My DH stopped (in his car) the other day to escort a LARGE snapping turtle off the road. A guy in a Park Department pickup stopped as well to help him. The turtle didn't appreciate their efforts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bike Chick
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My DH stopped (in his car) the other day to escort a LARGE snapping turtle off the road. A guy in a Park Department pickup stopped as well to help him. The turtle didn't appreciate their efforts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bike Chick
I saw a fox on my morning commute last week. I thought it was an unleashed dog. It was standing in the middle of the street at 6 a.m. in a Washington, D.C. suburb so I naturally thought it was a dog. When it turned and I saw its profile and beautiful tail, I was shocked. It went into someone's yard and stopped as I rode by. About 1/2 mile later, I came up on a guy that I sometimes commute with and when he said, "You'll never guess what I just saw!" and I said, "A fox?", I think I burst his bubble. :D
I saw the waxwings near the George Washington Bridge, where there's a lot of parkland. They are seen in Central Park, too. Here's a great photo of one in Central Park.Quote:
Originally Posted by salsabike
Between reading about them here and seeing the eagle webcam, I'm developing a serious desire to see more bald eagles.
For those with an interest in raptors, this is a video of the mother hawk attempting to remove her dead baby from the nest (it is sad, but not too graphic).
She uses only her beak and doesn't succeed; there's speculation that her instinct to keep talons away from the babies prevented her using them in this case. This nest is at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and last I heard, the surviving baby is fine and should fledge any day now.
It's mating season!!!! Down here in Houston the warnings are all out about the american alligators moving out of the bayous looking for mates. Tehy killed a 10" one today that was soaking up heat from a freeway feeder road. I guess they aren't on the endangered list anymore since it was a professional hunter/owner of a alligator farm that sells the flesh, who got the contract.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bike Chick
sigh... I'm all for progress but the poor gators are getting squeezed out and aren't really to blame for the stupid humans who get too close or let their little doggies out to investigate.
marni
My DH & I stopped by a park with a fishing lake around sunset- we always see Black-crowned Night Herons there.
I saw a wild turkey today! I saw a hare last week she saw me turned around and hopped away. I always see lots of quails this time of year. In the past I have seen coyotes and foxes and deer and many types of birds I don't know the names of. Oh and I see lots of red wing black birds this time of year.
No turtles today but I did spy a wood thrush, bluejay and yet another eastern cotton tail racing down the road.
Great bird day. King bird, Baltimore oriole, rufus-sided towhee, catbird, and a sparrow's nest. A mother cat with five kittens living near an electrical substation (employees are feeding them, and ASPCA will try to rescue them on Tuesday). Three snakes -- two garter, one I can't identify with white rings all along his black body (about the same size as the garters).
Best news of all, our mom hawk who lost her babies in a windstorm is showing signs of laying more eggs. She's rebuilt the nest, the birds have copulated frequently for two weeks, and during the past three days she's spend a great deal of time on the nest. Looked like she was going to sleep in the nest tonight.
That waxwing photo is spectacular! And I totally love that the hawk nests at St. John the Divine, one of the most beautiful churches I've even been in.
It's positively duckling season here. At Logboom Park, where we normally start/end our rides, there were several different batches marching around. Funny how they never lose their cuteness factor no matter how many we may see.
yeah, I was thinking the same thing when kayaking yesterday. A family of Canadian Geese, mom, dad, and three goslings paddling along between me and the shore. We got some waves from a boat, and watching mom and dad and three longlegged lumpy mustard yellow little goslings wobbily hopping and waddling their way up onto a rock had me laughing out loud. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by salsabike
Oh my! I bet he didn't. My son did that once and the snapping turtle almost took his arm. They aren't very friendly reptiles!Quote:
Originally Posted by 7rider
Alligators? In Houston? I had no idea. Guess I live a sheltered life here in middle America.Quote:
Originally Posted by marni
Today I saw two things that made me smile - a beautiful red-wing blackbird and a group of children set up alongside one of the country roads that I ride. They were selling Kool-Aid for .10 a small cup and also fresh eggs. They were jumping up and down to get my attention yelling things to me like:
"It's already made!"
"It's COLD!"
"The cups aren't very large!"
