Wow, rusty, what a fantastic boon to have the two pictures! I am positively green! Then to have Lady slippers growing wild on the roadside... no fair! ;) That looks like a lovely home and area. Funny how some places seem welcoming and pleasant just through a photo.
We used to get the enormous black and yellow grasshoppers with pink (fuschia!) wings when I lived in Augusta with my parents. They ate everything in site down to the ribs and veins. Mom detested them. We were horridly cruel children and deliberately aimed for them on our bikes. Well, cruel to them; loved everything else. Yick. What a crunch and splat. And this is horrible but funny in a macabre/Gary Larsonish sort of way. We had a lattice fence that the grasshoppers used to get on and parade across the top of like targets in an old-fashioned shooting gallery. So, yes, we did. BB guns. We were great shots. They would just disappear. There'd be that little 'pop!' from the rifle and a grasshopper was just.... gone. Like pilots we counted our 'aces' and I think Mom even encouraged us (as long as we were only shooting grasshoppers and were safe with the target practice) since they ate her veggies.
Ging

Im like Ging,we have besides all thefarm animals Texas longhorns,horses,mini donkeys,turkey,chickens,2 labs,jack russell puppy,A buck ran up our driveway last week,raccoons,possums,swans,canadian geese,ducks,owls,hawks,water snakes,turtles,frogs,toads,I have a big farm pond and a koi pond,herons,lots of birds,My husband saw a gray fox comming in drive this week.chipmunks,More bugs this year than ever.Lots butterflys.Hummingbirds.

Let's see: Racoons, Red Foxes, Deer, an Oppossum, Gray and Fox Squirrels are the mammals.

Many birds of which the more interesting ones include Great Horned and Barred Owls, Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds, Pileated Woodpeckers and an occasional Eastern Bluebird.

Reptiles and Amphibians: Five-Lined Skinks, Toads, Three-Toed Box Turtles, Eastern and Red-Sided Garter Snakes, Eastern Yellowbelly Racers, and a Common Snapping Turtle laid its eggs in our front yard last year.

A neat variety and yet, we live within walking distance of downtown in a medium sized city...

Lots of squirrels. And, thanks to them, indirectly, some sunflowers, this year! (Pic posted with my bio.)

I've also seen snakes, mostly just green garden snakes, some black garden snakes...bats...birds, especially lots of crows, also cardinals...

I've at times seen turkeys, herons, ducks, foxes, skunks, lots of deer...

I hear the coyotes but never have seen one...

I'm sure I've left something out!

Racoons, racoons and more racoons. They come by every night, all night long. Then the different bunches squable with each other so I hear racoon fights all night long from my open window. This time of year, all the mama's have babies so that only means more racoons. The little ones, especially, are very cute but they all sure do get into mischief. A favorite nighttime activity is swimming or wading in the preformed pond in the side yard where I put in my hedgerow.

I do have lots of birds. Catbirds and Mockingbirds are common and the Mockingbirds had fledglings recently. Also have Cardinals with their fledglings, Goldfinches with their fledglings and Wrens with their fledglings.

Possums, armadillos (woe is me), house sparrows, cardinals, carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, inca doves, crows, red-tailed hawks, deer sometimes in the back, raccoons sometimes, copperheads, chicken snakes, garter snakes, frogs, anoles, salamanders, barn swallows (mostly gone now), ruby-throated hummingbirds (numbers increasing as migration starts), all kinds of wasps, a few honey bees, lots of bumblebees, yellow jackets, lightning bugs, and several types of butterflies.

Hmmm...let see, not much cool things, but...

At feeders:

California Quail
Mourning Dove
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
House Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch

In the garden and lawn:

European Starling
Western Meadowlark
Fritillary Butterflies (butterfly bush and lantana)
Sphinx Moth (Salvia greggii and lantana)
some little gray moths (butterfly bush and lantana)
bumblebees and various other small native bees (coneflower, Rudbeckia, scabiosa, perennial oregano, veronica, coreopsis)

Not much else since we live in a new development on the edge of the shrub-steppe, but fall is approaching and awaiting the arrival of the White-crowned Sparrows, pine siskins and other winter visitors.

J

Just moved into a new development, so most of the wildlife has scattered I'm afraid. But at the feeders I've got cardinals, lots of mourning doves, lots of house finches, a brown-headed nuthatch, a titmouse, 2 hummingbirds. And lots of toads. No mammals so far.

