What's the coolest wild animal you can find within 5km (3 miles) of your home?

[Consequence]

I've been going on lots of trail walks with my son during the pandemic and he has been surprised at how much cool fauna there is just outside of all of the subdivisions. Biggest hits so far (not my photos) have been a big ol' snapping turtle:

Click to shrink...

and a very active muskrat in a nearby pond:

Click to shrink...

What cool animals are surprisingly near to you?

 

[low-G]

A cute little fox.

 

[Beanman25]

Well, nothing crazy. But there is a neighborhood cat who comes on our deck and jumps on our roof. Lol

 

[Falchion]

I can regularly see dolphin pods swimming close to the beach by my house.

 

[Powdered Toastman]

Hares

 

[1.21Gigawatts]

Probably bird.

 

[MikeProtagonist]

I've seen a fox nearby, but most of the time it's just a bunch of magpies and squirrels. I do like them though.

 

[mute]

Probably a copperhead, deer, or some funky spiders

 

[Red]

We have doves, rabbits, and mice in the backyard. Sometimes deer or coyote wander through the neighborhood. There's not much else. Groundhogs maybe. I don't know if any of these are "cool."

 

[chrisypoo]

Grizzly bears.

 

[Bleu]

probably a "common buzzard"

or a boar.
or maybe a fox.

 

[Alric]

Quaker (Monk) Parrots

Fort Lee / Edgewater, New Jersey

While not native, a wild colony has been living and thriving in NJ / NY since the 60s. Seriously the coolest thing and hope they continue to thrive.

 

[ReAxion]

coyote

 

[Nick]

I'm in Australia. I'd prefer not to know.

 

[WedgeX]

In DC?

All birds, I think. Turkeys, osprey, and bald eagles.

The dolphins don't swim up this far in the Potomac.

 

[ScatheZombie]

Cool up close: Antelope, Roadrunners
Cool at a distance: Javelinas, Coyotes, Mountain Lions
Not Cool: Scorpions, Tarantulas, Wind Scorpions

 

[CathodeRayTube]

Albino squirrels probably.

 

[Chucker]

We have a pond at Terrapin Park that is just FULL of turtles. It also has a wooded trail that leads to a beach on the Chesapeake Bay. We've seen deer, foxes, snakes, lots of frogs, bald eagles, stuff like that.

 

[Deleted member 48813]

Toucans mostly. It's usually the green-billed ones.

 

[Bregor]

Great Blue Heron:

 

[Croc Man]

Red Kites. They're a successful reintroduction.

 

[Nostremitus]

I guess Alligator Gar, Bobcats, and Wooping Cranes.

 

[Nepenthe]

Most interesting animals I get to experience personally right around my house are foxes, rabbits/hares, frogs, deer, buzzards, and corvids.

The buzzards were a particularly interesting experience one time because a flock of them just landed on my neighbors roof. Saw shadows moving, looked out my window, and went "That's morbid."

 

[BringBackSonics]

We had a black bear around these parts about several years ago. I think he lives in a wooded area that is several miles away.

But mostly your usual, deer, coyotes, racoons, eagles, Great Hurons, etc.

 

[nsilvias]

racoons at night

 

[The Albatross]

I live right on the outer edges of a city in New England, but within two miles of fairly dense forest, trails, and wetlands, and with suburban construction over the last 20 years, you get a lot of wildlife that wanders closer to inhabited areas...

Moose, deer, black bears, coyotes, foxes, all normal small wildlife (beevers, groundhogs, fisher cats, racoons, etc). There's wolves that have been known to come into Central Mass down from Canada, but it's exceptionally rare to see any within 70 miles of where I live. Same with bobcats. About once every 5 years or so there will be a bobcat sighting on some of the trails 15-20 miles from where I live. There's protected forest/watershed around a reservoir that is about 2 miles from my house as the crow flies, and it's a popular hunting spot during deer hunting season. Eagles / Hawks are common daily sightings, rarely you see a bald eagle. I was fishing about ... I dunno, 8 miles away at a pond/lake 2 weeks ago and we saw a bald eagle dive and take a fish out of the lake. We didn't catch shit that day, but that was cool.

