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Yesterday there was a large-ish hawk sitting on a fencepost very near the road. (I'm not good at hawks, maybe a red-shouldered, but really not sure. Could've been a redtail, too, since I didn't see the tail.) Hawks are a common sight around here, but they usually choose a higher perch, so it was cool to see him/her so close up!
Shootingstar... a starfish? On the bike path?!
A raised bike path (well-known to locals) that runs through Stanley Park, runs near the ocean water. Actually I've seen live, occasional starfish (or maybe they recently died) on the bike path. Not clear, how each starfish got there, but the waves can occasionally get high (in a storm..) to fling stuff onto the path.Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
another thing that I have seen...elsewhere is the occasional banana slug crawling across path. they are slugs that are a bright yellow, shaped like a banana. Kinda beautiful and strange.. When I was new to the Pacific coast, never saw them before. They tend to hang out in woodsy areas...obviously.
Of course always dread the skunk streaking across in the twilight..:eek:
A bald eagle soared over me yesterday on Calaveras Road.
Its nest has been on top of a nearby power line tower for a year or two now, and I've seen the eagle (and some eaglets) perched on the nest or on the tower, but this is the first time I saw the eagle outside of the nest.
It was such a cool sight. :cool:
While in Fort Davis, pronghorn antelope!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y25...a/antelope.jpg
On Saturday, a red fox - first one I'd seen in about four years - a blue heron trying to swallow a fish three times as big as its head - and a yellow Lab who had ahold of a raccoon.
In Fort Davis we also saw (but did not get a picture):
- javelina
- cardinals
- blue jays
- cute little birds with red heads
- cows that live open range
- roadrunner
- a little cocker spaniel mix, honestly an odd dog to see on a ranch in rugged west Texas
Thankfully we did not see rattlesnakes that often like to sun on the roads out there!
Monday's commute: a skunk just mosey-ing along in a field next to the road. They are so cute if you aren't in danger of being sprayed! :p
Horse
dogs
dead squirrel:(
rattlesnake (only one this ride--they've really been out in force this year)
rabbit
various birds
cows (sometimes they seem facinated by us, and sometimes they seem oblivious to our presence)
On my ride this morning, I saw a snake (18-24" long) crossing the road just in front of me. Had to change course to avoid hitting it. Then as I approached my house at the end of the ride, a canid crossed the road in front of my neighbor's house and trotted through my neighbor's back yard. It was either a grey fox or a coyote, not sure which.
We once saw a group of wild turkeys. I had no idea what they were at first. They sure made a lot of noise.
I've seen a few snakes sunning themselves on the trail. DH and I saw a full-antlered buck on the MUT right in the middle of a neighborhood. It was strange because he was in a rather residential area with tons of people around but he really was an astounding creature to behold.
Didn't see it, but on tonight's ride there was a barred owl hooting as we climbed a long hill.
I think I cycle near a large group of frogs on my rides? They sound like people talking quietly..odd yet cool.
I normally hear a Kookabura kookaburring in the mornings :D and a rooster! Oddly enough, the rooster is in an urban area right by a major train station..
This morning's commute (just 6.5 miles) 8 rabbits.
A few months ago I saw a coyote again on my commute. It was just 6 feet off the trail! We were both a little startled, I was messing with my mirror and didn't see him as I approached and he it looked like he was stalking some prey and pounced on it as I went by. So, given that little experience I'm always glad to see the little cottontails on my way to the office.
was a busy wildlife week! In Tahoe I get to see the usual bear and maybe a mountain lion once a year (if you are really quiet) but Mass is like a drive through safari!!
skunk (I was like...awwwww...then...OH CRAP!!!)
wild turkey sitting in someone's driveway
shuttled a snapping turtle out of the middle of the road (that was fun!)
garter snake (I caught it and scared my biking partner)
a big sea bird that dives in the water
cute chipmunks
a black squirrel (everyone is telling me it wasn't black but it was!)
and a coyote....
wow...!
why not? There's a big population of black squirrels in the town I live near.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeDirtGirl
Really I see more wildlife when I stay home. :p I'm moving too fast when I'm on the bike.
But how did you manage that snapping turtle without getting bit? I had to leave my car halfway down my lane one time, because there was a snapping turtle in the lane who would not move, and I sure wasn't going to get my fingers bit off!
The other day I thought I saw this hugish bird on road while whizzing around it.It looked hawk-like. Certainly not a crow or raven.
