Backyard Chronicles

wademaster

Guest
So I just got moved into a new home and it's out in the sticks. Critters are everywhere. We're loving the place. I figured I'd create a thread dedicated to the wildlife that we encounter here on the new property.

I've threw out some goodies free for the taking. So far I've had crows, brown thrashers, possums, squirrels, raccoons and deer. I'm looking forward to drawing more wildlife to the property and hopefully getting some nice pics.

By the way, I'm situated within minutes of at least 4 rivers.....

I'm going to keep this thread rolling while updating it periodically.

3e1bd3f23292f5bf933333b5169696a5.jpg


85c677f8513d2fa0d3107ef202c36291.jpg



Sent from my kayak...
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I live in the backwoods as well, and it was my hope to see wildlife all the time when I moved there. When we had the yard excavated, leveled and finished I went to the local Southern States and bought 5 different clovers to mix in with the grass seed. The guy who was doing the work thought I was crazy to want to attract critters to my yard by planting things for them, turns out, he was right :D
The deer, rabbits, coons, grinners, skirls...heck everybody...thinks that the fruit trees, ornamentals, even the trees(especially the arbovites) were planted especially for eating their fill of fruits, raking their horns on, breaking limbs out of and generally making a mess out of my hard work. Not to mention trying to raise chickens with the influx of varmints by my planting of fruit trees, berry bushes and a garden.
I place all the blame on myself and my wife, who "wanted to see the wildlife" ....LOL..it's all part of living in the country and I wouldn't change a thing !
Good luck on your beautiful new place, but you've been warned ! :D
 

wademaster

Guest
I live in the backwoods as well, and it was my hope to see wildlife all the time when I moved there. When we had the yard excavated, leveled and finished I went to the local Southern States and bought 5 different clovers to mix in with the grass seed. The guy who was doing the work thought I was crazy to want to attract critters to my yard by planting things for them, turns out, he was right :D
The deer, rabbits, coons, grinners, skirls...heck everybody...thinks that the fruit trees, ornamentals, even the trees(especially the arbovites) were planted especially for eating their fill of fruits, raking their horns on, breaking limbs out of and generally making a mess out of my hard work. Not to mention trying to raise chickens with the influx of varmints by my planting of fruit trees, berry bushes and a garden.
I place all the blame on myself and my wife, who "wanted to see the wildlife" ....LOL..it's all part of living in the country and I wouldn't change a thing !
Good luck on your beautiful new place, but you've been warned ! :D

I know. Upon moving here I wondered why the previous owners only planted hasta in a one or two places in the flower beds. I've since figured it out. I'm guessing the deer have implemented some of their own landscaping techniques. This kind of causes concern when thinking of adding bird feeders and what not. We'll see how this turns out....
 

wademaster

Guest
Eric, have you had any turkeys? They are here but I wonder if they'll take part in the feeding.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Big yard bird.jpgYard Birds.jpgLots and lots of turkeys in the past, we have had hens raise their poults right around our house for several years. Unfortunately our closest neighbor now has a dog that will kill anything she can catch and she roams the woods quite often, so our wildlife sightings are way down. We had a doe named Scar that raised fawns two years in a row around our house, my wife has more fawn pictures than you can shake a stick at. She had a fawn that the wife named Baby two years ago, that fawn would see the wife come out the back door and would run down the hill to get her apples and bread, standing not 3 feet away from the wife.
We are surrounded by a hunting club on three sides so alot of our yard deer go into folks freezers, but the wife understands that is the way things go with wild animals.
The best way to see wildlife in your yard, IMHO, is to scatter a cup of corn and sunflower seeds in one spot every day, all year round....you will see more results from that than anything else you may do. Be careful to do this close to the woods, or you may end up feeding several hawks in the area. Hawks learn that you are feeding things and will come to your yard every day at daylight unless you make it harder for them to get an easy meal.
 
Last edited:

wademaster

Guest
Thanks for the input. I once had a deer at a hunting area that had a tag in its ear that would come to you and let you pet it. Don't know where it came from. I heard it was killed.

Before my dog, Rex, died I had few wild critters around. After he passed away the rabbits and ground hogs started showing up everywhere.


Sent from my kayak...
 

wademaster

Guest
Also, earlier I had a beautiful Northern Flicker woodpecker show up and spy through my kitchen windows for a bit. Couldn't get a pic.


Sent from my kayak...
 

NCridgehunter

Eight Pointer
Sawweeet I live in the middle of nowhere as well surrounded by about 160 acres of woods. I see everything from coons, squirrels, deer, turkeys, and the occasional coyote or bear that scoot through. Have even managed to kill a pretty good buck from around the house on just the 6 acres that I do own in just the 2 years that I have lived here. ENJOY!!
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Baby eating hostas.jpgHere's a picture or two of Baby..she's standing on the back porch...I wonder if brother or sister was cooking on the Weber ?Baby deer on the porch.jpg
and her devouring my wifes hostas, they didn't stand a chance. She even got on top of the strawberry planter and ate them too.
 
Last edited:

wademaster

Guest
Hahaha!

Added some things. Few bird feeders and houses. Tons of wildlife here. Carolina wrens, American robins, bluebirds and lots of others have visited us already. The feeding staton pictures is complete with a rain gauge and thermometer. Black oil sunflower seed, thistle and a couple types of suet for now. Much more to come.

