# What cool wildlife did you see on your commute? (Pics if possible)



## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

Inspired by the 'how was your commute' thread:



cyclingdutchman said:


> Nice bird btw. I wonder what kind of wildlife you all see along the way?


So lets see (or hear about) what critters you spotted on your commute!

I've got tons of pictures from the past several years, but I'll start throwing them in here from now on...

I can remember seeing:
Deer (countless, see them almost every day)
Bald Eagle (yesterday, the inspiration for this thread)
Fox
Marmots
Coyote
Snakes (Bull, Garter, Rattle)
Do Canadian Geese count?
Do Snow Geese count?
Skunk (brake check!)
Raccoon
Peacocks
Suicidal Squirrels
Wild Turkeys


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

Lets see...

Deer? One alive, many as road kill
Bald Eagle? Several but not while riding my bike
Fox? Yep. And kits.
Marmots? In the east Groundhogs, check
Coyote? Yep, one.
Snakes? (Bull, Garter, Rattle) Yep. only garter snakes on the bike though.
Do Canadian Geese count? Can't count how many if they do! 
Do Snow Geese count? None come through here. How about Mallards?
Skunk (brake check!)? Yes! Time to reroute when one is after grubs near the road on the neighbor's lawn!
Raccoon? Pretty much nocturnal. Have seen many. Only road kill ones on the bike though.
Peacocks? Yes. Same place had Guinea hens on the road.
Suicidal Squirrels? Doesn't everyone? 
Wild Turkeys? Not on the bike. Hit one with the car. One windshield totaled.

Buzzards? 
Pileated Woodpecker?
Crazy Cottontails?
Red Tail Hawk?
Cooper's Hawk?
Kite?

Wild Rams? (Coaling sort, not sure if these guys qualify as "wild life". Wild, no doubt.)
Impalas? Usually driven fairly tamely. But have nearly been sideswiped by one turning left from the center lane of a one-way 3 lane street with me in the right lane. Maybe just Mr. Magoo, rather than driving like an animal, but a possible.
Mustangs? Lots.
Mavericks, Pintos, and Broncos are rare now once passed me or I rolled by them broken down.
Barracudas, Marlins mostly seen at car shows now.

One former buzzard:



The antithesis of your Bald Eagle!


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## Texan-n-Fla (Sep 22, 2013)

Tons of birds, obviously. I think the one thing that stood out was a gator. This wasn't on a trail, or out in the woods, but the middle of downtown. Came in through a storm drain, and I was the first one to find him. Called it in, and when I passed the area again in my work truck, animal control was there with a trapper.


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## wschruba (Apr 13, 2012)

Hmm...lets see:

Deer (nothing special here, we're the deer capital of the world >_> )
Osprey
The same two or three crows every few months (does that count as a murder?)
Fat bluejays that eat cat food
Possum
Squirrel
Swans/geese
Seagulls/terns
Black vultures

Pics probably never forthcoming. Wildlife doesn't wait for me to stop and pull out a camera, 'less it's dead.


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

*Spotted salamander and friends*

I found a few in my archives...more uncommon now that I have a road commute.


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## rodar y rodar (Jul 21, 2006)

BrianMc said:


> One former buzzard:


Closely related to Ex-Parrot? I liked your internal combustion wildlife review 

MtbX, great archive- I remember quite a few of those! What kind of birds are in the picture between the leaping whitetail and the speedy little salamander? Some kind of turkey? Also, that just post might be the first time I`ve ever been called "wild".

On my commute...
Daily or near daily:
cottontails
California Quail

Weekly:
jackrabbit (which is actually not A RABBIT)
some kind of dove
two kinds of squirrels
kangaroo mice
coyotes (audible)

Occasionally:
coyotes (visual)
redtail hawk
pygmy owls

Once:
fox
chicken (a mile from nearest house)
pronghorn antelope (which is actually NOT an antelope)


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ Those are wild turkeys, they have made a great comeback in New England. 

Pronghorn antelope, that would be cool!


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## z1r (Apr 17, 2014)

I've seen tons of animals but the coolest for some reason was seeing a wild turkey in town less than a mile from my work. I see tons of Geese daily so it took a second to register that this big bird was not quite right.

last year my boys and I were riding the same trail I commute to work on and saw two huge Mule Deer covered in velvet. They were grazing just inches away.

A gator in town would cause quite a stir here!

I gotta remember to keep a camera more available and to stop and smell the roses more frequently.

the worst was also last year. I came upon a guy standing at the corner looking all disheveled and beat up. Stopped and asked him if he needed any help and he just kind of looked at me with a blank stare. Came to find out a suicidal squirrel ran through his front wheel. When it lodged against the forks it caused him to do an immediate face plant. I stayed with him until his ride arrived. I'm not sure if he hit his head but he was really out of it.

Less than a week later, I ran over a prairie dog.

@mtbxplorer, that salamander pic is awesome.


