We think we saw another small alligator in a neighborhood pond last night and a lot of turtles and bull frogs to hang around with or be eaten by it. I saw a coyote at dusk a couple of weeks ago. We see lots of herons, cranes, ducks, hawks, doves, and grackles here. I think I have some fledgling mockingbirds in my front flowerbed. I have at least one or two butterflies in my yard at almost all times. I bring Monarch caterpillars inside to raise when I can. I currently have ten chrysalises and two caterpillars ready to turn into chrysalises today. We see lots of rabbits hanging around when we go for our walks. The sidewalks are covered with lots of toads eating the huge mosquitoes and other bugs.

I have enjoyed watching two rabbits every morning and evening hopping along the back part of our yard. In the morning they are usually in my neighbors yard munching on their clover for breakfast. Tuesday of this week I stopped seeing them at all! I wonder if something got them :(

I think our coyotes have returned. I haven't heard any yet, but we *were* overrun with rabbits. Now, not so much. There's a deer path along a creek at the side of our yard, so we see lots of 'critters'. One morning DH almost backed the car out of the garage over a platter-size snapping turtle. We called the city, and they sent two guys out to 'relocate' it to the side of the creek -- carefully.

We're hearing what I think is some kind of wren. What bird has an enormous repertoire of songs? It sings on and on and on without repeating.

I'm not big on creatures or insects of any kind, probably because of my urban (LA) childhood. My hillside neighborhood does have some mammalian wildlife like skunks, raccoons, deer and the very occasional coyote.

You creature lovers could do both of us a favor by making sure that all these fauna that you share your homes and yards with are very happy and want to stay with you, so that they won't want to come visit me.

WE have deer, rabbits, coyotes, turkeys, and once I saw a red fox!

For being in burbs (less than half an hour from Philly), it's a bit of a jungle here in NJ, too. Five minute walk up the street and there's a nice park/playground area. You have to be VERY careful t dawn and dusk... deer. Most times none, but other could be 10-12 or more just grazin' in the grass by the tennis courts and seesaws.

I "think" sound I've heard at night is either a fox or possibly coyote. Have seen foxes and have been told there are coyotes in immediate area.

LOTS of wild turkeys! Either really cocky or really DUMB! They walk right out in front of you, almost daring you to hit them. Would be easy enough to do coming around a curve. One township over it's ILLEGAL to feed them! Seems the turkeys started shaking down walkers/joggers at local school tracks looking for food!

Groundhogs have taken up residence under about every shed in neighborhood. Often see a BIG one in my back yard that's gotta weigh 15 pounds or more!

Has been a while but know I won't ever forget actually SEEING a red-tail hawk snatch an unsuspecting squirrel right off my lawn! I cheered a little bit!

No black bears in immediate area YET! Sure hope I have my phone handy to take pics when it eventually happens.

Chisue, your bird is probably the infamous songster, a Mockingbird. "And now, the musical stylings of Mr. Mockingbird, performing for hours on end for your personal enjoyment."

I think I'd have to describe here as more forest, or farm like than jungle like ;) Nothing too exotic. An occasional raccoon, and chipmunks that haven't caused any real problems other than they plant sunflowers for me in unlikely spots. And I've seen very few chipmunks this year, do not know why other than we've had an owl visiting....? A pair of eagles we see overhead often but they aren't nesting close by that I know of. People who walk the new road they put in here on the hilltop to our hospital have reported a bobcat but I haven't seen it. Lots of birds (many hummingbirds who barely let us share their space), I had a newt on the patio last week. A rabbit every so often but not yet this season. Rarely does anyone's cat or dog roam in this neighborhood.

I have seen one squirrel here in this coastal town in my lifetime, just last year. A red squirrel in my cherry tree. I heard it across the street the next day but haven't seen it again.

There are deer almost daily. None have brought this years fawns into the yard yet but it should be soon. It's a love hate relationship, I enjoy watching them but they've changed my whole approach to gardening and caused some major disappointments for me with things I've tried to grow.

We had bear last year when I'd never seen any inside city limits. Several, and one in our yard on a Sunday afternoon. It came consecutive nights in a row and climbed the apple trees at the neighbor below us - we stood outside with flashlights and watched it from our yard above. Unusual enough that DH called his sister one night to see it too, they came down in their pajamas to view...

Sorry for the quality of the pics, but visiting our building lot this week we saw a bear:

And the day our current vacation home went under contract -- hopefully clearing our way to to build on the lot, we drove by and saw a western bluebird perched on our lot sign.