42e8b5fbc038ffd07c5cb2fd41609ec7.jpg


18bf03beac4968b39e0296c0014e729d.jpg



Sent from my kayak...
 

wademaster

Guest
Ironically a few minutes after my previous post my wife looked out the kitchen window and this deer was checking us out.

437d6656c748bb54856ea39bba77f1bd.jpg



Sent from my kayak...
 

wademaster

Guest
Come spring time after the threat of frost has passed I'm thinking of planting sunflowers around the property for the birds. I done this once at a past residence, anybody else done this? Thoughts?


Sent from my kayak...
 

wademaster

Guest
A trail cam is soon to come as well as an actual quality camera to get some nice pics.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Come spring time after the threat of frost has passed I'm thinking of planting sunflowers around the property for the birds. I done this once at a past residence, anybody else done this? Thoughts?


Sent from my kayak...

around my house they never mature, the groundhogs and skirls cut them down or ride them down, you may have better luck.
Planted in food plots they seem to do better, I guess it's a numbers thing.
 

wademaster

Guest
around my house they never mature, the groundhogs and skirls cut them down or ride them down, you may have better luck.
Planted in food plots they seem to do better, I guess it's a numbers thing.

I'll have to try it and see. Going to try and plant some other plants for the birds after I see what the previous homeowners had planted and where. I'll have to wait until spring to see what sprouts.


Sent from my kayak...
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I think you can forget about hostas, roses, day lillies, iris's...and most other flowers and ornamentals. Your loaded up with deer, that's for sure !
IF..IF.. you chose to plant any trees, make sure you use a piece of corregated drain pipe around them or the bucks will think you planted them just for them to rub their horns on. A piece of fencing isn't enough in my experience to keep a determined buck away from a newly planted apple, nectarine, pear or plum tree.
 

wademaster

Guest
I think you can forget about hostas, roses, day lillies, iris's...and most other flowers and ornamentals. Your loaded up with deer, that's for sure !
IF..IF.. you chose to plant any trees, make sure you use a piece of corregated drain pipe around them or the bucks will think you planted them just for them to rub their horns on. A piece of fencing isn't enough in my experience to keep a determined buck away from a newly planted apple, nectarine, pear or plum tree.

I'll definitely have to keep the young trees protected. I've got a friend who planted a TON of Leyland cypress trees and quite a few fruit trees as well. The deer have killed LOTS of those. He actually has acquired a depredation permit. I haven't seen any antlers yet but they're out there if I've got that many does hanging around regularly. I may have mentioned this previously but oh well: there are hasta planted already and I've reached the realization that the deer have decimated the ones that are gone now.
 

Cape Fear Logan

Guest
cool looking backyard - be interesting to see whats out there at night..
 

wademaster

Guest
cool looking backyard - be interesting to see whats out there at night..

I keep saying it but I've yet to do it. Too busy I suppose. Or maybe it's partially procrastination. I'm going to put a trail cam out there. I've watched some at night but I want to see what ALL comes out. Now that we're on the subject I'll ask this. Has anyone used the Tasco infrared cam that Walmart carries that's priced like $60? Cheap prices sometimes mean cheap quality. Thanks


Sent from my kayak...
 

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
You guys are going to regret this when the wifey decides she wants some flowers around the place. Lots of fun to watch at first but some of those animals can become a PIT butt eventually.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
You guys are going to regret this when the wifey decides she wants some flowers around the place. Lots of fun to watch at first but some of those animals can become a PIT butt eventually.

Pansys don't stand a chance at my house unless covered by a fence and then they can't grow too close. Roses...just snacks until chewed to the ground....about the only thing those varmints won't eat is a marigold. Those are pretty darn deer resistant as far as my experience goes.
They are a PIT butt, all the time. And the wife loves to give them apples, bread, corn, and all manner of stale breads and cereals ...so they know the feedbucket is on almost all the time in our yard. She's about given up on the plant life now, and would rather watch the animal life.
 

wademaster

Guest
Some issues are to be expected, of course. I'll welcome them until it becomes a problem that NEEDS to be dealt with. A dog for instance works great for me. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
 

gremcat

Twelve Pointer
You guys are making me jealous. I hate living in the city. I used to hate dealing with Fishers and yotes in the trash and now I am afraid of what or who is in my trash:) I can't wait to move back to the sticks.
 

wademaster

Guest
Eric Revo, I'd like to see some pics of some of your feeder setups. Just to get some more ideas. Thanks.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Eric Revo, I'd like to see some pics of some of your feeder setups. Just to get some more ideas. Thanks.

LOL..our yard looks like a bird paradise ..I'll send you some pictures when I get home but the picture I posted earlier with the two gobblers in the road shows some of the feeders in the front yard. Always put some water nearby, that is a very important component of bird feeding stations.
 

wademaster

Guest
I'll agree. Water is as much of an attractant as anything. Contrary to other homes I've lived in this one doesn't have many trees in the actual yard. I may have to invest in some large multi hanger shepherds hooks. I've got nothing but woods around the house though.


Sent from my kayak...
 

wademaster

Guest
Possums, raccoons and deer out this evening.

3fd0496f2380a0288fb04827e4e0354a.jpg


78adb1cd49b6281aae6b3e8b36eb4c26.jpg



Sent from my kayak...
 
Top