What wildlife do you see on your rides?

[Bike Chick]

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

[shootingstar]

Kinda neat to see a pr. of storks during our cycling trip in Germany. I finally uploaded some pics here. and comments.

[Melalvai]

Literally this critter was "on my ride"!


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.

[shootingstar]

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!

[Heazgoody]

I saw a yellow bellied marmot on this morning's ride

[azfiddle]

Cool- where was that?

[OakLeaf]

Yesterday I saw six great blue herons ... one flew across the road right in front of me ... remembering Gil Scott-Heron who died on Friday.

[azfiddle]

Nice reference on the herons....

Wednesday, I saw a Gila Monster pointed out by the park ranger at Saguaro NP.

Today a Cooper's Hawk was keeping pace with me for a while. Saw an American Kestrel, too. Last weekend I noted over 30 species of birds along my 49 mile route, which was mostly urban and desert but also included a brief stop at a pond.

[Catrin]

While not wild, today I saw 5 male reindeer and 3 females while on my ride. Also saw a few Llamas and some goats along with other interesting and exotic creatures not usually found in central Indiana

Last year they only had two males, the "baby" boys are getting pretty darn large - their antlers are quite impressive already! My assumption is they were born last year and not brought in. Hoping to get pics next time, this time I was fighting such a strong headwind that I did not want to stop...and a hill was coming.

[redrhodie]

The chipmunks are so crazy these days! They keep running in front of me. They're so cute; I'd hate it if I ever hit one.

[withm]

Well I didn't actually see this, but I did see an owl in the last few weeks in the wild, so consider this a follow up.

This is a video of an owl coming in for a landing.

In. Slow. Motion.

Truly amazing. Enjoy.

http://www.dogwork.com/owfo8/

[PamNY]

Wow! Great owl video. Thanks.

[gasew7]

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.

[azfiddle]

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.

[Owlie]

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.

Maybe it wanted a longer ride?

Lots of herons and a flock of geese on my last ride. The geese wanted to hang out in the middle of the trail...