A short list of local wildlife I have seen while Geocaching

I'm not exactly an outdoorsy type.  The vast majority of my hobbies are computer and electronic related, and on top of that I'm allergic to pretty much every kind of furred animal or leafy plant.  Geocaching has really expanded my horizons, at least in terms of my exposure to nature, and I have made it a point to keep track of what critters I have spotted while caching.

What I find most interesting about this is that I live in a very developed area.  I mean, there are parks and some open areas near where I live, but I wasn't really aware of the variety of critters that live practically right around the corner.

Groundhog - Spotted at The Gary Cache.  I actually see these all the time at work, but usually from the comfort of my car.  This one was only about 20 feet away.

Box Turtle - I spotted this little guy (or girl - I'm not enough of a turtle expert to know how to check) on my big birthday caching extravaganza day.  This was one of the only animals I was able to get a clear picture of, because a) I had an actual camera with me, rather than the one on my "phone", and b) it didn't really run that fast when I took the picture.

I was fast enough to get a picture before it sped off.

Hawk - I got within maybe 15 feet of a decent sized hawk while getting to the entrance of the Springfield Trail.  It was sitting on top of the backboard of a basketball hoop and didn't move until I was almost on top of it.  It was flapping its wings to fly off when I noticed it, so I didn't get a good look at its coloration or anything.  Unfortunately I'm not sure exactly what kind it was.

Three snakes:

• Rat snake - Found this one in the geopile at the GZ of one of my favorite caches - Italian Water Garden Ruins.
• Garter snake - I went traipsing after a cache that hadn't been found in a long time called Wide Open Spaces and ran into this little guy. 
• Milk snake - Very cool looking snake hiding in a tree near GZ of Wampa Cave.  My son came within inches of sticking his hand in the hole where this little guy was hiding.  Not a dangerous snake or anything, but it taught Jack a lesson about checking an area thoroughly with your eyes before using your hands.

Fox - Somebody spotted a fox at my Breakout cache.  I live within walking distance of here and have seen this fox before, so while I personally haven't spotted it while caching, I have seen it and am including it here.  Because I can.

Deer - There is a largish herd of deer living on the grounds where I work, and they're pretty common around here.  What was neat was when I visited the Happy St. Patrick's Day, Frank cache up by work, a mother deer with three little ones let me get within maybe 20 feet of them.  I took a crappy pic with my "phone", for what it's worth.

Those brownish blobs are actually deer.  Hard to tell, I know.

Bonus! - Deer skull - While checking out GZ of the fill in the blank puzzle cache (I didn't find it, BTW - this was shortly after Hurricane Sandy and things were a bit of a mess at the time) I came across a deer skull.  Jack was super pissed that I didn't take it home with me, but it was pretty funky looking.

Aside from the above, I have seen many other interesting birds, as well as fish, frogs, and turtles in the streams and ponds that I have visited.  Not bad for being in such a developed area, and it really makes me want to expand my caching area a bit to see what's out there.