Strangest thing you've seen in your backyard (Arlington, Reston: house, living in)

[cdmurphy]

A giant, scary, battle-scarred hawk staring at me through the family room window. He perched on the deck rail for a long time; my poor cat was all puffed up, growling and hissing.

Otherwise we have the usual voles, chipmunks, rabbits, etc. We have a mockingbird family nesting in the back, a mourning dove couple nesting in the front hanging basket (empty coconut fiber), and a starling couple nesting over the garage. You can see our cat is such an effective deterrent (ha). She does go outside for a limited amount of time, but the only bird she's ever had was one that the neighbor's cat caught and was carrying across our yard. My cat ran at him and startled him; he dropped the bird and she snatched it away.

[bornindc]

We get plenty of wild animals (foxes, hawks, snakes etc.) in the back yard but the weirdest was some fancy, exotic chicken that neither I nor the animal control guy could catch. A very colorful, feathery bird, something you might find in the zoo - definitely not indigenous to North Springfield! Most likely escaped from someone who was keeping it for cockfighting, according to the animal control guy.

[slduvall]

This time of year I have to be careful when I look out my window, my neighbor has a habit of wearing very baggy gym pants and an obsession with handpicking the clover..bent over...not a pretty picture. I just wish he would face his own house!

On skinks...we had some in FL..I had never since one, and the real estate agent pointed them out. I thought she said skank. I spent a couple years referring to it as skanks. Taught my 4 year old they were skanks. She loved them..told everyone we had skanks! They kept our property bug free!

[lasershen111]

My parents live in Maryland, right outside of DC, and when I was in high school.. I ran outside (late for the bus like always), just to see a horse standing in our front yard!!! We live in a pretty standard neighborhood with a bunch of houses.. and no farms that we know of relatively close by. It was a pretty random thing to see for a half asleep teenager.

[jillabean]

I once found a wet, terrified cocker spaniel. He wasn't one of my neighbors dogs either. I lured him onto my porch where I gave him water and food (but he wouldn't eat). I felt bad because I couldn't keep him and had to call animal control--I figure that's part of what they are for. He had some kind of eye infection/problem and I really couldn't care for him properly (he was so scared of me). I kept and eye out for lost dog signs, but never saw anything. So I hope his owners found him by checking out the county animal shelter.

[ICS67]

I'll go towards the micro end of the scale here and say the strangest thing I ever saw in my yard, only once, was a hickory horned devil. I can't seem to paste in a photo of it here, but google it for an image -- it's striking.

Of course, with its brilliant blue color, the caterpillar was in total violation of the Reston Association's approved color scheme and received a summons from the RA's Design & Review Board, which is probably the reason why I only saw it that one time. The hickory horned devil turns into the regal moth, which I unfortunately never saw.

My neighbors across the street might win the prize for still life find: when they scraped the top layer of soil off their backyard to replace it, they found two cars buried there (no sign of Jimmy Hoffa, though). Apparently, theirs was the last house of the 15 all built at the same time on our cul-de-sac, and I guess the builders used their backyard as an impromptu burial ground.

[katyusha25]

Prehistoric-sized spiders.

[Cardiff Kook]

Originally Posted by jillabean

I once found a wet, terrified cocker spaniel. He wasn't one of my neighbors dogs either. I lured him onto my porch where I gave him water and food (but he wouldn't eat). I felt bad because I couldn't keep him and had to call animal control--I figure that's part of what they are for. He had some kind of eye infection/problem and I really couldn't care for him properly (he was so scared of me). I kept and eye out for lost dog signs, but never saw anything. So I hope his owners found him by checking out the county animal shelter.

it sounds like the owners are the last people who should be taking care of the dog

[elias9193]

In Stafford we've seen Peacocks, Bob cats, wild Turkey ( not the kind you drink) Beavers, Bald Eagles, Hawks, Bears, Foxes, and of course Deer.

[michgc]

When I first moved to Vienna 11 years ago, I saw what I think was an albino squirrel. It was pretty freaky looking and scared me that there was some nuclear power plant nearby producing strange animals. But I never saw it or anything out of the ordinary again.