Great survey! As I read the posts, I feel like I'm doing some vicarious wildlife watching. Here's one that hasn't been mentioned so far:

Working in the yard the other day, the leaves began rustling -- but there wasn't any wind. I followed a little lump as it scuttled under the leaves until a tiny snout poked out, grabbed a bug and disappeared. I watched in fascination for a while, trying to figure out what it was. Tiny eyes and ears, and very short tail -- didn't fit mouse or vole. Tiny front paws, too small for mole (and too visible in the day). I googled for a while and found it: a shrew! Still not sure if Northern short-tailed shrew or some other species.

Other wildlife in our small urban/suburban hillside yard: raccoon mom and babies in hollow tree one spring; sharpshinned hawk watching neighbor's birdfeeder; cicadas (and lots of discarded larval skeletons -- stick them on your shirt to amuse/disgust others); too many invertebrates to count/identify; hordes of gray squirrels.

Skunks and opposums prowl the neighborhood, but I don't think they're nesting on our property.

Other Birds: grackle, crow, starling, house sparrow, house finch, black-capped chickadee, robin, blue jay, cardinal, white-breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, Carolina wren, common yellowthroat, pine siskin, mourning dove, catbird, mockingbird.

Well-drained, i'm cracking up ! i thought i was the only weirdo who stuck bugs to her shirt to freak people out. I found a dead green scarab beetle in a shopping center parking lot one day, he sits on my desk and every now and then i stick him to my sweater as jewelry.

I'm in the very heart of Suburbia in over-developed southern cal... orange county, once a wonderland of coastal scrub, riparian stream (now a 6 lane parkway), and wooded hills. Sigh. Oh well, here's what seems to be surviving:

Racoons
Opposums (my favorite)
Coyote
Bobcat
Skunks
Rabbits

Lots of little black lizards
Lots of yellow and green and tan grasshoppers
Dragonflies
Whiteflies
Other tiny little flies
Rolypolies
Yellow and black garden spiders
Brown spiders
Sphinx moths
Painted lady butterflies
Frittilary butterflies
White cabbage butterflies
Strange worms with flat rectangular heads
Mice
Rats (they like the palm trees)

Annas hummingbirds
Allens hummingbirds
Rufous hummingbirds (migrate through)
Hooded orioles (nest in my fan palm each summer)
Northern flickers
Western tanagers
Coopers hawk
Sharp-shinned hawk
Red-tail hawk
Mockingbirds
Mourning doves
Goldfinches
Red finches
Purple finches
Various sparrows
Blackbirds
Phoebes
Grosbeaks
Towhees (California and Rufous sided)
House wrens
Crows

Oh! how could i forget my bees/wasps? Honey bees, bumble bees, yellow jackets.

My husband sees roadrunners on his golf course. But they were imported, poor things.

I also live in the suburbs right slap up against Philadelphia. Our house used to sit on pristine well-kept lawn - then we moved in. Ha! Now grass is offically a "weed" and we're getting rid of it bit by bit, and planting lots of wildlife plants.

The gray squirrels were here before. They stayed. (We like them in the garden, wish they'd stay the heck out of the attic!) As did the chipmunks, which also *climb trees*!

The groundhog is bigger than the neighbor's poodle. He lives in a gargantuan hole in my backyard.

We had cardinals nesting in hydrangea, crows in our big spruce tree, and wrens using the birdhouse. Sighted commonly are: house sparrows, field sparrows, goldfinches (only after we planted lanceleaf coreopsis) and mockingbirds. More rarely: woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches.

Also, my mother and I are trying to identify what we believe to be a Blackburnian warbler (is there something else orange that isn't an oriole on the East Coast?) and some kind of vireo.

We also have monarch, admiral, cabbage, and frittilary butterflies. And some really loud-ass crickets and cicadas.

None of this is *amazing* except to us. To us it's a dream come true, and we're still planting more "host" plants in the hopes of attracting even more of a show.

It's a zoo out there!

Red Fox, Coyote, deer, mink, rabbitt, opossum, skunk, raccoon, squirrel, moles, voles, mice, four different kinds of snake, painted turtles, crawdads, hawks, owls, herons, rails, pheasant, flickers, woodpeckers, indigo bunting, bluebirds, cardinals, goldfinches, cedar waxwings, orioles, hummingbirds, bluejays, swallows, robins, wrens, redwing blackbirds, sparrows, and many more I haven't identified, as well as more insects than you could ever list

Kevin- Your list of resident animals and birds sounds wonderfull.