Last week - on the Mississippi River levee -
Bald Eagle
2 Mississippi Kites
1 kite flying high with it's string wrapped around a power line. :D
various assorted wading birds - egrets, herons, ibses.
I always keep my eyes out for the eagles and the kites (with feathers). It's hard to look up for birds and keep your eyes on the levee at the same time. I've come close to riding down the levee on more than one occasion.
Twin spotted fawns, no bigger than medium-sized dogs, that we startled out of their resting place. I was a little afraid Mom would come bounding across our path, but we never saw her.
I was riding up a longish hill near my house last week and as I come around the corner I find a huge group of Black Cockatoos. They were feeding in a low tree by the side of the road. I don't know who got the bigger shock them or me. Funny but they are so noisy I thought I would have heard them first but maybe my heavy breathing was blocking every other noise out.:o
http://www.michaelmorcombe.com.au/whitetailedblack.html
Today's ride it was lizard tails. No lizard bodies, just tails strewn about the road.
I am thankful I didn't actually see this wildlife...
About a week ago, a lady 3 houses down let her little Pomeranian out at about 7 am. Something whooshed by and her dog disappeared. Then she saw it...a mountain lion. It took the poor dog up a tree and yes, decided to eat it. This is really gross, but there is still "evidence" up in the tree. I won't go into further detail. The mountain lion was severely punished for this and let's just say it won't be eating anyone else's dogs. I hate it when wildlife and man collide...the wildlife usually loses. But from a safety standpoint, I don't really know what else Fish & Game was supposed to do. The lion was about 50' up a cedar tree so it would've fallen to its death if they shot it with a tranquilzer. Neither the dog nor the cougar stood a chance.
Hmm..this could be due to the chilly morning yesterday..I didn't hear a single bird or frog..perhaps they were keeping eachother warm :rolleyes:
This morning we heard a kookabura laughing..ahhh. so nice..
This morning I was out at 5:15 AM for an early ride before work. I came to the top of a short, steep hill, and had my eyes on the bumpy, cracked road surface in front of me. Suddenly, I heard this loud noise directly in front of me, and looked up to see a moose crossing the road about 30 feet in front of me! :eek: The noise was the hooves on the paved road surface. It was not a full-grown moose, but probably 2 to 3 years old. We had seen a mother moose and 2 babies about 2 years ago, and the 2 juveniles have been seen around the area on and off since then. Of course, the adolescent moose I saw today was bigger than a small pick-up truck!
It went into the woods and stopped, and I could see it peering at me through the brush. I had a brief, anxious moment of thinking about what I should do if he decides to charge me- fend him off with the Halt spray(nah), outrun him on the bike (nah), or fight him off with my 23 pound Terry hybrid (nah). So I just kept going for another mile or so, and when I turned around and came back, he was nowhere to be seen.
This morning on my commute I heard rustling in a field/wooded area next to me. A deer? Homeless person? Skunk? Snake? Stray dog? I am not sure but it is actually a little frightening at dawn when you don't know what it is.
How wonderful and scary at the same time.:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by bambu101
Aggie - I have had that happen a few times when riding in the bush and it sure does give you the heebie jeebies.
I saw two camels once a few years ago while doing the Kitsap Color Classic. Pretty weird to see two camels in October in Washington State!
Here is a photo from someone elses blog http://www.calnan-web.com/weblog/200...color-classic/
My avatar is a picture I took on a bike ride. There's a farm near here with 2 camels (1 hump and 2 humps) and a zebra. The 1-humper comes right up to the fence and makes bizarre noises if I stand quietly there.
I spied four wild turkeys racing across a field this morning as I explored a new route.
I went out last evening for a birthday ride, Happy Birthday to me! I'm still building my newbie skill of 'looking ahead'. On Great Scott, knowing the big ramp was coming up, I'm actually looking ahead. Right on the trail were 2 deer and 2 spotted fawns. I slowed and stopped ... they looked at me, I looked at them, we marveled each other for a bit. Did I think to get a camera or phone for a pic, NOOOO! Anyway, I inched ahead with my toes and they all scampered off. OK, so now I'm thinking, come on PJ, get enough speed and momentum to make the ramp ... pedal, pedal, pedal!!! Last minute I decide to not do the ramp so I brake it and stop. What I could not see til I was walking up the ramp were 2 more deer on the other side. Probably a good thing I opted out on the ramp this time, me and those deer would have been in for a totally startling experience! I was startled, didn't pull the camera for this shot either.
