[Windswept]

I love watching the creatures that live around us go about their daily lives. The library I visit several times a week is next to a park, and the animals that hang out in the park find their way over to the library on a daily basis.

I've been watching a mother hen with her two tiny chicks foraging in the planters at the library. She scratches the gravel away with her feet and then bends down to the newly exposed earth with her beak to show her chicks what to do. She purposely doesn't take the insect or worm herself, but leaves it for the chicks to find. I think it's cute how she bends over and mimics with her beak what she wants them to do.

Meanwhile, the chicks are making an incessant "peeping" noise, which I suppose is like a baby monitor that people put near their infant's crib. From the constant sound they make, the hen knows exactly where the chicks are every moment, and can tell by the tone of their peeping whether things are normal or if they are being threatened by something.

Sure enough, a pigeon landed nearby and the hen attacked it and grabbed its tail feathers, one of which she pulled out. A minute later, a rooster ran up and jumped on the hen's back in a flurry of sound and a flapping of wings. She and the chicks made a dive for the bushes and escaped him there. I only watched this hen and her chicks for three or four minutes, but a lot seemed to happen in a short period of time.

A hen isn't really "wildlife", but these chickens are living freely in the park and I don't know if the park rangers provide feed for them. Anyway, can you remember a time when you watched some wild creatures going about their daily lives? If you found it interesting, maybe you could share what you saw with the rest of us. Thanks for any replies for this thread about watching wildlife. I have more to say, but I'm out of time at the moment.

[GSpotter]

I had a few surprise encounters with local wildlife while walking my dog.

In Stuttgart, we lived literally on the border of the city, only a few hundred meters away from a small forest. On serveral occasions, I saw doe. Once I even had my camera ready

On another occasion, I walked on the border of the forest, when I heard something in the bush next to me. I suddenly stared into the eyes of a doe, only a few feet away from me. We were both startled, looked at each other for some time without movement and than the doe vanished in the woods.

Once, my dog started to sniff and look at a specific point next to the road. When I looked closer, I saw a fox sitting on a log. Without my dog, I wouldn't have seen him.

Some years ago, I moved to a smaller town in a more rural area. I one of my first dog walks, I was scouting the area to find a nice circular track. I ended up in a dead end road. Instead of walking back, I walked into the woods as I knew there would be another track a few hundred meters further on. When I walked with my dog by a big bush/hedge, I heard some noises on the other side. I froze. Then a family of wild hogs ran away... Phew ...

We also have lots of doe here which are coming rather close to the town, partly living on the fields surrounding it:

[Kickaha]

I live outside the major Seattle metro area, not far from the Cascade mountains, and in the four years I've been here, I've had a cavalcade of animals in my back yard: deer, coyote, bobcats, even a bear one night. I hear owls most nights, coyotes yipping in the winter, and have eagles and hawks circling and diving overhead nearly year round. Last year I had a breeding pair of pileated woodpeckers nest in my back yard, and the frogs while seasonal are always nice to hear.

And then if I drive 20 minutes east, I'm actually *in* the wilderness.

[Ryan]

When I was a kid, I lived in Cheyenne for a few years. Our house was a bit north of the city on several acres with no fences.

One day, we come home to find our driveway filled with news vans and spectators. (This driveway was a 1/4 mile long—*lots* of spectators). Once we finally pushed our way into our house, we found out a moose had somehow wandered into our backyard. One of the neighbors called the city and somehow everyone in Cheyenne found out about it.

There's literally nothing going on in Cheyenne so the news crews just filmed it eating grass from a distance for a while before they all got bored and left.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by GSpotter I froze. Then a family of wild hogs ran away... Phew ...

These wild hogs can be dangerous, can't they? Especially in a group like that. Did they have babies with them, or were they all fully grown? In a Nature production, I saw an episode that included wild boars, and they had babies with their tails stuck straight up into the air as they ran. I wonder if that's so the mother can see her babies in the tall grass.

