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.