Then the next morning, our son-in-law saw this outside the current house:

We also saw several coyotes and fox in the neighborhood this week. All within the city limits.

I haven't seen even one deer on our property this spring, and that's very unusual. Normally we are host to a slew of them, along with fawns. As when I took this picture few years ago.

We've always had a flock of turkeys--up to 16--who patrol the property, looking for ticks (I hope!). But this year I've seen three together and a couple of singletons.

When we first came to Pennsylvania around 1970 I hand-tamed the wild birds, which at the time included Evening Grosbeaks in addition to the usual songbirds. I remember a migrating flock of redpolls landing all over me because they saw the grosbeaks doing it. A few years later, at my present house, we added towhees, thrashers, bluebirds and others to the list. One year a flock of waxwings came by and cleaned the berries off the Autumn Olives. But for the past couple of decades all these have been absent. I heard a couple of orioles this year, but didn't see them.

I have a large jumping spider living in the well below my Caprice's windshield. I don't know what he's finding to eat down there, and I worry about turning on the wipers, but every so often he makes an appearance.

Oh, and apparently the tent caterpillars are alive and well, as I've been picking them off my climbing rose. And the slugs are thriving.

We just returned from a 4 day trip to our place in NE PA - not too far from Alisande. We had planed on staying longer but had to come back to NJ because our contractor unexpectedly announced he's showing up tomorrow.

But this was an unusual week for wildlife in the woods of PA. We saw a pair of scarlet tanagers - they landed on the deck railing and sat for several minutes. In the 20 years we've been going there we've only seen the male a handful of times - and we've never seen the female because she's green and blends into the trees. DH went to turn on the outside hose bib and nearly stepped on a 36" long rattlesnake, last year it was copperheads. But we also spied a sharp shinned hawk, a box turtle and lots of little toads along the driveway, a pair of turkeys, 3 or 4 deer, and this is the first time we saw a dove and a pair of catbirds.

The winter was mild with only one major snow and the ground is littered with acorns- we've never seen so many chipmunks and squirrels - our barred owls should be nice and fat this year!

Well, Maire_Cate, now I know where my wildlife is going! Although I must say I've never seen a rattlesnake or copperhead here, only harmless snakes. I'm not complaining!

For the first time in 30 years we have had to put up with a flock (murder) of crows. Very loud! Lots of larger than normal lizards, 8-12". A large barn owl has been roosting in the trees. Haven't see one in over 10 years here. A lot of baby deer. I have been noticing several birds I have never seen before at the bird feeder. Don't know what kind.

Mojo, you probably know the bluebird is the symbol of happiness, so that sign is perfect. I'd have that picture framed!

Thanks socks and yes, we took it as a good omen. I just wish the pic was better. DH is a bird lover and I'm sure once we get settled the birds will know where we live because because he always keeps bird seed out. There are also hummingbirds out there, but we can't use a hummingbird feeder right out the window as we do in the sout because they are bear magnets.

socks, I know what you mean about those caterpillars. They can really travel! I have found the chrysalis 35' away from any milkweed.

mojomom, I think that is a mountain bluebird. They are a really beautiful blue! Great photos of the bear and moose. And yours of the deer, Allsande. Our deer, relatively few in number, stay in the wilderness areas and away from the yards.

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We have been seeing a lot of opossums, the red squirrels, and lots of resident birds and the stragglers of the migrating birds. The days are beginning to get hot, so nothing too exciting here.

We regularly see deer, turkey, coyote, geese, ducks, muskrat, turtles, snakes, and chipmunks with the occasional mink or weasel. Lots of birds, many of whom wake me up at 4:45 a.m. now.

I just posted a thread about a recent new visitor to our yard, a black bear. It it I have pictures of other animals spotted in our yard. The total list of positively identified animals would be:

Mammals: Black bear, red fox, gray fox, skunk, opossum, raccoon, cottontail, groundhog, white tailed deer, stray beagles, stray hunting hound, stray domestic cats, stray cow.

Reptiles: Box turtle, Snapping turtle, Eastern fence lizard, American five-lined skink, Eastern Rat Snake (aka Mr. Bitey), Eastern gartersnake, Common ribbonsnake, Mole Kingsnake

Frogs, Toads, tadpoles

WIld turkey, Turkey vulture, Black vulture, Red-tailed hawk, Screech owl, Pileated woodpecker plus many smaller birds.

What a cool thread, rhizo! I've been wanting to post to it since the weekend but had my BIL here visiting. Retirement has opened up a whole new world to me in my backyard. Back in the winter many of you helped me when I started feeding the birds again and now I know many of my frequent visitors quite well. And I've been having the time of my life! Who needs vacation?

