Whats in your backyard?

In Denmark, there's usually not a difference of animals depending on where you live (except for the smaller islands), so I will list what I've seen here in my birth town Viborg and my current town Skive:

Gardens: Red squirrel, hare, lots of different bats, common shrew, european hedgehog, eurasian sparrowhawk, common pheasant, oystercatcher, lapwing, common wood pigeon, collared dove, great spotted woodpecker, white wagtail, yellow wagtail, house wren, dunnock, european robin, song thrush, fieldfare, blackbird, garden warbler, blackcap, icterine warbler, willow warbler, wood warbler, goldcrest, great tit, coal tit, blue tit, nuthatch, european magpie, jay, jackdaw, rook, carrion crow, european starling, house sparrow, tree sparrow, chaffinch, european greenfinch, bullfinch, common frog

City parks (I've also seen some of the garden animals here): Great crested grebe, cormorant, grey heron, mute swan, mallard, tufted duck, common moorhen, coot, black-headed gull, herring gull, yellowhammer

In the streets (also seen some of garden and park animals here): Red fox, stoat, european polecat, domestic pigeon, common swift, sand martin, barn swallow, house martin

In the house: Beech marten, house mouse, yellow-necked mouse

Unseen (heard their calls): Cuckoo, tawny owl

And in the summertime tons of insects everywhere.
 
Here are some animals that visit/live in my backyard:

Blue-tongue skink
Smaller skinks (dont know which species)
Indian Mynah
Noisy Miner
Currawong
Australian Magpie
Rainbow Lorikeet
Eastern Rosella
Crimson Rosella
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (mixed flock with rainbows)
Grass parakeet
Musk lorikeet (or similar species)
Rats
Domestic Cat
 
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I live in quite an out-of-the-way area in the Essex countryside where our local area is absolutely crawling with some brilliant creatures. The garden bird list as it stands is:

Sparrowhawk, kestrel, red-legged partridge, pheasant, black-headed gull, lesser black-backed gull, woodpigeon, collared dove, tawny owl, great spotted and green woodpecker, a lesser spotted woodpecker that had flown into a window and killed itself while we were on holiday, grey and pied wagtails, wren, dunnock, robin, blackbird, fieldfare, redwing, song and mistle thrush, blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler, goldcrest, the blue, great, coal and long-tailed tits, starlings, magpies, jays, jackdaws, carrion crows, house sparrows, goldfinch, greenfinch, chaffinch, some overwintering brambling, siskin and redpoll and we also used to have bullfinches, alas no more.

But the undoubted jewel in the crown of the garden birds was a simply stunning European turtle dove, a species that has seriously declined over the UK, which decided to grace our lawn and help itself to peanuts.

The mammals are also prevalent, with our garden having played host to red fox, stoat, weasel, wood mouse, short-tailed field and bank voles, common and pygmy shrews, moles, hedgehogs, rabbits, grey squirrels, brown rats and we have had bats roosting in our attic before. Herptiles are comprised of common frog, common toad, smooth newt, viviparous lizard, slow worm and grass snake. Not bad for our relatively small garden.

Recently we have seen numbers of Reeve's muntjac deer and buzzards increase where we are, so it may be a matter of time before these animals venture into our garden.

And then, you have our nearby area. Within ten minutes walk from our house, I have been able to see yellowhammer, whitethroat, brown hare, nesting lapwings, little owl, mute swans and great flocks of skylark on the farmland, seen otters, American mink and kingfisher at the local river and only last Saturday down at a small ditch along a rarely-used permissive footpath I was able to observe a cuckoo and a water shrew (a survey I am participating in seems to confirm these small mammals are abundant in the local area).

