The Beasts Around You

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Have a lot of folk from all about the globe posting here, who all have their own critters that are considered common that some of us probably have never seen. For instance, I didn't know until recently that england had hedgehogs everywhere and were actually pests. Never seen a live hedgehog.

So what wild creatures do you see near daily?

(dogs and cats and the like don't count unless they are, like, coyotes and lynxes and such.)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I'd say I see the following pretty much every day...

Brown Hare
Chimney Swift
Cooper Hawk
Crow
Grey Squirrel
Hummingbird (ruby and emerald throated)
Opposum
Striped Skunk
Turkey Vulture
Whip-poor-will (never actually seen one, but I hear them all night long)
White-Tailed Deer

A lot more, but I only see them from time to time.

[banjo1985]

Not only do us Brits have hedgehogs, we have a hell of a lot of foxes, moles and badgers too!

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Not only do us Brits have hedgehogs, we have a hell of a lot of foxes, moles and badgers too!

Cool, only occasionally see a fox, though we got moles everywhere. Rarely actually see them though unless a cat is caught it and brought it up.

Never seen a badger, even an american one. They're on the opposite side of the country from me.

[Castaras]

Hmm...

Spiders, moths, loads of insects.

Lots of spiders. Lots of insects.

Rabbits, squirrels, Pheasants(Less common), sparrows, snails.

Mostly spiders and insects. I have something like...8 spiders in my room at the moment...and there's a few in this room I'm in at the moment.

[banjo1985]

Strange but true - I've only ever seen a badger in a graveyard! We go gaming at an old church hall next to a graveyard, and we often see tham when we come out in the wee hours of the morning.

Moles I must admit we don't actually see that much, but you know they're there, watching....and plotting.

Oh and I forgot about Squirrels, we get the red and grey ones here, but the red ones are getting very rare nowadays.

As for birds we get stuff like swans and geese, I see those at least every week or so.

[nerulean]

My campus has a small forest in the middle of it, so this may not be entirely representative of the rest of my area, but I see squirrels by the bucket load, magpies, pigeons, mallard ducks, crows, other birds of nondescript brown varieties, little grey-brown rabbits whose precise species I know not, and students. On slightly rarer occasions, we get deer and herons.

Where my folks live, we have pigeons, seagulls and rabbits, and absolutely nothing else.

[Mr Croup]

Seeing as I live in the same state, there's not a whole of divergence from his list, though it's a bit more limited as I'm in the suburbs of the massive sprawl that is Atlanta.

Brown Hare
Redtailed Hawk
Crow
Grey Squirrel
Opposum (though usually only dead ones by the side of the road)
a plethora of small birds (finches, titmouse, robins, and what have you)
Blue Tailed Skinks
Foxes (no sightings in my neighborhood, but there's a family of them that roam about in my parents' neighborhood)
Chipmunks
White Tailed Deer on some chance occassions
King Snakes
Garter Snakes

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Meh, didn't bother mentioning insects or I'd be writing all day. Things creep and crawl about my place by the thousands.

Main ones though are fire ants, daddy longlegs, and every type of wasp, bee and hornet known to man. Seriously, we got them from just about everywhere in the world.

Seeing as I live in the same state, there's not a whole of divergence from his list, though it's a bit more limited as I'm in the suburbs of the massive sprawl that is Atlanta.

Heh, even in Atlanta you got big ole patches of woods... though granted most of them are being killed off by kudzu.

Blue Tailed Skinks

Oh, forgot about those! Yeah, those things are everywhere, and pretty cool.

[Zherog]

So what wild creatures do you see near daily?

The guy in the next cubicle over from me... *shudders*

[Mr Croup]

Meh, didn't bother mentioning insects or I'd be writing all day. Things creep and crawl about my place by the thousands.

Main ones though are fire ants, daddy longlegs, and every type of wasp, bee and hornet known to man. Seriously, we got them from just about everywhere in the world.


