What sort of wildlife visits your garden?


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Well I had a marvellous surprise last night. I've had neighbours cats activate the outside security lights, as have foxes. I have seen hedgehogs and squirrels too, but last  night was exceptional. I o

Ian  When I first got married and first visited Ireland it was Holy Week and I would have to trapse around with my mother in law visiting relatives as many, as 4 different families a day for an e

Here you are Mary. They come to visit me every day. You have to creep up very quietly, if they spot you....they disappear into the undergrowth.  

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A slight exaggeration I think. There have been sightings but they are not responsible for any fatalities. They can give a nasty nip but are not quite as bad as their cousin.

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Bloody coons, (racoons) and possums are a nuisance, they steal the cats food. I caught a coon the other night eating the cats food.

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Lizards(skinks),Possums,Parrots of many kinds,the occasional red bellied black snake,Indian Myna birds alias flying rats,doves,red back spiders.

I could go on more but it gets a bit boring.

Baz :ninja:

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Don't have much of a garden for visitors, but whilst playing golf this morning one of these took a stroll across the fairway I was playing.

He wasn't hanging about either. Definitely had to be somewhere by a particular time and was running late. So he was striding across the grass completely ignoring me.

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I had one of those in my backyard when I lived in Kelso, just outside of Bathurst, those quills are very sharp!!! It rolled itself into a tight ball....The only one I ever saw in the wild.

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I had a family of Australian Magpies around that house too, after the first year the parents got so used to me they'd bring the fledglings down when I set the garden sprinklers up and lay under the sprays cooling off, never ever got swooped on from behind by that family, not like the buggers in town, they were downright dangerous....

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I read that `false widow' spiders were killing off people like flies in UK gardens at present?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24636116?SThisFB

Just to set the record straight!

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Well I had a marvellous surprise last night. I've had neighbours cats activate the outside security lights, as have foxes. I have seen hedgehogs and squirrels too, but last  night was exceptional. I often put a small bowl of dog biscuits out, as I recently saw a fox, the first one in about four years. So last night just before bedtime, I put the bowl out. Lo and behold, about 2am, the outside light came on, I jumped out of bed and looked out of the window, and to my surprise, there was a massive badger chomping on the biscuits. I was elated as I live barely over a mile from the city centre. Absolutely fantastic !

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How lovely FLY.  When we lived in the Hertfordshire countryside a few years ago we had a wood at the end of the garden and a badgers sett in there.   We would often see and hear badgers playing on the lawn in the moonlight.  Never saw one in daylight though.   

In that garden we had several  Muntjac deer chomping around our flower beds, they totally destroyed a large rosebed so we replaced the roses with marigolds which survived every year.  The vegetable garden had to be surrounded by a big wired construction, squirrels still got in there and ate the soft fruit, little bo99ers. 

Oh and we had a Wallaby too.  My husband thought he was hallucinating the first time he saw it hopping across the lawn but it was always about.  I did phone Whipsnade Zoo,  about 8 Miles away, to enquire if they’d lost a Wallaby but they said no.   We told a chap in th local about it and he said he was previously driving past our house and a ‘kangaroo’ overtook him!   We were on the edge of the Chilterns and there are a lot of wallabies around the area.  

I don’t agree with feeding foxes though, I just will not encourage them.  Foxes kill for the sake of it.  We know from bitter experience. 

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I appreciate your dislike of foxes Lizzie, as I believe you've mentioned it in another topic regarding the loss of lambs. 

I like to see them in my garden though, especially when it's dark, and I'm sitting on the patio with the chiminea lit, and a glass of wine.

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The badgers have been using our garden for generations and we used to feed them every night with peanuts, dog meal and peanut butter sarnies, in wholemeal bread of course ! The local badger protection group visited regularly to check on their wellbeing and ensure that they were safe in their habitat and that there were no obstructions to their runs, which had been established over many years. Especially fascinating was when the matriarch of the sett brought the cubs to explore and play in the garden. For years we had no trouble and felt privileged to host their supper, or breakfast I suppose as they are nocturnal, until a few years back when the younger element started tearing up the lawns when we took the difficult decision to stop feeding them. They still track through the garden and still tear the lawn searching for earthworms though !

The downside to their living with us is that we don't have hedgehogs around as the badgers predate on them.

 

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Crikey, they're spikey little beggars. Do they peel them first ?

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Well how's this for gratitude ? I put a bowl out again last night, consisting of some dog biscuits, a bit of left over naan bread, a chunk of suet log, and I was delighted this morning that it had all gone. Presumably by the badger as there was a couple of small holes in the lawn. I walked to the back of the garden, and bu66er me. There was a hole with two turds in it ! The little sod had crapped in it ! 

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This time of year, I usually put out the left over cat food, some mealworms, etc. In the morning, I hope to see the plate empty. Often there are a couple of cigar shaped turds left as a tip! Mr hedgehog! I love the little creatures and they need all the help they can get.

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Exactly Jill. I've currently got two of my neighbours cats chomping on Go-Cat biscuits as I sit on the patio. I'm just waiting for the other five reprobates to visit ! I love it. One thing, there's rarely any mice around !

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White tailed deer, skunks, armadillos, Racoons, Possums, probably the odd Coyote, though not seen one, chipmunks, voles, rats and mice, rabbits...We do have Brown Bear, Lynx, Mountain Lion's, but so far only seen Mountain Lion scat, (crap).

Common bird year round Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay's, Great Horned Owls, now they are BIG!!! Several different varieties of sparrows, Mourning Doves, even see Turkey Vultures roosting on roofs. Turkeys, have a photo of a Tom with his ladies, I even got within arms length of them and they weren't fazed one bit. Summer brings the Humming birds. Many more too numerous to mention.

 

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Oh, and talking about Coyote's seen some Road Runners, one was standing up the hill from the house, strangest bird I ever saw, by the time I got the camera out, he'd gone. About three months back, I was riding with the wife in her truck to help her with some work, when I spotted a Road Runner at the intersection of a road we had to turn right onto.

No they don't go beep beep either and a Coyote can outrun one, but the Road Runner has the advantage, he can fly.

 

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Well after the euphoria of the visits by the badger, I'm well pee'd off today. He'd eaten everything in the bowl, but then proceeded to cause chaos and mayhem ! Bits of grass dug up, the hole where the rotary line fits in was dug out to a depth of about four inches, so I had to remove the supporting tubing, make a new hole a foot away, and whack the tube in with a sledgehammer, then fill in the old hole, sprinkle grass seed on top, then a dusting of compost. He'd knocked over an ornamental swan into the pond, knocked over several pots on the patio, and dislodged one from the rockery which fell over and smashed (One of madams favourites). 

Will I be feeding it tonight ? You're damn right I will, but I'm putting the bowl on the steps up at the top of the garden !

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Mr Brock can be destructive but I'm very fond of him. A friend regularly gets them in his garden and I know of a secluded place nearby where I've seen the little ones playing on summer evenings at dusk. I consider myself very privileged to have had this experience.

 

I know many people don't like badgers and persecute them but give me a choice between Mr Brock and Joe Public and I know which I'd choose!

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I just wish I'd have been awake to see the outside light coming on, then I'd have stood at the window watching .

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Oh dear folks, this animal behaviour gets worse. I was dozing about 4am this morning, and the security light came on. I rushed to the window, and saw the fox traipsing along the stream and up the steps. It saw the the bowl had been emptied by the badger, and in an act of acute annoyance, the fox proceeded to straddle the bowl, and spray over it, and the surrounding area. 

Yes, Jeyes fluid to the rescue, and left the bowl in a galvanised bucket of boiling water all morning ...... Stroppy little sod !

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