Nature In Your Backyard

[time 8,626]

8 hours ago, Toast said:

 

So, it's an actual back yard, and not a garden which is what us Brits are talking about?

While we're here, can any Americans please enlighten me - what is a garden in the US?  Because what we refer to as our garden is what you call your yard.

We use 'yard' for mainly industrial spaces.

It is a yard. No lawn or flower beds, just concrete.

[Toast 16,155]

13 minutes ago, time said:

It is a yard. No lawn or flower beds, just concrete.

 

That's how I pictured it.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

To answer about my Louisiana back yard:

Squirrels - including one(s) that decided to hole up inside my shed.  
Birds - in particular Mockingbirds (Mockingjays if we stick to literature), and cardinals are the ones I like.
Long-Legged birds - white egrets and giant egrets have stopped to find an errant crawfish or worm.... 
Crawfish - aye, y'all.  I said it.  They are in the lawn, but moreso where it's damp all the time, so a rarity on my property.  My lawn drains pretty well but you can see a crawfish mound or two after a rain.  I know this is a unique animal for back yard so I'll mention it. 
Breaux Bridge, LA hosts the Crawfish Festival....nuf ced.
Raccoon family - one autumn (Oct-Nov) for a number of weeks, mum and two weans.... they were eating the pecans that were on the ground from my pecan tree.  Then would hide in the bamboo if noticed.

Armadillo - had one that decided to live under my house one winter.  Fine by me.

Snakes - (2) Speckled King Snakes; and a garter snake or two.  King snakes eat rodents and...other snakes.  They are my friends.
Frogs/Toads - we have tiny green frogs here, they stick to the side of your house lol.  Open the door and see one on the glass.
Anoles - Gulf Coast lizard that you see a zillion of.  They get in the house sometimes (through the window AC unit I reckon).  They eat bugs, they are welcome any time.
Southern House Spider - (see photo below, on my bedroom wall!) I 've seen two, both half the size of my hand.  Oh, you'll be scared shitless you see one.  But they also eat bugs, so are welcome.
Owl - Never did see it.  But heard it 'hoo'ing at me many nights/early mornings for a couple years.  Only owl I have ever seen wild in Louisiana is a Horned Owl so I'll presume that is what it was.
Bats - My neighbour has had bats living in his belfry (attic) for as long as I've owned my house.  That's 10 years, people.  I would estimate 250-300 bats.  So how much guano is that?  They are Vietnamese.....  I will let you draw your own conclusions.  I don't believe they own a restaurant, but that definitely needs sorting.

SirC

 

 

[Sir Creep 7,070]

12 hours ago, Toast said:

 

So, it's an actual back yard, and not a garden which is what us Brits are talking about?

While we're here, can any Americans please enlighten me - what is a garden in the US?  Because what we refer to as our garden is what you call your yard.

We use 'yard' for mainly industrial spaces.

Toast, I do enjoy our differences in nomenclature, and seem to always find something new and unexpected.  'yard/garden' now added to the list.
Our yard is basically where the grass grows.  "I had to mow the yard today" is something we would say for instance.  (Grass/Lawn can be substituted).
Our 'Garden' OTOH is usually set aside area, so may be landscaped with fence, rocks, or wood borders.....and we typically bring in a load of dirt or buy topsoil and till it into the earth, throw in some fertilizer and plant shite like flowers, or in my case veggies.  But it is definitely a part of the property separated from the lawn/grass area that you would attack with a lawnmower.
SC

Edit: In fact 'Lawn & Garden' is a section of our big box stores or hardware stores.  So definitely a distinction.  A mower is for lawns, a hoe is for gardening (save the jokes, DLers).  Here you'll see what I mean:
https://www.google.com/search?q=lawn+%26+garden&oq=lawn+%26+garden&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.5591j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Toast 16,155]

Strange. The nearest thing to me that is called a "yard" contains a lot of stables with racehorses in them.  Is that kind of set-up called a yard in the US of A?

[Sir Creep 7,070]

4 hours ago, Toast said:

Strange. The nearest thing to me that is called a "yard" contains a lot of stables with racehorses in them.  Is that kind of set-up called a yard in the US of A?

 

Im not a rancher/stables person.  I’m going to say NO, but they may say differently.  Let’s say it would be news to me if a stable doesn’t call the place the horses are housed as stables or pasture.  But yard?  I kinda doubt it.

[Toast 16,155]

When applied to a racehorse trainer, the 'yard' means the entire premises, and by extension the business.  For example:

" Michael Bell has been training in the historic yard of Fitzroy House, Newmarket for 30 years."

https://michaelbellracing.com

"We are constantly looking forward and focused on ensuring the future success of the yard."

http://www.paulnichollsracing.com

[drol 11,980]

A lot of hedgehogs and rats, which are the reason why I don't feed hedgehogs anymore (rats would eat everything before them). Some years ago I saw a big fox eating where I usually feed stray cats. I also used to feed a fox near my home; it would show to me in full sunlight to get food, was very hungry, I reckon, and maybe sick.

 

Green whip snakes come to my garden and once they had offspring, many little snakes crawling around. I'm very benevolent towards them, they eat rats (and unfortunately frogs, which are useful animals on their own). Grass snakes are also very common, and I guarantee they won't bite you, just smell you like cats.