Originally Posted by Kickaha I've had a cavalcade of animals in my back yard: deer, coyote, bobcats, even a bear one night. I hear owls most nights, coyotes yipping in the winter, and have eagles and hawks circling and diving overhead nearly year round. Last year I had a breeding pair of pileated woodpeckers nest in my back yard, and the frogs while seasonal are always nice to hear.

Why not tell about that creature above you on a ridge while you were hiking that time?

Originally Posted by Ryan Once we finally pushed our way into our house, we found out a moose had somehow wandered into our backyard.

Was it a male or female? Just wondering. When I was driving along a river in a Montana mountain valley, heading toward the west coast, I pulled off the road to read a Lewis and Clark historical sign, one that was a few paragraphs long. As I stood there reading, I heard a sound, looked behind the sign, and in the pond a few feet away was a female moose eating the lush grass that was growing along the pond's edge.

I eased away after seeing her, to avoid startling her peaceful feeding. But I couldn't help worrying as I drove down the road about the semi trucks that blazed through that forest at night at high rates of speed. There would be no way to avoid a moose feeding on the grass growing in ditches alongside the road if she chose that moment to walk across the highway to the river on the other side. *sigh*

[Windswept]

Backyard Observations

In the spring, I used to read in the backyard so that I could be surrounded by flowers, fresh air, birdsong, and so forth, as I got my reading done. As I reclined on my lounge chair one time, I noticed a roadrunner land on the block wall at the back of my yard. It started making its way along the top of the wall in a rather stealthy fashion. Wondering why, I looked at the side wall and noticed a lizard doing push-ups as it basked in the sun atop that wall. I saw at once that the roadrunner had landed on the far wall so that it wouldn't be noticed by the lizard, since the wall it landed on was obscured from the lizard's view by a tree.

The roadrunner ran across the back wall, turned the corner behind the tree, and came up behind the lizard on the side wall to make an attack from the rear. I am a coward when I tell you that I think I closed my eyes to avoid seeing the fate of the lizard. What interested me was the strategy of the roadrunner. He saw in an instant from the air the lay-out of the land and the best plan to attack his prey.

Pretty nifty reasoning, don't you think? I know people who wouldn't be able to come up with a plan like that, though they certainly wouldn't be found on *this* particular board!

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by Windswept These wild hogs can be dangerous, can't they? Especially in a group like that. Did they have babies with them, or were they all fully grown? In a Nature production, I saw an episode that included wild boars, and they had babies with their tails stuck straight up into the air as they ran. I wonder if that's so the mother can see her babies in the tall grass.

Oh yes, they can be dangerous, esp. when they have the babies around as on this occasion. I didn't check for the tails as I was too surprised and too concentrated keeping my dog calm (and looking for the nearest tree to climb on...)

In Stuttgart, I had another encounter with some shoats: I was walking my dog when I saw some tracks of broken plants in the nearby field. When I got closer, I saw three shoats in the field. I very cautiously backed away as normally, the mother wouldn't be far away. Later I read in the news that the three shoats have lost their mother and were searching for food, coming almost into town. They were then captured and brought to the local zoo.

[drewprops]

One morning I was walking to the car and glanced to my right to see a deer standing in the front yard, eating grass.

I quickly began talking to it in a pleasant voice, a constant stream of unbroken conversation while I eased my point and shoot camera from my belt and switched it to video mode and began recording.

My banter seemed to confound the deer, which was already instinctively frozen in place.

He was staring at me and seemed to be saying "Are you talking to ME??"

"WHY are you talking to me?? You're not supposed to be talking to me!!"

At one point he turned his head and glanced to the right. I followed his gaze to see another deer standing in a neighbors yard and looking up at the two of us, deep in conversation.

The other deer yelled "Hey Larry!! What are you doing talking to that guy???"

Larry looked really embarrassed and slowly took a step toward Pete, down in the neighbor's yard — each tentative step away from me growing larger, and within 5 steps he had bounded down to where Pete was and they scampered up the hill away from me.

I could still hear Pete saying "Man, what is WRONG with you??" to Larry.


That's when I realized I hadn't pressed the RECORD button on my camera.




