Wild America, In your face!

[redgreenbluegil]

Had lived in rural suburbia growing up (3 acres, 1/2 woods, 1/2 field near wetlands), often visited my friend out in the country that lives on a 300 acre hog farm, had gone camping in a state park more times than I care to count, and recently moved to the boondocks on a mini-spread (10 acres LOL). That being said, I've never come across what I saw on a bicycle trip into downtown Fort Wayne this past weekend:

While riding over a bridge in town that crosses one of the many rivers, we stopped and watched a pair of wood ducks with a dozen ducklings (or goslings?) paddling along in the river amongst some trees (river was running high). As we watch them, a silent brown blur came from behind us, splashed down and grabbed one of the ducklings and went to a nearby tree to partake. The two ducks started squawking like crazy and tried to swim to where they had last seen the hawk. Then about 4 more pairs (8 more) of ducks showed up to the area in response to all the commotion.
It's weird that after all the outdoor time I spend, that I go to the city to see such a spectacle of nature. I never even thought of a hawk going after ducklings in the water like that (I had always assumed they go after field animals, birds in flight, and fish, but I guess this makes sense too!) :1pig:

Anyone else have a wild wildlife story to share?


---The bluebird of happiness visited me the other day. It really ruined a good car wash--- redgreenbluegil

[Wayne02]

Originally Posted by redgreenbluegil

Anyone else have a wild wildlife story to share?

Sort of along the same vein, my wife and I have saved up for a cruise to Alaska this summer. We were sitting on our deck looking at the brochures for Alaska, and the focus was of course on the "wild beauty of the rough, untouched outback wilderness" or something like that. One big sales point was being able to see bald eagles in Alaska.

As I'm reading this a bald eagle flys over our backyard and lands in the tree top along our property line, where he had a look around for awhile before flying off.

In addition, a couple weeks ago we took a 45 minute drive out to Puget sound and caught some of the whales migrating north. I'm wondering if these are the same whales that the Alaska brochure says are going to be in the "vast wilderness of Alaska" in a month or so??

[suburbanite]

I live in suburbia. There are hills 3 blocks away. We get turkeys in our front yards.

[toomb68]

Originally Posted by Wayne02

Sort of along the same vein, my wife and I have saved up for a cruise to Alaska this summer. We were sitting on our deck looking at the brochures for Alaska, and the focus was of course on the "wild beauty of the rough, untouched outback wilderness" or something like that. One big sales point was being able to see bald eagles in Alaska.

As I'm reading this a bald eagle flys over our backyard and lands in the tree top along our property line, where he had a look around for awhile before flying off.

In addition, a couple weeks ago we took a 45 minute drive out to Puget sound and caught some of the whales migrating north. I'm wondering if these are the same whales that the Alaska brochure says are going to be in the "vast wilderness of Alaska" in a month or so??

thats funny .....cause i went to alaska, and the best place to see eagles was in the parking lot of Mc DONALDS in Sitka.

[ibcnya]

I have wild turkeys in the yard 50 yds from the house and deer that come up to the patio to eat DW's flowers. Bald eagles winter over and a nest is being built down by the river this year. Just over the hill, Canadian geese are nesting, (which I never saw one around here in the summertime).
So the difference here is 30 years ago there was no wild turkeys, very few deer, bald eagles were almost extinct and Canadian geese flew over heading north or south but never nested in these parts. Times change an so do animals.

[FreightTrain]

when we were canoeing the Missouri river, at one of the marinas at the end of one of the huge pools (lake) we were walking back to our canoes and at the boat ramp was an Osprey that was just starting to peck at a large bass it had on shore in its tallons... it flew off, then the bass flippd around and back into the water!

on the lower Missouri, I was camping at a boat access landing because of an approaching storm , when I spotted something moving my way in the water... it was a huge snake (bull maybe) with a 8-10 inch fish sideways in its mouth... it was looking for a place to beach for dinner... it spotted me from a few feet away and swam away with the fish

[angelkitty]

I had some friends that came over one night because they had nothing else to do. We got talking about the critters that we have seen in our yard , walking back and forth between my place and my sister-n-laws place across the road. We've had deer, bear and fox a plenty. They were like "no way". I told them Ive seen the deer eating my flowers, Ive seen my sister-n-law feed a fox and saw her tracks in my driveway. I told him I havent seen the bear yet but seen plenty of tracks going up and down the driveway next to the car and going into the woods behind the house. With him being a city slicker I had to throw in the story of when I was 11 years old I was picking blackberries on one side of a bush while a bear was eating them on the other side.
Well about 9pm he said he had to go so we said our good byes and all. My husband and I went back into the livening room and the next thing we hear is the back door flying open and our friend making a beeline for the upstairs.Scaring the heck out of the dog and scaring the cats to where they went to parts unknown in the house. All the time he was running through the house he was saying Bear, bear, bear. My husband and I were saying where, where,where? The friend came back downstairs and said it was standing next to the drivers side of the car and he came face to face with it. I asked him what did the bear do and he said he didnt stick around long enough to find out. We went out the back door to see if the bear was still there. It was slowly waddling away from the car heading back to the woods like it didnt have a care in the world. It was looking back at us like we were nut cases. It took my friend a good half hour to calm down.

