sknhgy 

Today, my wife and I removed a warblehttps://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...6354--,00.html from a cat's neck. This feral cat adopted us. We have been feeding it. She had kittens under my boat. This morning my wife noticed a sore on the cat's neck. I held "Cheetos" while my wife enlarged the warble's breathing hole with a sharp knife. Then she pulled it out with tweezers. I could smell rotting flesh. We cleaned the wound with peroxide then covered it with antibiotic ointment. Cheetos seems to be doing fine, and she seems very grateful to us. The operation has given me a strange sense of satisfaction. My wife is an RN so she kind of likes stuff like this.

colombo357

Had some strange encounters with snake roadkill recently. Dunno why it was on the hot asphalt to begin with. Big ones, 6 feet long. They make a very bloody mess, worse than mammals.

Also so a dead fox split in half. Tail about 2 feet from its body.

This is about as weird as it gets in a dense suburban community near the coast.

Holmes375

I live in Wyoming and ride often at night so its pretty tough to surprise me in terms of animal encounters. But I had one tonight...

One of our reservoirs has overfilled due to heavy rains and rapid snow-pack melt thus the North Platte river here in Casper has breached its banks in many areas. The MUP that runs alongside much of the river has several areas under 1-2 feet of water. I was crossing a stretch about 200' long and approximately 15" deep when my headlights picked up what appeared to be several torpedo-like moving objects in the water. A group of river carp about 2' long were swimming across my path. Caught one broadside and it gave my front wheel quite a smack. Wobbled a bit but didn't go for a swim.

Never in all my days have I collided with a fish while cycling - 'twas a new adventure

PaulRivers

"Yeah, I hit something with my bike on my commute today."
"A squirrel? A rabbit? Not a car?"
"No, none of those - a fish."
"um...are you on drugs?"

garethzbarker

You people that have seen mountain lions are lucky, those things will attack bikers sometimes.

I've ridden next to a fawn that was jumping in a rice field. the water was keeping it too slow to pass me up for a while. I've hit 2 snakes and a huge rat while riding. a weird encounter recently was a dragonfly that just hovered backwards in front of my helmet while I was cruising along. was really cool.

garethzbarker

F%ck it....you win.

JanMM

I see mostly dead wildlife riding in Central Indiana. But, saw a live deer on the road while here on vacation in New Hampshire - saw it right before the car I was driving hit the deer. Damn. More dead wildlife but no one hurt in our car. The car stays in NH to be fixed while we drive a rental home to Indiana.

Loose Chain

In Phoenix I had ridden out into the desert quite a way and came to a stop to rest beside a rock outcropping. As I was sipping my water bottle I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a bee/wasp like missile, headed in my direction from yon rocks. Being as I don't get along well with such critters I decided to put on some speed and make some ground. To no avail, the large, orangish and yellowish creature with a thorax about six inches long flicking in my direction with a gleaming sword like stinker three inches long and a wingspan of about one foot was right on my a---s. Despite my best efforts and my Pinarello's fleetness I could gain no ground on the angry bug. The stalmate continued for what may have been five miles, maybe ten or more before at last he turned off and winged skyward and I swear a victory roll or two before departing.

IntegratedPi

Anyone who's been to river legacy park out here in Arlington, TX has probably seen a Bobcat, but last summer I came up to the Collins street bridge and saw some people waiting on the other side looking toward what I thought was a clump of dirt on the path. Turns out the clump was a turtle....and then two bobcat cubs came up from the brush and started to follow him, playfully pawing at him. And then I saw mom. She came out of the brush and then dropped back into it while the cubs kept playing with the turtle. And I'm pretty sure I saw a dead snake later during the same ride.

CNY James

snakes love hot pavement, they just go out there and bask.

1Echo

I too have played chicken with a vulture. Its meal was in the middle of the road, no way to avoid it. At first it postured with wings spread thinking I was after the roadkill. It must've realized I was no threat though because it flew up to a telephone pole to watch me pass before swooping back down.

Asi

I saw a pack of gray wolves running trough the streets of Braşov (side streets, near the forest. Not stray dogs, wolves, I know the difference) and I could hear them in the woods on the mountain.

A lot of brown bears (near, and even in the city of Braşov) and in many trails on Carpathian mountains.

I saw a chamois on a rocky trail on the mountain.

Some vipers on rocks around mountain trails. (deadly.. do not step on it)

Squirrels in parks.
Deers, foxes, hedgehogs, other snakes, rabbits in the forest.

On a trip to the mountains, the most usual encounter are brown bears (at every trip, or every second trip). So far I was not chased by one, and I always carry some firecrackers (to scare them off if needed) but there were some incidets of attacking bears and wolves on the mountain or even in urban city (mountainous city, like Braşov) but pretty rare.

I was chased by shepherd dogs on a number of occasions (I mean the dogs that are patrolling around sheep herds to watch out for wolves/bears), but they give up the chase once you leave "their territory".

EGUNWT

So I'm on this trail. The trail is bounded on one side by an 8 foot high fence separating it from some crops and by a very dense forest about 150yd to the Missouri river. I'm riding along and look up and there's a small deer on the trail. Deer looks at me, and I breathe a sigh of relief thinking it's gonna run off into the woods.

