In the thirteen years we've owned our house I've kept a running list of the many critters that have come to visit, gnaw on the the siding, dig under the foundation and sometimes scare the living daylights out of me.
When I bought a house surrounded by trees I guess I expected the occasional visitor from nature, but the extensiveness and variety of the list has left me scratching my head. We've seen squirrels (for two years we had an albino), mice, moles, voles, rabbits, chipmunks, opossums, woodpeckers, hawks, coyotes (please help yourselves to some of the squirrels, guys) and crows.
An owl perches on the eaves occasionally and gazes at us sleepily. The first time we saw him he waited solemnly while the kids and I scrambled for some nature books in an attempt to identify him (a barn owl, we think).
A snake and a toad engaged in a fight to the death on our driveway. The snake had the toad by the leg and the toad kept trying to hop away. We watched for a while and then went inside for lunch; never did find out who won because they were gone when we came back out. Maybe the owl got both of them.
A gaze of raccoons had a "bachelor party" in our attic one spring; did you know you can catch them in a (humane) trap baited with marshmallows?
A deer hung out in our woods for half a day, and we occasionally see hawks patrolling the grounds.
Every spring one or two nutty birds (maybe they're cuckoos?) hurl
themselves repeatedly into our windows, leaving behind sticky deposits
of feathers and poop. Right now we're stealthily monitoring Mama Bird and her maybe babies.
Several colossal spiders have given us some detailed lessons in web-building and bug-catching. One summer we had dozens of ground bees letting themselves into the bedroom through a split in the siding; that wasn't reminiscent of Hitchcock at all, nuh uh. We sure could have used the spiders then.
We've had carpenter bees, carpenter ants, Karen and Richard Carpenter ...
Our neighbors have a koi pond. They swear that the koi eat mosquito larvae and those are tadpoles floating on the surface, but I refuse to believe that tadpoles are making their way to our yard to bite us repeatedly.
Meanwhile, every dog within a one mile radius jumps its invisible fence to hang out in our yard. But so far we seem to have had no takers for our lovely, rent-free bat house.
Do you have varmint visitors?
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Wow! You could start your own little animal shelter right there at your home. lol
If I find any on my camping trip this weekend, I'll be sure to send them your way. lol
Posted by: Kim | May 15, 2008 at 07:40 AM
We have had mice a couple of times in our loft, yuk!
Posted by: LizzyT | May 15, 2008 at 02:15 PM
I'm impressed by the Owl Photo.
We can from time to time hear Night Owls when in our Summerhome. But never seen them.
Our Cats normally keeps the Mice away, but this Spring, they have been mostly occupied by mating (once in their lifetime - 5 years old)
Posted by: TorAa | May 15, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Thanks for the compliment on the owl photo. I'll make sure to pass it on to whoever took it and posted it on an educational web site.
Posted by: feefifoto | May 15, 2008 at 05:42 PM
Not quite sure what the difference between a mole and a vole is. That owl will probably eat them all anyway! That's cool that you have so many animals in your yard. Well, hopefully they aren't too much of a pain.
Posted by: Lindsay | May 15, 2008 at 09:27 PM
Sadly, we have a nest of squirrels over our porch. The Dog has killed about 5 or 6 now. I think the last was either pregnant or a nursing mom. You'd think they'd move out, but noo....
Posted by: Danica/Dream | May 15, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Love the owl photo! I love all the wildlife we have around our house too! We live in the city but have a pond and creek with a little (very little) tree area and I have a fox, raccoons, possums, and ducks that visit each night. Obviously I put out a lot of food and love to watch them all. Nature is amazing. Love your blog.
Posted by: heidi | May 15, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Lindsay: I think a vole is more like a mouse than a mole. I know voles eat hosta bulbs and ivy, which is a major reason we have so much mud, in addition to the fact that we have no sun and a puppy who likes to dig.
Danica: We had some rabbit babies a few years ago that had a run-in with our dog. they never give up, do they?
Heidi: we still haven't had ducks, geese or foxes, but I'm sure we will one of these days. Thanks for the compliment on my blog!
Posted by: feefifoto | May 16, 2008 at 07:59 AM
You have some fun and interesting visitors. We get lots of tropical birds like egrets, herons, wood storks. Also, many lizards and even the occasional alligator in our back yard!
Posted by: Daisy the Curly Cat | May 16, 2008 at 10:25 AM