The hummingbirds have left here for the winter and I think the Catbirds are gone too. The Songsparrows seem to be back but otherwise the winter birds have not arrived as yet.

We always have possums and racoons plus the usual backyard birds. I am hoping for some fall/winter bird visitors that would be new and unusual to me like waxwings, bluebirds, or thrushes but who knows.

An amazing morning and early afternoon for bird watching around here today. All I had to do was look out my window to see all the activity.

The Rufus sided Towhee that I saw afew days ago was back yesterday and today. I only see one at a time so I think there is only one here. I have only ever seen a Towhee once before in my yard and that was once briefly last winter.

Juncos are here in flocks. Saw both males and females flying down to the hedgerow near the veggie garden and in the annual millet grasses and Little Bluestem grass. There were also lots of native Sparrows there. Besides the Song Sparrows and White Throated Sparrows that a could get a good look at to ID, there were others that didn't stay close enough, long enough, for me to ID them. But they were also eating the seeds of the Myscanthus Grasses. I could see them hanging on the seed stalks and picking seeds.

Goldfinches seemed to be everywhere. They were at the perennial garden eating the seedheads of Black eyed susans and Hyssops. And they were in the Amaranths and Salvia plus they too were in the grasses.

The veggie garden and the surrounding area also had Kinglets, Morning Doves, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Juncos, more Goldfinches, Songsparrows and White Throated Sparrows.

Chickadees, a Nuthatch, Red Bellied Woodpecker, more Jays and White Throated Sparrows were also hanging out in the shrubby hedgerow and Azalea Hill.

I saw a Mockingbird trying to eat one of the Crabapples on my Crabapple tree but I don't think he was successful as it appeared that the apples were too hard.

I scatter seed on my driveway everyday to feed the birds and I think its interesting that there were some morning doves eating the seeds along with one native sparrow and a female Cardinal. Otherwise there were at least 30 House Sparrows eating seed on the driveway. The birds I wanted to see, the ones I am trying to attract were very numerous elsewhere but were obviously not being attracted by the driveway seed but by the grasses and shrubby areas planted here to attract backyard birds.

Actually with all the snow cover, I am sure I am seeing less birds than I did last Winter. Still there are lots of White Throated and Song Sparrows around. Never had many of them until I started on my backyard Habitat improvements projects.

Cardinals are nesting in my Boxwood shrub.

I was just out in my garden trimming the roses and I heard a rustling noise. I looked around and up walks the most gorgeous red fox. I talked sweet to him and he continued jumping all over the garden eating grasshoppers. I certainly have a ton of those. My garden is in the middle of 88 acres of woodlandl/ranch grazing so I see all kinds of critters but they don't often let me share their space. They usually run off before I can get close. This time I stayed out there at least 10 min. w/him. I even went in and took a pic. I wasn't really close enough to get a good closeup. What a fun experience.I certainly want him to come back and fill his belly w/grasshoppers. Isn't wildlife wonderful?
Hilary

Sounds like you have some great wildlife over there. In our yard we have South Western Australian tree frogs, digging frogs, Bobtail skinks, bandicoots (a small marsupial), rainbow lorakeets, twenty eight parrots, pink and grey galahs, white correlas, magpies, wagtails, the occasional dugit (snake), huntsman spiders, redback spiders, golden orb spiders and up until recently a red kangaroo. It would be great to see what other animals people around the world have living with them!
Dave

I was out at dusk last night loking for bats (saw one pipistrelle) and I noticed that a wood pigeon has a nest in our scots pine tree. Not that I want to encourage wood pigeons, but nice to know they are there.
I also have starlings nesting in the roof over our back porch and bluetits in the box on the pine tree.
My stickleback babies are doing well and about 8 mm long now.

Hilary-A grasshopper eating fox? How nice! Send him to me when you get done with him.
I haven't seen many grasshoppers yet, but I know they'll be everywhere soon.

The sticklebacks in my pond have had one batch of babaies, and now 2 Dads have built more nests. I don't know whether they have eggs in or whether they are still waiting for females. The males keep chasing each other away from their own nests though.
There are now plenty of pond skaters on the pond.
Some swallows are flying over, and every evening there are a few bats (they are after the same flying insects).
I haven't seen any hedgehogs this year, but there is evidence of hedgehog poo.
We get pheasants in the garden, but at the moment it only seems to be the male- the females must have nests in the field behind our garden.

