Weirdest thing in your yard

[valeriedl]

What's the weirdest thing that you've had in your yard?

I live in the country so I've had a few.

I had 3 opossoms that came and I started to feed. They knew when it was dinner time and would show up every night. I named them Moe, Larry and Curly. They got to the point where I could stand outside while they ate and they wouldn't run away, probly not the best thing to do. I had to stop feeding them because skunks started coming too and I didn't want to end up getting sprayed.

I live near a farm. We came home one day and a whole herd of cows were coming down the road. The farmers pigs got loose once and tore up the back yard.

Just recently when we were watching tv my husband looked out and there was a horse walking in the front yard. I went out and my dad was holding two more. He called 911, he didn't know what else to do. They weren't sure what to do with them, but luckily the owners showed up. They had been looking all over for over an hour trying to find them. Turns out it's not the first time they got loose.

Any one else?

[Rae1889]

I used to live in a wooded area in ontario, about an hour away from sudbury. I actually dont know what you would call this type of landscape. but there were hills and ravines and valleys, lots of trees and small streams. and then the house kinda built in the one plateau area.

Well any way, because we had a lot of trees (particularly spruce and birch and maple) everyone had a few in their backyards. We had alot in the "back 40" and then only on maple tree in our back yard (three spruce in the front). so one night we were woken up by my dad. he pulled us to the front door and opened the wooden part so we can see through the screen door. There was a black bear shredding our garbage bags open, finally settling on an ice cream container. he shoved his whole snout in there and was trying to take it off, and couldnt. swinging his head back and forth and grunting and pushing. he ended up knocking over our barbecue.

So anyway, my dad opened the door and gave it a boot in the butt with the broom and it took off. The SECOND that he did this, we heard a loud "roar" *i guess thats what you'd call it* there was another 2 black bears in our yard with their mother. one baby had the pail on his snout and just ripped it off, and was now standing with its mum and sibling, while the other sibilng was up in our maple tree trying to eat the syrupy sweet sap. and go stuck. We ended up having to call the fire department to have it tranqed and then taken down and put back with his family.

what a night that was.

[Nakamova]

One of my cousins (who lives on a farm) saw a bear climb a tree in order to get access to the rope holding up the birdfeeder. The bear shinnied along the rope to the feeder, and then began scooping the suet out, all while hanging onto the line.

I don't have a yard myself (asphalt, all four sides of my building), but there's a nice bike path/nature walk not too far away. On one walk I ran into a wild turkey. Those things are HUGE!

[RobinN]

I woke up to to this one morning:

[RobinN]

My yard seems to be enjoyed by many feathered friends:

[valeriedl]

My dad woud die if he saw a bear in his bird feeder Nakamova!

He's always chasing squirls out of he bird feeder, he wouldn't know what to do if he saw a bear in it!

[dumbspouse]

I had a bear cub at my front door when I lived at the Air Force Academy. Deer would stand in your front yard and driveway just chilln', until the occasional mountain lion came around.

[Rae1889]

ROBIN! Is that a real crane!?!!?! *i'm a little confused after seeing the plastic flamingos* I love cranes! (storks, whichever) . WHile I was in mexico there was this alligator pit in the "back yard" of our resort, and you could watch the villagers feed them fish and things. well there are also alot of iguanas and cranes in there. while they were feeding, a crane made the mistake of flying too close to the water surface and he got chomped mid air. The gator flew out from under the water, and just tore him out of the sky. I balled for like 3 hours.

[RobinN]

Yes it is very real. He came back often, as in front of him is a koi pond. He had fresh sushi at each visit.

[hootie]

We live in a suburban city...

We had some sheep in our yard one afternoon. They had escaped from the local children's zoo a mile or so away.

We get fox and coyote that like to sleep on our driveway (sunny and warm on the brick pavers) . I have a picture but not able to post attachments yet.

Once (in a different house) we had a wood duck fall into our fireplace while the fire was going. Luckily, my hubby saved it and it seemed to be OK once it recovered from the shock of the ordeal.

[BuckeyeFan]

Other than one deer years ago, our 'visitors' to the back yard are mostly small critters. Last summer, we saw a mink a few times. I had not seen one of those in decades. We get the occacional possum. We also have muskrats that come up from a canal to eat at our apple trees. They visit so often, that they start to leave a run (matted down trail) in the grass.

We have frequent visits from Great Blue Herons like the one in Robin's picture. This was once an endangered spieces, now we have them scattered all over our area.

The strangest things in the yard are probably my family and friends.

[Rae1889]

You also have several strange things in your back yard. Record breaking Pumpkins!!!!!

[occb]

Our apartment building backs out onto a river, and we get all kinds of animals here: geese, ducks, coyotes, foxes, squirrels, porcupines, skunks (which gets confusing, because we're sometimes not sure if what we smell means we need to be careful about getting sprayed, or that someone's having a party in the building).

I'm sure there have been larger creatures at times. They follow the rivers (we have 2) into the city, and the river we're on is downstream from the hospital where a black bear waltzed into the emergency room, and the park where two cougars were spotted *gulp*

Robin -- that looks like a great blue heron! How lovely! I used to garden for a woman just outside the city limits, who had a coi pond. She LOVED her coi, each had a name and everything, then one day, a great blue heron came to visit. She lost many scaly friends that day, and all of them by the end of the summer lol

[BuckeyeFan]

Good one Rae!

[Endless]

When I used to live out in the country about an hour from where I am now, late one nigt I was surprised by a mamma skunk with 3 or 4 babies waddling along behind her. It was a shock because I didn't see them on my way down the stairs, and I ended up about 8 or 9 feet away from them. Mamma skunk stomped her back foot at me. Later I learned that meant I was about to get sprayed. Even without spraying they were a bit aromatic. Smelly but cute.

[C0urt]

not strange, but I found it in our back yard.

[Nakamova]

Beautiful!

[Rae1889]

That is so stunning!
what kind of flower is that?

[C0urt]

it has thorns, i think something in the rose family

[BuckeyeFan]

Court - that is definitely a rose. Here is one of mine from last year.