What wild animals do you see more-or-less routinely (and where do you live)?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Wye Valley, South West England on the Welsh border. Semi-rural.

Birds. I’m not up on my birds, but there’s a lot – very large fat healthy wood pigeons, ducks, geese, swans (am by a river), pheasants and grouse (in hunting season). Peregrine Falcons, Buzzards, Goshawks, Red Kites, and Sparrowhawks, Ospreys. Various little ones, sparrows, robins, larks, blackbirds and the like. Some large brutish black jays that sit on my roof and would like to nest in my chimney (have blocked them).

Furries. Deer (don’t ask me what sort), foxes, badgers (generally as roadkill), mice, voles, grey squirrels, there’s Wild Boar in the nearby Forest of Dean although I haven’t seen one. I saw a hedgehog not long ago. My grass lawn shows evidence of moles.

62

Skunks; rarely seen, but often smelled.

63

Very common: Squirrels, assorted LBBs

Less common: Canada geese, skunks (smelt more often than seen), turkeys

Uncommon: Raccoons, woodchucks, cardinals, robins

Daughter saw a deer in our back yard once. There are bobcats and coyotes in the area, but I haven’t seen any. Haven’t seen any rabbits, but they leave a lot of tracks in the snow in our yard. Haven’t been on Lower Base since I retired, but I assume the nuclear swans are swimming in the river.


Coastal Connewcticut

64

I forgot to mention skunks in my earlier posts, too. I don’t think I’ve seen a skunk in the wild in years, but during a typical summertime, I probably smell skunk musk a half-dozen times.

65

“LIttle Brown Birds,” for those who aren’t birders (I’m married to one, which is why I know the acronym). Various sparrows, wrens, finches, etc. get lumped in here, as unless you know what you’re looking for, or get a really good view of them, they can be difficult to distinguish from each other.

66

Upper Texas Coast

Mammals: Dolphins, feral hogs(if they count as ‘wild’ animals) coyotes, armadillos, raccoons, possums, squirrels

Birds: Great blue herons, egrets (snowy, great, and reddish), white ibis, Pelicans (white and brown), Various gulls, sandpipers, cattle egrets, crested caracaras (maybe not often), ospreys, kestrels, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, geese and ducks in winter, grackles, blue jays, cardinals, hummingbirds, and lots of little brown birds. Every couple of years I get a few robins in the winter, but when they are around I see them every day.

Reptiles: Alligators, kingsnakes, saltmarsh snakes, rat snakes, garter snakes, legless lizards, skinks, spiny lizards, green anoles, a couple varieties of geckos, ‘box’ turtles, redeared turtles, green sea turtles.

Amphibians: Toads, green treefrogs, leopard frogs.

A good chunk of the above are seen mostly while fishing in my kayak in the back bays, or the Gulf surf, but since I fish at least a couple of days per week, I think it’s regular enough for this thread. I’m not even going to try to list the varieties of fish.

67

In MN: Eagles and redtail hawks. I know there are other raptors in this area, but haven’t gone birding for them. Wild turkeys in the 'hood.

Squirrels, of course. I would be shocked if there were not racoons, coyotes and other scavengers, as they’re common in urban areas. Dead deer on the highways.

I miss Alaska. We often had moose in our yard, especially in winter, and the occasional bear and fox. You could see beluga whales, bears and Dall sheep along the southbound highway, and lynx up in the hills above Anchorage if you were lucky.

In Portland we had possums, racoons, and coyotes pretty regularly. On the trail in the wildlife reserve a few blocks from us, there were deer, osprey, etc. We routinely had northern flickers, scrub jays, woodpeckers and Anna’s hummers at our feeders.

68

Birds: The usual sparrows, chickadees. We get Turkeys quite a bit, with females with chicks every year. I hear (but don’t see) woodpeckers. Cardinals, blue jays. Some hawks.

Mammals: Saw the first opossum in years this week. Squirrels. Deer. Coyote, believe it or not. Skunks, chipmunks by the ton. Mice. Evidence of moles, though I don’t see them. Raccoons occasionally.

Reptiles and amphibians: snakes occasionally (almost always garter snakes). Frogs. Toads. Occasional salamander

69

I live in town, so not a lot. But then again, it is Cape Town. We have a big mountain (and range) in the middle of the city

We have spoonbills and flamingos seasonally in a nearby river.

I have almost stepped on a Rinkals Cobra on a mountain hike, and have seen a Cape Cobra threatening my dogs. (We ran away).

The same dogs found a Cape Leopard Tortoise… and just barked at it, until I could move them away.

Lots of puff adders.

Then to less commonly seen:

There are still Thar Mountain Goats on Table Mountain, despite efforts to remove them (escapees from a zoo, they originate in the Himalayas). I have only ever seen two, despite hiking more wild routes.

I’m only in the far South of Africa at the moment, but when I was back in Zimbabwe, I was in a covered Landrover when a couple of lionesses chose to use the height of the roof to survery the prey possibilities.

Unfortunately for a new born wildebeest - I watched the birth - the lionesses moved off the roof and into the inevitable feast.

On another trip, near Skekuza, in the Kruger National Park, we were leaving, and saw over our exit drive about an hour, 18 rhinos.

70

I forgot to mention chickadees. They are often heard around here. It is possible to get them to alight on your hand, if your other hand has some seeds for them.

They really are as light as a feather, and will happily enjoy the seeds in your other hand. But when the seeds are gone, you’ll hear about it, before the chickadee flies away.

71

I just moved from the very high Colorado mountains. We routinely had moose in our ‘yard’ (mostly rocks but we called it our ‘yard’). We had Black Bear too of course, so you had to take a look around. The bears got in our cars a number of times.

Now, we are on the front range.Yup, suburbia. But we have common area/open space behinde our house. And a dog park. About a month ago I was going to take the dogs to the park, but the park had six Elk in it. I really had to do a double take.

Somebody did not close the gate and they meandered in. They finally figured out how to get out.

That was kinda a surprise.

72

Greater Buenos Aires, so no wild mammals but lots of birds, Humming-birds, thrushes, wood pigeons, pigeons, sparrows and other birds whose name in English I don’t know, like Calandrias and Horneros.
Also geckos, lots of geckos, when I was a kid there were no geckos to be seen, just our own small lizard variety but apparently in the last 20 years geckos arrived from Asia in cargo ships and have completely displaced the local lizards.

73

Rabbits (cottontail and jack), squirrels (grey), mule deer, pronghorn, elk, golden eagles, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, ferruginous hawks, great horned owls, lots of LBBs, collared doves, coyotes, herons, Canada geese, bull snakes, prairie dogs, painted turtles. (All very common, seen by me regularly.)

Less common: bobcats, skunks, mountain lions, sage grouse, rattlesnakes, horned lizards, tiger salamanders, garter snakes.

Various insects are becoming less and less common (something I find concerning) but boxelder bug populations seem to be getting larger every year… and praying mantis seem to be moving in to the area, as I went from having never seen one here for nearly twenty years to now occasionally finding them in the house.

Spiders, I regularly see wolf spiders, black widows, brown widows, lots of huntsman spiders of various types, cat-faced spiders, garden spiders (argiope), and various species of crab and jumping spiders.

(Northeast Wyoming)