Arizona nature, wildlife you have personally experienced (Phoenix, Tucson: to buy, school)

[wit-nit]

Coyotes, rattlesnakes, garden snakes, owls, geese, roadrunners, cactus wrens, pigeons, humming birds, lizards, horned toads, desert frogs, javelin, desert rats, moles, hawks, Gila monsters, loan sharks, card sharks, etc etc, about everything you can ever see in 60 years living here.

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by Burning Madolf

Once saw a Green Heron by my pool. Very cool.

Up in Prescott Javelinas used to walk all over my property, we could smell them way before we saw them.

Lots of hummingbirds, an occasional coyote in the neighborhood and crap loads of humans.

I didn't have Javelinas close by when I lived in Prescott but had a lot of them when I lived in Payson. We even had a "Javelina Crossing" sign at the end of our street and they really did cross there. Every morning, early. I'd see them on my way to work. Also had a family living under the vacation house next door and one of them actually pushed up the garage door to get to the pet food! Didn't think they were that strong nosed. Also had a raccoon that used to 'visit' and eat the cat food on the deck. And a coyote who would sometimes sashay right down the middle of street, bothering nobody and nobody bothering him. Just part of the street life. Otherwise, I've experienced most of the wildlife everyone else has written about.


When I was a kid here in Cottonwood there were quite a few wild burros around. Probably from Jerome originally.

[KurtAZ]

Saw one of these last year...I think he was staking out my neighbors' coy pond

[PhureeKeeper]

I'm in a subdivision in Chandler with a couple of little "lakes". We have tons of riparian and water birds frequent the area. Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night Herons, Cormorants and Killdeer are common.

The most unusual wildlife I've spotted was probably over 10 years ago. It was a white pelican who blew in from a hurricane in Mexico. He hung around for about 3 days.

[Finper]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

Saw one of these last year...I think he was staking out my neighbors' coy pond

That's a blue heron

[Giesela]

Interesting stuff. What does a havelina smell like? Sounds pretty strong. Love quail, I've only spent a small amount of time in Tucson and saw Quail on that one popular hike I can't remember the name of. I want to retire to a house like the one mentioned, that backs up to a reserve or something, that sounds wonderful, Bobcats! The fact of Elk and wild horses is not something I knew about.
Fun about the cows in camp.
Spiders I can do without. A tarantula might give me a heart attack.

[BIG CATS]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Spiders I can do without. A tarantula might give me a heart attack.

Why? Because its a big, scary spider? They've NEVER KILLED ANYONE. Their venom is super weak. You should be afraid of dogs, who kill several dozen people annually.


I'm just asking that you don't come here and maim and kill our unique wildlife over ignorance, like so many people do. I gave a nice verbal lashing to a Mexican mother and child who were throwing rocks at a rattlesnake that was a good 20' off the trail, just sitting on a rock basking in the sun. I cant believe the disregard I've seen towards our wildlife!

[teddyearp]

Originally Posted by wit-nit

See another problem with smoking weed, you start seeing things.

D'oH!!

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by Giesela

What do you experience in your yard or property? General location at least please.

We see great horned owls quite a lot during the summer months in our Gilbert neighborhood. They spend the day napping in pecan trees. At times we've seen two and even three in our own back yard. There are two adolescents in the mix this year.

[sarashane]

As a former Grand Canyon National Park resident I saw ring tailed cats, rabbits, mule deer, elk, skunks, chipmunks, squirrels, ravens, havalinas, a lone black wolf (it was just me and him at 4:00 am), coyote, big horn sheep,and an occasional bat. Loved it there.