Couple bunnies scampered across the trail, knowing they'd be safe and I didn't see it, but smelled the skunk!
PJ
Happy Birthday!
I was heading up a slight incline (too slight to call it a hill :rolleyes: ) on my way home today...head down, barely paying attention to anything. I was in a residential neighborhood...lots of closely spaced brick ramblers, carports, little plot o' grass...and I catch something out of the corner of my eye. I look up. A big doe deer is standing at the edge of a driveway, still as a statue. All of 5 feet away from me. "Hey" I call. She looks at me. "Gyet outta there." She looks away. Doesn't move.
Clearly unimpressed! :p
Then, I'm heading by a big horse field by the regional park near my house. I see something long, low, and black loping trough the field. I stopped my bike. It's longish - maybe 30" - low, narrow and with a long, thin black tail. It moved in a wave-like gait....not slinking like a cat. It stopped and looked in my direction (it was pretty far away...maybe 150 yards). I have no idea what it was...too small to be a fisher, and they're very rare around here. As near as I can figure, it was a river otter (unlikely) or a mink (more likely). I think it was too big to be a weasel. It was pretty cool, whatever it was. Definitely a first.
I see the usual northland wildlife: lots of deer, squirrels, raccoons, hawks, bald eagles, tons of geese, red-winged blackbirds...
Two of my more interesting encounters: (1) just the other day, out in the countryside, a mole came darting out from a cornfield right in front of me - one of my peeps riding behind me said he was quite certain that mole went right between my two wheels; (2) last year out riding a trail alongside a wetlands' area, there were a several adult Canadian geese with many goslings right next to the trail - not good as geese are VERY protective of their young - I wanted to swerve to the other side but riders came along just then - the next thing I saw was the huge chest and flapping wings of one of the adults headed right for me. It ran into my upper right arm and left a hematoma the size of a softball, the color of dark cherry, that stayed with me for a week. The goose was fine.
I had a roadrunner move across the road in front of me the other day. Closest I have ever been to one in my life, he wasn't moving too fast.
Funny thing is growing up in Texas I never had seen one even though they are quite common. Once I started cycling I saw my first one and probably at least 10 in the last four years of cycling. They still excite me like some rare creature.
I've never seen a real roadrunner, from my point of view they ARE a rare and lovely creature.
I almost always see snakes on the road - scratch that - I almost always see and almost run over the snakes I see on the road. Which is weird because I absolutely hate snakes. It's like that accident avoidance thing, if you look at what you're trying to miss, you'll probably hit it. If I don't want to see snakes, I see them all the time.
I also almost ran over a lazy chipmunk the other day.
Hmm, ok this thread is not called what wildlife do you almost run over on your rides.
I also saw some kind of coyote or wild dog thing on my last ride but I didn't get close enough to verify what it was. Can't ride fast enough for that kind of nonsense.
And I saw a beaver or otter once. I'm not sure which one it was but it was swimming happily in the stream.
Yeah, I'm paranoid about running over a rattlesnake:(, but I guess that's really another thread....
Saturday, we saw a javelina and a bobcat -- unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for us - I dunno) they were both roadkill. Husband and I did a double take at the cat. I think he caught a bumper or grill guard while chasing something else (TOTALLY unidentifiable which did NOT make it) across the road. I wanted to take a picture of the bobcat and javelina just because it was so unusual to see them on our route, but I figured maybe that was just a little too gross (even though they weren't smashed up or anything), and I didn't want to become know as the road kill fanatic or anything:o.
Okay, I've probably just killed this thread -- just thought it was really neat to see the animals, but bummed cause they were dead.
Christy
sorry to say that our cars and skyscrapers kill an incredible number of wild animals. the skyscrapers with their reflective glass fool birds who fly into them by the millions and cars and trucks murder the rest.
Today on my ride i saw yet another of the tiny species of rabbit that seem to be indigenous to Puget Sound.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mimitabby
bunny no more. :(
no, this one was alive. He scampered away from me, into the black berries with his tail all puffed up.Quote:
Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl
The other choice would have been to let the lion eat the dog - go on its merry way and let it try to live in peace in the neighborhood it had actually tried to live in since it's own habitat had probably been encroached upon. When you live in an area where there are lions, fox, coyotes, whatever, etc., you need to know that your pom can get eaten.Quote:
Originally Posted by RolliePollie
+++++Quote:
Originally Posted by spokewench