I've been feeding the hummers for years and they stay my number 1 in terms of enjoyment. Not long ago I posted on another thread that I feared my little dark-headed boy was gone. Fortunately, it seems I was just missing him during all the storms we were having. This is his 3rd year at my feeders and he has always furiously defended them. Lately he has been allowing free passage to the Mother Hummer and her two juveniles. I wonder if the two of them are ready to mate again. I have noticed the Mother Hummer has been trying to run off the two young ones. I love them all so much!

The mourning doves. Boy, someone was right when she referred to them as little piggies but I am so glad that I decided they were worth the extra seed it takes to keep them full and satisfied. I have 2 pairs and then a single male. He is called The Lonesome Dove. :) I do think he is lonesome and it makes me so sad. He sits on top of the shed roof, where I toss the seed, and coo's and coo's. Many times I've told him if he didn't act like such a jerk to other passing doves, he just might be able to find a mate that would put up with him! lol Now this might sound a little crazy, but I have made drawings of all the doves markings. Crazy, maybe, but I can now easily identify each one of them. I think the Lonesome Dove could be the young from last year of another pair that he did hang out with over winter. Now he has nothing to do with them and runs them off from feeding. Luckily they are able to get their share.

The Waxwing Cedars.... I first discovered how fun these birds are back in the winter when they were on my privet bushes. After they cleaned out those berries and moved on I really did miss them. But, right on the edge of the woods I have a huge mulberry tree so they were back recently until the berries were gone. Wow, they can be very loud! They would come in small flocks and sometimes I bet there were a hundred at a time. Now that they're gone it seems too quiet.

Yesterday, I don't know what I was seeing with the titmice but it was very interesting. They were making such a racket that I went to investigate. At first I thought babies were leaving the nest. I saw adults going for seed and then back to the baby. It appeared they were feeding it. Then I noticed that what I thought was a baby could have been an adult ruffling his feathers and flapping his wings in a mating ritual??? I don't know but wish I did. The reason I thought it was a baby was because it looked fuzzy/fluffy. But it looked like 3 or 4 others were feeding it. It was puzzling but interesting! A strange thing about the titmice is that they didn't seem to like my seed much until I threw out some parakeet seed to help stretch the last of the songbird seed I had. Now I'm throwing out a little parakeet seed every day and they keep coming back. They are also some noisy but fun birds.

With bird feeding, the biggest surprise to me has been the realization that it's the same birds that frequent your feeders. I guess I never gave it much thought or maybe thought that birds just flit from neighborhood to neighborhood. It's just so interesting to watch a strange cardinal fly in only to be run off by the resident cardinal. But that same cardinal doesn't mind that the wrens, blue jays and doves eat there.

Oh, I could go on and on but I won't. It should be obvious that I am thoroughly enjoying the birds! My entire backyard is closed in with a privacy fence so I don't see rabbits and deer, but I did have a run-in with a snake and it's fun to watch the squirrels in the trees.

Please excuse the length but I did enjoy putting to text some of my expeditions into the world of backyard birding. :)

I wish some of you would come back and give more detail about your skunks, mountain lions and bears!

Moonie, your observations sound like me....I love to watch the birds and love their very unique personalities. Hours of enjoyment. Thanks for posting!

DH feeds our birds every Sunday and the crows know this. Sunday morning there is one crow hanging around waiting. I think he must be the spotter. We also have blue jays, cardinals, mourning doves, a few woodpeckers, and other birds that I don't know what kind. A few years ago we did see the blue bird of happiness. What a beauty he was. We also have squirrels, turkeys, chipmunks, deer, groundhogs, raccoons and I even seen an opposum. Chippy the chipmunk lives in my flower bed, so DH puts a little food there for him, but the birds usually get it before Chippy. LOL

That's sweet that your DH feeds Chippy, linda! They are so cute but I thought most people hate them? I hope he doesn't start misbehaving and have to be told to get out! :)

You reminded me that I had forgotten my woodpecker story! This will be quick, I promise all of you! lol

So, I was sitting outside talking to my sister on the phone when, lo and behold, a pileated woodpecker landed on my fence! DH was in the house so when I finally got to tell him we had pileated visitor, he was skeptical and had to know all the sizing and shape details. The next day, there he was again! I couldn't believe he was back and DH got to see him, too. The next day.... rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat. We caught him red-peckered drilling holes in the fence! Now we've been running him off.