The Wildlife of Charlotte

There are a lot of non-human inhabitants in the greater Charlotte area.  You will run into them occasionally walking around minding their own business or splattered dead on the side of the road. I will give you the list now of what lives in the area: Squirrels:  These animals run around manic all the time.  They hop around the trees and they are fascinating for the first few months of moving to the area if you have moved from a place without squirrels.  Then they get really boring. Possum: These can be quite frightening.  They have large mouths with tons of teeth.  They seem to move slow and lumber about as if they are carrying a heavy backpack.  I saw one that was playing-possum once on the side of the road, or wait... it was actually dead. Deer:  One time I was outside while it was dark at night.  I was reading this super captivating article about a bizarre medical condition.  The article really spooked me.  I looked up from my phone and saw a deer under a street lamp.  I jumped.  The combination of the article and the deer just being there overwhelmed my senses.  The deer ran off. Robins: These birds are real jerks.  They run around like they own the place.  They have the beautiful orange bellies and green eggs.  They are actually very aggressive and attack squirrels sometimes.  I really think a robin and bat may be great crime-fighting partners.  Cardinals:  These birds have a magnificent red color.  I have been to Arizona and saw very few cardinals.  But out here the cardinals are all over the place.  Maybe a sports team out here could swap names with the one in Arizona.   Geese:  If you ever feel lonely just walk up to a flock of geese.  They will pretend to be your friend if you have food for them.  They also may attack you.  They really don't seem to grasp the fact that a human could easily kill them if it really came down to a fight to the death. Voles:  One time I saw a small black fur ball skittering around near the bottom of a tree.  This is a vole. Gigantic Spiders:  These are all over the place.  Each one has different qualities...                Black and Yellow Garden Spider:  Usually just stands around doing nothing but is MASSIVE.  The only reason why it is not extremely scary is that it does not have hairs.  For some reason hairs on a spider freak me out more.                Orb Weaver Spider:  These spiders make massive webs in the most inconvenient areas.  You are bound to accidentally run into one of their webs.  These spiders also move really fast all around their web and it is scary how fast they move.  They need to learn to slow down more.                 Wolf-like spiders:  These may or may not be wolf spiders.  All I know is that they are large and hairy and I kill them when I see them.  They scare me so much!   Palmetto Bugs:  This creature got its own blog.  That's how amazing they are! Raccoons:  I once opened the door where some trash was kept on the porch.  A raccoon just glared back at me.  Then it slowly crept away lumbering about as if it was in no rush.  They get quite comfortable with humans. Vultures:  You will see these massing birds flying around, you will think it is an eagle, then you will see it land and be like "oh just a vulture... boring..." Bunnies:  These are bad for your garden.  They will hop around.  You will try to get up close to them but they always run away.  They have serious trust issues. Snakes:  I used to have a pet snake so I am not afraid of these.  I am too comfortable with them.  I really need to learn to back off and give them their space and not try to pet them.  I really angered a rattle snake recently.  All I was trying to do was be its friend.

Owls:  These birds are really over-rated.  People think they are so smart, I don't think they are much smarter than any other bird. I almost had one fly in front of my car once and get ran over.  That is not very wise.  They also keep you up at night, how annoying.

Inch Worms: These green guys rappel off trees, that's if they don’t kill the tree.  People put bands around trees to prevent them from climbing up. You will be walking around and run into one of these.  You may not even realize you ran into one until you get home and see one crawling on you.  They are very endearing.  Who cares if you have drying trees!  I side with these lovable worms, let them do their thing and stop trying to save the trees.