What about wildlife, specifically a lizard when mowing? This one rode on my mower a few weeks back for the entire job, got video with the mower running and it clinging to the clipping collector bag.. Dismounted as soon as I was done and got on wit its life...


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We've had so much rain & heat that one area I had to mow had baby toads jumping as I slowly mowed ... after waiting for the bunny ears to git gone outta the talk grass :).

Most of what I get as a ride along around here is grasshoppers.
I always give the zero turn a good luck to ensure that there are no snakes when I sit down and start her up.
THere's a field next to us that's about 15acres. It is used for hay. We've had good rain so far this year. The other day the grass in the field was over 6' tall. They came and cut it last week. After they cut the grass, the field is generally full of vultures and carion birds for ~36 hours. I assume it's mostly rats and snakes. I've seen birds eating snakes after. I suppose it's possible that there could be bunnies too, althought we don't have many of those around here. WHen we moved in and part of our property was deep grass, I never saw bunnies, but I saw lots of rats.

The only wildlife i see are the ones that dont care: stubborn mountain goats that end my ride just as its getting good.

I once came around a corner and there were two mule deer about 10’ off the trail. Huge! Glowered at me and slowly walked off through the salal.

Ive heard the ack-ack-ack of cougar mating call. Didnt know what it was, thought it was a really liud bird. Cougars everywhere here. Friend and i got followed by a young one for about a mile down a logging road. It was acting weird, like it wanted to play. It was doing high leaps to pounce on random dandelions and rolling in the grass, finally took off because we were boring. Could it have been doing the ‘clever girl’ distraction from jurrasic park?

Same deer as in post#1?

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About a quarter of my acre lawn is white dutch clover. Every morning there are 3 or 4 bunnies out there chowing down on it.

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certainly not the most graceful.

I've been surprised by how few bunnies there are at our place. I didn't see any for the first year or two although someone said that they saw one. I did eventually see one and have seen a bunny 5-10 times over the past year or two. We have lots of critters on our property. I'm assuming the fact that we have the occasional domestic cat, gray foxes, coyote, and lots of various birds of prey keep the bunny population WAY down.

^^^ Yes, fox are a main predator of rabbit....around here anyways.

Years ago, we had a strong fox population. They started offering a bounty on them...$5 each. We trapped and shot them as teenagers for the money.

Now, the fox are almost gone and the rabbits are thriving.

My scariest wildlife encounter biking was a deer. A large buck with a full rack running at full speed being chased out of a yard by a dog. The timing was perfect, just as I was riding by it leaped over a 6' cyclone fence and right over my head. I was probably 3' feet from the fence and it cleared me easily although I did feel the wind.

At Brazos Bend State Park there are usually gators along the bike trails.
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I keep a GoPro under my bike seat so that if I get run off the road, folks can get the license plate of the car that did it.:rolleyes: Great for wild life that I have passed.
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A crayfish out in the mid day sun.

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An osprey fishing from a bridge I crossed.
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Passed two deer today while riding through the park.
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Today’s bike ride brought a bit of excitement. I was riding on the rail to trail path which is fairly wooded with a border of grass/weeds and suddenly a squirrel must have bolted in front of my bike, went under the front wheel, which unsettled my steering, luckily I stayed upright, but then the crazy happened; squirrel comes flying up between my knees and handlebars upside down and spread eagle about two feet of the ground, but quickly rights himself and scurries back into the brush. At best he was just shaken, but I got to imagine he took some damage.

In better news, on the way back of this ride now on public roads, I passed a tiny painted turtle in the middle of the road, so I turned around and got him to the bank of the pond and as I turned to continue my ride, there was a second bigger one in the other lane crossing to the opposite pond. I waved to get a car to go around and I got this one safely to the bank he was going to. I’m going to need an ata boy from Steve!

^^^Good work!

I was driving on my road, almost home, when I came over a hill and there was a pickup stopped in my lane. No cars coming, so I swung out to pass. Then I saw it...he was blocking the traffic for a painted turtle in his lane. They are in no hurry on an asphalt road on a sunny day.:)

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Mt favorite spot to stop at the end of my daily 30mi around the Mohawk R,

Depends on the season but giant Snappers(saw a 2' once and yes they take their sweet time getting anywhere And watching their nests can be fascinating), Herons, Egrets, Eagles and Ospreys abound, Geese in transit spring and fall. Just a wonderful place to chill.
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We often see Deer , Turkeys and Fox in the more wooded areas

I bike ride with my parents almost every day for the past 15 years year round. We go about 8 miles up the road and back. 4 incidents stand out to me. Once a big black bear came out of the woods and crossed the road infront of me. Another time a squirel fell out of tree from very high and splatted on the road right infront of me. He ran off dazed im sure. And on the last stretch home its down hill we cruise 20mph ish my mom was infront of me and a deer ran along side of me and he was going a little faster and ran right across the road infront of my mom she thought she was going to be on his back!
And the craziest one my brother was with us aswell. There was a gopher sitting on the side of the road. My brother started squeaking at it and it bolted out and chased him down the road. He tried blocking it with his bike but gave up and he took off running eventually it gave up and ran off the other side of the road into a field. Luckily it didnt go after any other of us because we are too lazy to run. I suspect its babies were in that field and we got between her and her babies. Or he just offended it with his swqueaking

Today’s ride had two unsuccessful suicidal squirrels- man, they are crazy getting ready for winter.

Saw an albino squirrel, several deer and a fox! I don’t hardly ever see foxes, the animals or the ladies. It crossed the road in front of a car and then watched me until I got closer and then proceeded down the embankment.

No reptiles today.

It was 67 degrees overnight, so I left as soon as it was light out for an 18 mile ride.

Saw 3 large deer standing in the road...got within 50 ft. of them before they ran.

Two Sandhill Cranes on the shoulder (picking at pebbles to eat). They stood there as I coasted past them...their eyes at about the same level as mine. (they are tall birds)

Counted 11 Amish buggies that I met that were headed for their church/house. Each one had at least 6 people in them...a good size congregation.:)

from todays ride

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^^^ Hah...you have them also.:)

Farmers here hate them...during planting season they go right down the row and eat every seed.
Nothing they can do about it .....they are protected birds.

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