What wildlife do you see on your rides?

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.

Love the praying mantis story and the seal, too.

I saw what looked like an enormous grasshopper just sitting on the road ahead. After a while I wondered if it was a large escaped iguana.

It was a piece of twisted rusty metal.

On Wednesday night, a whole BIG flock of turkeys. One of them flew across the road in front of us. There must have been 40.

A little garter snake crossing the road, on my run today. :)

Today I saw 4 deer running across the road. One after the other, about 5 seconds apart - and they seemed to be crossing in the order of their size - the youngest first :)

The cormorant posed for me! Climbed up on a rock and showed off his pretty wings.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8867349@N08/4916094343/