Texas Backyard Wildlife
Welcome to Texas Backyard Wildlife!
We share our Austin home with dozens of other animals - foxes, raccoons, deer, rock squirrels, snakes, owls, skunks, hummingbirds... Some live here with us, under the deck or high up in a tree, some are just passing through. Every day we see something new, a new butterfly, a new bird, a new behavior.
We have recorded thousands of hours of video and taken hundreds of photos of the creatures who live in our yard with us here in Austin – eating, playing, taking care of babies, hunting, and just hanging out. Texas Backyard Wildlife is our way of sharing this with our neighbors here in Austin and around the world.
Dan Ballard & Jane Hunter
texasbackyardwildlife@gmail.com
Texas Backyard Wildlife
Dan just cleaned the camera under the shed. It's been dirty for a couple of weeks, but there have been raccoons under there every day so we couldn't pull the cam and clean it during daylight hours. Today it was just too disgusting for words - everything was a smudgy blur - so Dan went out with a flashlight after the raccoons had left. Here's a picture, pre-cleaning. Astonishing that we could see anything at all.
4 days ago | [YT] | 49
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
Dan manning the cameras at "cluster control" this morning. The livestream is bottom right.
2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 107
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
Papa Fox on a stump at the firepit in the early morning sunshine.
4 months ago | [YT] | 140
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
"Any chance of a glass of chardonnay? I've had a long, hot day under this deck and, by the way, it's not all that clean here, either. Don't you guys have a broom? These peanut shells are uncomfortable."
5 months ago | [YT] | 119
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
We found 2 scorpions in the house last night. One was a big adult, who is now experiencing the joys of fresh air and the Texas summer heat somewhere out beyond the garage; the other was this tiny fellow, who was on the kitchen floor and is now out in the front wood pile. Dan included his fingertip in the photo so we could give you an idea of just how tiny tiny is. Pretty tiny.
6 months ago | [YT] | 107
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
Our wildflowers bloomed again about a week ago after we got a little rain, and this fox - I think it's Dolly - posed on a stump for us surrounded by yellow blossoms.
6 months ago | [YT] | 166
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
A couple of views of a cactus flower. It was beside the trail on the way down to the water bowl. Dan noticed it on Tuesday, and today, when I looked, the flower had already died. A little glimpse of stunning beauty, and all the more precious because it was so fleeting.
7 months ago | [YT] | 105
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
Dan was out working on IR lights down by the water bowl the other day, and although these critters couldn't see him, they could hear him (probably cursing and tripping over fallen branches). He had an attentive audience.
8 months ago | [YT] | 115
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
I just posted 3 images of the creek from last night (27 March 2025). The first is at 6:35 pm, the second is from 6:36 pm (if you click to enlarge you can just see water filling in on the sides of the creek), and the third is from 6:51 pm. The creek was in full flood. It had pretty much stopped raining, but the water from upstream can take a while to reach us. When it does, the creek can flood in a matter of minutes.
8 months ago | [YT] | 36
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Texas Backyard Wildlife
8 months ago | [YT] | 47
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