Oh, forgot about those! Yeah, those things are everywhere, and pretty cool.

Not too mention a near endless variety of mosquitoes. And yeah, I love the ubiquitous blue tailed skink. Sadly I don't see them as much at my house as I did growing up, but that's what I get for not living on a lot with plenty of woods and a nice little creek out back. Incidentally, growing up there was a decent anole population in my backyard as well.

[Artemician]

Apparently, Singapore has one of the most varied and diverse ecosystems in the world. It apparently has more than a thousand species of trees within its borders, no mean feat considering that it measures roughly 20km by 28 km. But.. that's trees. Although we apparently have an equally diverse animal population, I don't see any of it.

What I do see:

A Grey Squirrel that lives next door.
A yellow-bellied Sunbird that visits my garden from time to time.
A white cockatoo that lives two streets away.
Egrets in the storm drains.
Chickens, at my friend's house.

Annoying monkeys at the Nature Reserve.

A family of House Lizards that inhabit my house
Pidgeons.
Sparrows.
Crows.

Bugs.
More Bugs. In all shapes and sizes
Beetles, moths, daddy-long-legses, etc
Arachnids.
Scorpions.
Centipedes.
Snails.
You get the picture.

*Sigh.. I suppose living in a city with primary forest in the middle is a godsend for those damned athropods. They have habitat, AND food.

[Dihan]

Badgers, rats, rabbits, hares, pheasant, spiders, flies, moths, snails, worms, squirrels, moles, fox, hedgehogs, sparrows, loads of other insects and birds... All seen adders, owls, bats, doves, and many many more.

[Serpentine]

Not only do us Brits have hedgehogs, we have a hell of a lot of foxes...

Funny, I was under the impression that you were running out. As in, there were ideas being floated for sending some of ours over there.

Lessee... There were a couple of koalas hanging around the uni for a while. Don't know where they are now, though... there's also wild wallabies I've seen up there, and a field of kangaroos and deer. There's heaps of magpies here, not like all your pathetic little black-and-white-wusses, our magpies are tough. Seriously. One chased my cat under the tank. And they loiter. With malicious intent. Yesterday I saw nearly 30 in one yard (I counted). Umm... sparrows? My cat killed an Eastern Spinebill, which is sad, they're cute Oh, galahs. Stupid bloody things. And wattlebirds.

[ForzaFiori]

snakes, woodpeckers (they are SO loud when they're right outside your window), there is a couger or something like it living on my property somewhere, we keep seeing the huge tracks, whip-poor-wills, insects of all kinds, a skunk every so often, red tailed hawks, other birds of prey, I occasionally can see a white-tailed deer.

no rabbits/mice/other small mammals for me, my cats have killed them all.

[Ink]

I'm pretty close to the city but there are still some beasties about. Namely:

Magpie
Cockatoo
Kookaburra
Spotted dove
Owl
Rabbit (Black and brown ones)
Squirrel
Possum
Wombat
Funnelweb spider (Yaaah!)
Huntsman spider (These I like)

Also some common birds like crows and sparrows and a host of insects and spiders.

[Serpentine]

Oh yes, kookaburras, and there's a heap of currawongs and a few crows around, too. There was also a pair of black-shouldered kites living near my residential village. And there was a blue-tongue lizard living in our drains. I hope its alright...

[Miklus]

Behold the dredded killer-snail of Denmark!



They are out of control! Some politicians suggest sending in the military. Seriously! They eat everything.

Also, what do you call those black-and-white birds that make that "Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta" sound at 5 am? 'cause I got those! (Magpies, that's the ones). I also see a red squirrel sometimes. And deer, in this park nearby. Lots of other birds, that I don't know the names of. Coo-coos, I can't see them, but I can hear them. And of cause the beautyful majestic swan, national bird of Denmark. Seen here in all it's glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrWDKlwiLVQ

Most birds would be scared if four people walk up to it, but not the swan

[bosssmiley]

Apparently, Singapore has one of the most varied and diverse ecosystems in the world.

