Your wildlife encounters in daily life

[DaLittle B]

In today's paper there was an article about a 3ft copperhead sunning himself on one of the trails at Wilson's creek national battlefield,a park ranger took a photo of it.

My boss has a horrible time with the deer on his property,he accidently closed one in his garage over the weekend,when he shut the small door on the side.He said he heard a bunch of banging and things falling as he walked around towards the front,He opened the big garage door,and it bolted out as soon as it saw the chance...

I live in the city,so I get mice,rats,raccoons,opossums,skunks,ground hogs,squirrels,all kinds of birds,snakes (mainly Garter snakes,and Black snakes).I've seen cranes down by the creek near the park,and running trails.

Over the years,I've seen in my backyard a few big big owls,raccoons,opossums, 1 bald eagle,and done battle with a many groundhogs,and mice.

The oddest one for me was a few years ago,the random turkey in my neighbor's yard,that bolted over my other neighbors fence,across the road into the alley.




What are some of the stuff you have wander into your yards? any funny stories?

I realize there are bunch of you that live in Florida,for me you guy's have some scary ass stuff that I would never want to run across..

Modified to add- This year for the 1st time,I've seen a couple of times,a tiny bright blue lizard...I'm only catching a little glimpse of him/them then they are gone about the time I realize what I'm looking at..

[Dave Gray]

I've seen a friggin' gigantic alligator in the road before, being dragged around by two rednecks, in the middle of the day, in traffic.

We don't really have gators in the populated areas, but we do have a lot of waterways, so once in a while, one will get into a local canal or golf course or something.

Other than that, I'd say that we have a lot of Iguanas.  They get really big.  They are non-native and they can't really take our low-end temperatures.  We will experience a pretty good freeze every year and their body temperatures drop so low that they just fall out of trees, sometimes onto cars and streets and stuff.  Usually, they aren't dead, but they can't move for a day or two until they thaw up a bit. 

[Phishfan]

Roommate killed a rattlesnake in the yard just yesterday. I have killed a copperhead and a neighbor killed a coral snake in the past. There use to be a couple owls that perched on my clothes line but they hunt elsewhere now. I can still hear them sometimes.

My grandfather once found an alligator in his fountain beside his front door.

[Sunstroke]

I count myself as blessed to have gotten up close and personal with a wide variety of the animal kingdom in my lifetime, from having 3 pods of Orca whales dance for my birthday to jogging through a knot of about a dozen rattlesnakes. I once had an elephant bump the truck I was in, putting us on two wheels and knocking everyone in the back on our asses. Here in S FL, iguanas are the wildest thing around, though I do have a fairly large (18"-ish diameter shell) tortoise that ambles through my yard once or twice a week.

[Dolphster]

The course where I play golf the most has coyotes on it.  I see them about half the time that I play there.  People film coyotes and bobcats in our neighborhood from time to time.  When the suburbs invade what used to be the middle of nowhere. 

[DaLittle B]

I was reminded that we do have bears (somewhat rare),and mountain lions (very rare) in the area.Every 3-5 years people start reporting Bears wandering through peoples backbackyards on the south side of town. A bear over the summer was found dead on the side of the interstate,apparently hit by a tractor trailer.

I've never seen either,though I do feel like I remember back when I was living on the farm our bull got attacked by something that did leave claw marks down it's side...

I also found out the Blue lizard i've seen this year,is juvenile 5 line skink.

[Phishfan]

Bears are a common occurrence around here but luckily not my neighborhood. The county was requiring special garbage cans for people in certain areas.

[BigDaddyFin]

Cottonmouths when I lived in Raleigh.  My grandmother's property in Spring Hill once became home to a sea turtle of some kind.

[BuccaneerBrad]

I live in a neighborhood with a lot of moss draped oaks, which attracts a lot of squirrels and raccoons.  However, I was unprepared to see a skunk running towards one of the trees.

[Fau Teixeira]

we got ducks that shit in my driveway .. we also back up to a lake, so hopefully there'll be an alligator in there so it'll solve the duck problem

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

we got ducks that shit in my driveway .. we also back up to a lake, so hopefully there'll be an alligator in there so it'll solve the duck problem

I would rather have ducks in my yard than alligators.

[DaLittle B]

I had a 1 duckling,and 2 chicks ( at different times,not 2 together,both after we moved back to the city) as pets. .

I want a goat...

A few weeks ago when we had the 50+ foot rotted silver maple cut down,after the tree was down,the guy started cutting the large trunk into smaller segments. He then walked  along the trunk and kicked every other section to separate them...A possum came running out of one of the hollow areas...I imagine he had one hell of headache...

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I want a goat...

You don’t want *A* goat.  One goat will be very lonely, unhappy and loud constantly calling out to attract other goats.  Two goats will be a happy pair.

[Phishfan]

You don’t want *A* goat.  One goat will be very lonely, unhappy and loud constantly calling out to attract other goats.  Two goats will be a happy pair.

B has a couple dogs. If they spend time outdoors they might all be buddies and keep that from happening. I have seen some unlikely animal pairings before. My dad had a duck that followed their dog around when he was young.

[Tenshot13]

I see hawks and eagles on the daily, work out in East Florida, a lot of wildlife