Wildlife in your backyard

[nanoboy]

I´ve seen them in London, luckily, there are no introduced parrots in Ireland and I hope it stays that way. The grey squirrels are big enough problem now...




You´re right
Ok, here´s the list of species I recorded on my birdfeeder during the Garden Bird Survey Winter 2011/2012:

Woodpigeon
Collared Dove
Robin
Blackbird
Coal Tit
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch

(There is the "European" or "Common" prefix in front of almost all of them )

Those really are common garden-variety birds after all.

 

[Stefka]

Those really are common garden-variety birds after all.

Told ya!

That´s the price I have to pay for living in a city.. But I still love them..

Dublin can be pretty wild though, an otter was spotted in Grand Canal Dock in city centre recently..
I just live on the "wrong side" of the city..

 

[Stefka]

Well, I live in a very suburban area in Omaha, Nebraska, but manage to get a few birds, and a few dozen butterfly species. My bird list is only around 75 species (knowing others with over 200 species), but some highlights are ruby-crowned kinglet, sandhill crane, nesting great horned owl, 7 semi-regular woodpecker species, and a very out of place ferruginous hawk! But only about 30 species do I see as regulars.

Very, very COOL!

 

[PAT]

I grew up on a farm in northern victoria so I'm gong to use that backyard because my yard here in Melbourne isn't quite as impressive. I should give some context to the garden because it is a bit of a wildlife heaven. Our house is built on a two acre block with paddocks one two sides and a irrigation channel along one side that is surronded by native trees. There is a small swampy pond in one corner and the farm is quite close to the Goulburn River. Most species are regular visitors and I'll point out the ones that aren't as common.

Echidna (I've only seen one in the yard but they would be around about on the surrounding farmland a bit and you'd see them on the roads as well)

Eastern grey kangaroo (Same as the echidnas because I've only seen them in the yard once but they are really common on the farm whenever the river floods and when the last big drought was on)

Australian water rat (It helps that there is an irrigation channel just near the house)

Brush-tailed possum (Do we get bonus points if they've been inside our house?)

Common-ringtail possum (I've seen this species in my Melbourne backyard too)

Rabbits, foxes, and feral cats as well.

Australian magpie
Magpie Lark
Pied currawong (A rare site close to the house but they're really common around the river)
Grey butcher-bird (A lot of other bird species disappeared when these moved in but thankfully we don't see them very often anymore and other species have come back)
Sulphur-crested cockatoo
Galah
Little corella
Rainbow lorikeet
Crimson rosella
Eastern rosella
Cockatiel
Pacific black duck
Australian wood duck
Chestnut teal
Australian shelduck
Black swan
Cattle egret
White-faced heron
White-necked heron (A really big bird when you get up close and there are a pair that are regular visitors to the pond)
Straw-necked ibis
Australian white ibis
Yellow-billed spoonbill
Royal spoonbill
Masked lapwing
Purple Swamphen
Welcome swallow
Superb fairy-wren
Zebra finch
Crested pigeon
Red wattle-bird
Blue-faced honeyeater
Noisy miner
Tawny frogmouth
Australian raven
Black-shouldered kite (I only saw them for the first time when there was a locust plague last year)
Little Eagle (You can see their nest from the back deck)
Australian Pelican (Does flying overhead count? They cut a mean silhouette against the sky)


Mallard, goldfinch, common miner, common starling, common blackbird are all introduced but are sadly the most common species to be seen.

Eastern brown snake
Tiger snake (We had one under the pool table once)
Snake-necked turtle

I think that's about it. But I will have definitely forgotten a few species.

 

[nanoboy]

Told ya!

That´s the price I have to pay for living in a city.. But I still love them..

Dublin can be pretty wild though, an otter was spotted in Grand Canal Dock in city centre recently..
I just live on the "wrong side" of the city..

Yeah, it was wild alright! When I was there in 2003 I was scared that I was going to get mugged! My hotel was near Customs House, which I believe was near the River Liffey, and I don't recall seeing anything but people! Were there even seagulls? To be fair, it was in winter, and darkness came early.

 

[nanoboy]

PAT, even in suburbia we get quite a few of the species you mentioned - I forgot a few in my list. Melbourne is an awesome city for wildlife. I have even seen cockatoos, lorikeets, and possums in the CBD (central business district).

 

[Pootle]

Amphibians:
Common Frogs
Occasionally a Common Toad (a favourite of mine)
Palmate Newts
(the above are in the garden due my garden pond)

Birds:
Great tits
Coal tits
Long tailed tits
Blue tits (they have nested for the last 3 years in a bird box that I have a camera in, so I see them on my TV)
Wag-tails
Black birds
Song Thrush
Heron (he likes the pond too )
Mistle Thrush (only in the last 12 months)
Magpie
Chaffinch
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Wren
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Starlings
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Robin
Pheasant
Partridge
Tawney Owl (it sits on the chimney at night sometimes and calls)
Nuthatch (rarely)
Jay (rarely)
Oystercatcher (once!)
Kestrel (rarely)
Sparrowhawk (rarely)
(probably missed a few off)

Mammals:
Grey Squirrels (Reds do live within 10 miles though)
Hedgehogs (becoming rarer)
Wild Rabbits
Black Labrador...