Singapore. Ain't that where the Butler of the Raffles had to shoot a tiger that had invaded the Billiard Room?

"I am pleased to inform the gentlemen here assembled that the tiger in the Billiard Room will no longer be disrupting the games..."

Mad country. Great people. Stern about chewing gum.

Northumberland. We get everything from hedgehogs to Golden Eagles and stags within about 15 miles of the city centre. We've got seals in the Tyne and dolphins off the coast. This part of the country is simply teh awesum for wildlife.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Ants
Various spiders of all kinds(including black widows and tarantulas)
Cockroaches
Lizards
Vultures and various other birds of prey
Crows

This is of course in the summer. The rest of the year there's barely anything, seeing as there's nearly nothing but vermin and the rest of the year it's too cool for vermin. I'm rather fond of the lizards and crows though, aswell as some of the birds of prey.

[Vonriel]

I don't pay enough attention to the beasts around here to know. Umm, homeless dogs? They comprise more of the wild animals that I've seen than anything else. We did see a deer, once, on the wrong side of an interstate on-ramp - my stepdad honked at it, probably scared the thing.

However, where my dad lives, I did get to see a Sea Otter once, and that was downright awesome.

[Rykaj]

Well most land here is claimed by city, so I only see the city animals:

Pidgeons
Sparrows
Starlings
Magpies
And, surprisingly: Grey herons
Seriously the herons are becoming a city pest, like pidgeons, only alot more daring and intrusive. They're not scared to just waltz into the shops and steal some food.

My parents live in a forested area, whenever I take the train there I actually get to see some mammals from the train window:
Rabbits
Hares
Occasionally some deer and boar

I've never seen a wild badger or fox though. That would rock though.

[Morty]

Hm. I live very close to national park, so there are lots or wild birds around here; but I can't name them all at the moment- examples are buzzard, columbine or kestrel. You can also find squirrels and roe deers quite easily if you move out of the towns, I can see them on the outskirts of my town sometimes. However, even in cities there are whole lot of storks around here, they build their nests on poles. I also notice lots of dead hedgehogs near roads. Other than that, dozens of sparrows and pigeons, but those are everywhere.

[SurlySeraph]

Rats and pigeons. There are other animals?
Well, and squirrels and insects. To a lesser degree, hawks, falcons, and gulls.

[Alex Kidd]

I live in suburbia

Kangaroos(in the the scrub around the electrical station and radio towers)
Kookaburras
Australian Ravens (unrelated to other ravens, just near identical thanks to parallel evolution)
Lots of different species of frogs
Various eagles, hawks, falcons etc
Mutton birds
magpies
cockatoos, white and the giant black major mitchells
galahs
cranes
ducks
water fowl
We got a very big white owl living in a tree across the road
Lots of little birds
Stumpy lizards
geckos
skinks
possums
snakes
And of course tons of insects

Off the coast (about a km west of us) the common and visible stuff is
Sea Eagles
Sea Lions
Dolphins
Seals (big colony on an offshore reef so pretty common)

I should add I'm trained to observe this kinda thing as a biologist(and as a guy who just likes observing nature) so I notice and remember this stuff better than your average person, so this list is therefore abnormally long more for that reason than any great biodiversity in my local area.

[Lilly]

Between VT and mrcroup the Atlanta area beasties are covered.

