Wow! to those three - totally different here. Apart from the numerous birds teeny and giant, we have seen, deer, bears, the back end of a cougar, racoons, rabbits sqirrels, and unfortunately within the last year are starting to see a couple of grey squirrels - never been in the area before, so that is kind of disappointing. The little red ones apparently do not stand much of a chance with the Grey's, I am hearing! Also a large salmon arrived out of the blue when it hit the ground with a thud after an eagle above dropped it. (where's Pete)! heehee!
Pauline - Vancouver Island

Wow, an eagle -- I always expected to see an osprey pass through here migrating but have not yet. Did I mention the 2 emus? lol They escaped from the neighbors' and gave animal control a merry chase before disappearing into the ether.

We have deer out the wazoo here, like many in the east. Usually I just see does and their young, but occasionally I see bucks. We have watched 2 young bucks growing up, 2 brothers. They were still together when they had their first set of antlers -- one day I came down to feed the horses and they were laying together in the pasture, just visible in the morning fog.

I have to admit, I'd much rather see a bobcat than a cougar. Cougars are beautiful and certainly deserve their place in this world, but I'd be uneasy if they were on my farm. Although with all of the deer and rabbits they probably wouldn't pose a threat. I was so lucky to see that bobcat. I just happened to be looking through the kitchen window and saw the bobcat cross the neighbor's pasture, go through the fence,and then through my garden.

We have 50 acres, a lot of which is wetland and is part of a large creek basin that is too wet to develop. So we've got beavers here too (actually saw one once), who have created sloughs for prothonotary warblers and wood ducks. I'm having a discussion now with the beavers over drainage in the middle of our property by the creek.

I have seen a red squirrel once, at the top of Mount Mitchell in NC. How did the grays get over to Vancouver Island? Believe it or not we don't get many grays on our place -- it's too "wild". They seem to prefer suburbia and well stocked bird feeders.

PS. Pauline where you live sounds incredible -- wildlife heaven! I love your pictures of the barred owls that you posted on Harry's thread.

I was walking Teddy in his wheel-chair one day and a pair of coyotes began to follow us and edge slowly closer and closer. I was getting nervous. A truck then drove by and deliberately shooed them off, for which I was very thankful. Normally the coyotes don't bother me but that did.

One time we were out walking and a cat ran by at full speed across the road, followed by a coyote. The cat climbed a tree and the coyote managed to climb the tree as well, somehow. I didn't stay to see what happened next. I never saw that cat again, though.

I like to hear the owls hoot back and forth to each other at night.

Once I caught a mole in a gopher trap instead of a gopher. The mole was uninjured, but he couldn't get out. I took the trap with him in it down the hill to a nice empty lot and let him out in some loose soil so he could dig in quickly, which he did. Moles are pretty odd looking.

There's a bobcat in the neighborhood too, we saw him one morning sitting on a neighbor's wall. Wow, they are beautiful.

Thanks Alicia! :)

Ah Hoove, poor Teddy! I cannot recall now, but I think you said you did get another dog. I hope so. It is four years since our last Springer Spaniel went to sleep and I am still finding it hard - we miss him terribly. We did not get another one.

Anyway, it sounds as though you too have the barred owls 0 aren't their calls amazing. Sometimes like screeching monkies and sometimes like howling dogs, but they are cool.

We do not have Coyotes on the island. Though they are on the mainland.

About the Grey Sqirrels, if you would believe, I was just reading something the other day about Stanley Park in Vancouver (same disigner as Central Park in New York). It was said that the Mayor of New York donated two Grey Squirrels to Stanley Park. Hence huge population now in th Vancouver area. I guess they a couple of them must have taken a ferry boat to Victoria (Vancouver Island). There are many there, and we are just seeing them for the first time here. Thank you New York! heehee!
Pauline

We have wrabbits, racoons, red & black squirrels (the fox colored ones are holding their own - blacks are a tad more agressive,) possums, groundhogs, moles, occasional deer, coyote, Mallard ducks in season, Morning doves by the hundreds, starlings, sparrows, thrushes, crows, humming birds, tomato worms which change into moth hummers, bees, bumble bees, wasp, Jap beetles, aphids, assassin beetles, Preying Mantis, worms and all sorts of unseen critters, large & small woodpeckers, wrens, hawks, eagles, owls, falcons and more wrabbits. A lot of wrabbits. Lots and lots of wrabbits!

I saw one Mountain Lion bound across I-80 between the Muddassippi and Iowa City. Not in my back yard - yet.

Calamity Jane at your service Foghorn. Our owls like a regular wrabbit diet. Can I come over with me pellet gun -it's all part of being kind to nature and our much loved, hard worked, valuable roses! But if they are wrabbits that look like the pet ones, I wont be able to do it, but those ruthless, greedy hare type, then OK! - they are wrabbit food anyway!
The devil made me say it.
(Anonymous) :)

Hare, hare, the band s'all hare, etc....

Our 9 year old neighbor lost her lop eared wrabbit so I have to be somewhat sensitive to her feelings. She has a burial plot surounded by a white picket fence for the little creature. It was quite cute and was better trained than most dogs.

OTOH I have about lost my patience with the vermin. We should have a neighborhood potshot-potluck wrabbit shoot and get the population under semi control. This is Copland so we should have plenty of firepower. I would have to run it by the city council, but anything is possible.

We live by a park and it looks like Austraila's worst nightmare. One neighbor plinked about 18 of them using the spotlight on his car when he got off of second shift. He hardly made a dent in the population.

Die! Die! Die!

We have coyotes, cottontail rabbits (who have never touched our plants), mountain lions, crows, hawks, gophers, roof rats, mice, owls, kangaroo rats, lizards and who knows what else that we haven't yet laid eyes on. (Bobcats are almost certainly here.) I once saw a bobcat at fairly close range when I was walking my 85-pound pit bull, Nellie, at a previous home. She took one quick look and then busied herself intensely studying the bushes in front of her. She simply pretended the kitty didn't exist, because that kitty was way too big!

Ingrid

I have ground squirrels as regular diners at the bird feeder, with a large contingent of robins, bluejays, doves, finches and wrens. Had a large owl nesting in a neighbor's tree but the tree was taken down. A raccoon was using my roof as part of his territory. Coyotes are in the area as evidenced by road kill. The strangest sighting was two wolves loping down the street dragging neck chains. Seems one of the locals raises them and hauls them in a custom-made trailer. He does educational presentations at the local schools.

In/from my yard, racoon, rabbit, possum, snake, falcon, owl, tree tuck, blue jay, cardinal, humming bird, turtle, rat, and squirrel have seen. The strangest one is a hermit crab with a green shell with Scooby Doo picture on it. Last weekend I found 2 tiny bunnies about 4 inches long hiding in rosemary bush.

Here's one of my favorites, finally caught last weekend. It's the Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

{{gwi:201929}}

NICE picture Harry!

The only time I've ever been able to see the red belly on a red-bellied woodpecker without binoculars was when we had a birdfeeder hanging right outside our window in our apartment in Chapel Hill. The apartment building was at the edge of a beautiful neighbor that had a lake and a lot of trees and so had a lot of birdlife. I routinely saw red-shouldered hawks, barred owls, tanagers, wood thrushes, and many warblers when I took the dog for walks. We actually got pine siskens and evening grosbeaks at that feeder one year.