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Backyard Wildlife

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by flyguyfl, Mar 10, 2018.

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  1. flyguyfl

    flyguyfl MIA

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    Two of my neighbors reported seeing Florida Bobcats in their yards. Then another told about seeing three monkeys (Mom, Dad, Baby) All of this last week. We live in a rural area that has many deer, raccoons, and a few bears and coyotes, many kinds of snakes as the wilderness backs up to our houses. We put up a fence to keep the deer from eating our ornamentals. However, the monkeys apparently escaped from a wildlife farm some years ago.
    I have to take our small dog out on a leash at night and she alerts us all to critters nearby. Anyone else have nature so close?
     
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  2. bubbakitty

    bubbakitty Doing retirement again and happily so....

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    If you are worried call the local animal shelater and request a small animal cage. They are like one way in without reversing and with a ceiling. Very momabusive.
     
  3. BlacklabberMike

    BlacklabberMike MIA

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    raccoons , opossum, feral cats, coyotes, skunks woodchucks , a herd of deer, occasional bear, hawks, osprey,
    i have lots of pic of them from my trail cam...
    i'm going to have to do something about the deer and put row covers and some of my raised beds as last year they had a feast on two beds a beans and just left me the stalks.
     
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  4. deansrobinson

    deansrobinson VIP Whale

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    Yep. Turns out these ponds in Florida contain direct descendants of the dinosaurs. When we go biking on the Suncoast or Upper Tampa Bay trail, we run across them all the time. The biggest we ever saw was the one that lives next to the landfill. He suns himself on the bank across from the trail. Coons & possums are plentiful in our neighborhood and we have two peacocks who have taken up residence (these are not comfort peacocks, but blood-thirsty squawking savage wild peacocks with a propensity to poop in my driveway).
     
  5. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    I live a few blocks from a forest preserve so its not unusual to see deer in someone's garden. We see a lot of skunks lately too. We can get raccoons bbut not as much lately.
     
  6. WHITEJACKET73

    WHITEJACKET73 VIP Whale

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    My son and his wife live just outside of a small town in southeast Minnesota about 30 minutes from where I live here in Rochester. They regularly have a small herd of deer come and graze in their yard just about every evening when the snow is not too deep. The rabbits run wild which drives one their dogs nuts. They have had windows broken by flying grouse twice in the past year. They live adjacent to one of the many bluffs that are prevalent in this area. Last spring the neighbor lady stepped out onto her deck only to find a large timber rattlesnake curled up on the bottom step, sunning itself. My son called the DNR and they came over to relocate the snake. Fortunately they have not had anymore reptile encounters.
     
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  7. Camp Rusty

    Camp Rusty VIP Whale

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    These are the bums that infest our yard almost year round. When I moved in almost forty years ago we would see one or two every couple of years....”what magnificent animals”......now the herd is over fifty and they have been christened “giant forest rats”.

    They eat everything except ferns, rhodendrons, and azaleas. They pretty much gnaw everything else off at the ground and as high as they can reach.

    We also have bears, deer, mountain goats, and the very occasional cougar.

    19E89690-4D17-4B09-9DCA-C1A0E7B6BDF8.jpeg
     
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  8. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    "Giant forest rats" ... :clap:
     
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  9. Electroguy563

    Electroguy563 Vegas Joker

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    I don't have wildlife where I live and I always tell myself that I could tolerate all those wildlife you folks mention EXCEPT snakes. I fear and loath them with a vengeance.

    Fortunately here in Hawaii there are no snakes, or so they say.....

    I often wonder: how do you folks walk confidently in and around your areas without the fear of a coiled snake somewhere that could potentially bite you? Is there such things as snake repellent? Sounds funny but I would use it if I had a potential of snakes hanging around.

     
  10. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Deer and racoon are common, but lately there is a video of a cougar going around our county. It's been spotted several times on home security videos.
     
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  11. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

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    Thick in quail and hawks, owls. Coyotes all over. Bats. Mountain lion on occasion. Bobcats from time to time. Deer-rats all over the courses, along with osprey and eagles.
     
