Well I saw a yellow jacket INSIDE my jersey after he stung me under my arm. OUCH!!! He got inside my jersey during a ride Sat morning and decided to sting me after I was finished.
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Well I saw a yellow jacket INSIDE my jersey after he stung me under my arm. OUCH!!! He got inside my jersey during a ride Sat morning and decided to sting me after I was finished.
That's not the wildlife we want!
I did a short ride to park tonight in hopes of seeing some interesting birds, but a bunch of Mallards, a couple American Coots and one American Wigeon were all I saw. All pretty mundane.
Maybe it wanted a longer ride? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by gasew7
Lots of herons and a flock of geese on my last ride. The geese wanted to hang out in the middle of the trail...
Hi, y'all! This is my first visit to this wonderful forum, and I have already learned a lot. About a month ago, I took my new Specialized Ariel Comp out for its first romp on our local Greenway. It was starting to get late when I realized I had been going around in circles for a while and was good and lost. I resolved to keep the sun on my left, no matter what, and eventually found my way back onto the main trail. Just as I was picking up the pace again, a huge gator came charging out of the weeds, stopped in the middle of the trail, hissed at me, and then crashed into the creek on the other side. He was at least 8 feet long, though he looked even bigger. The scary part is, I think I scared him more than he did me! :eek:
The widowed mother hawk that I watch has started "dating." We are having a wonderful time watching her interactions with a very young male hawk (you can tell he's young by eye color).
The courtship started with brief visits to the nest last week; now they are both actively bringing sticks to the nest. Last night they were flying lazy circles together.
I don't know if this will turn out to be Mr. Right -- too early to say. But we are thrilled that she's staying in the territory so far.
I saw a fox mountain biking Saturday, no photos I just admired the little guy. Actually it was full grown, a little startled. It was really cool, though. Also saw some sheep and black angus but those are expected because it is a ranch. Saw a roadrunner on the trail Sunday, my favorite bird. :)
We rode at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday. It's sort of cheating to reply here with the critter count, but this is what we saw:
3 bald eagles
10 turtles
1 nutria
1 fox
2 deer
lots of great blue herons
lots of egrets
lots of ducks
a gajillion geese - Canada & snow geese
1 cat
1 grasshopper
And we heard osprey but couldn't find them.
I saw a nice garter snake on Sunday.
Yesterday morning (Monday) I saw a huge owl perched on a powerline. He even hung around for awhile after I stopped to watch him. He screeched at something in the distance, looked at me, looked back to the same place, screeched some more, hung out for a bit longer and then flew across the street to some trees where.....another owl came flying down towards the first.
This was incredible!! This all happened close to 6 am, which seems late by owl standards. Around here they seem to come out late at night or in the very early hours of the morning. I've only gotten glimpses of them at night and hear them more often. Sometimes on my house's roof. This is the first year I have heard two of them up there hooting away. I wonder if the two I saw in the morning are the same that like to hang out in my neighborhood? I was only 2 miles from my house.
This was a treat!!
What a great day at Blackwater! Owls sound like a treat, too -- do you know what kind?
Garter snakes -- gosh I haven't seen one in years, being a city person now.
Deer are active in the park through which I ride to/from work this time of year, being mating seaon. The bucks will chase does across the street without regards for anything around them. I frequently see small herds running near the edge of the street.
Unfortunately, this season also brings out the Gawker - usually little old ladies in Subarus who gaze upon this natural wonder before them, and allow their cars to drift across the lane into the shoulder where yours truely is biking. (Okay..."little old ladies in Subaru's" is a generality, but it was an actual occurence yesterday).
Strangely, drivers are willing to patiently slow down for deer in the street (and disinclined to lay on their horn), but not always so willing to show the same courtesy for cyclists. Maybe I should put antlers on my helmet and hang a white furry tail from my rear rack! :rolleyes:;)
PamNY, I know nothing about types of birds and such but I did a quick search on the Arizona Desert Museum's site (I'm just outside of Tucson) and figure it was the great horned owl. Even in the low light of the early morning I could see it was easily over 1 ft tall and there was no missing the huge ear tufts.
