Not in back garden but in our back yard, one of the several gray squirrels that reside in the forest edge. This one had ventured close to the house, but had retreated to the side yard fence when my daughter tried to photograph it. They torment our Corgi who sees it as her solemn duty to protect our house from them.
Oystercatchers in our back garden this morning. They are known as "Shalders" here in Shetland and are our most common wader and certainly our noisiest. No need for alarm clocks this time of year, with them nesting behind our house.
I have just realised that I failed to say that this is a Kookaburra, I'd overlooked that it may have only been obvious to me!
Following on from my post in June, our visiting fox family has grown a bit! This is the alpha 'cub' of the seven in the litter, all of which are still going strong. He's a bit of a bully, and rules the roost. Not far off fully grown, and should be leaving the family soon. (For the photographers, this was taken at night under a rather dim LED security light, but at ISO25800!)
Doesn't seem like a very good idea to designate moose crossings in high traffic areas. They should choose more deserted areas to post them.
Well done, beautiful photo! I was never fast enough to get our nocturnal visitors on film (well, on SD Card) Nice lawn too! Michel
I spotted two badgers on my last vacation (first time view in the wild) ... in the Reichswald, which is almost my back-garden Quite unique since these animals are very shy and live at night. Not in my garden .. and not alive (a stuffed specimen)
I think this is a dead baby timber rattlesnake. Sneaker in there for scale. A young childhood playmate of mine was bitten many times by one when when she was playing with it because she thought it was a worm. One emergency room visit later she was okay.
I'm not used to seeing large moths...This one clinging to the insect screen looked as big as a small bird ! A Convolvulus Hawk Moth, I think. A stunning thing, but a grey background on a wet grey evening doesn't do it justice. Nothing compared with the exotics in some parts of the world of course.
...and this morning, a woodie decided to crash-test the French windows. It came off worst. What is it about pigeons ? World's best navigators but surely the most stupid and annoying of birds ? Nothing else ever flies into the glass...nothing else waddles around with a wobbling head, defecating on quite the same scale either. Mind you, we don't have gulls here. I hate them too.
Looks a bit skinny, you won't get much of a feed out of that one. At least you won't have to pick out the bits of lead.
I would argue that the pheasant takes the prize for the stupidest bird with the peacock a close second.
I completely disagree, they are not stupid at all but appear so because they would normally live in dense jungle where their eyesight needs to see only as far as the next thicket. As usual, we are the problem and have taken them out of their natural environment and put them in wide open spaces where they can get onto open roads. They almost certainly cannot see a fast moving car until it is within their very short field of vision. I am sickened by the local idiots who either deliberately drive into them at speed when they encounter them on the local lanes, or shoot them for "pleasure" because they make nice easy targets. Who, in their right mind, takes pleasure in destroying such beautiful birds?
