Introduction to What Lives in my Yard?

NOTICE: I have decided to transition this website to a YouTube Channel. I am publishing full video episodes of "What Lives in my Yard?" on a weekly basis. New episodes will be published each week-end with some quick short videos in-between. As I did here, I'll be attempting to find and identify every single animal species that lives in my yard. I'll include all the things listed below for this site, but in video format. If you enjoyed this website, please join us over on YouTube at this link: What Lives in My Yard? - YouTube . There you can subscribe and hit the notifications button if you never want to miss an episode, or just stop by whenever you have a couple minutes. I hope you'll check it out and hit the thumbs up button on any of the videos you like. Be sure to leave me comments there about my quest to identify every animal that lives in my yard, about the new video format, about your experiences with specific animals, or ask questions. I read every single comment, and I try to respond to as many as I can. 

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I've always wondered what animals share my yard. Our yard is 5.25 acres on a mountainside in southern New Hampshire. About four of those acres are wooded and two small brooks run through it. One small corner is a bit boggy year-round. In short, there are a variety of habitats on our property that must be home to many, many different animals.

Including insects, I'd bet there are something like 1000 different species of animals that live on our property for all or part of the year. This blog will detail my efforts to discover all of them!

Methods for Finding and Identifying Animals

When possible, I'll include photos of each species that I find. I'll be using a variety of methods to uncover my secret animal neighbors including an automatic trail camera that takes digital photos when a motion detector is activated (even in pitch black conditions), pit traps (for bugs), a microscope for the teeny tiny critters, a live trap for small vermin, and a variety of different equipment and methods for finding and identifying every living creature that shares my little neck of the woods.

It should be quite an adventure. In the past, we have had everything from a ruffed grouse to a black bear. In the area where we live animal residents include there are coyotes, foxes, bobcats, moose, fisher cats, weasels, deer, a couple hundred bird species, and more bugs than I can shake a stick at.

We get very cold and snowy winters, which, of course, will reduce the amount of wildlife that we can find during those coldest months, but using the evidence they leave in the snow, we should be able to add some to our list even then .

So, although I know quite a few of the animals that live here already, I'll start the tally from scratch and only add them to the master list as I spot them (or find irrefutable evidence). I'll make regular entries for new finds, with some basic information about them and a photo or two if possible.

I'll also detail the methods I use to discover what animals live on our property and the times of year when they were found. I'll scout the area for food sources for various animals to see if they might find our yard to be a good habitat. I'll be using eyes, ears, electronics, and everything else I can think of to find the animals, and then field guides, the internet, local experts, and even readers' help to identify what I find.

How Many Species Will I Find?

My rough guess is that when all is said and done, I'll be able to record 1000 species here. That's a flat out guess. I have no idea how many species of insects live in New Hampshire, or most other animals for that matter. I do know that there are about 240-250 species of birds that reside in the state at least part-time, although many are water birds or live in habitats not present in our yard.

There's also the distinction between wild and domestic animals. On the domestic side, we have chickens, 2 dogs, a cat, and will probably add a couple of koi in a small pond in the backyard at some point this summer. So without counting the fish, that's four (including the three human beings) that live on our property right off the bat.

Come along for the adventure and never miss a new discovery by following our the What Lives in my Yard? blog.

By the way, for our definitions, if an animal is found on the property, we'll count it as living here even though many of them may be just passing through (like black bears, for example).