We have a variety of wildlife that visits us, we live on a lake so we get to see things like beavers and ducks they have babies right now, geese, and deer. we also have a large variety of bired that visit our feeders and two small water sources, if I sit at my windo for a whils I get to see two or three types of sparrows, chickadees, house finches, blue birds, red headed and red breasted woodpeckers, the brown and the grayish nuthatches, there is like one blue jay and many sets of cardinals, doves, a couple of types of grosbeaks, grackle, cowbirds, humming birds thought they are not all in yet we set out many feeders to supplement the flowers, we have all colors of the rainbow when it comes to birds, we have also attracted two little squirrels, they are not full grown they are too small I try to keep them shooed to their own feeder out on the trees but I think they think I am paying with them they are quite tame even though I run them all the time, they come really close when I am sitting out on the deck reading, I am tampted to offer a morsel but I don't really want them hanging on the deck that much. The larger squirrels ruined foru of the feeders and we had to switch to metal ones. we also have rabbits and lizards and tons of frogs around. I usually come upon a frog or two when I am digging around in my gardens. I thnk they like the soil and all of its organic stuff I have added to it.

Hmmm, today there was a magpie carefully picking tadpoles from the edge of the pond!. I let it have a few then chased it. Grrrr.
I also have quite a tame male blackbird at the moment. He comes to within about 4 feet of me.

Last night there were 2 hedgehogs. I hadn't seen any for ages. There was a large male and a smaller female. I think he was "making advances" at her, walking round her. She was turning round keeping her behind away from him and going "puff puff puff". They were also there for the water in the plant pot tray I have for a bird bath.
When I approached the bigger one ran off sooooo fast rather than curling up. Hopefully this adaptation helps prevent road deaths!

I JUST SIGNED UP AND HAVE ENJOYED EVERYONES COMMENTS. I HAVE A PAIR OF WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A PAIR OF BLUEJAYS BUT WHEN I LOOKED AT PICTURES POSTED ON THE WEB THEY DO NOT LOOK LIKE THE PICTURES. THE BIRDS ARE BRIGHT BLUE WITH A BLACK STAND UP CREST ON THEIR HEADS.CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT ON WHAT THEY ARE? WE NOW HAVE A NEST AND MAY SOON HAVE BABIES. ALSO THEY SQUAWK AT THE CROWS AND MAKE A HIGH PITCH SQUEECH. PLEASE HELP SO I KNOW WHAT TO PUT OUT FOR THEM

In my yard...more precisely, on my property...I have seen deer, bob cats, coyotes, a grey fox, many raccoons and many possums, lots of armadillos, cotton tailed rabbits, box turtles, red earred sliders, common snapping turtles, soft shelled turtle, three coral snakes, many cottonmouth moccasins, yellow bellied water snakes, ribbon snakes, garter snakes, broad banded water snakes, speckled king snake, green snake, diamond backed water snake, anoles, skinks...five lined and big headed, house geckoes, and as for birds...vultures, cara caras, cardinals, ring necked dovers, aztec doves, lots of cardinals, blue jays, pigeons, wood ducks, some other little ducks that didn't let me get close enough to see them, chickadees, great horned owls, barred owls, screech owls, barn owls, hawks of all kinds, osprey, titmice, goldfinches in the winter, hummingbirds, and many birds passing through on migration routes...like indigo buntings. Also have mocking birds, robins in the winter. Have seen a roseate spoonbill, night herons, little blue and great blue herons, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, green heron....too many bird species to mention. I'm sure I have left out many species.
Also lots of spiders including a healthy population of black widows who live in my flower pot stacks and lots of brown recluse spiders around too...including one named Little Eddie, bees, wasps, butterflies, moths...dragon flies, etc., etc. All are welcome, except the killer bees that were here for awhile, and I don't welcome the fire ants, but they are a fact of life. Add to that a dog, four horses, about 15 cats, my two pet pigeons and numerous opossums and raccoons that come through here on their way to being rehabbed and a "soft release." (Meaning food is always here for them.

I really have noticed the increase in birds, bees and wildlife since I have been busy improving the yard. I have more racoons than I ever thought existed visiting each night (not my intent) and possums too. Bumble Bees, Butterflies and Dragon Flys are common.