Things I saw in Denver:
-Prairie dogs
-Magpies (well they were black and white and confused everyone from the east coast)
-Bald Eagles
-Foxes
-Grouse
-Rattle snakes
-Gardner snakes
-Bunnies
-Jack rabbits
-Elk
-Black bears
-Deer
-Never saw one, but we had skunks
-Coyotes
-Field mice
-Buffalo
-Mountain Goats
-Variety of small birds
-Geese (evil evil Canadian Geese)
-Bats
-Seagulls (I kept telling them that they missed the ocean by about 1500 miles, and they'd just look at me funny)

[CurlyKitGirl]

Seaside listy

Seagulls
Herring Gulls
Black Back
Cormarants (sp?)
Dolphins (five/six different species)
Porpoises
Basking Sharks
Porbeagle
Mako (very rare but I saw one eight miles off the coast)
Spider crab
Buzzards
Golden Eagle (mating pair, only saw once though)
Hawks
Kitty Hawk
Grey sqirrels
Red Sqirrels
Dartmoor Ponies (stretching a bit, only a days car/train ride away though)
Badgers
Foxes (there's a den/hide? in our woods)
Hedgehogs
Various zoo escapees (very regular surprisingly) wallabies and aa few others
Black Beast Of Bodmin Moor
And some more, can't recall all of them.

[SweetLikeLemons]

Where I live now, there are not very many squirrels, and no pidgeons, as far as I know. Which is kind of weird, because where I used to live was absolutely infested with them.
Instead, I see lots of ravens, which is cool, because I like them much much more than pidgeons.
And then there are the moose. I don't see them daily, by any means, but I do see them enough that it is not such a big deal anymore.

[sktarq]

Brown Hare
Chimney Swift
Cooper Hawk
Crow
Grey Squirrel
Hummingbird (ruby and emerald throated)
Opposum
Striped Skunk
Turkey Vulture
Whip-poor-will (never actually seen one, but I hear them all night long)
White-Tailed Deer

A lot more, but I only see them from time to time.

all the above plus
bobcat
puma (one lives locally to me)
black bear (haven't seen one in a couple years but plenty of tracks and scat)
redtail hawk
sharpshinned hawk
brown pelicans
Great horned owls (they nest outside my window)
bat rays
shovel nosed sharks
damsel fish
seals
bottlenose dolphins
terns, estuary duck, and seagulls of various and sundry sorts
Herons (Great blue, Green, and black backed or "night")
Chipmunks
Ground Squirrels
Rattlesnakes
Kingsnakes
Gopher Snakes
Horny Toads
Bullfrogs
Cottontail Rabbits (probably feral)
Black Rats
Ringtail Cats

edit
Banana Slugs
Scorpions
Masses of migratory birds
Pheasants (probably feral)
Quail-California and Mountain
Scrub Jays everywhere
Woodpeckers (a few different types)
Scorpions
Tartantulas
Assasin Bugs (watching them haul a tarantula across the patio this weekend)
Coyotes - at least once a week (so common I forgot them)
Grey Foxes (SOOOO cute but VERY hard to spot)
Mice
Rats
Bats (small to large-again see so often I forget aabout them)

and If I actually go out on the boat add in
Bald Eagles
Ravens
Bison (they are on a local island)
Elk (see above)
Grey Whales
Common Dolphins
Pilot Whales
Blue Whales
Orca
Fin Whales (only twice myself)
Humpback whales (rare)
Grey Whales (depending on time of year)
Horn Sharks
Swell Sharks (rare)
Swordfish
Flying fish (rare in the channel common just outside)

and if I add my scuba trips-eek

[Rob Knotts]

I live in Phoenix, Arizona. You can drive for 10 or 20 miles from the center of town and everything will still be paved.

However, the college I go to is a realtively young campus with a lot of undeveloped land. Between the green spots in/around the central campus and the barren land surrounding it, it's not unusual to see families of quail and some damn big jackrabbits. There really isn't enough room on campus or anywhere nearby for coyotes, but like a couple other campuses I've been too there are quite a few abandoned cats prowling the greener central areas. This is especially true of the open-air atrium on campus, with all sorts of small birds making homes in the trees that grow there.

[Calamity]

Pidgeons (Far too often)
Magpies
Robins
Squirrels
Hedgehogs
Blackbirds
Thrushes (Very occainsionly)
Seagulls (Very occainsionly)