Stuff I've seen in my backyard

[jjcanoe]

So far since I've moved to my new place in London about 2 1/2 yrs ago Theres been the typical urban wildlife which I've spied in my back yard. Critters like the skunk family I had to evict from under my shed about 2 weeks after we moved in, plenty of squirrels, bunnies, one old possum, a few raccoons from time to time, a coyote(not technically in my yard but I almost ran it down late one night less than a block away) One chipmunk seen only twice on the same day. Countless types of birds including a red tail hawk.

What we saw out there yesterday totally blew us away...

 

 

(This is an image I got off of wikipedia not the one we saw!)

Peregrine Falcon!!!!!!!

 

Couldn't believe my eyes. I watched it land on my canoe, with a small critter(half of one anyway), I went to the other room to get my camera when I came back, It had moved to a large rock on my fire pit. It must have seen us in the window because it took off from there into the neigbours tree, while the camera was powering on. We watched it through a pair of binoculars for about 5 mins while it picked at its meal before it left.

Who would have thunk it smack in the middle of a city of 360,000 people (and this late in the year for that matter.)

 

jjcanoe

[kickingfrog]

Birds of prey in urban areas are more comon than most people think. Some of them will stake out bird feeders just waiting for "dumb", "slow" and well fed city birds. You'll sometimes hear stories of small dogs and cats being taken as well, I've not seen it, but like all urban legends it has enough reason to be belivable. Keep your camera and binocs by the window.

Edited November 29, 2007 by kickingfrog

[jjcanoe]

They did a re-introduction about 8-10 years ago in downtown London, but you never seem to hear if the birds return from year to year.

 

jjcanoe

[fish_finder]

I live right downtown Guelph, and I have seen a peregrine come down on several occasions to take birds from our neighbours bird feeder. Then it moves to my pine tree to feast....of course she'll never be told about that!!

[Fishn Technishn]

JJCANOE,

I also live in London & have seen Peregrine falcons from time to time. The most memorable was several years ago. I was doing some garden stuff in the back yard & happen to look up as nice fat pigeon went flying overhead and I thought to myself "Great, I just washed the van!" Lo and behold, all of a sudden, there was a puff of feathers as a falcon totally nailed that pigeon right in mid air. Was an amazing sight!! Reminded me of the video of Randy Johnson's pitch taking out the bird in the baseball game. Oh how I wished I could've caught that on film! Felt bad for the pigeon. Never knew what happened!.

Keep your eyes on the sky, when in London.

 

FT

[fatherof3]

that is awesome,was on a walk a couple weeks ago and saw my first one fly over my head.It is quite the sight to see.

[fishindevil]

They are marvellous birds of prey for sure !!!! they can dive at break-neck speeds as well,way over 100mph....the other birds dont have a chance !!!! they are cool,and several cities are making them nest on high biuldings ,and i know there are WEBCAMS WHERE YOU CAN WATCH THEM ALL THE TIME IN THE SPRING TO RAISE THEIR LITTLE ONES ITS AWESOME. ...cheers

[Roy]

This guy was in my back yard last week. We don't get too many foxes around here. That was the best shot I was able to get of him. Everytime there was a good photo-op, he'd hightail it out of there before I could get to the camera.

[Weeds]

Not exactly my backyard but sticking with the animals in an urban setting; has anybody else seen Deer in the Don Valley? I saw 2 last year, one on the bayview extension (dead) and the other (alive and well) amidst a a clearing at the side of the DVP by the Bloor off ramp I believe (maybe a couple KM from Bloor and Yonge). I've never spoken to anyone else who's seen one in the area but imagine with so many members on this board from the Toronto area some of you might.

Edited November 29, 2007 by Weeds

[Headhunter]

I spotted two deer in my backyard back in October! I live in Scarborough and do have a ravine in my backyard, but was quite surprised to see them walking through the woods behind my house, in the middle of the day!

Also, yesterday I was at my Dad's place, doing some estate business, he lived just outside of London, in a little town called Komoka. As I drove up to the house I spotted at least 12 wild turkeys wandering around the yard. They didn't even move when I got out of the car and likely, I would have been able to walk right up and pound them in the head with a baseball bat, should I have been inclined! LOL

I have a pic I could post, if I had a clue how to post pics!LOL I'm a techno moron!

