Poor photo because I don’t have a professional digital camera, but there’s a woodpecker in the tree outside my window.
Share your backyard wildlife photos!
Sorry, some of these shots are kind of fuzzy…it’s my first digital camera. Nothing as cool as your woodpecker…
ants, aphids, and a fly on a shrubbery
grasshopper behind the garage
I think this is a katydid?
daddy long-legs
ceiling spider
a wasp drags a grub to its death
[URL=“http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn106/3aaat/file001/IMG_0394.jpg”]a walking stick, walking on the threshold
a millipede(?) that crawled out of the fireplace
a tick
slime mold…wierd, icky, ALIVE!
![[URL=“http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn106/3aaat/file001/IMG_0394.jpg”]a walking stick, walking on the threshold](http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn106/3aaat/file001/IMG_0393.jpg){kind=link}
You have a much better camera than I. Good photos!
Up here we call the ‘daddy longlegs’ a harvestman and the ‘ceiling spider’ a daddy longlegs. (The latter was true when I was a kid in San Diego too.)
Do you live in a desert? I ask because we had those burrowing wasps when I lived in the Mojave.
This YouTube selection seems appropriate. 
Most of mine are a bit fuzzy too. I’m still learning how to use my new camera.
OK, you two are giving me camera envy.
I actually do have great cameras and lenses. But they’re 35mm.
I have quite a few pix in this album: Backyard Wildlife. The one of the Hermit Thrush is neat, as they’re not usually found in this area. Then there’s the Ring-necked snake - he’s a common visitor to our yard, but they’re uncommon to the area. We’ve seen this snake several times this season - he has a discolored area under his jaw.
Oh, and can’t forget the Broad-headed skink! He was being hunted by our cat, and when I went out to investigate, I was very surprised! Can’t remember if he ran up my pant leg or not… wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had something run up my pant leg. Lizards, chipmunks… I’m equal opportunity it seems.
I like your woodpecker shots. I found a photo before I snapped the one in the OP, and I believe the one in my yard was a pileated woodpecker. I saw that they do live in this area.
Hey Karyn, I’m pretty sure those are Dark-eyed “Oregon” Juncos, whereas the junco in my album is a Dark-eyed “Slate-colored” Junco. 
Oh, and I love the pic of the quail. Gorgeous!
3acres, you got some cool-assed stuff living in your neck of the woods.
Thanks, Johnny! If I’m not mistaken, the pix I have of the Pileated are of a male. We do have a female that lives here, too, but haven’t taken her picture yet. I think they’re mates. I’m glad you have one in your yard, too. They’re magnificent birds.
I sometimes bring my camera to work so I can get a chance to photograph some of the critters on the backyard of the office. But when I have the camera I don’t spot anything very interesting, and when I don’t have it I see things like large monitor lizards, exotic birds, elephants or a frigging spitting cobra.
Tough luck I guess… 
All I’ve got is a groundhog.
There were some lovely hummingbirds earlier this year but they were much too fast for me.
If you click on the gray “All sizes” magnifying glass icon above each picture you’ll see the much larger zoomed size – this is especially rewarding for the snake and insect photos.
Juvenile Rat Snake (probably a Yellow Rat Snake based on my Googling).
His/her torso just for the pretty pattern.
Cicada-killer Wasp doing what she does best
Nesting woodpecker– probably a Red-Bellied
Eastern Carpenter Bee hovering (this was really tricky to get, considering I’m a rank amateur).
Canada Goose about to give me the slip!
Thanks. It’s sort of embarrassing that I’ve been looking at them for years and never bothered to find out what they are. We have lots of crows, bluejays, robins in spring and fall, hummingbirds and band-tailed pigeons too but I never seem to have my camera ready when they stay still. So far every hummingbird picture is a blur. My camera has a lot of features that I haven’t used much yet but it will be fun to learn how to use manual settings. I do better with flower closeups because they stay still.
Yeah, we call them a harvestman, too. The ceiling spider was just a spider in the house; it was in an out-of-the-way spot, so I let it live. But it’s just what we’d consider an average spider, not a longlegs. I live on the northern portion of the Ozark Plateau, but this area is just the foothills of the Ozark Mountains; that wasp shot was deceiving because it was in my gravel driveway. If I’d had the camera last year, I could have gotten shots of cicada killer wasps in action; I had a whole colony of them out back. They’re HUGE, brightly colored, and they drag cicadas into burrows that they dig into earthen slopes. Here’s a wider angle photo which gives you a better look at what it looks like around here than that closeup wasp photo.
Shot this tiny fly on a banana leaf in my back yard this morning.
These guys aren’t in my backyard but their breeding grounds are just a mile or so up the coast.
I love all of your photos, but this one I find captivating. For an amateur, you take amazing photos.
Karyn… oooh, seals! OOH!
papaw, that’s a great shot. Love the tiny fly in the sea of green.
dwyr, I think your groundhog is way far cool. 