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We have a small herd of deer that comes through our yard and we leave corn out in the winter and in the summer fill up a boulder that was carved out like a bowl over many years of sitting in a creek.
We have names for a few of them
- round ear (she has round ears, and is very old)
- chicky mama (she has at least 1 fawn every year)
- limpy ( she got hit by a car and now has a limp
- ticks ( this is the unlucky one that gets all the ticks)
That’s the 4 of them
When I lived in a bigger city, I occasionally fed the local pigeons (birdseed and nuts, not bread or anything). Sometimes a couple of them would stand in my lap. Does that count?
Little bird feet/presence can be surprisingly warm on a cold morning, and pigeons are quite cute up close, imo.
Crows on a few occasions. They are remarkably easy to befriend as they are highly intelligent.
I have a pair of crows that I feed regularly, but they aren’t what I would call friendly. They won’t come within about six meters. I’m hoping this will improve over time, but It’s been about five years so I doubt it.
They are very individualistic. I’ve had crows that would land on me and say hello (in crow speak) and others that would fly around me, but never really come close.
The common denominator that I have seen, if you befriend one you will friend the entire murder. The flip side of that if you piss one off, all of them are pissed off at you and that never goes away.
We had foxes that used to hang out on our deck like playful dogs
I wouldn’t say friends exactly but we have a pair of ravens that live in our yard. They have a symbiotic relationship with the cats. The cats catch mice and voles and then leave them in the front yard for the ravens, who are more than happy to gobble them up. There’s a whole unkindness of ravens that live in our woods but these two hang out around the house. In the spring there is constant squawking and chatter from them, it’s so cool to hear.
We also have a permanent resident hummingbird somewhere near the house. He loves the deck and will hover quite close to you when you’re sitting out.
And I can’t forget the flock of wild turkeys that roam the neighborhood. Every afternoon they stroll through the yard and last summer a mama and her babies were roosting in the trees out front. Around seven years ago there was a pair of albino babies born and now that flock has white feathers throughout. I have a video somewhere I should post.
It’s a veritable bird paradise over here lol.
I had some raven buddies when I lived in Seattle. Loved greeting them in the morning and tossing them breakfast.
We also have an itinerant hummingbee atour current home. I don’t get to see him as much since I quit smoking but the tradeoff is worth it.
Oh it absolutely is! Congratulations on quitting smoking, one day I will join you.
Edit to add: Thanks!
I switched to vaping and thrn our vape shop introduced 0 nicotine mixes, think it is a B vitamin which gives a little boost (I forget the details). We were probably told when it happened but forgot or weren’t really paying attention. After surviving uwitting withdrawal without murder we’ve been nicotine free since and I was even able to ditch the 0 nic vape pacifier.
An unkindness of ravens?
They’re not as bad as a murder of crows.
Yup, that’s what a group of them are called. I had to look it up to confirm!
I had a squirrel taking peanuts out of my hand in Philadelphia. I’m told that I am lucky the squirrel didn’t rob me. I felt like a fucking Disney princess that day.
I’m living vicariously through that moment. Might be my new “happy place”
Ayyyy, Philly resident here!
I never managed to “pet” a squirrel tho :(
My roommate did maintenance at a driving range and one day he found a chick without feathers on the ground. After giving the parents enough time to do something about it he brought it home and we raised Frankie ourselves. She would perch on my shoulder and play with my earrings. We’d leave the door open and she would fly around outside, but always came back.
That is certainly one way to describe your mother
I have a family of magpies visit nearly everyday. I think it must have started because previous renters were probably feeding them. The mum showed up first, and then a adult male, and then two babies. Very quickly, the babies would show up on their own. One of them even taps on the window and flies up by the door lock to try to come in if it sees me. I don’t let them in - it’d be a nightmare of chaos, feathers, and terror poops.
I give them some sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and on occasion, walnuts, cashews, and some plain cooked chicken breast if I have any. They’re comfortable enough with me to eat out of my hand, and discipline their kids in front of me 😂
Also, I’m now learning their preferences. The older baby bird really likes cashews and will give me the stink eye if I offer anything else. The other day, I offered a sunflower seed, and it came around to give me a nip (gentle) on the finger as if to tell me it wanted something tastier.
I live near a big estate that breeds pheasants for game shooting, and for several years my garden was visited by a succession of male pheasants. Eventually they’d be tame enough to eat from my hand, and sometimes they’d bring their lady friends along. One day there were 15 pheasants in my garden.
I don’t see them any more because I stopped feeding birds altogether, after one of my neighbours got a predatory cat and I started finding corpses, mainly small songbirds. These days it’s just wood pigeons and magpies, none of which seem inclined to make friends.
All of em are my friends :3
All these replies and no “Your Mum”?
She told me she’s not looking for friendship, so
Yes and no. I discovered a racoon wandering around my work during the day, turns out he had distemper and eventually animal control came to collect him. I did my best to make his last day comfortable though.
Then there was another time I found a big ol’ German shepherd/Labrador mix wandering around my neighborhood. We took him in, tried many times to find his owners (we even got the phone number on file for whoever chipped him but they hung up immediately as soon as we brought it up) but eventually he became ours. Sadly, he was only with us for about a couple weeks before peacefully passing away out of nowhere (on Christmas Eve no less)
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Loads.
Squirrel came by often for walnuts. He’d look for my son at specific times during the day
I ended up accidentally training a squirrel to be a burglar and finding squirrel droppings in your kitchen even when you left the kitchen window closed, well… it didn’t bother me as much but it was an apartment building and he burgled others as well so had to put him in timeout once (large see-through moving box, breathing one, and water food and some pine branches to hide in) for a good few hours.
Moved out rather soon after that, so idk if his lineage still knows the way.
But the crows from the same area at least taught their young that me is friend. Me bring meatball. (I didn’t move far, only a few hundred m so it wasn’t as challenging for them to follow.)
Humans count lmao