And then to finish shortly and sweetly, not ten minutes drive away is the Heybridge Basin, where little egret, nesting common tern, up to a dozen wader species (including avocets), great black-backed gulls, little egret, kingfisher, pink-footed goose, great numbers of warblers and bearded tits live. So for local wildlife, I'm pretty much fixed. :D
 
A few days ago (Thanksgiving holiday here in the states) I discovered I had a self-invited roommate - this ornate tree lizard living inside my loft. He was just peeking out from under the oven, but when I tried to push a ruler behind him to scoop him out onto the floor for capture and release, he immediately ran under the stove. After he reappeared and the same happened, I did not see him (or her) until today. This morning he was in my bedroom closet, where I took this photo. (I have all cement floors btw). Thankfully he was too cold to move and even when I picked up a box directly next to him he did not move. So capture was relatively easy this time and he is now safely reintroduced to his natural habitat in the bushes outside.
 

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Last week I found something very special in my backyard. Took some dead leaves from the bottom and took a look under my miscroscope. A normal looking, about 1 or 2 millimeter small beetle took my notice and I made some pictures of it. Then it startedto behave somewhat strange and opened its wings. Those looked like small feathers and I took some more photos. After placing them in a special forum I was told it was a Feather-winged beetle ( Famaly Ptiliidae, prop. genus Acrotrichis ). Almost nothing is known about these animals and pictures of living specimens are almost none-existed ! Will up-load some of the pictures in the Netherlands - wildlife Gallery :).
 
vogelcommando said:
Last week I found something very special in my backyard. Took some dead leaves from the bottom and took a look under my miscroscope. A normal looking, about 1 or 2 millimeter small beetle took my notice and I made some pictures of it. Then it startedto behave somewhat strange and opened its wings. Those looked like small feathers and I took some more photos. After placing them in a special forum I was told it was a Feather-winged beetle ( Famaly Ptiliidae, prop. genus Acrotrichis ). Almost nothing is known about these animals and pictures of living specimens are almost none-existed ! Will up-load some of the pictures in the Netherlands - wildlife Gallery :).
Click to expand...

Really nice! Do you have an attachment to take photos through your microscope?
 
Here's what Ive seen in my Backyard

Eastern Box Turtle
Spring Peepers that invade my old pool every spring
A flock of about 20-30 Wild Turkeys
Canada Geese
Woodpecker (Not sure what species)
American Robin
Blue Jay
American Crow
American Raven
Mourning Dove
Gray Squirrel (A mother and her babies used to live in my shed)
Little Brown Bat
Argentine Ant
Yellow Jacket (I hate them)
Banded Garden Spider
Big Dipper Firefly
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
Monarch Butterfly
Cabbage White
Clouded Sulphur
A bunch of other insects
White Tailed Deer
Turkey Vulture
Sharp Shinned Hawk
 
Currently I have a Masked Plover sitting on a clutch of four eggs (again). She did this last year, but the eggs were all infertile. I'm guessing the same will happen this year as the incubation period ended at least two weeks ago, but she still sitting tight.

:p

Hix
 
Jabiru96 said:
Here are some animals that visit/live in my backyard:

Blue-tongue skink
Smaller skinks (dont know which species)
Indian Mynah
Noisy Miner
Currawong
Australian Magpie
Rainbow Lorikeet
Eastern Rosella
Crimson Rosella
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (mixed flock with rainbows)
Grass parakeet
Musk lorikeet (or similar species)
Rats
Domestic Cat
Click to expand...

To add that I have also seen a tawny frogmouth sitting on the clothesline at night as well as (grey headed?) flying foxes flying over-head at night. Not to mention galah, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, peaceful dove and pheasant coucal. All within suburban Sydney.
 
I just have fairly common Melbourne birdlife in my backyard, although I did have both a house mouse and a blackbird in my house today!

Most common species seen:
Indian Myna
Blackbird
Magpie
Magpie-lark
Galah
Sulfur-crested Cockatoo
Rainbow Lorikeet
Noisy Miner
Crested Pigeon
Spot-necked Pigeon

And there is also a Ring-tailed Possum on the roof most nights.
 