Nope, Deer tries to jump over the fence. Now, deer can JUMP. But this is an 8 foot high chain link fence, and the deer was basically standing next to it. The deer vaults up, smashes into the chainlink chest-first with a mighty CLANGclanglanglang that sends waves down the fence both directions, and lands on his side. Stands up, and no kidding shakes his head back and forth, then runs off into the woods.

wrafl

Saw a fox this morning staring at me as I approached but he was some 10 feet away from the road. Perhaps I was too big for him for his meal. Didn't move at all as he looked away from me perhaps eyeing what will come next.

borgagain

On my daily 20 to 30 mile rides, I've been rewarded with frequent sightings of wildlife. This has included beavers, woodchucks, rabbits, foxes, coyotes, buzzards feeding on road kill and various water birds including ducks, geese and herons.

On one recent occasion, a weasel crossed the road about five yards ahead of me. It was dragging a large snake. My immediate reaction was that this could only be a bad omen. So far, nothing unpleasant has ensued but I'm still waiting for an IRS agent to show up in the driveway with a lawyer in his car.

By far the most prevalent sightings are deer. They think nothing of sashaying out onto the road alone or in groups and stopping to stare at me as I approach, before scampering off.

One day, on the final leg of my ride, which took me into the one town and back through another on a 21 mile circuit, I was rewarded with a good omen.

I had crested a moderate hill on a wooded road when a doe stepped out into my lane about 150 yards ahead. She stopped and when I was within 100 yards, she hastened across the road. No sooner had she disappeared into the woods, when a tiny spotted spindly-legged fawn staggered into the lane in front of me. The fawn wobbled drunkenly on pipe-cleaner legs for a second or two and then collapsed in the middle of the lane.

I dismounted and began to roll my bike backwards. If car came over the hill now, the driver wouldn't see the fawn, who currently resembled a very small leaf pile. When I got back to crest of the hill and had turned my bike sideways in the lane, the doe appeared back at the opposite side of the road and stomped warnings at me, while glancing at her baby. With renewed determination the wobbling fawn rose, crossed the road and followed mom into the woods.

Another, less pleasant encounter occurred on an adjacent road. I had come down a small hill and was on a level part, doing between 25 and 30 mph when I suddenly heard hoof beats behind me and to the right. In an instant a deer shot diagonally across the road in front of me missing my front wheel by only inches, its hooves slamming and skidding loudly on the blacktop. The spooked doe then proceeded to crash noisily through the woods. Why she felt she had to outrun me before crossing the road, is beyond my understanding.

Neuclearfusion

As I was riding down my driveway, one of my Siamese cats took a notion to leap onto my back and shoulder from an overhead low tree limb. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

Jeff Wills

Yep- back when I lived in San Diego I came upon what I thought was a branch lying across an 8-foot wide path. I was about to go around one end when I saw it was 5 feet worth of rattlesnake. I stopped, backed up, and thought about going home on another route. Fortunately it decided to slither off into the bushes.

Damn big snake...

serra

Well yesterday I encountered a ground squirrel. And it encountered my wheels. Poor fell, I laid him to rest on the edge of the field where his friends seemed to live. He came out from the right, 3 inches in front of me, crazy bugger.

RiPHRaPH

A squirrel ran in front of us this morning. Out of the 3 bikes, I was the one who ended up feeling and hearing the crush of his little neck as he was run over.

wxduff

The big ones know when to let go. Its the little ones I've heard that kill more people, they just hang on and pump you full of the bad stuff.

So far I've managed to dodge a whole family of ground hogs on the bike path, and one day while riding a road, I scared the crap out of an owl. He returned the favor.

Not on the bike, but one time while playing Ult. Frisbee at school, a deer came out of the woods and just booked it right through the field. Deer must have invented their own form Alcohol, because they make the must idiotic decisions, ever.

akohekohe

Once when touring on the mainland a skunk ran out in front of me when I was doing about 30 mph down a hill. I jumped it, just grazed its back and it rolled over several times but didn't manage to spray me. Here in Hawaii my main enemy are these peacocks - really mean birds. Then the other day I had a wild boar on the shoulder I didn't see until the last moment, glad I missed him, he had a nice pair of tusks that could have done some damage if he wanted to.

nancyj

Many years ago I was riding from Athens GA to Gainesville GA to see a friend and I startled a buck that ran along side of me - no more than 15 feet from me for about 200 yards. It then crossed in front of me and shot off. For young Nancy, it was a real rush. For old Nancy it was like - wow - I could have gotten seriously hurt - shoulda stopped!

CNY James

perhaps for the same reason that cars feel the need to

JPMacG

Every day on my commute I see lots of squirrels, rabbits, deer and ground hogs. Occasionally I see foxes and beaver. In the spring there are lots of canadian geese. I've had an encounter with a mute swan during nesting season. It wanted me dead.

wabbit

once i was riding and felt something hit my hand on the underside of the bars, looked down and saw this little chipmunk scurry off like mad into the grass! i felt horrible, because i hate to hurt an animal in any way....but i guess it just glanced off the bar and was ok but the whole way home I was all freaked out ...