 

[AnaheimZoo]

Very similar list to BeardsleyZooFan's.
White-tailed Deer
Eastern Mole(?)
Coyote
Gray Squirrel
Wild Turkey
Eastern Box Turtle
Some species of frogs (and ones that make this weird, raspy HEH-HEH sound at night in the summer )
Turkey Vulture (very common/fly very low to the ground)
Red-tailed Hawk (always see and hear them flying over my house)
Like BZF, an unknown bat species (we both live in Connecticut, what do you expect? )
An occasional Garter Snake
American Crow
American Robin
Dark-eyed Junco
Blue Jay
Mourning Dove (my personal favorite because of its call)
House Sparrow (another favorite; they tend to perch right outside my window when I wake up!)
*Too many birds to list!*
There is, in fact, a bird sanctuary right in my backyard!
Oh, and there's always the annoying barking dog (which happens to be mine!), and the sly little house cat from next door.

 

[PAT]

PAT, even in suburbia we get quite a few of the species you mentioned - I forgot a few in my list. Melbourne is an awesome city for wildlife. I have even seen cockatoos, lorikeets, and possums in the CBD (central business district).

I know what you mean. I live in a leafy suburb so we get a lot of visitors in the backyard here as well. Melbourne is a really great city for wildlife. So much parkland means a lot of habitat. You don't need to out to the countryside to see flying foxes, possums, parrots, waterbirds and so much more.

 

[BeardsleyZooFan]

and the sly little house cat from next door.

While your feline friend is your neighbor, random cats just like to slink through my yard.
In fact, I saw one cat that looked extremely similar to a bobcat( Same face, the size of a small bobcat/large cat). So as I was trying to make up my mind between kitty and bobcat, I noticed that the key to finding out was to see its tail. Unforunately, it was sitting and had its tail directly away from me. So what did I do?
I went out there, got close enough for the feline to run away, and saw that long tail that belongs to Domestic Cats.

 

[AnaheimZoo]

... random cats just like to slink through my yard.

Random cats will pay me a visit from time to time. But it's even funnier when my dog goes running after them.

My dog, a fluffly little lhasa apso, thinks he's a freaking German shepherd. He'll bark like he thinks he's the biggest dog on the block, but when a man's walking his pitbull nearby, he'll run back to the porch in fear.

 

[BeardsleyZooFan]

Random cats will pay me a visit from time to time. But it's even funnier when my dog goes running after them.

My dog, a fluffly little lhasa apso, thinks he's a freaking German shepherd. He'll bark like he thinks he's the biggest dog on the block, but when a man's walking his pitbull nearby, he'll run back to the porch in fear.

My dog barks at anything that makes noise or moves (this includes the wind and blowing leaves!)
He's a Maltipoo and thinks that he's Chuck Norris. He'll bark "bravely" at any animal, person, or thing he wants. When it's time for his teeth to be brushed, he slinks away in defeat.
However, he wins us over with his cute looks.
http://www.zoochat.com/744/night-night-229886/

 

[Hix]

I don't usually get anything in my backyard except pigeons and Indian Mynas. But this morning there was a Whitefaced Heron walking around.



Hix

 

[Chlidonias]

I don't have any yard at all, but there was a weka in the car-park outside the other week....

 

[Stefka]

We set up an "improvised home-made" camera trap to get a better idea how often and what time our hedgehog usually comes to our garden. The camera is running for over a week now and so far he´s been there several times every night.

 

[Gigit]

In my part of Paignton we have Stick Insects in our gardens. Read all about them here

Buglife | Bug of the month | Stick Insects

I found this one the other day. I an no expert but I think it's a young Prickly Stick Insect Acanthoxyla Geisovii. The coin is a 5p.

 

[bongorob]

I've had a badger for a week or two, and last Wednesday it was accompanied by a youngster.

There' also a rabbit, it eats everyone's flowers, and an unidentified bat.

 

[TropicWorld54]

I have:
white-tailed deer
coyote
red foxes
raccoons
woodchuck
Virginia Opossum
Striped Skunk
Eastern chipmunk
Thirteen-lined ground squirrel
bats (I do not know bat species very well)
Fox squirrel
Eastern gray squirrel
Eastern Cottontail
Red-tailed hawk
Northern Cardinal
These are all species that I have seen, there are probally some more that I have not seen.

 

[Arizona Docent]

I live in an industrial area (in a factory turned condos) right next to the railroad tracks and on the edge of downtown. So I thought I would never have anything worth posting here. However, last night before dark as I was bicycling home from work, I saw a coyote in a small dirt lot about one block from my place.

 

[Dassie rat]

I have seen a hedgehog and a fox at various times in my backyard, but my favourite regular visitor is the pied wagtail. I like the way the bird moves along, wagging its tail up and down.