What in the the world do all of these things have in common? Well, let me tell you, all of these and more are found in my yard, yes I live in the city, but I have a wonderful nature habitat for all. I am an equal opportunity animal and nature lover. All birds, rabbits, squirrels, snakes, turtles are all welcome in my yard. I have many large mature trees in my backyard, so in the summer here it is well shaded for animals. I also have lots of honeysuckle bushes surrounding my back yard for shelter and nests for the birds. Then there is my never ending bush/branch pile (from all the said trees and bushes) that hide my rabbits and turtle.
So let me show you some of the animals who live here. Let's start with the bunnies, because who can resist those big ears and soft fur. I have Eastern Cottontails living and breeding in the back yard and in my front yard under my ornamental maple tree in the summer.
The Eastern Cottontail is a medium sized rabbit with long ears. There size is about 14 to 19 inches and they weigh about 2-3 lbs. They like to live in brush or forest border, they rest in a form or dense clump of grass. In my yard as I said they have my brush pile to live in and under my ornamental maple in the summer. They are most active early in the morning and at dusk. The female can have up to 8 liters per breeding season which is from February through September. Most liters will contain 1-9 young, at birth they are about 5 inches and mostly naked. They are fully ready to be on their own by 13 to 16 days. Unfortunately, they do not have a long life or high survival rate. In the wild rabbits will live up to 5 years on average. You can find more about these adorable cottontails here
My first baby cottontail
And off he goes!
Next are the Squirrels and boy do I have them, there are at least 10 to 15 in my yard all day. I guess it helps that I love to feed the birds and offer many treats for them to survive the winters into the spring as they breed. You can find my squirrels eating under the bird feeders every day all day into the dusk. I will put ears of dried corn out for them when it's really cold out during the winter months. This year we had a very mild winter so the squirrels didn't really hibernate, all they did was eat and get really fat.
I have noticed recently there are some smaller squirrels in the group who are not one bit afraid of me. When I am outside getting my garden cleaned up they just hang around looking to see if I have anything for them. Squirrels are cute and have a fun little personality. They are extremely agile they totally amaze me at how fast they can figure the distance between two object when jumping. The other day I had the dogs out and my little one treed a squirrel and just sat at the bottom of the tree waiting for the squirrel, well he showed her, he jumped from the tree to the roof of the house in on jump. I was totally impressed by that move. Here are some of my many pictures of my squirrels.
And to finish up with the other nature in my yard I will show you a red sided garter snake and my 3 toed box turtle.
Red-Sided Garter Snake
3 Toed Box Turtle
I know that the box turtle can live 50 to 80 years and they have about a 5 acre range they live on. If you see one leave them be they can find their way home.
Thank you for reading and looking through my photos, I hope you can find the wild in your yards also.
All content is mine exception on sourced material
All photos are mine taken with my Cannon EOS Rebel T2i or my iPhone.
@pinkdragonfly