Our furry neighbors are mostly of the diminutive sort—chipmunks, rabbits, and gray squirrels.

Spanky

Gray squirrels are perhaps the most common and sociable wild mammals in this area. Frequenting our grounds is a small family of about half a dozen, some of whom we can recognize and have named. Spanky is one of a previous group that we knew collectively as "The Little Rascals" because of their boisterous antics. In addition to rotund Spanky were long-tailed Alfalfa and diminutive Darla.

Spot Check "No nuts?  Aw, nuts!"

"Spot" is the matriarch of the current (2004) family.  When it comes to food, she makes clear she will not tolerate competition.  Even so, she is not as brave as one or two of the others, who will gladly take food from a human hand—if only they can manage to sneak up when Spot isn't looking. We can identify Spot, not only by her attitude, but also by the curious notch in her tail.  Other members of the group are Rusty, friendliest of the bunch and named for his distinct color; Flip, rather shy, but a truly impressive acrobat; and Crunch, a particularly noisy eater.

Opossums and raccoons, sometimes joined by a stray bat or two, prowl for food at night. Deer have also been known to wander through on occasion.

Among our feathered neighbors are cardinals (the Ohio state bird), blue jays, English sparrows, gold finches, grackles, mourning doves, pigeons, robins, starlings, and wrens. Also frequently heard but never seen is at least one species of woodpecker, suspected to be a flicker since they are fairly common hereabouts. Visitors occasionally drifting in from the outskirts of town include barn swallows, bluebirds, catbirds, chickadees, crows, nuthatches, red-tailed hawks, and red-winged blackbirds.

Too numerous to list, local insects range from fleas to cecropia moths, and include an assortment of friendlies and unfriendlies such as ants, beetles, bugs, crickets, flies, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, bees, hornets, and wasps. Among the more notable specimens are cicadas, dragonflies, fireflies, Japanese beetles, lady-bird beetles, and praying mantises. The most visually delightful, of course, are the butterflies: Resident varieties include cabbage, fritillary, monarch, red admiral, sulfurwing, black and tiger swallowtail. Most are rather aloof, off doing their own thing; but the red admirals are sociable, hanging out in small groups and sometimes even landing on our heads or shoulders.

Worthy of special note, if only because of their infrequent but overwhelming visits, are the 17-year cicadas. They are rather large as Ohio insects go, the adults being about 2.5 cm. long with a wingspan of nearly 6 cm.

Cicadas emerging on the trunk of a hackberry tree:
Over the next few hours these light-colored juveniles will darken to indigo-black, as their exoskeletons harden.

Though some people are terrified of them, cicadas do not bite or sting.  They do not attack humans (or any animals, for that matter).  However, they are very poor navigators (both in the air and on the ground), and sometimes run into people by mistake.  A sudden "CHERRT" next to your ear announces one's arrival on your shoulder, and you can be assured he's just as surprised by the encounter as you are.  A cicada's grip is firm, but not painful; it can be gently picked or brushed off.
     There is no question that cicadas are loud.  If picked up, one may emit a raspy hiss loud enough to startle its molester into dropping it.  En masse, their mating chorus swells in slow, rhythmic waves from late morning until early evening, and can cause temporary hearing loss in people exposed to it for several hours.
     Cicadas can be annoying or frightening if you aren't used to them, but they are interesting and impressive creatures.  They are beautiful in their own way, with their indigo-black bodies, vermillion (or occasionally white or turquoise) eyes, and golden wings.  Their frenetic activity begins in late spring or early summer, and lasts for about a month.  Then the eggs are laid, the adults die, and the larvae burrow deep into the soil, where they remain for another 16 years and 10 months.  (Though cicadas are not in themselves in any way dangerous, I have heard of at least one instance in which one landed on a driver's face, startling him and causing an accident.  Lesson: Keep your car windows closed when you hear them.)

As in most neighborhoods in our area, there lots of earthworms and garden slugs, as well as centipedes and many varieties of spiders.

Living a couple of kilometers from the nearest waterway, we are not in the habit of playing host to fish or amphibians. For the most part, reptiles also seem to avoid this neighborhood, although garden tortoises make occasional appearances, and snakes (mostly "friendlies" like garter snakes and black racers) are common in the rural areas beyond.