I never had Hummingbirds four years ago, now I do. I have alot of birds here but Catbirds I have had only for two years and a Hawk flying overhead is new too.

I love the birds that visit me here in NC. Daily visitors this time of year include tons of titmice, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, Downey and hairy and red Bellied woodpeckers, Blue birds (although they nixed me right after their 2nd brood - after spending all that money on 5000 mealworms a week it was wham-bam-thank-you-maam - I feel so used), goldfinches, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Brown-headed nuthatches, house finches and Mockingbirds. We also have a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers that I see once a week or so. I wish they would come to my feeders. Also have hawks but not as many as I see in winter. A Coopers flew out of the woods only about 5 feet over my head the other day - too another couple of years off my life. He was stalking the birds at my feeder I guess, did get one though. Never saw one take a bird in my yard.

Since I planted my garden specifically to attract hummers and butterflies I have lots of them too.

A bunch of grey squirels visit me daily - they sit on my deck and look in my kitchen window as if to say "peanut shortage out here!", also have loads of toads hopping around and lizards. I especially like the blue tailed lizards - they are always hanging around my garage. Yesterday I watched a tortoise cross my back yard. Occasionally I see black rat snakes, had a few this year. It took me a while to get used to them - especially when one decided to check out my garage but I have learned to admire them - from a distance. I have seen opossums and racoons once or twice during the day but they mostly come around at night. I also have some mice living in my garage (even after the snake). I also have voles but rarely see them.

We live in a rural area and have deer, red foxes, coyotee, wild turkey, beavers, rabbits, racoon, possums, armadillos, squirrels, moles, voles, toads, tree frogs, bull frogs, several kinds of lizards and snakes. We've seen foot prints of bobcats

The different birds I've seen are Eastern bluebirds, indigo bunting, cardinals, titmouse, finches, robins, sparrows, wrens, mockingbirds, thrashers, several kinds of woodpeckers, flickers, juncos, jays, chickadees, doves, quail, hummingbirds, herons, woodducks, crows, cowbirds and hawks. I've heard owls and whip-o-wills.

We have big black grasshoppers with red on their wings that eat my flowers. My neighbors call them Texas grasshoppers. We have several kinds of butterflies, bumble bees, wasp, praying mantis, regular grasshoppers, and lots of spiders.

Dorris

cool story about the fox. it is weird how somedays they will go about their business and pay not attention to you, but most the time they scat fast. once up at my lakehouse all day long there were atleast three foxes laying in the grass and playing with each other, and now they are very illusive. one night here the fox was chilling in my backyard and not even minding me; i thought that he must be sick or something. i think i saw him again much later because it has more black on his coat than most.

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These raccoons have been my highlights of critter sightings this week, at first there was four of them.

Yeck, it's cold today. Been spoiled as we have had a very mild winter here on Long Island this year. Just got back inside from going out to refill the Suet feeder as it was getting low. The small Woodpeckers, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Chicadees, Titmice and Nuthatches really seem to enjoy it this time of year especially.

I had some Carolina Wrens eating the Suet this morning. I was really happy to see them as they are amoung my favorite birds.

Chicadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, Juncos, Woodpeckers, Eastern bluebirds, Crows and cardinals. I have also seen cottontails lately and a few deer.......hopefully they'll stay away from the new shrub border, but I doubt it.

The Redwing Blackbirds arrived today. They are singing from all the neighborhood trees. I love the Redwings, I wish they would stay all year but they commonly don't stay in my yard as they like to nest near water.

What a cool thread! We live in an older neighborhood, right in the middle of the city, with lots of hills and some open space. It's really been eye-opening to see the amount of wildlife we have.
Occasional sightings:
Red foxes (in the neighborhood, not in my yard, except the female that a speeding driver hit right in front of me one night. She was dead on impact, but I couldn't just leave her there so I brought her home & buried her in the backyard. Yep, DH didn't realize I was this weird when we got together!;) )
Opossums
Raccoons
Red tailed hawks in the neighborhood

Daily in season:
Squirrels galore!
Cottontailed rabbits

Chimney swifts that nest in our unused chimney
Brown thrashers
Grackles
We are practically littered with Cardinals and Mockingbirds! :)
Robins
Starlings and House sparrows, of course
Black-capped chickadees
Brown-headed cowbirds
Mourning Doves
A pigeon now & then
Ruby-throated hummingbirds
House finches
I know I'm forgetting some of our regulars...

