What wildlife do you see on your rides?

[weathergal]

Domestic animals: Dogs, a few cats, more cattle than you can shake a stike at, horses, and on certain routes, sheep or goats.

Wild animals: Birds of many kinds, including phesants and hawks, a few deer, turtles, rabbits, and on my route to the northeast of my house; a prairie dog town.

Roadkill: Mostly bunnies and birds, but a couple of skunks, possums, and one really big snake.

[Bad JuJu]

bouncybouncy--I've never drafted a bumblebee, but I've seen a couple of dragonflies that I'd swear were drafting me! With the sun behind me, I saw their little shadows at my rear wheel. They stayed with me for maybe a tenth of a mile or so.

Other wildlife: turkeys, both wild and domestic, one peacock (must be somebody's pet), flock of guinea fowl, box turtles, blue herons, belted kingfishers, blue blue blue bluebirds, crows, vultures, one bald eagle, deer, an occasional hawk, bunnies, and assorted snakes, both venomous and non-.

Also, do carnivorous plants count? Here along the northern Gulf coast, we have the white pitcher plant, which supplements its diet with insects...yum!

[Starfish]

Bald eagles, herons and other assorted flying critters (although try to avoid seeing THE bird); otters & seals; a coyote; lots of deer, including 2 today; elk.

Anyone ever run across a bear or cougar on a ride? We have both around here, and I always think of that when I'm riding alone and creeping up a hill (blacktop) in the forest. Our hikers and one cyclist I know of sometimes come face-to-face with a cougar, and it's something that sorta scares me.

[yellow]

Today, a moose in the distance. Looked like a young bull moose. We stopped and watched him for a while.

I continue to be surprised by the bird diversity here (I used to live in the Pacific Flyway and, well, you could see just about anything as a result). Lazuli buntings singing and rufous hummingbirds vocalizing today. Whew. I was afraid it would be nothing but robins and mo-dos (though there is nothing wrong with robins and mo-dos).

[bouncybouncy]

Anyone ever run across a bear or cougar on a ride? We have both around here, and I always think of that when I'm riding alone and creeping up a hill (blacktop) in the forest. Our hikers and one cyclist I know of sometimes come face-to-face with a cougar, and it's something that sorta scares me.

we are of the few in our area who have actually seen a black bear (and her cub!) on a trail black bears are usually very timid and i was not too worried except we saw one cub and was not sure if it had a sibling...

my hubby saw the moma run across the trail (about 100 yards in front of us) so he stopped i nearly bashed into him when i saw the comotion of the cub following moma...chris hollered if it was ok to go (he is a florida boy...only gator-wise / i on the other hand grew up in north CA & OR region...have had a bit more bear education) so i said make sure there is only one cub...we DO NOT want to get between moma & baby!!!! the moma ran up a tree and baby stayed on the ground at the base of the tree looking at us....oh my goodness it was SOOOOO cute!!!!! we did not hear any more russling so i said to continue while making a bit of noise as to let moma know we were moving AWAY from her and baby....
all was ok EXCEPT....we did not have a camera
oh...well...the image is etched in my brain for a LONG time!!!

[Aggie_Ama]

I seem to be noticing the wildlife more since reading this thread. Yesterday I veered to avoid hitting a TARANTULA! They eat insects, so I let him live. He was just crossing the road peacefully, I have never seen one in the wild.

[bentforlife]

We certainly have plenty of those. We live on what at one time was called Tarantula hill. We get plenty in our yard. I'm not particularly fond of them..nothing should be that big and hairy and have that many legs, but they do eat a lot of insects, as long as they don't set up web making on my porches. EWHHH!!

We get armadilloes, mainly dead, possums, the occasional coyote, lots of birds,especially the common grackle, and also see gulls and other sea birds. Even though we are at least 300 miles from the coast, there are several large lakes in the area and we get the sea birds because of that. I have seen a few dead snakes, nothing live while on my bike. My favorite is a red shouldered hawk nest on a large power line tower. They must have babies because they've been very busy.

Donna

[Deanna]

I mostly see deer and birds. Wild turkeys are getting to be a problem in the area, so I see flocks of them. On our first warm days after winter I see snakes and lizards, unfortunately the snakes are usually dead in the road, I think they get out there to sun themselves on the warm asphalt and then get hit. I saw a bobcat last weekend!

[maillotpois]

Reading Bouncy's post made me remember: last year I was riding Tioga Pass in Yosemite (well, the 30 - 40 miles that were open because of the super late high snow levels ). Anyway, I saw 2 bears! One was above us on the hill above Tioga Pass. He rushed off into the woods. The second was at Crane Flat as I was preparing to descend to Yosemite Valley. He was just wandering through a fiels, super casual, eating plants. I got a picture of the second one and may post it here if I can get it off the home computer and into the photobucket thing SK made me sign up for.

Bears are COOL!

[Starfish]

We certainly have plenty of those. We live on what at one time was called Tarantula hill. We get plenty in our yard.

This might make me sound ridiculous, but I honestly don't know how I would cope living where there were wild tarantulas. On my first and only visit to Texas (it was a great trip, beautiful state), I had to deal with a scorpion, but if I had thought I might have to get a tarantula out of my cabin, too, I just don't know. My hat is off to you guys.

[bentforlife]

and I'm as close to having arachnophbia as anyone else. These "big" guys really don't have many enemies and don't have much to fear except cars running over them. Actually I overcame some of my arachnophobia 4 summers ago when we had a rather large zipper spider set up housekeeping on my back porch. My dh talked me out of killing it and asked me to observe it for a while. Having peaked my curiousity( I do have a Biology degree) I agreed. Well that spider stayed all summer and well into the fall. I was actually sad to see it leave. And I learned a lot about spider behaviour that was intriquing. And seeing how many bugs that thing took care of was amazing!! Now I only kill the black widows and brown recluses I find, they can be quite dangerous. I let all other spiders live.

As far as scorpions, another arachnid, I hate them. The ones here are not dangerous but they can be aggressive little boogers. I do kill them because they pose a danger to my cat and dog. Now if I can overcome my fear of wasps, bees, and yellow jackets, I'll have accomplished a lot.

Donna

[Lise]

My mom did me a big favor when I was little--she told me about spiders eating mosquitoes. And she read me Charlotte's Web. That may have been the book on which I learned to read...having it read to me, I just started to pick up the words. How frustrating to go to 1st grade and be handed D*ck and Jane. Boooooorrrrrrring! But I digress. Spiders are our friends. Most of the time.

[Lise]

Good grief. The computer edited the name of the beloved, extremely boring children's book of yore, **** and Jane. I went back and compromised, editing it down to only one strategically placed asterisk.

[maillotpois]

Good grief. The computer edited the name of the beloved, extremely boring children's book of yore, **** and Jane. I went back and compromised, editing it down to only one strategically placed asterisk.

Let me try something: **** Cheney.

[maillotpois]

Let me try something: **** Cheney.

Now that's excellent!