Little Owl In My Backyard
 

I was out in my backyard a little while ago enjoying our hot tub when all at once I saw this little owl sitting in the umbrella of one of our porch tables. It wasn't doing anything but perching there and reacting to a few sounds and I tried not to make it think I was a potential threat. Finally I got tired of it just sitting there and staring at me, so I went in the house.
Anyone else seen any birds in their backyards they thought they wouldn't normally see?

Aww, it was checking you out XD Just kidding.

Yes, in fact just this morning I had four big raven's sitting at my bird feeder cawing extremely loud. I've only ever once seen a raven in my yard before and that was a few years ago (I don't see them much anywhere else really).

And several years back there was a hawk sitting on the roof just outside my sister's window. I'd never seen a hawk up close like that before and hadn't really seen many around either. Now-a-days though they're common enough. I think a family or two has a nest somewhere around my house. We had one in the tree on my property last year... they left squirrel carcass everywhere :/ They weren't in the same place this year, but I still see them flying about.

Not to mention a few years ago we had a hoard of wild turkeys at our bird feeder XD They were cute. A few little ones didn't pay attention when the family left and when they realized the screeched and cried and ran after them XD

Birds.
 

I'm so jealous D: I love owls~
I've seen random barn owls around town in daylight, which is kind of odd.

That's cute and scary at the same time. Scary as in when it was staring at you. I've only heard owls and the only one time I actually saw one was it flying over my house and that was scary, the thing was huge.

Hummingbirds make nests all over the place in my backyard. There was once a family of quails that decided to have a field trip in my backyard and hang out near the pond.

aaawww thats so cute! <3

i actually never thought id see a humming bird till i was 9. XD we set up humming bird feeders, but the store bought liquid stuff they put inside? its crap. if you want to attract humming birds, use sugar water. i was so surprised when the first humming bird showed up. i loved to just watch them, they are so cute! but that was at my old house.

...i really need to get a humming bird feeder.

Aaaw! That's adorable!
I don't get many unusual birds in my garden, but my parents live in the Highlands of Scotland, and they get all kinds of birds in their garden, including birds of prey, woodpeckers etc.
But my favourite is a wild pheasant who comes back and nests in the copse every year. They call her "Millie Muck-Cart", because she always craps all over the door step. :rofl:

In the place I used to live, I had big picture windows in my bedroom on the second floor. I was sitting there minding my own business, when I heard this thunk. So I went to the window to see what it was and there was a humming bird lying on the roof outside my window! D: He'd hit my window! Since it looked like he was hurt, I got a bowl and went out on the roof to try to catch him, but he suddenly got up and flew off into the trees. It was the weirdest thing. He was lucky he didn't hurt himself!

@ For-Chan Cookie - birds and windows don't normally get along, especially if they're super clean. But Humming birds have such fast paced systems that they have a hard time seeing anything that isn't moving (so I've heard)

I found a bat lying on the ground below our big tree once, I think he fell out and was too lazy to go back up and just decided to sleep on the ground. We left him alone and he was gone the next day, so he was alright, cutest thing I've ever seen though. He was all huddled up in the grass.

Aww..that's so cool ^^

Umm, not in my backyard, but close to it. I saw a big beautiful hawk with blue eyes..at least..it was a really large bird that looked like a hawk and it had blue eyes. It looked at me two. I've actually seen it twice. It's so pretty.

There's tons of hawks (red-tailed hawks) that live around where I do;
I love to watch them circle in the sky <3

There also used to be a huge family of hawks living across the street in one of the large trees we still have in the area. I saw them hunting a few summers ago; it was pretty amazing =3

Also we have a lot of little song birds ^3^ finches and sparrows and things. And tons of robins.
>,> and I thought I saw a woodpecker under our pine tree once....hm~

There's an owl that lives around my neighborhood.

The first time I saw it was this summer. My friends and I were sitting outside at around sunset, and we were just talking, and kind of bored. Suddenly I happened to look behind us, and I saw what looked like an owl land in one of the trees. We went a little closer to see what it really was (as there aren't normally any owls around my house), and it happened to fly away across the sky just as we got there.

Then last month, I was coming home from somewhere, and I looked out the window and saw what I'm guessing is the same owl flying, and it landed right on the top of a tree that had lost its leaves only at the top. It looked exactly like an image you would see around Halloween or something like that.

I used to see bats flitting about at night sometimes in a place where I used to live. I've seen an owl fly up the street where I live now, it made me jump to be honest because it went close past my window and scared me a little bit, in a, "WTF was that!!" kind of way ><

When I was staying with my Dad once we were walking back home after an evening out and saw a fox trotting down the street, that was quite a magical moment. I've seen the odd hedgehog at night too! Those guys are just so cute! I was walking round to the supermarket and disturbed one who was trotting about one evening, he didn't want to stay and chat though, he ran away and hid. ><

@ jellysundae - haha, that little hedgehog reminded me of the possum I saw last year XD I was leaving the labs on my college campus at around 3am and saw it meandering down the walkway. It must have heard me because it turned, looked at me and then ran away. haha

I used to see bat fairly often at my house too, then we re-did the roof and we don't see them much anymore (there countless numbers of them living in there. Haha. I could hear them occasionally in my wall since I have an attic room).

Yeah, we've had a bird fly into our sliding glass window in my old house and kill itself ._.

The thing was, the windows in my bedroom, while large, weren't the cleanest. And I didn't live near any pretty gardens that would attract humming birds. He was so out of place.

And yes, Hummingbirds wings beat at a ridiculous pace. Their heart beats incredibly fast, but to sustain all that movement, they have to eat a looooooooot.

@ For-Chan - ya. I watched a show on humming birds quite a while back, I seem to remember saying they need to eat every four hours or so or they starve to death O_o

I saw a green night heron a couple of times and also once I saw a mountain bluebird. Since we are near the coast we dont see those often. And Quail.

We have owls around here all the time, and one time my dog had a bunny in her mouth and it was still alive ^-^, isn't that just adorable?

AH! There were owls that used to hang around my parents place out in the woods. My family fed the small local critters - birds and squirrels and the like - so the owls saw it as a great place to call home. They were a mated pair and they'd frequently watch us in the evenings, and we'd watch them back. Owls are marvelous creatures~

Then eventually there was a large, very fluffy baby owl one day... sitting on a lower branch. It's parents clearly thought we were safe enough to want to their leave baby near us. We were sort of its babysitters while the parents were away hunting - common predators of baby owls are flocks of crows and ravens. We noticed the baby frequently right above our driveway. I'd talk to it as I passed it by at night to go feed my rabbits in the garage.

Oh yes, and they were 'barred owls', for the record. ^^

I'm not sure what lives around my new complex yet. I've only been there the once. but my mom's place has several animals around, cat's, moles, and a beaver,. And she aldo has birds, Deer, and racoons.

I usually see a bunch of crows and sometimes blue jays. (which I prefer, since they're my fav) Occasionally there will be a hawk or vulture, but I have yet to see an owl in my yard! I've seen one down the road though..