Mammal: A few years back, I was out in my backyard playing basketball, and my cousin shouts, "What is that!?" I immediately turn around, and see two gorgeous white-tailed deer does grazing in my backyard. I try to get closer to them, inching forward ever so quietly, my intent to get as close to these amazing creatures as I possibly can. As I step on a leaf (crunch!), their heads lift in unison, ears perked up, eyes wide open, to check for danger. They have spotted me. I freeze. After about a five-second pause, they bolt up the hill, over two yards, and into the woods, their seemingly enormous white tails flicking as they pronk (a.k.a stott, prong) away.
The white-tailed deer have visited on numerous occasions following that first encounter; in the rain, at dusk, at nightfall, and I've been there for a majority of those visits. The one at night, which happened in September or October of 2011, was truly memorable. Pitch black, and all I could see were two bright white eyes glaring at me. Incredible...
There is a bird sanctuary in my backyard, and I'm positive that that is where the deer live, coming to my yard to feed on apples as they fall from my trees in autumn. But, every time I hike up there, they are no where to be found. Eventually I will come across them...
Bird: In early September of 2011, as I awoke for school, I would hear flutters and chirps that seemed extremely close to my bedside. I thought it was me dreaming, but when I heard scratching and tapping, I sat up, grabbed my camera, and crawled toward my window. I began recording, and about ten seconds into the video, a loud twitter was heard as what I was sure was a bird scratched at my air conditioner. I slowly lifted my blinds. And there, standing on the outside portion of my windowsill was a cute little female house sparrow. It was adorable. A small beaked face jerking its head at me, as if to say, "Uhh, do you mind?"
Between that day and the end of summer later that month, I had seen the female birds (and a few males) several times. Although an introduced species, house sparrows are my favorite birds that I see in my backyard (besides blue jays), and are just adorable.
Reptile: My backyard (in Connecticut) is more abundant (in wildlife) than I could ever imagine. In my pool alone, there have been birds, frogs and their tadpoles, and even turtles! But, on May 21st, 2011, (yes, I remember the day
), the day the world was supposedly going to end, I received a text from my father which read, "The snake is back" had me sprinting to my backyard. A garter snake was slithering across the dirt in my pool area.
I reached for it very Steve Irwin-esque, and held it up so my father could take a picture. It was awesome; only the second or third time I've remembered seeing a snake in the wild. And when the garter snake, only two feet long, but still awesome, secreted its smelly anal liquid onto my hand and forearm, it became one of the best moments of my life.
Seeing animals in the wild doesn't happen to me often, not like you lucky fellows who live in Australia, etc, so I cherish every sighting I have.
The white-tailed deer have visited on numerous occasions following that first encounter; in the rain, at dusk, at nightfall, and I've been there for a majority of those visits. The one at night, which happened in September or October of 2011, was truly memorable. Pitch black, and all I could see were two bright white eyes glaring at me. Incredible...
There is a bird sanctuary in my backyard, and I'm positive that that is where the deer live, coming to my yard to feed on apples as they fall from my trees in autumn. But, every time I hike up there, they are no where to be found. Eventually I will come across them...
Bird: In early September of 2011, as I awoke for school, I would hear flutters and chirps that seemed extremely close to my bedside. I thought it was me dreaming, but when I heard scratching and tapping, I sat up, grabbed my camera, and crawled toward my window. I began recording, and about ten seconds into the video, a loud twitter was heard as what I was sure was a bird scratched at my air conditioner. I slowly lifted my blinds. And there, standing on the outside portion of my windowsill was a cute little female house sparrow. It was adorable. A small beaked face jerking its head at me, as if to say, "Uhh, do you mind?"
Between that day and the end of summer later that month, I had seen the female birds (and a few males) several times. Although an introduced species, house sparrows are my favorite birds that I see in my backyard (besides blue jays), and are just adorable.
Reptile: My backyard (in Connecticut) is more abundant (in wildlife) than I could ever imagine. In my pool alone, there have been birds, frogs and their tadpoles, and even turtles! But, on May 21st, 2011, (yes, I remember the day
), the day the world was supposedly going to end, I received a text from my father which read, "The snake is back" had me sprinting to my backyard. A garter snake was slithering across the dirt in my pool area. I reached for it very Steve Irwin-esque, and held it up so my father could take a picture. It was awesome; only the second or third time I've remembered seeing a snake in the wild. And when the garter snake, only two feet long, but still awesome, secreted its smelly anal liquid onto my hand and forearm, it became one of the best moments of my life.
Seeing animals in the wild doesn't happen to me often, not like you lucky fellows who live in Australia, etc, so I cherish every sighting I have.