...
No, they didn't actually TALK but you could tell that's exactly what they were saying in the language of deer

[billybobsky]

What drew is missing is the fact that Pete and Larry were adolescent females, and the conversation involved significantly more verbal pauses in the form of 'like' and an overuse of the up tone at the end of the sentences. Other than that, it was a perfect description...

[billybobsky]

In the evenings here in Tuebingen, ferret like creatures (wild polecats) will start hopping around outside. They behave like hyperactive cats, jumping on everything and testing whether it is edible. Germany has been particularly interesting for wild life since where I live sits between the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura, and we get a varying array of animals as the migrate between the two undeveloped regions. The incredibly different Corvus (crow species) all with distinct behaviors, is supplemented by the random woodpeckers and more common birds including ones that hop on the bottom of tree branches, not to mention red squirrels (and I do mean very very RED)...

[GSpotter]

Originally Posted by billybobsky ... not to mention red squirrels (and I do mean very very RED)...

When I grew up, red squirrels were normal to me. I saw the first dark ones on a trip to the US. AFAIK, the population of red squirrels shrinks, as the dark one is better adapted (shorter winter sleep etc.) and will displace them...

I caught some red squirrels in Stuttgart:

[billybobsky]

It's not simply the shorter winter torpor -- grey/black squirrels are hyperviolent and far more skittish...

[Wrao]

Since I started road cycling I've seen several deer in the hills around where I live. The combination of making less noise on approach combined with actually being more aware of your surroundings on a bike leads to more sightings than you'd get in a car. I'm an avid hiker as well but somehow I see deer more on my bike than on foot, likely due to human trail traffic and deer being somewhat sensitive to all that. (I still see them on occasion though).

I rarely see coyote overall, though there have been stretches where I've seen them frequently(including a week or so when I literally saw one every day), but I frequently come across evidence of their activity when I'm hiking(one time I came upon a clearing that had a pet dog's bones strewn about, I knew it was a dog because one of its paws was still intact ... ). Recently I went for a short walk after bit of rainfall because that's usually when you see the best tracks. I hiked about a mile down a trail then broke from the trail and explored around some rocks and cliffs for about an hour. On my way back I saw this coyote track which was cool because it wasn't there when I hiked out, meaning the coyote had passed over the trail while I was out. Another fun coyote story was when I was hiking around sunset(when coyotes tend to be active) and I heard a coyote call coming from a distant hill, then another one from another hill then another one from literally about 100 feet away from where I was standing, right down a bank on the side of the trail.

I've seen a bobcat before and some pretty likely evidence of a mountain lion. Haven't seen a bear locally(though they do show up on occasion) but I have seen them while backpacking (as well as once stumbling onto a collection of deer carcasses and very recent bear scat).

A couple of months ago I saw a fox crossing the road near where I like to go hiking. I didn't think we had foxes in Southern California, but this was unmistakably a fox.

[drewprops]

Some coyotes went through our neighborhood one night last summer and the laughing bark they made caused the hair to stand up on the back of my neck... primal creep out.


...

[Windswept]

A year or two after I graduated from college and was taking graduate classes toward my M.A. in Literature, a friend and I went camping in a state park campground. We cooked steaks on a grill near a ramada and baked potatoes in the coals. We drank wine while the steaks cooked and listened to (Asian) Indian zither music on my friend's boombox. We smoked a little weed and were feeling extremely mellow and ravenous for the steaks, when through the night we heard a large pack of coyotes calling out. They had surrounded us, and it was pretty scary. I think we yelled "Go Away!" which may have freaked them out. It was an unsettling experience when one is under the influence.

[Eugene]

A long time ago my dog found a sparrow's nest with newly hatched young (he very nearly ate them.) Afraid the mother would abandon the nest, we took the entire thing into our house nursed the young until they could hop around on their own.

Once that happened, we took them outside to see if they'd eventually learn to fly. Surprisingly, not one, but multiple adult sparrows arrived and started teaching them how to fly. We took them back in, repeating the process daily with the same adult sparrows and eventually they flew off on their own.

[Wrao]

On the same hike that I saw that coyote print, earlier I was playing around off-trail and climbing rocks and stuff and I came upon this clutch of what looks like eggs randomly. Not sure what they are from or why they are there or how there are so many of them.

