I invited some friends over for lunch! It appears that the neighbors cows decided to visit me, I called to let them know the cows are loose and of course they aren't home! :eek:

I wonder if they'll fertilize your lawn?? Don't get your mail barefoot - (probably too cold) :D

That's hysterical! Now we need a photo of Karen herding those cows...! Heah!
(We had a flock of wild turkeys on our driveway several weeks ago..huge birds...verrry aggressive & didn't leave until a coyote chased them into the oak trees. Quite a crazy site!) :) Michele

Yes Joanna, they used the restroom several times!! Michelle, turkeys are very funny looking birds!

How funny, K!! Are the cows still hanging out?

No, they sent a posse to rustle them up :)

Karen,

Too funny! They looked quite content in your yard.

Betty

Gee, all we get around here are wild rabbits and coyotes - they only come out at night so can't even take good photos of them

I had a coyote in my backyard ..daytime..would rather have the cows

Here are Michele's visitors, we can start a petting zoo! I just love the view!!

Got Turkey?? Karen's cows & my turkeys...Indeed, we've had some strange visitors!....(I was happy to be able to grab my camera & practice taking wildlife photos for ROAR!) Tks for posting the photo, Karen. - Michele
Adding: Come on over, Karen, & bring your cows!

We have pelicans or egrets (I don't know one from the other) walking around the yard - my cats go crazy

I've had a racoon sleeping in a nook outside my bedroom door, on our third-floor deck. No pictures, just a nuisance. She started out trying to dig a hole in the roof, and we chased her off with a broom. Now she seems resigned to just curling up for the day and sleeping in the sun. As long as she doesn't chew anything, I'm okay with it I guess, although that's just because I'm soft-hearted. I truly wish she would find another place to huddle, but I feel a little sorry for the critter.

Us LCTers have quite the assortment of critters living in our yards!

Wendy,

My little Daisy is a very good chaser of Racoons and Squirrels. I'll send her your way! I have heard that those Racoons can be VERY nasty.

Just a pelican or two sitting on our dock every now and then. I think its too hot here for anything interesting.

Doris

When we uncovered our pontoon boat last Spring, there had been raccoons nesting in it through the winter; they had chewed one seat completely to shreds. Later, the five babies from that "nesting" took up residence right outside my back door. I called a critter company and had them taken to greener pastures. And we got a tighter cover for the boat this year.

Michele, that's HUGE batch of turkeys!

2 years ago we had 17 head of white tail deer that would get so close that they would lick our floor to ceiling window. Then last year we had a mountain lion sighted in the area. We actually had foot prints next to the same windows, and now we only see about 6 head of deer. We also have a lot of Canada Geese stop and rest in the pond as well as wood ducks which live here all summer.

We had a racoon family in our apple tree with a bunch of babies. When Mark would drive by on the lawn mower, they would all cover their eyes with their little hands. They ARE cute but like Pam says, they can be very destructive.

Yeh, well, we have a long history of raccoons.

I inherited my mother's home, which is a summer cottage, 10 years ago. She fed the racoons for years, they came and were fed out of her hand. Generations of racoon babies came to our cottage.

Well, we have had heck to pay ever since! Twice they have chewed through the roof of the cottage, once through the soffit, once straight through the roof. The first time they did considerable damage to the cottage, because they fell through from the attic into the house, and rampaged around. Enough said.

We have had the trees around the place banded, but we may have to resort to a metal roof. I dread going up there for the first time every spring.

We've had racoons too--the Mom taught her babies how to wash their food in the water we put out for our cat. But mostly all we get in our backyard are tarantulas and armadillos. We don't even see them very often now since they started developing all the empty fields behind us.

chiming in here...I have ducks (Mallards), foxes,racoons, 'possums, geese, owls, otters, dolphins, pelicans, egrets, rabbits, hawks, osprey and a cormorant named Fred...I left out the sea gulls but no cows! Yet.

Anybody got pelicans??? That's what I'd really like in my back yard, especially about now!

Peggy, I have never even seen an armadillo before! Are they destructive?

Believe it or not we do have a pelican or two stop by once in awhile. Guess they go to Fort Peck Lake which is north of us about 100 miles

We had a Momma and 3 baby havelenas(sp)( wild pigs)outside our master bedroom window, tearing out a catus last week. My husband and min. schnauzer went around above our pool and tryed to scare them off, they just looked up at them, as if to say "this is our desert",and continued to eat away. We're new here, but some neighbors told us, on a walk a few weeks ago, some havelenas charged them, they had a walking stick with them, so they turned and ran off. We're not looking forward to the rattle-snakes coming out.. :ohmy:

Sandy, I don't think you are supposed to run away from havelenas. They are faster than you think. Friends tell me stand your ground, wave your arms high overhead and make lots of noise. They do not see well but boy can they tear up the plants, as in uprooting them.

We've lived in AZ almost 4 years and have yet to see a rattlesnake (knock on wood). I dread my first encounter as I know I will panic and scream!

