Do you feed wild animals?

puella

Berserk forever
I live in a small village surrounded by fields and forests. Thanks to this environment, I see wild animals regularly: tons of small birds, toads, lizards, bats, owls, kites and hawks... even the occasional weasel!

I love to feed the birds especially, it's a great pleasure of mine. They were very helpful to endure the whole Covid lockdown. I know some of my neighbors even have visitors like moles or squirrels but for me, that's impossible because I host a most elegant feline hunter. :iva: He takes care of the rodents and, unfortunately, occasionally grabs a bird or a bat too.

Some time after I moved here, I noticed that hedgehogs tend to come to my garden too! I love hedgehogs so I ardently feed them with dried mealworms. They don't always stick around for very long, sometimes they leave after a month, but this year I've got one or two that seem like they'll spend the winter here. I've been fattening them up, so they should enjoy a smooth hibernation. :ganishka:

Anyway, thinking about this got me curious. Are there others who feed wild animals on the forum? If so, please share your stories!
 
I live in a small village surrounded by fields and forests. Thanks to this environment, I see wild animals regularly: tons of small birds, toads, lizards, bats, owls, kites and hawks... even the occasional weasel!

I'm an animal lover, so this sounds wonderful to me (except the bats bit, goodness!)

I love to feed the birds especially, it's a great pleasure of mine. They were very helpful to endure the whole Covid lockdown. I know some of my neighbors even have visitors like moles or squirrels but for me, that's impossible because I host a most elegant feline hunter. :iva: He takes care of the rodents and, unfortunately, occasionally grabs a bird or a bat too.

I have two serial-killer cats too, though they never brought a bat back home, thank God. It should be obvious by now that I have a bat-phobia haha. Those things really freak me out!

Some time after I moved here, I noticed that hedgehogs tend to come to my garden too! I love hedgehogs so I ardently feed them with dried mealworms. They don't always stick around for very long, sometimes they leave after a month, but this year I've got one or two that seem like they'll spend the winter here. I've been fattening them up, so they should enjoy a smooth hibernation. :ganishka:

Or provide a full meal to other predators :femto:

That sounds very wholesome though!

Anyway, thinking about this got me curious. Are there others who feed wild animals on the forum? If so, please share your stories!

Do park animals count? If so, I love bringing nuts to feed the squirrels whenever I visit the parks in London. I do hesitate to feed the birds though, because of all the signs asking people not to do it. I don't want to cause them any potential harm.

There is a wild animal story I'd share, though it's more of a robbery incident. My uncle was craving some chocolate, badly, as he has a sweet tooth and it was his cheat day. He got a kit-kat and was looking forward to digging in but then a crow swooped by and snatched it from his hands. Little bastard then flew into the distance while cawing in laughter. That kit-kat was never found again...
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
We also live near a forest, and because we're in a second floor unit, we get a lot of birds when we put out bird seed. It also creates a huge mess! :ganishka: We've gotten blue jays, finches, and there's some sort of bird of prey (maybe a hawk or a falcon?:griffnotevil:) that makes its nest nearby that's always screaming. On quiet days, we'll even see deer who will snack on grass and plants on the ground level right near our unit.

The most notable event involving wildlife was an admittedly minor incident where one of our cats brought in a finch that had flown onto our balcony. The bird was pretty shaken up, so we gave him a little birdy bath before he promptly crapped on the floor and flew away! Thanks a lot, buddy! :schierke:

 
The most notable event involving wildlife was an admittedly minor incident where one of our cats brought in a finch that had flown onto our balcony. The bird was pretty shaken up, so we gave him a little birdy bath before he promptly crapped on the floor and flew away! Thanks a lot, buddy! :schierke:

That's such a cute bird!

The crap incident reminded me of another story that happened to a buddy of mine. He placed a mousetrap in his home to catch an unwelcome guest. He woke up the next day, went to the mousetrap and saw that the food was gone and a piece of shit was left in its place! A straight up middle-finger from that little critter hahaha. That story gets me every time, especially how he tells it.
 
Same here, living in a small village surrounded by fields and forests.
Back in May I've noticed a big hedgehog in the garden.
Fed her everyday... then few weeks later I've noticed a smaller one, then few days after another one, then a last one.
Lots of corners so they can hide during the day.
So the whole family is living in the garden. :guts:
The three lil ones are not that shy, even coming at me to ask for food.

Otherwise, the birds are coming too.
So they have their large bowl of seeds waiting (in a tree, so the cats can't catch them) for them at the right times of the year.

And super cute garden dormouse family living in the climbing ivy.
I unfortunately don't see them often (mostly hear them) but they know where to find food.
 
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