Weekend Wildlife Watch

“No backpacking over the weekend, but I saw some wildlife. First, I went for a run early Saturday morning and saw a big ol' rat run out from somebody's back yard (onto the path I was on). Then, on the way back from the gold country (from our overnight anniversary getaway), BowlderGal spotted a coyote along the road hangin' out by a creek. There was no traffic, so we stopped to watch it for a while. It actually looked like a fox in some ways (really bushy tail, ear size and shape), but was too big and was content to jog off through the pasture in plain view - more coyote-like behavior than fox-like.

What about the rest of you? Any wildlife sightings?”

“very cool !!

umm only wildlife i was was a dead rat on the trial.
went on a day hike with the boy scouts so they thought that was very cool

not me :~”

“We have lots of bird nests in our yard every year. Usually there are one or two in a good place for me to see in them, or take pics. This year, we had a next in the Tall Prickly Plant I Hate that is on the side of our house. Two weeks ago, I noticed the mama bird spending a lot of time just sitting in it, so I waited for her to leave, then got the digital camera and took a couple of pics of what was in it. Turned out it was a couple baby birds, still pink and mostly featherless. The next weekend, I took another pic, and they had most of their plumage, but were still being fed by their mom and dad. I took a couple more pics, one or two good ones of one of the chicks stretching its head out of the nest, trying to get food.

Yesterday, I took a pic, and the nest is empty. Them bird parents have it easy.”

“ooohh I forgot ..

we have a nest (a different one, the one near our frount door blew away :( )
but the nest on the side of our house had two baby morning doves in it. but this past weekend I was mowing the lawn and scared the bejeeeze's out of the little birds. I felt so bad. I had no idea that they were out of the nest already. they have yet to fly, but it was so sweet to hear the little ones try to coo like mama does.


I have pics and i will try to post them tonight.
I love living in a house!!”

“Me and Mrs. Hikin' Mike spent Friday night at the Yosemite View Lodge (wedding anniversary trip). Drove up to Tioga Pass and beyond Saturday and saw 4 deer in the meadow right past Crane Flat gas station.

I would say 90% of the time I drive by that meadow, I see deer grazing.”

“early morning bki ride have netted me a lot of turkeys . This is breeding season so the males are all strutting around with their tail fans out . .gobbling up a storm.


At the feeder and in the yard we have a lot of migrants . . .and some summer overs . .

Indigo Buntings are the most spectular, also rose breasted grosbeaks, orioles, etc. The blue birds are busy nesting in the houses in our field.”

“LOL Lee
we seem to have a bunch of turkeys here in Staten Island
saw one on our way to work last week. to fuuny. the stir they cause when they cross the streets. new yorkers cant handle stuff like that.”

“Congrats on the anniversary, HM! Our anniversary trip was in Columbia and Sonora - 14 years for us....

Well, I guess this wildlife sighting, if true, sorta trump my rat and coyote (and probably the deer and turkeys, too).”

“Whoa! The story in that link I posted just changed from a sighting to a shooting! Now we'll have to change the icon for this thread to fuego - we'll all start arguing whether it was right to shoot the thing or not....”

“true, but we are talking NY turkeys....LOL”

“We saved a turtle this weekend!”

“A year or so ago (?) a black bear wandered out of the hills into Monterey (I think) and climbed a tree. "No problem," said the animal control folks as the shot him with a tranquilizer dart. Only problem: bear goes to sleep; bear falls out of tree; bear now dead. Oops!”

“Backpacked out at Point Reyes this past weekend and saw my first Grey Whales.”

“Cool - I almost never see whales up in the Sierras!”

“"Birch and I went out for a three hour tour yesterday with Abby in the backhatch of my boat. We skirted a dozen or so swans, watched terns and osprey and eagle fly overhead. Helped Abby figure out the joys of polarized sunglasses. Showed her some sweet little goslings. On the way back to the area we put in we came upon a heron rookery that had a nest. We saw a head popped up and heard baby birds but saw no mama so figured we'd swing closer and check it out. Well, as soon as we got about ten feet from the metal stand a mama OSPREY popped up from the nest shreiking and holding her wings open. We scooted away fast and quietly. We felt bad for disturbing her but what an experience! Wow. It was a great day."”

