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I saw a coyote just walking through my suburban neighborhood on Saturday - quite the brazen fellow - just walking down the middle of the road.
Saw a rattler about 12 inches long climbing Diablo yesterday. Well, the guy in front of me said it was a rattler, I didn't stop to inspect his tail. :D
Veronica
I see many a Lesser-Spotted Grockle (tourist) along with a goodly sprinkling of Lobster-Red Locals at this time of year. ;)
I live at the seaside so many types of gull are in evidence. If I follow National Cycle Route 62 inland then I encounter lots of small birds, ducks, swans, geese and squirrels. My 'wild-life' bugbear though are dogs. Or rather owners of said dogs who believe it's perfectly ok to allow their dogs to run free in cycle lanes/shared usage paths.
In the space of less than probably 200 feet on a trail I was on I saw: a red fox, wild turkey and young deer. The deer was "frozen" about 15-20' off the trail, I slowed to a crawl, calmly talking to it (I was afraid it would bolt out in front of me) and he/she never budged, just kept looking at me. I could have practically reached out and touched it! Afterwards I just had to shake my head and grin at my good fortune of seeing 3 wild critters in such a short distance.
We saw a water moccasin, which is a poisonous snake I thought lived only in the south. Growing up in Florida I learned how to identify the characteristics of a poisonous snake, so we made it get out of the road with a stick. we always move turtles if we can, and sometimes snakes. My husband didn't believe me that it was a water moccasin so he went home and looked it up on the internet, and sure enough I was right.
What interesting wildlife sightings lately. Coyote is cool -- wild turkeys I've seen but never more than one at a time (odd, I know).
Norsegoddess, you had a banner wildlife day. Good fortune indeed.
Becca, I too thought water moccasins were only in the south, but obviously not.
So did I--I know they're starting to move north, but all the way up in Michigan? Wow.
I saw an otter the other day in a stream that runs through town. This surprised me.
I saw a turtle about 4" across sitting in the middle of a pond ... on the back of another turtle maybe 12-14" across. :D
I wish now I'd tried to take a picture, although I didn't really think my phone has high enough resolution to capture it at that distance.
I had an egret fly so low over my head the other day, I could almost touch him.
Oh, cute Oak. Piggy back turtles.
I'm seeing a lot of (flat) Sonoran toads. The summer monsoon rainstorms get them out and moving to the temporary ponds for breeding. The rain brings out the tarantulas too....but I've only seen dead ones.
Lots of birds are out, nesting again with the summer rains.
AZ Fiddle, bird breeding - is that the reason for all the chatter lately? This morning there was so much singing I had to look around to see what was going on but they were happy as can be.
By the way, do you know of a bird that has a bright yellow body with black wings and head. Very striking bird and beautiful singing.
Thanks
Size of the bird? 4 inches- Lesser Goldfinch - that is the bird I studied for my master's degree. They mimic the songs of other birds.
If it's bigger, maybe 7 inches- could be a Hooded Oriole
Thanks for the names! I was able to look them up and it was definitely not the Lesser Goldfinch, too small and speckled. The Hooded Oriole may have been it. Now I'm on the look out for it again :p
DH and I were treated to a cornucopia of wildlife this weekend as we spent the weekend testing the bass boat we recently purchased. It was an awesome weekend, a respectful catch and release of fish (white bass, small mouth bass, blue gills, sun fish, and a 24" carp that put up a good fight!). We spied a young raccoon swimming the creek we were fishing, a couple of white tail deer, numerous blue herons, ducks, warblers, turtles and a bird of prey which remains a mystery. Mother Nature treated us to a great showing!
I saw a great horned owl tonight, perched on a chimney at a house I cycle by several times a week. I have never seen one in the wild, or in the 'hood, before. Pretty cool. I stopped my bike immediately in front of "his house" just to gaze at him, but I guess he did not like that idea, and he flew away.