  12. WHITEJACKET73

    WHITEJACKET73 VIP Whale

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    "Giant forest rats".....I call them "Dinner".
     
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  13. TrewBrew

    TrewBrew I may be right, I may be Crazy.

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    Have seen a few coyotes in the neighborhood On summer nights you can hear a few of them howling not too far away.

    In the area there had been this seen around have not seen it myself.

     
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  14. Camp Rusty

    Camp Rusty VIP Whale

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    Yes........or the Latin name......elkus dinnerus.

    Five or six years ago our Golden was being all brave and stood up to a big bull elk, I think he thought it was just a big deer and it would run away. Nope....clobbered him with a hoof, ruptured two discs in his back. I think that was a couple grand....another story.

    Anyway.....retired guy down the road always has a license to hunt something year round. He has all the licesnses for the shoulder seasons with bow and arrow, black powder, and is always in the lotteries for those limited licenses, that sort of guy. His garage has more antlers on it than siding I think. He hunts and fishes year round and is really nice about sharing his bounty, though I did turn him down on his offer of bear, and halibut once as he was “ not sure if it had been in the cooler too long or not”.

    So hunting dude is sitting at breakfast, looks up and the big bull is about thirty feet away calmly destroying something in his yard. He walks over and loads up his crossbow, slides up the window over the sink, takes a sip of coffee, rests the crossbow on the sill.....and whoosh.

    Elk sausage.

    He brought down five pounds of sausage and a small roast, said it wouldn’t fix the dogs back but it might make us feel better. Sometimes living rural has it’s benefits. ( turns out not a huge fan of elk roast however )
     
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  15. C0usineddie

    C0usineddie VIP Whale

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    I have seen a Fox walking through my apartment complex a few times in the past year or so. I live in the middle of a giant city so no idea where the fox is going to.
     
  16. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    We have all the suburban Seattle beasts. Lots of deer, coyote, eagles, raccoons, etc. My cat, when he was younger, like to bring me surprises, including live birds, and once a big garter snake that he left in the kitchen for me.

    There are bears that swim over to our island and wander the yards on the south end sometimes, but less often lately. My favorite is the rumors of the Bainbridge Cougar spotted in different locations. Once in the Safeway parking lot. I'm convinced that one is a joke.

    Oh, and Ruby's favorite is the big, fat squirrel with the fluffy tail that lives in the woods by our house. He likes to sit on our fence and chatter at her, just to torment her. Someday she will figure out how to get up there and then he's in trouble. :)
     
  17. charlestfuller

    charlestfuller Low-Roller

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    We have a moose on the loose every once in awhile around here
     
  18. Johnzimbo

    Johnzimbo VIP Whale

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    Backyard doesn't get too much but I ride my bike over to a trail not far from the house and see a lot of armadillos and bobcats. Here are a mom and kitten bobcat I videod on one ride

     
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  19. jgates8

    jgates8 VIP Whale

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    My babygirl lives in Rochester now (RN @ Mayo).

    I'm 2 hours east of you. We have deer (WAY TOO MANY), wild turkeys, bobcats/cougar, bears, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, fox - whatever.

    Then the DNR thought it was a brilliant idea to bring in ELK from the south. They put them in the more barren area in the eastern part of the county. 'Oh they won't cross the huge river'. B.S. They are now next to my house. I've had to dead stop in the middle of the road at night (luckily that was a baby one) while one decided he was going to wander around the middle of the road for a while - luckily 'mama' didn't come out looking for him. No one has hit one with a car yet but it's only a matter of time.
     
  20. LolaDoggie

    LolaDoggie VIP Whale

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    We have trash pandas, fart squirrels, regular squirrels, bunny wabbits, the odd duck and Canada goose from the nearby river marsh thing a few blocks from here. The raccoon kept knocking on the back door like begging for garbage. I watched him turning the doorknob on the garage man door too. He's the reason we have to keep it locked.
     
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