apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

A big, fat, city Raccoon! At my last BBQ I fed him a hot dog bun and ever since I have been seeing him hanging around my backyard. I love him.

well if you live in Bucktown/Wicker Park, you may have had a cougar roaming your neighborhood!

A fox and her three cubs in the Rockford, Illinois area! So cute! Really drives my parents' dog nuts though. tee hee

While visiting my parents on Cape Cod this weekend, we were also visited by a peacock! He was in the driveway with his fan of feathers on full display making the loudest gawking noises.

We assumed he escaped from the nearby museum/gardens because he was very tame and walked right up to us.

Many years ago, when I lived in St. Louis, I had to dodge a huge woodchuck on my way to my car after work. I had no idea what it was. A helpful security guard filled me in. I also ran into the occassional fox, turkey, game hen, and peacock. Then again, I worked in Forest Park, so I shouldn't have been surprised.

I've seen no unusual wildlife in Queens. Birds and squirrels, that's about it.

Years ago, hubby and I took an afternoon walk in our suburban Orange County neighborhood. There are no rural areas near us so we were quite taken by surprise as a woman who we though was walking a large dog stopped and asked us "Hey, is this your goat? I found him wandering the neighborhood."

Goat? Uh, no not my goat. Have no idea how or where he came from.

I lived in Tempe, AZ for a couple of years in a cute little neighborhood right behind the downtown area, and would randomly see a couple of peacocks wandering around - the first time I could barely believe it!!! My friends that lived a little further out had coyotes and javelinas (cute but rather annoying wild pigs that continuously ate their beautiful desert landscaping).

In Brighton, Mass. I've found heritage-breed turkeys. Beautiful, but not the nicest animals.

just last night, near irving & ashland, an opossum. from far away, thought it was a giant rat or baby pot bellied pig. once we got closer he freaked out and hit his head on a drainage spout trying to get away. i admit, i laughed.

I'm in FL and have had many toads, a tree frog in the house last night and an armadillo last month.

I did like the armadillo, but he was digging up the grass. Armadillos listen to and obey the word "shoo!"

Peacocks are much prettier than the turkey vultures I've seen around here. No kidding, TURKEY VULTURES. Look 'em up, they're the ugliest birds I've ever seen.

Vancouver-coyotes, skunks, raccoons and lots of squirrels. None of them are afraid of humans either.
North Vancouver-growing up, saw many deer and the occasional bear.

When I was a child, a Candian Goose got separated from the migrating flock and was running disoriented all around our front yard for over an hour around dusk. Its mate kept trying to run after it and it seemed like they were having a conversation with the one trying to persuade the other to rejoin. It was the craziest sight. It went on for so long we weren't sure the one could fly. The whole time this was going on the entire flock kept circling overhead. It was surreal and very very loud! The whole neighborhood came out to witness it and the birds didn't seem the least bit fazed. Eventually the two on the ground took off and rejoined and the flock moved on.

Canadian, I mean!

When I was younger, while driving to my grandparents cottage in Nova Scotia, a big male pheasant chased our car for at leats 1k, it was beautiful, and very angry!

we have jack rabbits in our yard. I have a feeling they're attracted to our garden. Uh oh! Good thing there's enough to go around!

Not a fair comparison to Chicago itself, perhaps, but in our yard in suburban Hinsdale, I've seen raccoons, coyotes, red and grey squirrels, ground squirrels (chipmunks), rabbits and bats hunting insects on the wing. Never seen a deer, oddly. We have three nesting pairs of birds right now: cardinals, wrens and sparrows. Lots of woodpeckers and finches at the feeder. This spring I was surprised to see several great horned owls perching in our trees and dramatically circling the house at around 10 pm like it was set in a Harry Potter movie.

When I was kid in Brookfield, WI, we used to get peacocks and pea hens in our yard all the time. They slowly got rarer and rarer, and then all of a sudden I realized I hadn't seen one in years. I hope they're making a comeback.

any such name -

You just reminded me of quite a funny story from my college days:

I lived in an old turn of the century house just behind the bars. It had been converted into three apartments - two on the bottom, and I had the top floor. I stumbled home by myself one night from the bar and sat down on the top step to finish my cigarette before going inside. The artist who lived downstairs had a couple of cats and I saw one of them at the foot of the stairs. I walked down and said, "here kitty kitty..." and bent down to give it a pet, but literally as my hand was within a centimeter of it I realized it was a giant OPOSSUM!!!!!

After the initial shock, I sat there and laughed myself to tears only wishing someone was there to witness my drunken antics!!!

Last year when I was visiting my parents house in Tucson, AZ we were surrounded on the back porch by a pack of javalinas. I had lived there for 20 years and never seen a wild one and according to my mom, the pack are now regular visitors!
I now live in rural Illinois and in my backyard I always see raccoons, rabbits, etc. and every once in a while I will see a pack of wild turkeys...so cool!

I can't brag that this happened in my yard, but someone else's yard I was in just outside of Calgary, Alberta Canada. 2 Moose!

We've got possum, raccoons and foxes in Edgewater/Rogers Parque. Now I know who was stealing the fruit on my tomato plants, it weren't the squirrels (of which we have a few black squirrels, no white one's like downstate).

There's also hawks and woodpeckers galore.

A roadrunner in Albuquerque, NM.

In my Bronx yard, I have seen: an oppossum, a family of wild turkeys, raccoons (also a family), and a hawk diving in for a squirrel (didn't get the squirrel).

Oh: and I forgot that I was gardening in the front yard and also saw a Coyote sauntering up the street, probably down the Croton Aqueduct from upstate NY. I know it's not the right board for NYC, but it's a great example of how much wildlife you can see in the city if you look.

!0 years ago in Montclair NJ, I took down a street sign to avoid hitting a peacock. the responding police officcer(i was fearing a breathylizer) told me people across town had "rescued" it from a zoo, but it had set itself free.

Peacocks....I used to have a pair on my farm. Loudest and meanest damn creatures on god's green earth....especially in mating season.

Last week we had a wild turkey run through our back yard. we live near woods, but it was a first. What was even more surprising was that it had no problem jumping fences, and seemed very comfy touring our neighbor's backyards.

I had ostridges in my back yard in high school.

Granted, they were part of a festival put on by the Catholic church on our block, but...still. It was alarming to see them there in our back yard one morning.

The only animals I have roaming around outside my windows are drunken Lincoln Parkians. They're most foul.

Two mountain lions were captured in a suburban Denver back yard this weekend, drinking out of a kids wading pool. I think the pictures are still up at 9news.com.

I've always heard (I forgot to say yesterday) that Peacocks can be incredibly aggressive and even dangerous.

We have a bald eagle named Liberty that often cruises over our Saint Paul neighborhood, which is surrounded by the Mississippi river. I've been as close as fifteen feet away from his perch in a neighbor's tree. Eagles are huge (90" wingspan), an impressive surprise.

Never in the backyard, but while driving through DC, twice I've seen turkeys.

Just in the last month our Edgewater back yard has hosted a HUGE city raccoon, a hawk/falcon, pigeons, squirrels, and a rabbit.