Wildlife in the neighborhood

Saw this lil guy while we were walking the dogs tonight.  I'm decent with the larger or non-juvenile snakes in the area, but I couldn't place what this one was.  Might mean that he's a baby or just something small I'm not familiar with.  Head wasn't arrow shaped, but he coiled up like he wanted to strike when the wife got close to take her pictures.

Tampa Fl area.

Our neighborhood has 

• deer
• bear
• mountian lion 
• coyotes 
• raccoon 

we can't put trash out - without bears just decimating them night before 

We had this guy in the yard a few weeks ago.  He stole my picnic basket!

He's a hefty boi!

I am in the city but

Raccoons , possums , squirrels , gophers ,

flocks of wild parrots , 

and I have not seen them but foxes and skunks

There have been a lot of "Lost cat" signs which I think became the Fox's dinner !

In reply to californiamilleghia :

I've got a few foxes around here. I wish they would eat some of the feral cats that keep multiplying. 

Mr_Asa said:

 

Looks like a Dekay's brown snake.

It eats bugs, slugs and snails.
 

We have deer in the front and back yard quite regularly. Foxes and hawks are everywhere. We see the hawks often but mostly just hear the foxes. But we will see one run across the street maybe once every couple of months.

Had a juvenile bobcat in the front yard a couple weeks ago. That was a first. Took off as soon as he spotted me, so no photo.

Coyote, fox, raccoon, deer (occasionally), cougar, wild boar, desert tortoise, snake (rattle, king, gopher, etc...) hawk, vulture, tarantula, and more if you drive an hour. The odd elk will wander down from the mountains in the off season. 

That was a couple days ago. We have a young mama raccoon who started coming around this spring & was desperately hungry. We soon realized she was nursing, and she started bringing her 3 cubs around a few weeks ago. The possum doesn't seem too bothered by them. 
 

Here she is again, some days she'll stop by in the afternoons. She has a den under our gazebo(which is just a few feet from the patio) where her & the kids spend most of their time. Apparently she feels pretty safe here. The turtle wasn't bothered by her at all either. 

This was Mom. A much smaller cub crossed just ahead of her but I couldn’t get the camera ready before he disappeared into the woods.

We have some foxes, coyotes, deer, armadillos, raccoons and possums wonder into the neighborhood from the nature preserve just a bit behind the house.

In reply to EvanB (Forum Supporter) :

A fox won't take a cat. They are too big and have too many sharp weapons for that. 

We have a 4-5 fox that range through the neighborhood. They do a great job of keeping the mice and squirrel populations under control. 

We have whitetail deer and squirrels out the wazoo.  We have rabbits coming back after a years long absence.  We had hawks for a few years until the SOB that owns the property behind us clear cut it 2 years ago.   I used to owls hooting, but no more.    Saw foxes years ago, but no longer.  Never saw or heard a bobcat.  

I have quite a few hawks, i assume red tailed. Thankfully they have stopped screaming constantly.

Chipmunks and squirrels, birds aplenty, trash pandas.  Nothing too exciting but inside the beltway so pretty urban.

We live in suburbia, just adjacent to a small city.

We see deer regularly, as well as possums, some racoons, and some skunks.  Plenty of squirrels.

We have a small family of foxes somewhere nearby - enough that they've actually left a visible trail across my back yard where they cut through the hedge and go to one side or the other of my house.  We've been putting out water and table scraps for them.  They're pretty stealthy but I see them a couple evenings a week.

For significant birds we have a number of red tail hawks.  The other evening on our nightly perambulation around the neighborhood, we got buzzed by an owl.  I have seen bald eagles once or twice a year over the last few years.

I see methheads. So many methheads.

We like to take the Kayaks out around 6PM to the creek/pond downtown to watch the Ospreys fish.  They circle overhead a few times and then dive into the water from about 30 feet up. After about 10 seconds they blast back out, sometimes with a fish. The first time it happened it dove into the water about 5 feet from me on my left and came out 15 feet to my right

Aside from the usual scavengers we get birds here in S FL. Here's a couple kinds

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I like to take the kids turtle-spotting at local parks; we have several different kinds of turtles that you can often spot swimming around or sunning on logs.

We're starting to get armadillos here in north Georgia. When I was growing up, they were only in the southern half of the state, but they've been expanding their range.

Found some pictures too. First, one of the turtles from the local lakes.

Most of the ducks I see around here are mallards. I spotted a couple unusual ones a few weeks ago. Probably have a few farm duck ancestors.

And some wildlife on a smaller scale.

The other day, I almost stepped on a black racer as it darted across the side walk in front of my work building. He gave me a nice startle.

My house is right by a retention pond. There are always at least a dozen ducks on the water. However, there is a small flock of sandhill cranes that roam the neighborhood. I can hear them flying in every morning about 7am. Their call is very loud and distinctive.

One day, I was messing around in the garage and got that feeling like I was being watched. There were two cranes standing in my front yard watching me. By the time I was able to grab my phone, they had meandered into the street.

I hear this every morning:

They also like to eat my screens for some reason (sorry for the vertical video, I had to film between the slats in the vertical blinds):

We get coyotes, bobcats, raccoons (that my wife won't let me catch and keep), possums, snakes (mostly rat and copperhead), and deer running around our yard and neighborhood.