[billybobsky]

It would appear you've found the dining hall of a raccoon or similar creature...

[Eugene]

Given how most of those shells are largely intact despite being in a great pile, I would guess something much lighter than a raccoon stole these eggs. This is probably another bird's doing.

Are those twigs and other plant bits all over or concentrated around the egg shells?

[Moogs]

I gotchyer wildlife, right hea!

Rabbit literally chewed 50% of the branches off our 5' burning bushes over the long winter... must've been starving or something. Didn't even eat the damn things. Chewed branches strewn all over the ground. That's like $300 worth of bushes if the things end up dying.

Amazing how sharp their teeth must be. They cut through 1/4-1/3" branches at clean, 45 degree angles. Looks like someone took pruning shears to them. Only way I knew it was rabbit was the mass of turds all over the place with little bits of bark / wood speckled in for extra creative value.

Frickin rabbits. Don't let the Easter propagandists fool youz.



Rabbits bring death and pestilence!

[PB PM]

Too many wildlife encounters to talk about them all. Then again, I guess you could call it cheating, because I go looking wildlife! None of these creatures are in captivity.

No pictures, of mine anyway, of my favourite story about wildlife. I was out camping with the family, I was a teenager at the time, and we had an encounter with some deer. We were cooking on our gas stove, and the deer came up and tried to eat our food! My mum had to use her oven mitts to keep the deer from putting their noses into the piping hot cast iron frying pan!


Big Horn Sheep, taken while visiting Jasper National Park in early spring 2011.


A Baby crane and parents, one of my favourite wildlife shots ever (also spring 2011).


Snowy Owls, March 2012.

[Matsu]

Originally Posted by PB PM Too many wildlife encounters to talk about them all. Then again, I guess you could call it cheating, because I go looking wildlife! None of these creatures are in captivity. No pictures, of mine anyway, of my favourite story about wildlife. I was out camping with the family, I was a teenager at the time, and we had an encounter with some deer. We were cooking on our gas stove, and the deer came up and tried to eat our food! My mum had to use her oven mitts to keep the deer from putting their noses into the piping hot cast iron frying pan! Big Horn Sheep, taken while visiting Jasper National Park in early spring 2011. A Baby crane and parents, one of my favourite wildlife shots ever (also spring 2011). Snowy Owls, March 2012.

Very nice sharpness and contrast on the Bighorn Sheep! And, very nice shot of the hatchling! Looks a little "vibrant", care to share the processing?

[PB PM]

I don't want to get into the processing too much, since this thread isn't about photography, but I'll quickly mention a few things.

Big Horn Sheep: I just edited this file recently, while going back through my archives, so I have a vague idea of what I did. Mostly a mix of editing in Aperture 3 and Colour Efex Pro 4. I don't recall every step (since I don't write these things down), but the contrast and sharpness comes down to a few things. First the lens used, the detail extractor, and Pro Contrast filters in Colour Efex. Oh and lots of U-Points.

Cranes: I'd have to look up the file to be sure, but know this one was edited in Aperture 3 alone. The vibrancy of the image simply came from, a) the lighting itself, and using the saturation, vibrancy and contrast sliders (and some use of the curves tool) until I achieved the look I wanted.

Enough photography chat. PM me if you are interested in more details.

[Wrao]

Yeah, I assumed it was another bird or possibly a reptile rather than a small mammal but I suppose it could be either. There were a lot more eggs than shown in that picture, probably three times as many as are shown and the pile was several eggs deep in places. Next time I'm over by that trail I'll see if I can't snap some other pictures. We do have raccoons in where I live(as they are just about everywhere in NA) but they're somewhat rare, I've never seen them in the hills and tend to see them nearer to where people live if at all.

[billybobsky]

Originally Posted by Moogs I gotchyer wildlife, right hea! Rabbit literally chewed 50% of the branches off our 5' burning bushes over the long winter... must've been starving or something. Didn't even eat the damn things. Chewed branches strewn all over the ground. That's like $300 worth of bushes if the things end up dying. Amazing how sharp their teeth must be. They cut through 1/4-1/3" branches at clean, 45 degree angles. Looks like someone took pruning shears to them. Only way I knew it was rabbit was the mass of turds all over the place with little bits of bark / wood speckled in for extra creative value. Frickin rabbits. Don't let the Easter propagandists fool youz. Rabbits bring death and pestilence!