I'm not a fan of the family of groundhogs that live in my backyard. I live next to a church and they own the land behind my house, and they have like their church function stuff stored back there in this large field, and this year they've just let it sit there w/o any functions because of COVID so it's basically a giant pile of trash just through the woods behind my house, and this family of at least 10+ groundhogs has taken up residence here. They're "cute" but they're basically giant rodents, and my dog is obsessed with them. I have a wire fence around my yard (to keep my dog in) but the stupid fucking things come into my yard and then have to flee from my dog and it ends up being a shit show every time... I have to run out there with a broom or w/e to keep him back. He hasn't killed one yet, but it's a matter of time before I'll have to take woodchuck guts out of his mouth and he'll probably get fucked up by one of them too.

Click to shrink...

Click to shrink...

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

 

[Rassilon]

Probably a Red Kite or a generic urban Fox.

I've seen probably a half dozen foxes in the last year or so just wandering around.

There's a few Peregrine Falcons that live around the city too.

 

[Moara]

alligators in my backyard pond I guess

 

[Tawpgun]

Near the mountains in the Washington.

I know we have bobcats, black bears.

Everytime I go to Lake Sammamish I see Bald Eagles

 

[Deleted member 4367]

There are bald eagles in our local park.

 

[El meso]

There's one aquarium nearby, so probably one of the sharks

 

[KentP]

Probably Red Kites here, though they're now so common (I can see one flying around outside my window right now) that I'd be much more excited to see a Kestrel or Sparrowhawk

 

[19thCenturyFox]

There used to be deer in a park in the immediate area but they got relocated in 2019. Other than that it's mostly foxes and hedgehogs. I saw a family of ducks with a bunch of hatchlings last summer.

 

[Deleted member 6949]

A great white shark, seals, or possibly a whale, but you'd probably have to go a little farther. My old boss was in a little dinghy like 100 yards from shore and a whale breached right next to him, but I haven't seen one that close personally.

 

[Bigwombat]

Had fireflies two nights ago.
Osprey nest on a telephone pole.
Bats, great horned owl chicks, box turtle, bunnies, 5 turkeys, coyote,deer all in the yard.
Flying squirrels live across the river.

Coolest is probably the flying squirrels. The raccoon is the only one I see at night eating bird seed but the flying squirrels love peanuts and sunflower seed.

 

[Ryuelli]

I'm in the suburbs of Houston. Since we're a swamp, I'm sure there's at least one alligator close by.

 

[Shadybiz]

I have definitely seen a bald eagle in the woods near my place.

I also occasionally see foxes and raccoons.

I think I angered the raccoons once. I had a plastic bowl with a few golf balls in it, that I had washed off in the bowl. I think they thought the balls were eggs, and I came outside to see the bowl knocked over and the balls strewn about the deck. Sorry buddies.

 

[MisterSnrub]

Puffins, dolphin, deer. NE Scotland

 

[Deleted member 17092]

I have a peregrine falcon that hangs out in my yard sometimes so I guess that.

 

[PrivateWHudson]

A small black bear wandered through our neighborhood last week, but we only saw pictures on social media, not in person. Other than that, foxes and groundhogs. We have a family of groundhogs that graze right in front of the back door, the babies are super cute, but we have to get rid of them somehow, they grow up to be aggressive tanks.

 

[gilko79]

Texas Alligator Lizard. I had a couple of them in my backyard until just a few days ago. I haven't seen them since.

Texas Alligator Lizard (Gerrhonotus infernalis)

The Texas alligator lizard (Gerrhonotus infernalis) is a species of lizard in the subfamily Gerrhonotinae found in the central region of the American state of Texas, and south into Mexico. (Source: Wikipedia, '', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_alligator_lizard, CC BY-SA 3.0 . Photo: (c)...

www.inaturalist.org

 

[Deleted member 6215]

5km is 3.1miles. Yes, gonna need that extra range to find something interesting around here.

 

[Tacitus]

I think I saw some swans earlier this year.

 

[IDreamOfHime]

Last month driving home from work I saw a badger for the 1st time in my life. It looked fucking cool and is now my favourite animal.

 

[mhayes86]

Northern Virginia, I've seen fox, deer, raccoons on my yard cameras frequently. Saw a woodpecker a couple weeks ago outside. Out of housing development, I've seen heron, copperheads, and there's even been a bear sighting. A while back while walking our dogs, my wife and I saw a beaver as roadkill, which surprised me since the closest water source was a stream about half a mile away.

We see blue tailed skinks around our house all the time.

 

[Oneiros]

I have to watch out for these guys crossing the roads at night.

 

[thekonamicode]

Granted I don't exactly live in a swamp but I DO live in South Louisiana.

 

[Keyouta]

Black bears probably.

 

[Like the hat?]

There's a beaver who lives in the pond behind my house