I live in an apartment in San Antonio, but I've seen my share of wildlife. The light on my balcony has one side knocked out, and some barn swallows decided to build a nest in it. My roommates and I got to watch the babies grow up. So cute. <3 After they left, some house sparrows moved in and did the same. As for other birds? Pigeons, mockingbirds, great-tailed grackles, hummingbirds, and turkey vultures. I saw a couple of ravens/crows (wasn't really sure) once or twice. Definitely got my attention because I almost never see them.

There's some wooded area around my place. (though a lot of it is getting cut down...) I regularly see white-tailed deer. I think I'm seeing some of the same ones over and over again, so I started to name them. As with the barn swallows, there's a baby I get to see a lot. <3

I used to have to walk through my school campus a lot at night. Lots of skunks and raccoons. I saw one raccoon get on top of a trash can, hold onto the edge with his back feet, reach aaaaall the way in, pull out a McDonald's bag, and run off.

Lots of squirrels on campus. I think they're fox squirrels. I've also seen rock squirrels in a nearby area that was once a quarry. (the San Antonio Zoo has a lot of wild ones running around) I saw an owl once, though it was too dark to get a really good look. I'm guessing it was a great horned owl. I used to hear owls a lot; I think it was just one owl that lived by my place and made noise every night. I've seen a couple of wild roadrunners, and one gray fox. I've found a couple of dead bats, but I'm not sure if I've ever viewed live ones in the area. (I think I have, but they could've just as easily been small birds. Hard to get a good look at night)
 
I live in an appartment with a small balcony where I have bird food. Species that come for the food and in general will some times perch on the balcony are:
Great tit
Blue tit
Hooded crow
Eurasian Magpie
Eurasian Jay
Rook
Jackdaw
Chaffinch
Sparrow
Eurasian Black bird and rarely long tailed tit, coal tit and common crane overhead

also in my nearby park:
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Common Kestrel
Mandarin duck
American wood duck
Mallard Duck
Peafowl
Common Nuthatch
Striped Grass Mouse
Eurasian red squirrel

I also have a house in the UK with a large garden and additional species that I get there are:
Rose ringed parakeet
Wood Pigeon
goldfinch
greenfinch
European Robin
Red fox
Grey Squirrel
and many of the species I get in Poland
 
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Jabiru96 said:
To add that I have also seen a tawny frogmouth sitting on the clothesline at night as well as (grey headed?) flying foxes flying over-head at night. Not to mention galah, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, peaceful dove and pheasant coucal. All within suburban Sydney.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing Western Sydney, more specifically.

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
I'm guessing Western Sydney, more specifically.

:p

Hix
Click to expand...

Yep! Still quite suburban, although we do have large pockets of bushland still remaining throughout. The bats (just from my guessing) probably come from Parramatta (maybe even the botanic gardens?) where they roost in their thousands.
 
Another old thread I've just found, here is what is see in a large village out of a city rugularly:
House Sparrows
Dunnocks
Robins
Blackbirds
Wood Pigeons
Sparrowhawks (occasionally)
European Starlings
Blue Tits
Great Tits
Coal Tits

House Mouse
Wood Mouse
Hedgehogs
Grey Squirrels

A few odd ones we've seen:
Jay
Woodcock
Pheasant
Hen Harrier (I personally didn't actually see it, I was out bird watching)
 
Many of these aren't common sightings, but I've seen them.

Mammals
American Black Bear
White-Tailed Deer
Red Fox
Canada Lynx
Bobcat
Groundhog
Eastern Grey Squirrel
Eastern Chipmunk
White-Footed Mouse
House Mouse
Little Brown Bat

Birds
Turkey Vulture
Red-Tailed Hawk
Bald Eagle
Pileated Woodpecker
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
House Finch
Carolina Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
American Robin (currently nesting on my front door)
Dark-Eyed Junco

Reptiles
Black Rat Snake

Amphibians
Wood Frog
American Toad
Spotted Salamander

Definitely not a complete list but there you go.

~Thylo:cool:
 
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