Yes, Great Horned Owl. There are some other owls in our area, but none so large.
Desert Tortoise, if you ever ride the Aviation bikeway near Craycroft (where it is on the south side of the street) you can see burrowing owls in a hole- they are diurnal. The rest of our owls are smaller and definitely less visible- screech (year round), elf (summer only) are both in saguaro areas and oak-sycamore areas at higher elevations. Sometimes there are Long-Eared Owls up at Catalina State Park in the winter.
Thanks, Fiddle! Now that I'm biking more consistantly, I hope to venture out again and do more than my little weekday 1 hour rides.
I love Catalina State Park. You can bike through there? I've only done walk/run for a fundraising/training program.
I saw a mountain lion today!!! How cool is that?
I was riding up to Saguaro National Park, and about 1/4 mile from the entrance. The area is a neighborhood of low density housing with a lot of desert vegetation. The lion walked across the road as I was riding toward it, stepped into the desert brush and stopped 30-40 feet off the road. It turned and looked at me as I passed.
I was so excited, it gave me an extra burst of energy for that last 1/4 mile.
I was a field biologist before I was a teacher, and I have spent countless hours in appropriate habitats birding and working as a biologist, and though I've seen tracks I've never seen a lion.
Mountain lion!!:eek::eek: Was this at the East SNP? How big was it?
Um, if I had seen one I would get a burst of energy too. To get away fast! Maybe that's my hiking experiences in some lion attack areas. Guess on a bike it's different. You look bigger and can move faster.
They sure are beautiful, glad you got to see one safely!:)
Desert Tortoise- I was not scared- I was truly excited. It was near SNP east- about 1/4 mile northwest of the entrance. To be honest, it took some time to register that it was actually a lion. One part of my brain said "cat", one said "dog", because it was big. Then I saw the long tail. I've seen bobcats many times and they are much smaller, but I thought the mountain lion would look bigger. It looked like a medium-large dog, but shorter legged and lower to the ground.
BTW- you can ride up to Catalina State Park, and there is a paved road through part of the park, but of course there are a lot of hiking trails there. That's where I got married- 27 years ago!
Oh, mountain lion. That's exciting. I'm glad you were excited instead of scared.
A juvenile hawk spent several hours delighting watchers in Riverside Park. Not sure if he's local, but totally sure he is beautiful.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8867349...th/6329798553/
What animals do I see when I ride???
The Sierra Foothills offer the most beautiful riding terrain in Northern California! We have so much here to take in on a local country ride...
Beautiful hawks sit on fence posts taking in the sunshine, while other small birds fly alongside me as if they are racing!
California cows are happy munching on the hillsides with their small calf's, and
herds of horses are everywhere!
Egrets and Blue Herons surround the small ponds and lakes.....
and then there are those mini reptiles...that I try to avoid...
Blessings on your next ride!
Join me here in the foothills and I'll take you on a lovely tour!
Catalina Park is not really a fun place to ride a mountain bike; but it can be done if you like to walk a lot or you are like a trials rider.Quote:
Originally Posted by Desert Tortoise
This morning I saw one of those very common large black birds, I think it's called Great-tailed Grackle. Its large and has that very shiny, iridescent black plumage.
Seeing the bird was no biggy but seeing it carrying a little bird in it's claws, land on a power pole and start breakfast was unusual. At first I slowed down to stop and watch but then little downy feathers started falling towards me so I sped up to avoid them and watched upwind from the bird.
The funny part of all this is it was one power pole from where I saw the owls a month ago.
Yes - Great Tailed Grackle would be right. It's surprising and somewhat macabre sometimes, what some birds will eat. Big flycatchers have been known to take hummingirds at feeders...
This is from a number of years ago. He was small, but he was ready to put up a big fight!