“Gamble Quail in the neighborhood.”

“Bowlder, I hope you're not looking too hard! I generally prefer the Sierras too, but you can't beat the wildlife of Point Reyes, especially when you consider how close it is to SF.

I've seen plenty of Elk out there as well as Fallow Deer (introduced), White Tail Deer, Gray Foxes, Red Foxes (introduced), Coyotes, Sea Lions, Bobcats... All in multiples.”

“Last Monday I saw 7 bears in Sequoia....I was back up there yesterday and saw 6 bears they are really out eating in the meadows all day long right now.

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“WindWalker? You really that close to those cute little bears or are you using a zoom lens? If you are that close, are you inside a bear canister so they don't eat you?”

“300mm zoom..but it still feels close when you are standing there ;)”

“
Mom



Two cubs”

“awesome windwalker!

man, i wish i'd had a camera today! i pulled of the interstate to take me a wee little wee wee and when i rounded the corner i saw a ....fox running across the road. i was kindof dumbfounded because is was unusual. i've seen tons of cyotes and this was definately a fox, because of the way it moves. what was strange was that it was almost jet black. i went aorund the bend and pee'd and on the way back to the interstate, when i came BACK around the bend, he was crossing at the smae spot, only goinf the other way across the highway. i really got a good look at him the second time and it was a fowx allright. i just never heard of a black one. we have silvers and reds here....maybe some kind of genetic mutation.”

“The unfortunate result of the mountain lion's visit to town yesterday (from sfgate.com):

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“bummah.....

so, anyone ever heard of a black fox?”

“nope...never seen or heard of a black fox....would be cool to see one though.”

“it was trippy..


i saw a black squrrell near my house...i've actually seen it a few times in the same area”

“OK, so this isn't wildlife I saw, but interesting nonetheless. My dad was out on his usual walk in Two Moon Park in Billings and saw a fox that he had seen before. It was carrying a squirrel in its mouth, and he saw it take the squirrel to a spot in the meadow where its four kits were waiting for it! If that wasn't cool enough, one of the kits grabbed the squirrel and ran off with it. Where? Right toward my dad! It got within just a few feet, where he was able to take a pic of it. He also got a few other pics. You can see them here (just the first 3 pics in the album)....

http://community.webshots.com/album/56722407RdmcwT”

“that's pretty cool...we had a fox that used to hunt mice in a field across the street from where i work...we could watch him pounce from our building...they've started doing work over there now and he's gone, very "over the hedge"”

“Id guess that the rodent population was way down and the fox was really hungry or the squirrell was injured and the fox just saw it as an oportunity to get a nice juicy meal.
The foxes around here get really fat digging up and eating lots of snake and turtle eggs.

I came across a large Northern watersnake this weekend while beach combing by the bay.This thing werent having such an easy time with his meal!! He had managed to catch an eel that was nearly as big as he was and drag it about 12 feet up onto the shore,but the eel wasnt in any mood to be eaten!! It was a pretty interesting fight,but when the snake spotted me he fled back into the water so I dont know how it would have turned out.

I also found a couple black rat snakes and a ringneck snake. Saw a red tail hawk and 2 ospries(sp) one had a nice size fish!”

“Went out for a run this morning and a HUGE snake was slithering across the path. Well, huge for an urban area like this, anyway. It was about 4 feet long - probably feeding on the gazillions of ground squirrels at the old landfill....”

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Black rat snake, perhaps?
last edited: 6/04/06 1:51:32 PM”

“Two bald eagles flew through my back yard this weekend. It was an amazing site. One landed in a tree behind my house long enough for me to grab a pair of binoculars and check him out for a few minutes. We get them in our area from time to time due to gravel pits in the area but I've never seen them this close.”