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

^ Had a cottontail try to do the kamikaze squirrel on me. It brushed the back of my front wheel and the rear felt like it ran over the legs. It kept going and was not to be seen, so euthanasia could not be administered. It may be very lucky that I am now 70 pounds under my weight when I resumed cycling in 2008. 

I agree that catching some of these critters on camera will be a challenge.


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## newfangled (Sep 13, 2010)

Dug back through my photos and didn't find much:



__
https://flic.kr/p/o2SM3f


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https://flic.kr/p/a3MngW


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https://flic.kr/p/gLYjah

I see plenty of coyotes, but have never gotten a picture.

Saw a ringnecked pheasant on a ride home once, which was strange because I've never seen one before or since. They don't seem very mobile, so I don't know how that one got there.

And a bunch of raptors hangout at the far northeast end of town by the refineries for some reason. On the trails around there it's pretty common to get buzzed by owl and hawks and eagles.


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## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

rodar y rodar said:


> pronghorn antelope (which is actually NOT an antelope)





mtbxplorer said:


> Pronghorn antelope, that would be cool!


Forgot them. I see them once in a great while also. There are a couple herds further out into the high desert/sage brush that sometimes wander closer to my side of the valley (I live on the EDGE of the sierras... I'm in the pines, but once you leave the trees at the end of my dirt road, if you kept going straight you'd have to go all the way to Idaho before you see pine trees again :lol:


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## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

Found it... I knew I had snapped a pic at one point..


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## str8edgMTBMXer (Apr 15, 2015)

Hmmm...

College Students; homeless people; crust punks; people waiting for the bus; dogs; squirrels; cats....all urban commuting for me


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

Ok, what I can show, besides the usual ducks and other small birds:

the boar, hard to see a bit lower left of the windmill:








roe deers:







run away when you stop and look at them:








Furthermore I sometimes see something swimming in a ditch along the way. Do not know what it is, it's size is somewhat between rat and beaver.

And in my street I once saw a fox with a chicken in its mouth :eekster: (hasn't met our monster cat I guess).


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## rodar y rodar (Jul 21, 2006)

I was thinking about this thread after my last post and I KNOW the topic has come up before, maybe in its own thread, maybe as part of another. `Bout 3 or 4 years ago? Perttime or Fux awed us with some really exotic (for us NA-ers) critters from northern Europe, including lynx reindeer, and (IIRC) monster moose. It`s a good thing that CyclingDutchman saved himself after instigating the topic again by posting up some roe deer action or we`d have had to send him on a long mission!

Call out now to the Ausiies and Kiwis. What happened to our southern team?


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

z1r said:


> @mtbxplorer, that salamander pic is awesome.


Thanks, but I must apologize, that is the only one I posted that I did not take! I did see a spotted salamander, the joke was it was slower than me, but I must have uploaded a better pic than I tooK, but failed at that detail yesterday.


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

Well if you want roe deer action, you get it, from this morning:

first one: 








then a group of 4, below the right windmill (I admit, a bit hard to see)








then two more between the apple trees (center of pic):








I do not know if it counts, because it is AFTER my commute, there is a crow's nest with 4 baby's in the staircase next to my office:








they are always hungry:








The last pics are a bit blurry, because the window can not be opened. I look at them once every day, they are now a week old. They hatched last week during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

And the Rat/Beaver mix I was talking about before, is probably a muskrat:
Muskrat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## z1r (Apr 17, 2014)

No pics because it was raining this morning but I saw a Goose with some new hatchlings. The Mother ran right toward me flapping her wings in an effort to scare me off.

The first week in February we saw about four or five days where the temps hit the mid 70's. On one of those days on my way home I crossed a bridge. As I got to the other side the trail takes a hard left. Just as I hit the trail I see a huge bull snake sunning itself. I had to swerve hard to the right to avoid it hoping all the while I didn't wipe out. I missed it and stayed upright. I hate the sound of snake being run over!


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## Rustedthrough (Aug 19, 2014)

Not sure if this qualifies. Blue the ox is free- range, not wild. Photo taken mid- farm, at the business end of the commute.

Lots of sand hill cranes in the fields all of a sudden, no good photos yet.


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

^^BIG ox and a brave soul! I'll raise you a nice pony. Plus a turkey(?) feather and some crazy bright stuff growing on a rock.


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## rodar y rodar (Jul 21, 2006)

cyclingdutchman said:


> they are always hungry:
> View attachment 986496


:thumbsup:



Rustedthrough said:


> Blue the ox is free- range, not wild.


Whoa, it`s enormous!!! Is that like half buffalo or something?


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## l'oiseau (May 5, 2015)

Not from a commute, but still cool...


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## mca90guitar (Apr 2, 2015)

deer, turkey and a fisher, obviously all the normal things like chipmunks and squirrels, hawks etc...

wasnt riding but when I was turkey hunting I saw family of black bears, about 40 yds from me in a thick part of the woods, I just stood there for awhile and watched the mom and cubs hanging out and eating. the mom would stand up and look around every so often and go back to doing its thing. Decided to head out and not push my luck, the last mom and cubs I ran into the mom wasnt as friendly.