We have a 4-H family behind us. They raise goats and pigs. I love standing in our driveway and talking to them! Alan goes inside and pretends like he doesn't know me. Karen, if I had been at your house, I would have gone outside and yelled "Mooooooo!"

Michele, how neat that you got a picture of the turkey with tail feathers spread. Those wild turkeys look a little different from the ones I've seen back East. I think yours are better looking!

Snakes and attacking pigs, what other fun stuff do I have to look forward to when we move to Arizona!

Someone told me that there is a bacteria in the Arizona soil that if the ground gets disturbed and you inhale it, you get really sick. They said that only newcomers get it, people who have lived in the state a long time are immune since once you get the ailment, you don't get it again. Is this really true??

Yes, it's called Valley Fever. Some people catch it and never know. I tested positive two summers ago when Alan and I were having a mysterious ailment. One of my lungs had a spot indicating that I had caught it at some point but they couldn't prove when. Most of the time you get over it without much trouble and no medication is needed, you just get over it. When it's really bad, that's another story. It comes from a fungus in the soil. Doctors prescribe anti-fungal meds for really tough cases. It's been esepcially bad in Tucson this winter because of our drought.

The other critter to watch out for: scorpions! We have to shake our clothes and inspect our shoes before putting them on. So far, so good, but we use monthly pest control.

Oh, and I forgot, pack rats. I have a friend with a second home here. She has a carpot instead of a garage. Two years in a row they have arrived in Tucson for the winter only to find that the pack rats ate the wires in the car that they leave here.

Sure you still want to move to AZ? Don't let me scare you, Karen. Anyway, the sunrises and sunsets are worth it!

I think they call it Valley Fever, we have been coming to Arizona 4 years and moved here full time last July, my daughter has lived here 10years, so far, we have all been fine. Knock on wood several times!!
I did have an encounter with a rattle snake in Aug., I drove in the driveway and opened the garage door, I saw what I thought to be a rag on the driveway, ""then it moved, I stopped the car, and it slithered into the garage, I screamed, I couldn't get out of the car, so I called my husband from my cell phone, he was in the house,luckly, our pool guy was cleaning our pool, he also is a fireman, I watched , through clinched eyes as he took the pool cleaner pole and lifted him ever so easy, and through him into the desert :ohmy: :ohmy: He told us later that he gets more calls to remove snakes than put out fires. I hope that is the first and last encounter I ever have with a rattle snake

I hope those sunrises and sunsets are worth it! :ohmy:

Sandy is right. If you find a rattlesnake in your yard, call the fire department and they will remove the snake. But, only as far as your mailbox. It seems that if a rattlesnake is relocated too far away from his territory, he will die. Good for us but not good for the balance of nature. Just means we'd have more pack rats! Seriously, Karen, you are going to love it in AZ!

We had an armadillo in our backyard one day last week. Tom was out in the early morning with the dogs and he spotted it (not sure how he got in as our yard is fenced in with a 6 ft. privacy fence). He brought he dogs back in so they wouldn't fight with it and then went back out to chase it away and it was gone!

We have Canadian Geese flying over the house just about all the time (the lake in our subdivision is a home for them most of the year) and I've had a few run ins with black snakes in the back yard and frogs in the pool skimmer! :ohmy:

One thing we don't have in GA that we had in Wisconsin and I don't miss one bit are skunks - PHEWY!

OK, this has been bothering me --- A LOT. I don't understand. You really have to shake out your clothes???!!! to check for scorpions???? That's really not good. If scorpions can get in your clothes --- I presume you keep your clothes in a closet or in some drawers --- then why don't they get anywhere they want? Like in your bed??? How do you sleep thinking scorpions will get in your clothes and you have to shake them out in the morning, yet have no fears of them hopping into bed with you??? You're not leaving your clothes out on the back porch are you??

I really need some help dealing with this bit of new info regarding life in Arizona.

I had friend here who saw snake go in her door to kitchen - they found it 2 days later - can you imagine staying in that house knowing a snake was there???- every time Tony's foot would bump mine in middle of night I would SCREAM - I would check into hotel before I'd stay in house with a snake -

They look great. Pass the Beranaise Sauce and a bottle of Lafite...

I love this "animals in the yard" thread!

A few years ago, I was laying out in the back yard with my little dog (hahaha that sounds funny) and a hawk swooped down and started to carry her away. She screamed, I screamed and it dropped her.

I'd be in that hotel with you, Joanna! NO WAY would I stay in a house that had a snake in it.

We have our yard and around the house sprayed, but you still don't trust them not getting in and going to bed with you, so you don't want to leave any of the bedding touching the floor, never know what might climb up. But tonight we had rain in Arizona and the sunset was to die for, after all with moved here from Utah, and before that So. Calif. and we had to contend with earthquakes, none of those here, so far.......... :app: :app:

You better get a triple room because I couldn't sleep either, knowing there was a snake in the house!