As a result of this post I know more about rabbit dentition and dental health than i ever wanted.

Thanks, Moogs.

[Moogs]

You ain't the only one who knows more than he ever wanted to!

[drewprops]

Yesterday my mom brought home some Easter lilies from the church and a little lizard must have climbed up into the flower pot because it was on her umbrella when she got home.

I took it from her and expected the little guy to hop off and skedaddle but to my surprise he preferred climbing onto my palm and there he stayed for at least 20 minutes. Every so often I would attempt to put him into a bush but he refused.

Instead, he peered at me through his tiny eye and then closed his eyes, as though resting. I sat outside in the sun to help warm him up. He finally perked up a little and slipped down my pants leg and onto my shoe, eying a boxwood shrub nearby. I dipped my foot a few times and he leapt off into its tiny leaves.

What's funny is we both wonder if this is the same friendly lizard we saw in the sanctuary over a warm spell this past winter. He wasn't afraid of us then, either.

I hope he likes the yard. I wonder if he will miss the old-timey hymns?



...

[Windswept]

I've been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon three or four times over a number of years. The North Rim is wonderful because it's considerably higher in altitude (over 8,000' vs. 5,400' - iirc) than the South Rim, so in summer, the temperature is cooler, the landscape is more lush with greenery, and there is more wildlife.

The North Rim is harder to get to, and so the number of visitors there is massively smaller than at the South Rim. When I've been to the N.Rim, I've had to sleep in my car in the parking lot, though that's not really allowed. I stay at least one night, but sometimes two. To reserve a cabin or room at the N.Rim, one must do so a year in advance, which is why I end up sleeping in the parking lot.

The Park Rangers give lectures, slide shows, and conduct hikes several times per day and on into the evening hours. I love attending as many of these as possible. During one night slide show in the auditorium, a mouse was scampering up the rock wall right next to the presenter on stage. Then later, when I went into the gift shop to buy a few souvenirs, I stood at the cash register waiting my turn and watched a little mouse on a shelf where candy bars were displayed. He tugged and pulled a Milky Way over to the edge of the glass shelf and then with a push, caused it to fall quietly onto the carpet.

Then he dragged the candy bar away, little by little, without being noticed by the sales clerk. Or, maybe she 'did' notice it, but just let it go about its business. Since the national parks are all about preserving nature and its creatures, I doubt that they undertake measures to kill these little mice. I imagine that they make sure the kitchen areas where food is prepared and stored are safe from access by the mice.

But the candy bar area only had a few Milky Ways on display where people (and mice) could get to them, so I guess the mouse took advantage of his one opportunity to snag a tasty treat without having to open up a Milky Way box to get it.

There's a grey and rust-colored squirrel at the N.Rim that has black tufts at the tip of his ears. I've seen a few of them on my visits. The North Rim area is one of the few places in the world where this species can be found. They are called the Kaibab squirrel, after the nearby Kaibab plateau that is adjacent to the Rim forest. They have a white fluffy tail that is full and broad, and that gives them balance as they leap and sail through the ponderosa pine forests.


The Kaibab Squirrel

[Kickaha]

LOL The story Windy is referring to was when I was a senior in high school. I decided to go cross country skiing in the backwoods around Cashmere, WA, and went hella up Mission Creek. Threw the skis in the back of my '76 Jeep Cherokee, and went for it.

At some point on this beautifully blue skied cold crisp day, I realized that I was laying down the only tire tracks this road had seen in... a long time. Certainly since the last few snowfalls. Decided it was a good time to turn around.

The road was a single narrow lane, with a steep cliff upwards on the south slope, and a steep cliff down to the creek bed on the north. I finally found a little turnout and backed into it.