 

My father in law was very harsh towards snakes, you know, all the stupid things in the Bible and so on. Around 2003 he and a neighbour who looked like Freddy Krueger (has died in 2006 I recall) killed and impaled on the street a whole family of green whip snakes. I got really angry at him.

 

[Sir Creep 7,070]

Closest we have to that concept is ‘ship yards’ where all ships dock and unload.  I guess we also have ‘stock yards’ which I guess is livestock, and closer to your definition. The Baltimore Orioles (baseball) names their stadium Camden Yards, and I’ll let Wiki respond to the genesis of that naming decision.

 

All that said, the thread is about wherever one resides.... and I think and ‘confusion’ is specious.  RadGuy meant your house, apartment, condo, trailer, cabin, timeshare, cottage, or townhouse—and the property upon which it sits.  

Now....if the shoe fits (no pun intended) and one DOES reside in a barn.....,well....... clearly their answer to what critters roam around will be different.  

SC.

[Toast 16,155]

1 hour ago, Sir Creep said:

All that said, the thread is about wherever one resides.... and I think and ‘confusion’ is specious.  RadGuy meant your house, apartment, condo, trailer, cabin, timeshare, cottage, or townhouse—and the property upon which it sits.  

Now....if the shoe fits (no pun intended) and one DOES reside in a barn.....,well....... clearly their answer to what critters roam around will be different. 

 

No confusion.  I knew what he meant.  I just took the opportunity to enquire about a word usage that has long puzzled me.

[Predictor 1,018]

Mostly ducks, rabbits, fish, various insects, and the occasional tiger (but that's only when I'm really drunk and an orange cat passes by).

[One shot Paddy 1,206]

Rescued this wee chap out the front of the house yesterday, gave him some kitten food and moved him to the bottom of the garden so he's well away from the road. 

 

 

[Toast 16,155]

Dog caught a wood mouse outside this week.  Shame.

I caught a house mouse inside this week.   (Well, the trap I set did.)  Bit sad but had to be done.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

West Texas desert backyard critter a couple days ago.  Wee one.

 

 

 

 

[RadGuy 1,614]

Seems my town is being overrun by skunks.

 

There's one that we see in our driveway every once in a while at night. At this point we should come up for a name for him, think Jasper is a cute fit.

 

A few weeks back my friend told me about how he drove over a dead one on his way to our college. The week after that - and I take a much different route than he does - I saw at least three or four skunk roadkill on my way to school too. Just recently a girl I know posted about how she ran over a skunk while coming home at night.

 

A lot of dead ones, yeah, sorta sad stuff. But makes you wonder how many living ones are crawling about at night. They're everywhere.

[msc 18,483]

13 minutes ago, RadGuy said:

Just recently a girl I know posted about how she ran over a skunk while coming home at night.

 

 

[Paul Bearer 6,112]

3 hours ago, RadGuy said:

 At this point we should come up for a name for him, think Jasper is a cute fit.

 

How about Stripey? 

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

Not exactly in my backyard, but seventy miles down the road at Sennen, near Lands End...

 

For the last few weeks I've been following the news about possibly the most unusual rare bird sighting ever to happen in the UK.  The Paddyfield Pipit is an unremarkable little brown bird, native to South East Asia, so quite how one ended up in West Cornwall is anybody's guess.

While many other non-native species of bird have been spotted only once in the UK, almost all of them were migratory birds who have either got lost or blown off course. There have also been birds which were later determined to have been released or escaped from captivity.  What makes the Paddyfield Pipit sighting so unusual is that there is no record of them being kept in captivity and it is non migratory.  They don't really stray that far at all.  This map indicates the Paddyfield Pipit's range (note the isolated purple blob over Cornwall).

 

So unlikely was it considered that this bird could possibly end up here, that the sighting provoked huge debate on bird forums.  Many were convinced it had been incorrectly identified, basically refusing to accept what they saw in front of them.  Anyway, after a tense wait, this weekend it was confirmed that, through DNA analysis of it's droppings, the bird was indeed Cornwall, Britain and Europe's very first Paddyfield Pipit. The nearest one has ever been spotted before was the United Arab Emirates.

 

The bird's DNA pinpointed it to probably being originally resident of the Western Ghat mountain range in southern India. 

 

How did this poor, confused, tiny creature end up here?  We'll never know.  One thing we can be fairly certain of is that it won't be going home.

 

Quote

Last seen under hot pursuit by the local house cat, it seems a gruesomely likely possibility that this most remarkable of British and Western Palearctic vagrancy occurrences met an untimely end

 

There have been no sightings since. Hopefully the cat enjoyed his exotic snack. 

[Toast 16,155]

Fascinating.  I wish I hadn't read to the end though.

 

Meanwhile I've thoroughly cleaned out the boot of my car since discovering that mice had set up home there.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

That's going to be a very lonely Paddyfield Pipit  

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

I saw a wallaby bound past me at 6am this morning while I was out exercising.  Not sure what it's plans for the day were, but it was bouncing purposely towards Holsworthy, so I didn't interfere.

[Sir Creep 7,070]

Sandhill cranes doing crane things across from where I was working yesterday.  
‘The Ribeye of the Sky’®️