I had to laugh and promised that I would stop on my return trip. Not that I needed Kool-Aid! However I did stop, gave them a quarter instead of a dime, and had two sips of it. One of their moms were there and I suggested ice water might be a good addition and she agreed - they will do this every Sunday for the summer.
I should have taken a picture of the little stand, I haven't seen children doing that in years!
I frequently see eagles. Once or twice a summer I usually see a black bear (once it was a mother & 2 cubs that ran across the highway just ahead of me). One time I came around a curve on my mountain bike, only to see a skunk running full-tilt toward me on the trail! I had to make a snap decision whether to keep riding as fast as I could to get past him, or try to get turned around and headed the other way (if there was time).
Last week I had a fox bark at me. I heard a hoarse-sounding bark that sounded like a small dog with a sore throat, and he stepped out into the road. I was wondering what kind of dog it was, as I kept riding, and then it barked once again and ran to the other side. Definitely a fox, but I'd never heard one bark before. It kept giving an occasional bark from the bushes by the road until I was gone. I thanked him (her?) for the wonderful experience, and recommended that he stay out of the road, and be safe. Probably a female with pups (kits?) near by.
So, which did you do?Quote:
Originally Posted by Skierchickie
I saw Canada geese babies today -- and I cannot top the description lph gave.
Catrin, I love little kid lemonade stands -- most often see them in connection with yard sales (or stoop sales, as they are in NYC).
Our Mom hawk continues to sit on her nest, so we think she's laid a second set of eggs. If they hatch, her babies will be two months behind the usual hawk schedule.
I first thought it was a good sized dog- but I realized that I was about to cross paths with a javalina this morning. Javalinas (metimes called peccaries) are desert creatures that resemble pigs. It emerged from a yard today on my ride . They have poor eyesight, are unpredictable and usually in packs, so I wasn't quite sure whether to stop and get off, turn around, or keep going. Fortunately, it was by itself and looked up, stopped and let me ride by. They are not uncommon here, especially in neighborhoods with a lot of desert vegetation, but it was the first time I've come so close to running in to one.
It was a little extra adrenalin-
Did somebody say turtles?
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...g/P1000626.jpg
I've been doing more paddling than riding lately.
Then there was this guy in the neighborhood
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...s/P1000268.jpg
and this guy in the yard-
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...y/P1000317.jpg
This last one surprises me as I think it's a mostly aquatic painted turtle as opposed to the semi-aquatic box turtle
I also think the last one is a female.
Those are Maryland Terrapins! ;-) Great pictures, Zen.
The last couple weeks or so, I've been seeing a trio of kits (fox babies), playing and exploring, during my predawn rides. Last year in exactly the same spot, there was another bunch of fox babies. Also have been spotting small fawn with their mommies and a few baby bunnies. A couple of the fawns have been so small that I thought they were dogs at first!
I saw them out in the Davis Mountains State Parl, they are kind of endearing. I name the one that was near our campsite Fred, I thought he was kind of cute in his own bumbling way. :) They told us they can be terribly destructive but the ones at the park must have mellowed.Quote:
Originally Posted by azfiddle
At least it wasn't a Chupacabra
I've been watching a monk parakeet nest forever, and today I finally saw a juvenile. Not surprisingly, he is the cutest thing. Quite good at flying, but needs to work on his landing skills.
I also got to watch the adults work on the nest, which was fascinating. The nest is like a globe of woven sticks with circular doors. I confirmed that this nest is a duplex with two doors. These very social birds live in colonies, so I hope it gets bigger.
We have these guys in Austin, my co-worker saw some at our building the other day. There are debates on how they got here, I haven't seen them yet but I hear they are beautiful.Quote:
Originally Posted by PamNY
Still got my eyes out for those, since you know they live in Texas. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Zen
Not wildlife, but I certainly HEARD a peacock on Saturday's ride.
A pair of finches and what looked like an owl (species unknown) swooped across my path. More deer.
Not on a ride, but the neighborhood fox has two kits now. And they're adorable.
It is going to be HOT today, so apparently the animals watched the weather report this morning :D
Saw two deer, a good number of red-wing blackbirds and other kinds of birds. A flock? of ducks were hanging in a farmers pond next to the road - and best of all, a rabbit ran with me briefly! I think I was more surprised at his speed than he was at me - I was cruising at 14mph and it shot out of the corn, ran alongside the road - keeping up with me - briefly then darted back into the corn. Thankfully he didn't dart in front of me...