At which point the roadbed dropped away, and I hit the gas to keep my momentum a bit through the 2' deep snow, which was my downfall. The rear left tire went up and over a big assed rock, big enough to wedge against the lower frame and leave my wheel hanging on the wrong side of a piece of granite. I was high centered.

The other three wheels weren't enough to get me out, with just the snow to grab onto, even in full on Jeep 4WD goodness. I strapped on my skis, and started the several mile jaunt back down the canyon to a friend's house, where I could use the phone and call some buddies to come rescue my butt with shovels, boards, and such.

I'm actually enjoying the beautiful winter day, skiing slowly down the canyon, when I hear something in the utter stillness, up on the cliff above me. It's about 35-40' up, but I *swear* I hear something. I shake my head, and move on.

I hear it again.

And again.

And again.

It's a soft rustling, but it's getting louder, like it's getting less concerned that I can hear it.

At the next rustle, I snap my head up, and see a tawny head yank back.

Fuck. It's a fucking cougar.

Of all the animals in the wilderness, I fear the cougar. Wolf? No problem, leave them alone. Coyote? Scared little buggers, will scatter at the first noise from you. Bear? Not a worry unless you run across cubs.

But a fucking *cougar*? They will attack a full grown adult for food, plain and simple. And here I am, miles from the nearest other human, unarmed except for a pair of ski poles, and that goddamned cat is much better suited to snow than I am.

Alright, fine. It's up there, I'm down here. It's a long long drop, so I'm not worried it's going to jump down. I'm fine, unless...

Well, shit. In about a mile, the cliff drops down to within about 6' of the road. Motherpusbucket. I'm cat food.

I started out slowly, then *gradually* increased my speed. A sharp burst of speed would be more likely to trigger a predator leap, so I ever so slowly went faster, stride by stride.

At a half mile, I was going a good clip, and now the thing isn't caring if I hear it or not. It's crashing through the brush, keeping up with me.

I go faster.

At a quarter mile to go, I'm going *very* quickly, hoping like hell I don't catch a ski tip on an errant rut or something and go down. The cliff is still 30' up, but I don't trust that I can get my speed back up before I hit the critical zone.

Eighth of a mile left, and I am concentrating on every stride, every breath, every pole plant, and that fucker is now flat out sprinting to keep up, running along the cliff face in full view, utterly unconcerned that I can see it.

Right.

There.

Behind.

Me.

100 yds, and I am *FLYING*, full out speed, going full tilt boogie, because the cliff is starting to dip, and I am now a bit ahead of the beast, and mean to keep it that way.

50 yds.

20 yds. It's 20' above me.

I can hear its *paws* at this point, pounding the snow, over my own labored breathing.

10 yds. 15'.

5 yds. 10'.

And just as I hit the nadir of the cliff, just as it is right behind my fucking head...

The goddamned thing *SCREAMED*.

I don't know if you have ever heard a cougar scream, but imagine that at full frustrated volume literally 10' behind your head. Not the short screech of it being in heat, but a long, extended SCREAM of utter anger and murderous intent.

I found that I had a whole other gear I could kick into, and holy shit did I kick into it. I never looked back, I never slowed, I never stopped pumping arms, legs, and lungs.

I went about another mile before I slowed down, shaking. No cat in sight.

I made it down to my friend's house, called my buddies, who came up laughing that I'd gotten stuck. When I told them about the cougar, they didn't believe me.

On the drive up, I pointed out where the cliff dipped down, and we got out to look. Much laughter, until... one of my buddies found a print.

Then another. And another.

The thing followed me a good 100yds, also going full out by the stride, until it finally slowed, came to a stop, and slowly slunk down into the creek to look for other game.

"Jesus fuck, dude..."

We went up, got my Jeep unstuck, and I went home.

But to this day, I cannot hear or even think of a cougar scream without every hair on my neck and arms standing at attention.

[curiousuburb]

Originally Posted by http://forums.applenova.com/ You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Kickaha again

/Thread.

Dude. Seriously. If not, I'm half expecting the next line to be...

"and that's where I got my name. Laughing at all the exertion in that final burst."

Or...

"and then we had the world biggest drink bong hit to recover/celebrate surviving."