HH

Quick edit.... as the executor of the estate, I now have the sole rights to allow hunters permission to hunt the land.... and I am definitely NOT above being bribed! LOL

Edited November 29, 2007 by Headhunter

[Rizzo]

I used to live at Royal York and Lawrence for about 8 years and during that time I saw deer, foxes, and coyotes on my street as well as the usual suspects: raccoons, possums and skunks galore (had 6 skunks in my backyard one time as we sat out having a wobbly pop)

[kickingfrog]

A deer running on a sidewalk looks a bit like Bambi on ice.

[fishermccann]

I live in Pickering and back onto Petticoat creek, I have 3 female, 1 yearling buck and a 8 point buck that live in the ravine behind my house. But the best thing I ever saw in my backyard was a wild coyote pup go nose to nose through the fence with the family chowchow ,it was like 2 long-lost brothers meeting for the first time What a site!

[Beats]

There are some peregrine falcons that nest each year on one of the downtown highrises in London . I can't remember which building it is but I know that there are hardcore bird watchers that sit there and observe them each time they nest and document the young ones learning to fly etc.

[fishing n autograph]

Not much wildlife other than rabbits and skunks and the common birds like cardinals, jays near my old place, but since i've moved, i haven't really seen anything yet, but I live near a conservation area so i'm hoping something comes along. Heck, i see more wildlife in Markham than I do here in Kitchener.

 

Like London, KW has released falcons in out area, but I haven't seen any yet...

 

Hey where's muskiestudd...he'd sure have stories out in Sutton

[OhioFisherman]

Haven`t seen one of them by me, yet. They have some in Cleveland nesting on the buildings, pigeon control!

 

The buzzards keep me company! Some owls, not sure what kind, Red-Tail hawks, some other big birds but not sure what, they don`t let us get to close.

 

Turkeys, deer, skunks, groundhogs, wabbits, posums, Pheasants, coons, snakes, turtles, fox, reports of Coyotes, I haven`t seen one.

 

I am aways from the city though.

[frozen-fire]

I was once on the DVP going northbound just getting on off of Bloor and was greeted with very heavy traffic. Few minutes later, I see that a car had struck a deer in broad daylight. Was a cop there and everything. IIRC, the car has badly damaged... I was blown away about the deer being in downtown toronto haha.

[Puckhead]

Living beside bronte creek provincial park and see tons of wildlife in the backyard - red tail hawks feast all day long. They don't even care if you are around anymore, watching me do my yard work type of thing. Lots of deer wandering around in last winter, chewing the cedar. This summer, we had a pack of coyotes hanging out just past my fence line. It's one thing to hear them fighting over a rabbit or whatever, it's another to see it happen. Same thing with the coyotes as with the hawks - they didn't care at all that I was standing no more than 20 feet away from them having a smoke. I think after a few nights they realized that I wasn't going to be of any harm to them. I actually called them in one night when they were on a the other side of the treeline with a chicken clucking type of call. It was interesting to watch them stalk me in a pack formation. The pack basically ate everything in the neighbourhood for 1-1.5 months and then left once the feast was over. Sure enough, as soon as they leave, possums, rabbits and racoons come in in droves. The skunks naturally stayed around all year, they could care less if the coyotes were around - and man are the skunks dang huge around here. I had one crawl into the backyard one night, tacklebuster could attest to this, that was easily the size (at least it's silouette) of an adult coon.

 

Last fall we had a pair of owls hanging around for about 3-4 weeks. They didn't return this year which was unfortunate - I was really looking forward to spooky late october nights with the owls hooting away like last year. I think all the new construction really effects them the most. At least that's my observation as everything else seems to have been effected to a lesser degree - either that or I was just lucky to have that pair in the neighbourhood last year, which is possible... Other things like bats and firefly's in the summer make for an interesting setting... Nightime this past summer in my backyard was great!

 

The sureal thing is that I'm a 25 minute drive to downtown TO (without traffic, naturally...) Urban wildlife - that's what I love about fishing urban rivers, you feel like your 300 kms up north sometimes...

 

The office tower I worked at a few years ago had a nesting pair of peregrine falcons right outside my window at the top of an adjacent 17 story building. Now that was interesting to watch....

[jjcanoe]

Living beside bronte creek provincial park and see tons of wildlife in the backyard -

 

I've got a conservation area with 2 ponds (actually kettle lakes) at the end of my street so I'm guessing thats where all the critters are hanging out when they're not passing through my yard.

Poor Slowpoke lives at the other end of the ponds but to get to his place the critters have to cross a busy road, (and there's no animal crossing signs to help them out )

 

jjcanoe

[Beats]

The roads definitely have a way of taking out wildlife in numbers.

Edited December 1, 2007 by Beats