[Christiaan]

Years ago we were swimming at a small lake in the south Seattle suburbs. Everyone was watching a cute mama duck and a bunch of ducklings swimming among the lily pads in a shallow cove. As we watched the end duckling went under and didn't come back. A few minutes later another went, and so on for three or four ducklings. Finally some people went out and chased the duck and her remaining brood ashore. We figured it was either a bass or catfish getting an easy lunch.

[TedH71]

Snapping alligator turtles love live ducklings.

[RoseGarden]

I posted this just about a month or so ago, swear to God I saw a mountain lion near an affluent and none-too-isolated suburban area along a river. I never was able to think what else it could have been, and I know what I saw, and that I saw it plain as day. Did some research and there are indeed sightings of mountain lions/cougars in this county in the past few years, although in more rural, isolated parts of the county. Now every time I drive by where I saw it, I always look, hoping to see it again!

[oz in SC]

We see deer tracks all over the land in NC.Also turkey tracks.

We also hear turkeys and see them down in the hayfield nearby.One time going to the land we had to slow down to let a turkey cross the road.

Heard some Bobwhites last weekend.

At work here,I was outside and noticed a Bald Eagle circling around watching the neighbor's chickens and ducks,the eagle then decided to sit in the tree above them waiting.It eventually flew away.
It was only later when I told people that I found out that was rare for aorund here.

I see dolphins preiodically while going to work,I cross several bridges and you will see them in the water.

Ospreys also have nesting platforms near the bridges,if you are stuck in traffic you can watch them and their babies.

[Danaus29]

When I went to Alaska the driver of the car I was in had to stop for a moose walking down the road in downtown Anchorage. I was pretty excited since the only moose I had ever seen was in the zoo but she said they wander the streets all the time.

[MtnGranny]

Just yesterday afternoon, I decided to sit on the porch and relax a while. I was watching all the birds that are so busy this time of year and saw 3 deer run across our pasture, through the creek, and up the mountain. Kinda unusual for that time of day. I have seen a hawk sweep down and get a bird off my feeder right out my office window.

[paulaswolfpack]

The best place I have ever seen for bald eagles was when we lived in Coulle City,WA. next to Banks lake. They even have a bald eagle days out there my dd wwon 1st place one year in the poem writing about them there are over 200 mating pairs in that area of ther lake and down by Steanboat Rock Never had a day go by for 4 years we didnt see any,paula

[Mysticdream44]

When I was a kid living in Southern rural Indiana, a small flock of bobwhite chicks came out of a ditch onto the road where our mailbox was and a bluejay came down and grabbed one and took off, the rest went under leaves & weeds in the ditch, when I ran out there I could hear them peeping but couldn't see them.

Then one time a BIG chickenhawk came down and grabbed one of our big roosters and took off with him, I'll never forget seeing that bird fly off high in the sky with that rooster sqawking for all he was worth.

[suburbanite]

Around here the accipiters all seem to hit hard enough to kill their prey on contact.

About once a year I'll be gardening outside and everything will get quiet, and there will be a rain of feathers over the yard somewhere as a hawk picks off some kind of bird out of the air.

A minute or so will go by before the birds chirp again.

[fantasymaker]

[nikkers]

Here in Florida, wildlife abounds. I have seen many gators, huge green iguanas, large gopher toroises, swallow tiled kites, red tailed and coopers hawks osprey and many bald eagles and I don't even live in the country yet.

Neighbors who live in the rural areas talk about bobcats, wild hogs, foxes and gators in their back yards. I have a friend who has 50 acres with a river running through her property. She happens to like gator meat. She has a pair of sandhill cranes that live on her propety year around. This year they lost their only chick to a redtailed hawk. She also has a flock of wild turkeys that visit her every day.

I lived in Illinois all my life and never saw so many different animal species although deer and coyote were very common.
Jo

[nature shot]

I was taking photos today of a pair of wood ducks(beautiful ducks) and there was a pair of nesting common mergansers around that I didn't pay much attention to until the male merganser started chasing after a fish. I got some really cool shots of this duck and the good size pickerel that wasn't fast enough. He was persistant to say the least. I will post some shots when I figure out how to get them up.

Ed

[Twogun]

A few years ago I was in my front yard when I heard a crashing sound across the road about 50 yards away. I could see the small branches of an oak tree thrashing about. After a few seconds, this huge Red-tailed Hawk comes flying out of the oak tree with a squirrel in its tallons.