Interesting sights on the commute
 

How about a meteor coming out of the sky 30 yards away. It was probably further than it looked but it was close. I saw the streak of light over my left shoulder and thought I was hallucinating for a second. :lol:

This morning as I rode through a KMart parking lot, I saw the Governor of our state.

I saw a great blue heron the other day. I've seen them before, but from a distance. This one was standing right on the path where I was riding, and kept standing there as I got closer, and it was so big I didn't register that it was a bird until I was pretty close. I guess I was about fifty feet away when he spread his wings and took off, very slowly. Bird stands between four and five feet high --taller than my 11y/o daughter-- with a wingspan over six feet. Looks more like a dinosaur than anything.

Yeah, they are so cool. A few months ago, I saw one flying along the road I live on, between all the trees. She was about 5 feet up, taking the lane and flying with traffic. Very majestic.

A stout woman, not more than 5' walking down the opposite side walk in a suburban area. She had on large head phones and was clearly enjoying the walk in the sunshine - leading a pony on a leash.

Do you life in the Sudan?

Apparently there was a close call there a few weeks ago"

http://geology.com/news/2009/asteroi...ose-call.shtml

^^^^nope, northern U.S. and as meteor's go, this was rather small.

My brother found an 8GB iPod Touch on the side of the road last weekend.

Recently I saw what I think was a sparrow hawk trying to land on top of a hydro pole with some sort of prey clutched in its talons. It was nice to be on the bike, as I was able to watch it for a lot longer than had I been in the car.

I saw a red tailed hawk eating a squirrel one afternoon.

A raccoon resting head down on a tree trunk (I think he was resting. If he was troubled I wasn't any help. ).

I stopped to let a fat caterpiller cross the the bike path one time.

While stopped at a redlight, a homeless man sang to me. Badly, but the gesture was nice.

While stopped at a redlight, some random guy tried to sell me a car stereo for my bike. I didn't buy it.

Damn, I miss all the good stuff. We have had a couple of really big meteors here ( Alberta ) over the last year or so. In both cases I worked out that I had just gone indoors when they lit up the sky. Mutter, mutter.

Gerv, that asteroid was last March.

I can hardly even describe how close this was. It was below the level of the trees and produced a delicate string of light. As I saw it appear over my shoulder it continued on the same path as me for about 50 yards or so. Eerie as hell at 5 AM with music playing away on the headphones. I'm curious if I would have heard anything if I hadn't had music on. I actually felt fortunate I wasn't hit by it.

If it had hit you, you would be in a very select group. One of only 2 or 3 I think. If it had not hurt you badly, it might have been worth it for the fame and being able to sell the meteor.

I saw a meteor once that was actually recovered back when I was in high school. Very impressive, it was a full fledged fireball with what looked like flames coming off from it (yellow, probably iron vaporizing). Looked very close but it was recovered about five miles away.

I saw one of these http://www.ecology-solutions.com.au/...tropicbird.jpg the other day off the sea cliffs on the ride to work. There was a stiff wind and it was just hanging there about 15 feet beyond the road shoulder level with my head. It is usually very hard to see the red tail even with binoculars but not this time.

I saw a dead guy bobbing in the canal, and a police boat trying to hook him out of the water.

I used to commute across the Englewood Dam on National Rd just north of Dayton, OH. Pretty much every morning I would see a Blue Heron fishing in the spillway. I still go this way(by car now) to pick up and drop off my daughter every other weekend. A couple of Sundays ago while returning I saw a Bald Eagle fly about twenty feet to my front then overhead. I had heard that they were returning to this part of Ohio and it was very cool to see one not in an exhibit. I still miss commuting across there some ten years after. During the dark days of my marriage it was often the best part of my day.

A few winters back, I saw the Northern Lights. They are not too common here in Southern Finland, partly because there's too much ambient light sources everywhere. But stunning nevertheless.

--J

It is sad, but somehow I lose the ability to see neat things when I'm on the bicycle. The last two weekends I have gone for longish bike path rides with some friends. On these rides I have missed and was later told about 2 snakes, a turtle, and 3 deer.... The deer were on the path. According my friends they crossed right in front of me and I somehow did not notice them at all.

I do see lots of rednecks though.. So that's something.

I saw a bunch of yellow pollen. It is so thick in NC right now it looks like snow in my headlight beam. It's probably not too healthy to be riding in it, but I figure I'll be breathing it one way or the other.

Water Moccasin trying to cross the road, I gave it a wide berth.

A couple of geese coming in low, following the road, honking a bit, like geese do, then a sharp left over the trees to land in a hidden pond.

Me and the birds were going at about the same speed for a while. Got a really good look. Cool.

A guy in front of me hitting a tree head on while on his bike. He was looking down at his gears and bam! Broke his helmet and handlebars but he was ok.

This happened to me once. But not the hallucinating part :-)

Saw a bobcat on the bike path in an urban park.