Wildlife encounters

I saw a goundhog for the first time in my life a few months ago.  I've lived in the south all my life and I never knew they lived this far south.  Kinda figured they all lived up in your area...like Punkstawnee Phil.

~Mike

Well, not exactly wildlife, but I had an encounter with a VERY friendly boxer dog the other day. 

"Oh boy, oh boy, we're running!!!!"

Didn't even realize she was right behind me, and when I went from run to walk, she just plowed right into the back of me.

Her poor owner was chasing her, yelling, "I swear she won't hurt you!"  Nope, just wanted another friend. 

I ran across a red fox. He was on a paved trail I ride and was facing the opposite way. I rode up very close before he knew I was there.

First time I had seen a fox. I didn't even know we had them in this area.

Around here (northern Chicago 'burbs) the best places to run are the forest preserves.  I see deer a few times a year.  Better in the forest preserve then on the road.

I also have a 2.2 mile loop that I do on the road my house is on.  It goes past the park and several times I've run past the skunk that lives there.  Close enough once that I could tell it was thinking about spraying.  I stick to the other side of the road now.

Saw a beaver this morning at 5:30a crossing the road.  It was the biggest and fattest beaver I have ever seen. 

 Typically I cross path with deer and turkey.

I live on a golf course in FL and I like to do my runs on the course whenever I can .... of course that means that I also have to share it with gators, red shoulder hawks, ducks, sandhill cranes, wild turkey and deer

I have some odd animal run ins.

 Last week when I was running along a path at the resort in South Padre Island, I was cooling down and along the little stream a pretty bird flew by me and took a big crap.

Same resort, different visit, I was jogging through the resort, enroute to the beach.  I saw a stray or feral cat lift up its tail and spray a palm tree.

Last time I biked to the coast I saw quite a few things.

Saw a wild hog run across the road, its got out of my way real quick

The neatest was a alligator. It was walking across the road, taking its damn time. I had to slam on my brakes or I would have ran into it.

def. makes rides more exciting! 

Today I had a strange deer encounter..it was on the road and couldn't get over the fence on my side of the road, it was running up the hill I was flying down as a car was coming up the hill....luckily for me it figured out which was to go and went back in the woods.

I saw a lot of road kill today...skunk and some other little bit bigger animal not sure what. 

With all the nature watching, I hope you do keep an eye on the road for vehicles.

During IM Moo mini-camp training last week, I saw a HUGE snapping turtle on the road that was run over by a vehicle.  It didn't look good.  The crash pics would have been terrible to look at.

Encounters, or wildlife we hit?

My commuting head lamp seems to make the local deer stop a s if I were a car.  Thankfully I've not hit one of them yet.  But, while crusing at 22-24, I've managed to hit 2 birds who were just getting up outta the bike path, and it's quite unpleasant to clean up after.  I've seen any number of turkey vultures as well.  Nothing much more exotic yet, but as the season goes on, the rides will get more backwoods.

I almost went over my handlebars once cause a bird flew directly in front of me and I must've missed it by a few inches. I've also noticed squirrels aren't too smart around here and they seem to try to outrun me and dive back and fourth across my path. 

When did the Old Faithful Inn burn down?  I've been looking for confirmaiton of this on the internet but can't find the story.

~Mike

Well, I see tons of deer on my rides and runs.  Throw in Bald eagles, various kinds of hawks, turkeys, rabbits, coyotes, elk, moose, ducks, geese, snakes, squirrels, rockchucks, and a hundred different kinds of songbirds and it sounds like I train in a zoo!  Just routine days here in the great NorthWest!  I love living here!

On another note, I saw the biggest Bull Snake I've ever seen the other day while I was running.  At least 5 1/2 feet long and big around as my wrist.  Beautifully colored too...very cool to see!

I almost went over the handlebars, too, when a squirrel froze in front of me on a steep downhill and then ran right under my bike. I hit it with my foot when pedaling down, but luckily didn't actually run it over. I went back and didn't see the body, so it must have gotten lucky.

Once my husband and I were riding in Central Park and the big red-tail hawk that lives up there, Pale Male, swooped right in front of us - we could have touched him. He landed on a low branch just a few feet away so we stopped and watched for a bit. I can't believe how many people didn't even notice him, even when he flew low across the road!