Backyard wildlife

I'm always surprised when a non-Wisconsin native visits my home state and shows excitement over the abundance of squirrels and deer. Although Wisconsin has nowhere near the exotic species of Tanzania, it likewise excites me to see new wildlife. I've been pleasantly surprised by the variety of species found in my yard. I was inspired to write this today as a result of the Baglafecht weavers outside our window.

Male Baglafecht weaver, female in the upper right. 

The nest outside our window. 

Safety of the bushes. 

There are several weavers in our yard; the avocado tree is covered with nests and their calls are heard constantly. They are a beautiful bird, build interesting nests, and one of them has a nest directly outside our window and recently had a chick hatch. We can hear it cry out and get a good view of the adult feeding it, all pretty good stuff. Well, today the chick exited the nest for the first time and when it dropped the 6ft to the ground, it was quite stunned. It found itself boxed in by a cement wall (see picture above). The adult had food in its mouth and was calling the chick to jump over the wall and join her in the safety of the bushes. After a few attempts, it finally made it over the wall and into the bushes with its mother. The whole scene was very National Geographic and reminded me of spring time back in Wisconsin. 

Birds are numerous in our yard, I've tallied 30+ different species in the yard, some permanent residents, some just passing through. My two favorite regulars are the Speckled Mousebird, and the Cordon Bleu. The Cordon-bleu is a gorgeous pastel blue, pretty small, and spends a lot of time on the ground hopping around. The Speckled Mousebird is pretty cool because not only does it have a mohawk (crest in bird language) and a long tail, but it perches in a very peculiar way (see picture). The mousebirds kind of remind me of an orangutan the way it swings on the branches with its legs.  

Red cheeked cordon bleu. 

Speckled Mousebirds perching. 

There has also been a resident four toed hedgehog in the yard. This guy's nocturnal so you can hear him poking around at night. They are very slow so if you can get a good view of them.

Four toed hedgehog, named for the number of toes on the hind legs. 

There has also recently been a slender mongoose stalking around. It's not nearly as cute and much more skittish than the hedgehog.

A slender mongoose. There are over 50 subspecies in Africa. 

There are also squirrels here, though they are much smaller and more rodent-ish than the Wisconsin variety. There has also been an influx of bats due to the arrival of the mango season. You can hear them fluttering in the branches and breaking off mangoes in the night. In the morning there are half eaten mangoes strewn on the ground.

Unfortunately, there is also quasi-domesticated urban wildlife like cats and dogs. I absolutely despise feral dogs and have no problem throwing stones at them to drive them out of the yard. From years in developing countries I've been trained to drive them away and all of them react to motion of bending over to pick up a stone by running away as fast as possible. I don't plan on taking any more drastic actions against the dogs...that is, unless they dare bother our resident hedgehog!