[fyrffytr1]

I have about 1.5 acres minus the house and shop that I am slowly turning into a bird and pollinator habitat. I live in a suburban residential area and am fortunate to have a variety of birds and bugs. I have blue jays, red birds red and yellow finches, brown thrashers, wrens sparrows and hummingbirds. i also have several different butterflies, moths and assorted bugs. I also have squirrels, rabbits, deer, raccoons, opossums, black snakes copper heads and occasionally a water moccasin. It has been several years since I encountered a rattlesnake.
I only had to dispatch one copperhead and one moccasin for getting too close to the neighbors children. If I can, I relocate them to the swamp a couple hundred yards down the drainage easement that runs across the back of our properties.
The neatest visitor I had was a 4 foot long alligator that I loaded up in a plastic tote and relocated him to the local WMR with the blessing of the DNR.
Another interesting visitor was a hawk that landed on a section of split rail fence around one of our flower beds. I was able to get this shot just as he left. Sometimes the squirrels get confused about who has the right of way.