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

This thread brings good karma, since it was startet I see way more animals along the way, or maybe I pay more attention??

Anyway, I have seen the Muskrat again today, but I could not take a pic. It disappeared under water and although I followed its bubble trail, it disappeared in the grass before I got it.

And I have seen five boars today with four babys:








I really need to get a camera with more than 5x optical zoom....


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## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

^^ Boars! That's cool.

This guy was back on my route this morning. Check out the size of the rabbit (I think?) legs he has up there... breakfast of champions. I hope he doesn't grab me off of my bike and carry me away one of these days.


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## mca90guitar (Apr 2, 2015)

CommuterBoy said:


> ^^ Boars! That's cool.
> 
> This guy was back on my route this morning. Check out the size of the rabbit (I think?) legs he has up there... breakfast of champions. I hope he doesn't grab me off of my bike and carry me away one of these days.
> 
> View attachment 987830


great picture, probably my favorite part about kayaking is seeing all the bald eagles along the river. Have a bunch of them around here.


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## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

They are pretty scarce around here. We have a few at local lakes, but it's more rare to see one hanging out like this. Hopefully it's hauling rabbit bits back to the nest somewhere to feed babies. It would be cool to get a bigger population of them around here.


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## CommuterBoy (Oct 4, 2007)

These giant bird of prey sightings are reminding me of my great horned owl encounter a couple years ago. Some of you guys remember heckling me for that I'm sure. I stand by my totally rational fear of that terrifying experience.


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

A dead raccoon that had been in the sun way too long. On it's back, bloated and legs up in the air. Maybe not cool wildlife sighting.


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

^ Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A buzzard would like it.


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## rodar y rodar (Jul 21, 2006)

BrianMc said:


> ^ Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A buzzard would like it.


What do Former Buzzards like?


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

Beautiful fawn and eagle shots! cyclingdutchman, do the boars ignore you, or do you have to be careful riding near them?


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

Well for me there was no need to be careful SO FAR.

The first two times I saw only one boar at the time and it ran away as soon as I stopped to look. They field is along a road, so they are used to other big "animals" passing/roaring by in a certain distance. It's the same with the roe deers. When you just ride by, they do not really look. If I turn my head in their direction, they do the same to look at me. If I stop to have a better look or even to take a photo, they run away.

The last time when I saw the entire boar family, they were further away from the road and ignoring me. Furthermore, the road is about a yard higher than the field, and there is a small ditch between the road and the field. In the photo with the entire boar family, I am about 500 yards away from them.

Nevertheless I hope I will not encounter them on the first 2 mile of my commute, since that is a small road through the forest. If you scare them, or if they have babys with them, they might attack you just to defend themselves. Therefore I always ring my bell before I ride around a curve, to scare them away or to let people know I am coming, since it is a popular road to go walk the dog too.

We live quite on the edge of town and we have friends, that live directly on the edge of the woods. They told us that in winter they often find roe deer footprints in their garden. When they are hungry and do not find anything in the woods they are "forced" to enter people's garden during the night and eat whatever is left there from summer.

So all-in-all I must say that it is quite amazing here for a city with 3 million inhabitants


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

I don't know if a Mallard hen is cool, but I enjoyed her flight, both into the wind until she cut across the highway. My rolllercoaster-ing a half mile from home with the wind was "just ducky" too. Fastest I have done that bit in a while.






Sorry the helmet shifted and skewed the frame.


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

One lucky bug (so far). First Monarch Butterfly I have seen this year. Progeny of first brood, I suspect. It's grandchildren will fly south.


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

I am regularly seeing roe deers along the way. This morning I brought the 36x zoom camera and of course, they were all further away from the road.

Best shot I made was this one:









Will take the camera more often the next time and hoping for even better shots.


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## wahday (Mar 23, 2012)

Dead Guinea Fowl on a pallet by the trail this morning.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

the usual roe deer action this morning:








And the swan's nest:


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

cyclingdutchman said:


> Furthermore I sometimes see something swimming in a ditch along the way. Do not know what it is, it's size is somewhat between rat and beaver.


Technically seen is was on a family ride and not a commute. But yesterday I finally met one that didnt hide immediately so I could take a pic:

https://goo.gl/photos/cJ6tBKgRssW55f1x7

If I am not mistaken it is a muskrat:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat


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## cyclingdutchman (Mar 18, 2015)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ePA6MC5te1dgPytH9

I hope the link works. So I have seen a BLACK roe deer a few times already, but this time I managed to get her on camera. Usually they are brown with white spots, similar to the colouring of a fox. Black is very unusual, I have never seen it before.


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

^^Pretty spot and deer!


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

Not a commute, cold blooded rather than cool wildlife, but as good a thread as any to post this:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/he...bit-by-rattlesnake/ar-BBUepHx?ocid=spartandhp


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## mtbxplorer (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ Yikes!! Tough guy.


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