“Covey” is the group term. Don’t know why I know that.
Cervaise, you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself!
My view right now includes a man-made pond being prowled by 2 different herons, a white one and a gray one. They’re almost exactly opposite each other across the water, I’m quite sure they’re aware of each other.
Clockwise, if you must now.
I live off Hollywood Blvd in Hollywood. I have Skunks and Possums in my yard… and old Armenians… but they are a different kind of pest. AWWWW SCHNAP!
Two years ago I had a pair of turkeys (male and female) visit regularly. They were quite agressive (well he was). They would sit in my cast-iron deck chairs, or on top of my hot tub, heck just about anywhere they felt like it. Once I went out and he was “gaurding” my car and did not seem to want to yield.
Alas, I suspect this non-fear of humans was to their detriment however, because after hunting season, I never saw them again.
Ages ago, when my family lived in the desert, we had herds of tarantulas come out of the mountains to the west and cross our property going who knows where. So many you had to be careful not to step on them and driving a car was a very sad occasion for a week or so. Nobody had a good explanation for the migration and it’s never happened again.
I’ve seen a pheasant flying in downtown Mexicali, which has a population of at least a million people. Absolutely surreal to see that beautiful bird fly across the dusty, shabby avenue.
I have encountered geckos in my porch, sometimes I found them inside the house.
[sub]Unfortunately, I am not saving 15% in car insurance.[/sub]
I once saw a quail sitting on her nest on the ground in a planting strip between two parking lots in an iffy neighborhood in downtown New Brunswick, NJ. Not a good location to raise young, but then, the same could be said of New Brunswick!
Given your username, I found this statement to be ironic and quite funny. 
Mating season. All of the tarantulas you ran over were almost certainly males.
Oh, I forgot to add - this bugger managed to climb up my pantleg… via my leg, not my pants!
I was rescuing him from my cats - without even so much as a thought as to what I was rescuing. When I tried to pick him up from under and out of the grass, he shot over to my shoe and right up my pantleg.
I’ve also been known to serve as a human tree whilst rescuing chipmunks. Of course, I’ve had one of those buggers go up my pantleg, also via the leg and not the pants.
The only skink I had been acquainted with was a fictional former governor of Florida in Carl Hiaasen’s books. Skink is a really happenin’ guy.
I’ll take your fat assed raccoon for the two fat-assed raccoons that were fighting in our alley a couple nights ago. Ugh.
Almost comical, until two of the local cats joined in. Then a slew of neighbours and their dogs on leashes. Why anyone thought it would be wise to watch two raccoons plus two cats in the mix with their dogs is beyond me. What. a. damn. racket.
I don’t know what happened, but someone was on the phone with Animal Control when I turned away from my window. There was an awful lot of fur in the alley this morning.
Quail, I’ll take a quail, they’re nice and* quiet*.
I’ll take 'em all, especially the 'possums!. I really miss the pair we had at the zoo. Hand tamed and sweet as anything. You haven’t been hugged 'til you’ve been hugged by a 'possum! 
We’ve got a gang of coyotes around. The Mr’s seen 'em a couple of days this week already.
I wouldn’t have waited for an explanation. I’d have moved to a new state. Or country. To the north.
Had an owl get in the house once, too.
I saw some hot lizard lovin’ happenin’ on my back porch a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I’ll have baby lizards soon! I like the lizards. Last Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in my rocking chair on the back porch and one of em scurried up on the arm of the chair and stared at me for a few seconds, then scurried off. I guess I was too big to eat.
My favorite animal in my yard thing was the cow a few years back. There’s a dairy farm bout a half mile down the road. One of the cows got out and wandered up to my yard. I saw her standing there having a little grass snack. She stayed there til the dairy folks brought up their cow trailer and took her home.
Occasionally I’ll get a possum in my backyard trying to be all stealthy. Me and the garden hose treat him like a four year old does a urinal cake.
The drainage ditch that runs at the bottom of my street once had two white egrets in it (I thought they were herons, but Net folk tell me probably egrets). What white egrets were doing in rural northern New Jersey is a mystery.
Since they are the dumbest creature G-d ever let breathe, I can’t help but wonder if he plays dead when you turn the hose on him. 
If you could get that close to a quail, you should have caught it, made it a pet, and named it Dan. Right along side the Burmese python you call Monty…