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Wildlife

Old 05-29-18, 11:57 AM
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I frequently see "Whistling Ducks" perched on overhead wires. I don't know why. They have a very difficult time staying on.
Whistling Ducks
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Old 05-29-18, 11:59 AM
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Yet another dead rat on the bike path today. He was rather plump. How do rats die on a bike path, fergodssake?
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Old 05-29-18, 12:27 PM
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I feel a bit deprived after the last two posts. I never even heard of ducks sitting on a wire. If it weren't for the picture, I'd have called you crazy. Also, I've yet to see any rats, live or dead, on my commute. I did see a dead mountain lion carcass on tour last fall. That was a bit disconcerting.
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Old 05-29-18, 03:01 PM
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My old work commute involved a long stretch of bike path under some high tension power lines. I'd see dead birds under them at times, but never any singing ducks.
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Old 05-29-18, 03:42 PM
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Originally Posted by no motor?
My old work commute involved a long stretch of bike path under some high tension power lines. I'd see dead birds under them at times, but never any singing ducks.
Well of course not, they quit singing when they died!
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Old 05-29-18, 05:55 PM
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I saw a deer standing in the road this morning. Not such a big deal anymore. They're about as common as stray cats.
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Old 05-30-18, 08:41 AM
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It's a ground hog, I think.
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Old 05-31-18, 11:07 AM
  #83  
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The start of my commute is through the Arcata marsh, so every kind of water bird on the west coast, plus so. many Canada geese; a flock was introduced some years ago, and they're so successful, they're out-competing the dairy cattle for the new, nutritious grass. Rarely I see deer, an occasional feral cat; once, memorably, I saw a skunk scampering across a misty pasture just before sunrise. Any raccoons I see are squashed on the side of the highway. Mostly I see cows. No bunnies, oddly enough; I've had two sightings, both in the community forest, tiny, round-eared little things, cute as a button.
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Old 05-31-18, 11:48 AM
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Not exactly wildlife but I saw a dead dog floating in the river this morning. It made me sad.
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Old 05-31-18, 02:55 PM
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
Well of course not, they quit singing when they died!
I thought they were pining for the fjords of Norway!
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Old 06-01-18, 08:40 AM
  #86  
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Good sized turtle - maybe two foot long shell - crossing the Minuteman trail. You know...really slowly.
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Old 06-01-18, 10:11 AM
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Lots of rabbits, ducks, turtles, occasionally coyotes and also bobcats. But they are shy and rarely seen. But they are around. We had a litter of little bobcats under our deck last year. They were really cute.
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Old 06-01-18, 01:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Harhir
We had a litter of little bobcats under our deck last year. They were really cute from a respectful distance.
There, fixed it for you.
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Old 06-01-18, 09:24 PM
  #89  
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I stopped and protected a snapping turtle crossing the road yesterday. Four lane divided highway with 45mph speed limit. (55 actual). Neither turtle nor cyclist were harmed.

Sadly, I saw two other turtles the same morning who didn't make it. One was HUGE!
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Old 06-03-18, 08:00 AM
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Had a couple of osprey sightings, a week or so back.

Saw a great egret the other day, going after frogs (?) in a local pond.

Saw a deer and fawn, recently. (Should try a few more rides at dusk, and I might see more.)

On a few occasions, I've heard the faint sounds of owls passing just above me.

Back in the autumn, as I recall, I did a few early-evening rides during which I saw numerous bats flying around just along the fringes of the lights, scooping up insects.
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Old 06-03-18, 07:51 PM
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saw a trash panda last week in is natural habitat. and almost hit a deer the previous week.
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Old 06-04-18, 07:31 AM
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Not a good pic. Found some javalina in a corn field Saturday afternoon. They declined to come out in the open.

[img]

Javalina in the Corn by res1due, on Flickr[/img]
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Old 06-04-18, 08:57 AM
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We saw an eagle over the Rondout Creek in NY State.
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Old 06-04-18, 09:44 AM
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Been seeing lots of little dead birds, and also parts thereof, lately. I figure most of them bounced off windshields. Not sure about the parts though. Cat middens?
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Old 06-04-18, 10:04 AM
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After reading about them for years I finally had a squirrel dash out in front of my wheel. They moved fast enough to stay out of the way, but it sure did startle me.
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Old 06-05-18, 08:10 PM
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I was riding along the Canal towpath at about five this morning when a big black critter flopped out of the bushes right on in fr of my bike. I mean so close that I'm not even sure if I hit it or not. I thought it was a skunk at first, and was trying to get away fast when I realized it was a beaver, doubtless the one I saw last month,, and it was trying to get away from me. Wow, that's a big critter, and fat.
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Old 06-05-18, 11:28 PM
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Originally Posted by noglider
Not exactly wildlife but I saw a dead dog floating in the river this morning. It made me sad.
I can out depress you. One day I passed a flattened dog..... except for the four legs. I found it very upsetting. Fortunately it was gone the next day. I still often think of that poor dog when I pass that spot on the commute.

Then there is the small rat that I bisected on after dark commute. I never saw the poor thing. I didn't see it, and if it had been larger, it would have brought me down. I went back to look, hoping that I had just run over the tail, but alas, poor thing. I felt so bad for the poor rat for months every time I passed that spot. And the weird thing is the next day I showed up at work an one office mate was telling me that the other office mate saw a dead rat on the MUP that morning. I felt bad all over again.

Finally, I was biking to work a couple of months ago and a pair of squirrels came running across the road which had a lot of traffic moving about 45. Squirrel #1 didn't make it and squirrel #2 passed about three feet in front of my bike.

I much prefer seeing live critters. I've seen deer on three or four occasions and once I had to stop because there was a coyote in the road about 50 yards ahead. Those dogs are creepy; they could win any staring contest, hands down.
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Old 06-06-18, 09:09 AM
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Originally Posted by no motor?
After reading about them for years I finally had a squirrel dash out in front of my wheel. They moved fast enough to stay out of the way, but it sure did startle me.
A squirrel and I *just* missed each other yesterday, he ran across a 5 lane speedway to get right at me when I was going 20+mph and we both diverged the tiniest bit to miss each other.

Lots of baby bunnies on the trail today. There must have been a hatch recently.
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Old 06-07-18, 06:14 AM
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This morning:


I could have run the thing over if I wasn't paying attention. The critter has a hole just on the other side of the fence. It's not the first time I've seen it. See post #82 .
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Old 06-07-18, 10:03 AM
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It's still baby duck season in Phoenix, so that's the critters I saw on my commute today.
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