Garter snakes
Honeybees
Grasshoppers
Ticks (UGH)

Surprising to see the sheer density of some of these critters too--I sure enjoy watching them all!

We live near the Morongo Valley Nature Preserve, which has a year round stream, a waterfall, a marsh, tall trees and many magical spots. It's a well known watering spot for migrating birds, so we have a variety of them passing through, but the ones that seem to live here in the yard include scrub jays, very bossy cactus wrens, phainopelas, and numerous hummers who love the salvia, penstemon, and bottlebrush.

We also see hawks and golden eagles on occasion, as well as the turkey vultures who meet in the Tamarisk trees and to organize their soaring parties that must include a hundred birds or more.

On the reptilian side, once a year or so, we have a red racer pass through the yard. It was quite a site to see him climbing the fence, weaving in and out of the white lattuce work. We will also have lots of collard lizards and some skinks all summer long.

The resident furry critters include bunnies, voles, ground squirrels, and raccoons. Our personal best sighting was the a bobcat that came hip-hopping through the yard and across the patio.

The Preserve is also home to a mountain lion and a bear, neither of which I have seen, but we know the bear comes down and raids the trash cans at the community park across the street.

What can I say, except that this place feels like a little slice of heaven!

"nestmaster" loved seeing the hummers.
I have tons of birds ,lots of different kinds.(all of which I don't know the kinds)I've seen cardinals,bluejays,a couple of humming birds,geese(if air space counts when the fly over our house to the pond)LOL they don't visit our yard though.My two squirrels have been back.(that were given to us,I bottle fed them)A couple of butterflies too.I know we have possums,there was one hit in the road the other week. My mom tried to feed the babies but they didn't make it.

I have skunks....birds....skunks...tree squirrells...skunks...racoons....skunks....coyotes...oh did I mention skunks? I also have skunks. Ugh!

Coastal South Carolina...

Mockingbirds
BLuebirds
Bluejays
CArdinals
Crowe's
Buzzards
Golfinches
common housefinches
mournign doves (sound so sweet on an early weekend morning!)
Titmouse
a shine black bird whose name eluudes me
Hummingbirds
Carolina Wrens

MNonarchs
sulphurs of all kinds
Fritillaries
Buckeye's
Hummingbird Moth
swallowtails, tiger, black,giant
Viceroy
Red spotted purple
Comma (my first sightuing!
Painted Lady (mexican)
skipeprs of all kinds
Checkerspots

lizards, greea and blue with yellow stripe
skinks
snakes

Praying Mantids
grasshoppers
wasps, regular and mud
bumblebeed
carpenter bees

A year and a half ago, my lot was an old cornfield that just had some weeds....

My most recent discovery was a 2 ft rat snake curled up in my persulane hanging basket found when checking to see if the basket was in need of water! I stuck my hand in the basket, looked in the basket, and the snake opened his eyes and looked at me! IT FREAKED ME OUT! We have cardinals, squirrels, titmouse, painted bunting(male and female), purple martins, a copperhead ( found it laying on the ledge of my flower bed by our front steps sleeping one morning when I got home from work ) Hubby killed it with a 7 iron (his weapon of choice and favorite iron LOL) rabbits, armadillos, deer, hawks, mourning dove (they roost near by), tree frogs, bullfrogs, toads, mockingbirds, woodpeckers, chickadees, bluejays,bluebirds,hummingbirds,butterflys,tarantulas,hornets (I hate them they chase me)! We have 15 acres and 10-12 acres of it is wooded so the animals have a safe place to hang out as we don't hunt the deer or shoot the dove ! I'm terrified of snakes.....but know to have a stick and poke around in my beds and now in my hanging baskets before I do any weeding, deadheading, or watering! I never imagined a snake climbing a tree to hang out in my persulane basket.....
Happy gardening!
Colleen

Aww, poor copperhead! :(

Foxes, squirrels, field mice, deer, chipmunks, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, a very fat groundhog, woodpeckers, red-tailed hawks, barn owls, gold finches, cardinals, bats, mourning doves, titmice, chickadees, sparrows, gold finches, blue jays, junkoes, mantids, cicadas, bumble bees, honeybees, yellow jackets, really neat wasps (dunno what kind, they're all black and have a very long slender portion... they look so delicate!), dragonflies, grasshoppers, crickets, butterflies (Viceroy, Spicebush Swallowtail and Yellow Sulfur), lots of moths, ruby-throated hummingbirds, and the occaisonal mallard or canadian goose during the summer.

