My Backyard

 One thing I love about living in a rural area is the amount of wildlife I can find in my own backyard. Yes, that means that sometimes there is need to be a bit more cautious that in more urban areas, but that doesn't matter to me. It's like a Biologist's heaven. I'm very familiar with some of the recurring animals. For example, we have one fox that is seen on occasion. There used to be a red one which has since been replaced by a cross fox. I suspect the other one died. I call it our "friendly neighborhood fox" even though it will not approach people and will just be seen occasionally dashing across the street from wood to wood or occasionally trotting across a yard. I think it hunts rabbits in the yards, because you see them grazing on the grass all of the time.

Here's some of the animals I've seen around my house:

An absolutely gorgeous web

- Red foxes (in both the red and cross fox phases)
- Whitetail deer
- Owls (exact species unknown)
- Red-shoulder hawk
- Various songbirds (includes cardinals)
- Hummingbirds
- Great egret
- American white ibis
- Crows
- Bats (species unknown)
- Green treefrogs (see below)
- Toads (exact species unknown)
- Green anoles
- Spiders (including wolf spiders and other large spiders)
- Racoons
- Opossums
- Armadillos
- Squirrels
- Moles
- Rabbits
- Lots and lots of insects, including:

• Viceroy butterflies (among others)
• Moths
• Dragonflies of various species
• Click-beetles and other beetles
• Lightning bugs
• Lots of crickets and grasshoppers
• Tons of mosquitoes and sand gnats (it is the south!)
• Ants, including the ever-irritating invasive fire ant
• In the woods nearby I've also seen termites

- Box turtles
- Snakes

• Black racer
• Copperhead
• Eastern ringneck

- Turkey vultures (lots! They nest in the forest behind the house)
- And my dad swears he saw an alligator in a ditch nearby

The pictures in this post were taken last night on my back porch, where I saw at least ten different species (mind you, most were flying insects) and I could hear several more.

The green treefrogs are always sticking to the windows. The cats like to try and play with them through the glass.