Crawfish?Quote:
Originally Posted by missjean
Yes.Quote:
Originally Posted by HillSlugger
You've clearly found an important patch of power poles. Interesting (if slightly unpleasant) thing to see.Quote:
Originally Posted by Desert Tortoise
Yes, I think I have found a good patch. And the funny thing is it happens near the top of the hour. The owls were at 5:55am and the grackle was at 8:55 am.
I know it sounds gruesome, one bird eating another but around here it is commonplace to see animals with other animals in their mouths so it doesn't bother me too much. Roadrunners with lizards dangling from their beaks or hawks carrying something furry. The most fantastic of those was years ago when I first moved out here(and it was much more rural) was a hawk carrying a live snake in the air. The snake was actually moving in the claws. I was driving in my car and actually stopped in mid road to watch for the few seconds he was in my sight. Can't do that today, too many cars now.
Awesome ride today! The best part of my ride was riding very slowly through a herd of young deer - there were 8 of them that were lining the bike path I was riding on to a park close to me - the only thing I can think of was there must have been something tasty there!. They just froze and watched me - they seemed ok with me on the bike, thought it might spook them if I stopped so I just kept moving as slowly as I possible could. How often does that happen? Priceless, for sure.
That park does have a large deer population, and this year in particular they have seemed to become quite used to cyclists as they haven't seemed as skittish as they once were. Personally I wish they were more skittish, I figure that increases the chances of their getting hit by a car...
Catrin, the deer sound wonderful. I agree with you they might be safer if they were more skittish.
I got very lucky with a kestrel today -- just sat and posed for me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8867349...th/6501892455/
What a beauty! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by PamNY
I was riding up a MUT in the dark tonight, coming home from work. I have a new light on my helmet that allows me to put a bright beam where I look. I heard a noise off my right shoulder and I glanced over (hoping the noise wasn't a couple of punk kids from the nearby apartment building, which I've had to deal with a few times before). My light illuminated 3 deer, just feet off the trail, walking - not running - away from me. Cool to see 'em. Cool to have the light to do that.
Saw a bald eagle today! It's not unusual for them to show up in NYC, but I'd never been lucky enough to spot an adult. I had my favorite redtail hawk in sight when the eagle soared overhead.
And I'd just seen the kestrel on my ride up the river, so it was a good bird day.
Nice! I love eagles. I saw a Prairie Falcon about a week ago, and Cooper's Hawks on every ride lately.
I drove the route of the Moab Century the day before I rode it in 2006 and saw a mountain lion (at least I think it was one). I'm really glad that I didn't see it from the bike!!!
Today I saw a bobcat, armadillo, two coyotes and four javelinas. Good day for wildlife.
Wow! Fabulous.Quote:
Originally Posted by goldfinch
We have a wolf! In our backyard woods! Not that I'm ever going to get a chance to see him, and he probably has wandered way off by now, but I figured this might be the most wildlife-friendly thread to post this in. I'm so thrilled :D
The circumstances were a bit sad, though. An elderly local guy was out walking his dog, and his also elderly Norwegian Elk dog roamed off like she often did. She didn't come back, and by the time he found her quite a bit later she'd been killed, with obvious bite marks and tracks from a wolf. The owner was very calm about the whole thing. He's pro-wolf (this is a big debate in the rural areas designated as wolf protection areas, where many sheep farmers live too), and said something like "well, it's sad to lose my good friend, but she was old, she died quickly, and I don't have to watch her decline gradually". And he's going to bury her on the spot. Which is 700 yards from where we live, and 500 yards from my son's old kindergarten.
wow, Javalinas!! wolves! LPH, there are far worst ways to go. I'm glad the man was ok with it.
:eek: wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by lph
And I totally understand the gentleman's sentiments, it's so sad to see a beloved animal go into decline.
Interesting story about the wolf, and the dog owner's attitude. I can see why wolves are controversial.