Does it count if I was simply scouting the route for my long ride next Saturday? I WILL see those Arabian Horses and Reindeer on my bike, just like I did in my car today...and given that area's reputation for animals one wouldn't expect to see - I may just see more than that :D
I AM planning on taking the camera this week - and since it is a "long" ride, well then, I have to take breaks, right?
In addition to calling the bumps and obstacles (his job as tandem captain), Brewer has started calling the road kill.
*bleh*
'Tis the season.
Better than some other names...Am trying to avoid and ignore this...Quote:
Originally Posted by malkin
That's funny. Unpleasant, but funny.Quote:
Originally Posted by malkin
Had fun today on my ride - I heard about these animals so I made sure to have my real camera with me. It is challenging to try and take pics when your sunglasses doesn't have bifocals :o
There were other animals at the same farm where I took all of these pics outside of the goats, but I couldn't see well enough to zoom in on them properly. I am including a cropped version of the picture, but may delete it.
The two males appeared to be made nervous by my presence, they rose from their resting in the shade and started constantly moving around their enclosure. It didn't seem a very large enclosure for such large animals... I also took pics of the females in the next enclosure, but as they were smart and stayed in the shade the pics didn't come out at all.
I watch a nest of monk parakeets on my usual ride. Lately, they've gotten even more interesting. A new bird is trying to join their family -- with only limited success. I think he's a lovebird, and he's allowed to hang on their nest or nearby, but if he tries to go inside, the monks chase him away.
It's quite poignant to watch. I haven't heard of feral lovebirds in this climate, so I suspect he's an escaped pet. Of course I'm anthropomorphizing, but it seems he's trying so hard to fit in. I do worry about him. I don't think he can survive the winter.
I'm in the process of seeking opinions about this little fellow from more knowledgeable birders.
ETA: The first photo show only monks; the lovebird is the colorful bird in the last three photos. Monks are green with white chests. The little visitor is multi-colored.
I totally forgot to report this, but the last ride I took on the trail back home, guess who walked across my path?
The peacock. I didn't get a picture of him, but he just walked across that trail like he owned the place and disappeared into the trees.
Did the official Noah's Ark ride today - I rode part of it last week - saw most of the same animals plus a farm where they had a huge assortment of animals in the same field! Horses, Llamas, sheep, and a few others that were too far away for me to identify.
This one seems to be posing for the camera :D
We can see the baby hawks now! They are all the more precious since three were lost earlier this year to a windstorm.
I love babies at this stage.
http://palemale.com/july242010.html
http://urbanhawks.blogs.com/urban_ha...dtailed_hawks/
Yesterday was a first for me. I startled a flock of wild turkeys by the side of the road as I approached and they all took to flight in front of me and beside me. I actually had to duck my head and feathers were floating everywhere!
I had a sad sight on my commute this morning. Someone had hit a whitetail fawn with a car and it was laying on the side of the road. It wasn't much bigger than a beagle. Poor thing:(
Kinda neat to see a pr. of storks during our cycling trip in Germany. I finally uploaded some pics here. and comments.
Literally this critter was "on my ride"!
http://www.kemenel.org/melalvai/wp-c...g-mantis1.jpeg
I forgot to mention the rest of the story. My co-worker is a microbiologist and those microbiologists are a little weird, she likes insects and names genus & species of every tick she finds crawling on her. So I walked my bike over next to hers and encouraged the preying mantis to relocate to her handlebar. Then I went home and sent her an email "Did you get my present?"
She didn't see him until halfway home when he jumped on her hand! She encouraged him to move back to her handlebar where he perched like a hood ornament lookin' bad and enjoying the breeze. Once home, he jumped on her shirt, and she relocated him to a nice tree. He's about big enough to eat the cats... THEN she read my email.
This content seal (? I think that's what it was. Not a sea lion..) was lying by a ferry dock at a Vancouver Island stop where we brought our bikes on board yesterday.
What a happy slob! :rolleyes:
I love seeing rabbits, squirrels, and deer when cycling.
Seems like lately I mostly see dead animals... 2 dead Gila Monsters last weekend, and a few snakes.