Have not seen a single frog or toad in my yard ever.

I have seen the little brown ones that the cat chases around...Charle finds one in the dog yard once in awhile but fortunately he has not eaten one yet. This one was all a beautiful light speckled gray. He was so cute but he is not welcome in my home. It makes me crazy to think he has been living here for a few weeks and I did not know it. Where was he???That is the question. I inspect those plants and spray them and he still survived. Amazing.

Just blending in, looking like a dead leaf?

Catmint20906 said:Have not seen a single frog or toad in my yard ever. :-(

I've been wondering if I might attract a toad or two here. We'll see next year! In past gardens I've occasionally been adopted by frogs who enjoy my propensity to water things; there will suddenly be a frog or two show up in the watering can!

Speaking of which we need a new one here and I am eyeing the Haws version sold by Gardener's Supply: http://www.gardeners.com/buy/h...

I saw a rabbit on my evening walk with my dog. True it was not actually in my yard, or at least I didn't see it in my yard, but closeby.

That definitely counts.

The resident fox got another one of the neighbor's chickens the other night and it just makes me so sad. I realize he must eat but gosh I hate when he eats the chickens. I wish the neighbor would put them in at night. I thought he had been, but some of them still stay in my trees.

That's too bad JB.

JB said:The resident fox got another one of the neighbor's chickens the other night and it just makes me so sad. I realize he must eat but gosh I hate when he eats the chickens. I wish the neighbor would put them in at night. I thought he had been, but some of them still stay in my trees.

Not really the fox's fault. It should be the responsibility of the owner to pen them in at night and keep them safe. Of course he doesn't. I figgure those chickens are pretty lucky they have even made it this even far.

Meanwhile, I guess this counts as a backyard critter:



Anyone recognize him? (I did post in Bug ID, and have scrolled through some of the caterpillars on Bug Guide but my eyes started to hurt! and I didn't find him there.

What he is doing is eating spearmint, to which he is more than welcome!

Looks kinda like a fall webworm.... Though not as many black dots, so I'm not sure.

Maybe it doesn't show in the photo but I'd call those bands, not dots. Orange and black stripes! I did see one picture of something that might be the same but unidentified, the picture poster called it the Huge Orange Hellbeast or some silly such.

Okay, got an ID on it as the Yellow Bear Spilosoma virginica caterpillar. The moth is the Virginia Tiger Moth, a beautiful soft white creature I do recall seeing around here in the summer.

Caterpillars, some of them, are hard to call, because they can look real different and be the same kind, it seems.

Yes, I can see it as a Yellow Woolly Bear. Is it sort of big and fuzzy looking?

Sort of, but what I read says they vary in appearance, too! That makes the whole ID thing kind of uncertain. But nothing else came at all close, and there were a couple or three pictures that looked almost like mine....

The fact I'd seen those moths around a lot last summer was what made up my mind.

I guess there is too much snow on the ground for lots of news about backyard wildlife. Around here it is mainly just the birds and squirrels that come for the seed that I put out.

A friend that lives just at the beginning of the street around the corner does see a neighborhood local fox most every day. But I usually only see the fox if I venture to walk around at the park. I bet the fox come thru the yard at night but who knows. My dog does bark in the evening often and I always think there must be an animal out there in the yard.

Yesterday a flock of Canadian Geese arrived on the field next door. There were about a dozen on the first group and I was doing dishes and saw these large creatures way now in the field. They looked like a herd of deer, so I got the glasses and saw they were geese. They were so large. Then the rest of the flock arrived and there must have been over a hundred at one time. Here is a shot of some of them.

Oh My! we have them here in the park across the street and they make a big mess.

I saw the first robin yesterday. Here, they don't stay around all winter, so seeing that one was The Signal, y'all.

:D