Fox who lives near here came to play in the yard. I can't believe how much wildlife we have seen this year.
We constantly have deer in our yard...once I counted ten at once. We have the occasional bear that lumbers through along with the usual small rodents. However, this year we have had some firsts in the 35 years of living in the same house. 1. Hornets built a huge nest in our yard. We have had the usual nests under eves, but never in ground. 2. We have families of skunks digging for grubs in our back yard. They are making holes about the dimension of a baseball and digging about two inches down. It’s just a mess. 3. Last but not least, we have pileated woodpeckers gouging holes in our wood siding. Very annoying pecking and damaging our siding. Is 2020 over yet?
Too many rabbits or a coyote; generally not both. I vote for the coyote. A black bear was seen last week in the woods behind our street, but we haven't seen it. Occasional deer, so we planted Irish Spring "flowers" in their favorite grazing bed.
We have rabbits all over the place out here, both around home and work. I actually enjoy watching them, but they are not tame at all and run when they see a human, for obvious reasons. Some people in the neighborhoods b*tch about them eating their gardens, but I don't really have a garden, just a patch to the rear of nondescript bushes and such. I have a brown thumb. I have never seen a coyote out here, and quite honestly I don't know if I would identify one on sight. You do occasionally hear of large canids (and felids) being seen so they are at least occasionally in the area. No bears out here, thankfully.
Coyotes are definitely around here although I haven't seen one lately though. One Sunday morning early, I was standing up by the street talking to a neighbor when we saw a deer running across the bottom of our property with something running behind it. It turned out to be a coyote chasing the deer. We live in between two lakes, one being big enough for boating. Well when we first lived here the local fire department would sound the siren at 7pm during boating season to signal no wake time. There was a litter of coyote pups that lived in the woods behind us that would yip and howl with the siren. It made me laugh every night.
Last week I noticed a big poop in the backyard grass which is weird since we have no dog. Then a few days ago I saw there were now about 7 poops in one area. Wife thought it had to be from a bobcat, my guess was a coyote. Nope...last night before bed we found the culprits