Two lots, basically allowed to grow wild with only a little landscaping, an herb garden, and mowing of some of the lawn... And bordering on a small wildlife preserve around a small creek. God I'm gonna miss this yard.

I've never seen a single reptile here, though. There's the occaisonal turtle down by the creek, but not on our property.

Today...a flock of Bohemian Waxwing
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Three flying squirrels! They come out at night and eat the suet I have on the tree for the birds. I've seen them jump from limb to limb and they are very quiet and fast.

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I'm on two acres in semi-rural central Massachusetts, bordering conservation land (wetlands). This is the first time I've thought about itemizing what I've seen in my four years, here. It's a long list, and I'm sure it's just a fraction! We have a pond, and keep half the property meadow. (Maybe, by some standards, the whole thing is a meadow....) I've been putting up birdhouses, lately.

We see (in rough order of how interesting...) great blue herons, red tail hawks, egrets, a large flock of cedar waxwings, redwing blackbirds, barn sparrows (how do they know it's a barn?), downy/hairy/piliated/red-breasted woodpeckers, orioles, juncos, nuthatches, and the usual finches, bluejays, cardinals, yadda yadda yadda. A wood duck down the road, and I wish he'd visit.

Spring peepers (I can't wait for them to come back!), leopard frogs, other various frogs and toads, garter/ribbon/maybe milk snakes, 4-toed salamanders. Turtles nearby, but not at my pond.

In the pond, various snails, leeches, more frogs, infinite insects (especially mosquitoes).

In the orchard, every pest an apple tree has ever known.

Mice, groundhogs, rabbits, grey squirrels, flying squirrels, chipmunks.

Coyotes, foxes, deer. Neighbors have seen a bear and reportedly minks, but not me. Beavers have us surrounded, but they are not my own yard.

Some lovely spiders, and some plain ones too. Lots of paper wasps and various bees. More mosquitoes. In fact, mostly, we have mosquitoes. And worms.

--Jonathan

Currently renting, but gardening anyways! My entire vegetable garden is in containers, and I using drip irrigation. The local tree frogs have moved in, as well as paper wasps and ground dwelling wasps (meat bees). The wasps are allowed to nest on timbers on backyard greenhouse, and all summer they patrol my potted veggies: NO TOMATO WORMS! The sound of dripping water and croaking tree frogs is wonderful, and squirrels love to bury their booty in the flower boxes hanging on the fence. Hummingbirds like my red salvia bush, and lots of bumblebees, hoverflies, and leaf cutter bees buzz among the flowers. How could anyone not garden!!

yellowjackets, paperwasps, bald-faced hornets, honey bees, bumblebees, carpet beetles, termites, carpenter ants, spiders, rabbits, deer, elk, bluejays, hawks, eagles, ravens. In Yelm, WA

Not so much in my yard - but flying over my yard. It takes nearly half an hour for the "flock" of bats to completely pass our house. We live on the sunshine coast in australia so our wildlife is a little bit different to yours - we get things like sea eagles flying past (and occassionally dropping their catches); tawny frog mouthed owls; skinks and geckos; cane toads; black cockatoos, corellas, a dozen varieties of honey eaters; rainbow lorikeets, eastern rosellas and now the bats

hope you enjoy
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Here is a link that might be useful: the local newspapers story on the new bat colony

Lately, I have been seeing fox just before dusk coming through my front meadow. It is about 1 acre in suburban/rural noreastern Massachusetts. The other day, I saw what appeared to be a teenaged fox. He/she seemed smaller than the adult male that I have been seeing. The younger one was a bit bigger than a large cat (more dog like) but the coat was thinner like a young dog that hasn't fully matured into an adult coat. Its behavior was that of the teenage animal. It seemed excited to be out alone and prancing around like the world was his/her oyster. So cute!

I have seen robins galore, a male and female cardinal, house wrens, hummingbirds, some kind of finch?, sparrows (I try to keep away) morning doves, squirrels, rabbits, fox, groundhogs. I have put out food for bluebirds and orioles but can't seem to get any in the yard. Any ideas??