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So many! Wild turkeys, deer & antelope (yes, they play, but not together as I always envisioned), elk, moose, owls, tons of hawks, protected species of mouse, mountain bluebirds, prairie dogs, foxes & coyotes galore, bobcats, rattlesnakes, bears, Big Horn Sheep, Mountain goats, mountain lions.
Although I live in the burbs, our unique environment at the foot of the Rocky mountains, mean that I have seen all but bobcats & mountain lions on a regular basis. The moose are not as common in my part of the state, but I have still seen several in Rocky Mountain National Park & a lost yearling male, several times, in urban areas. My bear encounter was on a very populated urban trail, but on a quiet evening after a rainstorm, right at the base of the foothills, but within a 1/2 mile of the huge parking lot.
The deer are everywhere, as are the antelope, but they are separated by about 10-20 miles, with the deer living mainly in the foothill & wooded areas, while the antelope live on the plains. It was so disappointing when I moved here...I always imagined the deer & antelope playing with each other :-) At my present house, it's conceivable I would see both, as we are in a rather unique area that both inhabit, but so far, I've only seen antelope.
Most of these animals are easily visible if you know where to go. Given 2 hours & the ability to choose the time of day, I could pretty much show you any of them at will, just by knowing what area/ecosystem is their favorite, including the moose (they congregate at the east side entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park - which is not the entrance most people use). The mountain goats are on Mt. Evans near Denver, the antelope are at the start of the great plains, etc. The only real elusive ones are Bighorn Sheep, bears & mountain lions. The only thing I haven't checked off my list is a mountain lion. But people go for 20 years without seeing one or you're in the right place at the right moment & there it is :-)
For years, I have started every hike saying "today's the day I'm going to see a bear" & one day it was true. So now, I say "today's the day I'm going to see a mountain lion". People try for years to see Bighorn Sheep, they don't like people & are a bit elusive. My in laws visited one year & we sent them to drive Garden of the Gods. They came back RAVING about the fabulous Big Horn Sheep statue! There is no Big Horn Sheep Statue. It was their lucky day. I had hiked those trails HUNDREDS of times & never seen one. They drove the main road once & there was a majestic one at the top of some rocks, so majestic they thought it was a statue That's how wildlife sightings go.
ETA: Wolves are now confirmed back in CO, but not many & not easily found.
I live in Florida. Anything that creeps, crawls, or slithers is liable to show up on my porch at any time. I have a family of Armadillos living under my shed. And no, that isn't a joke. The little jerks knock over my trash can every time I forget to tie it down. Luckily for them, I'm of the live and let live mentality.
would love to see the "statue" of big horn in the wild,
and mt. goats, moose etc.
[/b]
Quote:
Originally Posted by MsMetal
So many! Wild turkeys, deer & antelope (yes, they play, but not together as I always envisioned), elk, moose, owls, tons of hawks, protected species of mouse, mountain bluebirds, prairie dogs, foxes & coyotes galore, bobcats, rattlesnakes, bears, Big Horn Sheep, Mountain goats, mountain lions.
Although I live in the burbs, our unique environment at the foot of the Rocky mountains, mean that I have seen all but bobcats & mountain lions on a regular basis. The moose are not as common in my part of the state, but I have still seen several in Rocky Mountain National Park & a lost yearling male, several times, in urban areas. My bear encounter was on a very populated urban trail, but on a quiet evening after a rainstorm, right at the base of the foothills, but within a 1/2 mile of the huge parking lot.
The deer are everywhere, as are the antelope, but they are separated by about 10-20 miles, with the deer living mainly in the foothill & wooded areas, while the antelope live on the plains. It was so disappointing when I moved here...I always imagined the deer & antelope playing with each other :-) At my present house, it's conceivable I would see both, as we are in a rather unique area that both inhabit, but so far, I've only seen antelope.
Most of these animals are easily visible if you know where to go. Given 2 hours & the ability to choose the time of day, I could pretty much show you any of them at will, just by knowing what area/ecosystem is their favorite, including the moose (they congregate at the east side entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park - which is not the entrance most people use). The mountain goats are on Mt. Evans near Denver, the antelope are at the start of the great plains, etc. The only real elusive ones are Bighorn Sheep, bears & mountain lions. The only thing I haven't checked off my list is a mountain lion. But people go for 20 years without seeing one or you're in the right place at the right moment & there it is :-)
For years, I have started every hike saying "today's the day I'm going to see a bear" & one day it was true. So now, I say "today's the day I'm going to see a mountain lion". People try for years to see Bighorn Sheep, they don't like people & are a bit elusive. My in laws visited one year & we sent them to drive Garden of the Gods. They came back RAVING about the fabulous Big Horn Sheep statue! There is no Big Horn Sheep Statue. It was their lucky day. I had hiked those trails HUNDREDS of times & never seen one. They drove the main road once & there was a majestic one at the top of some rocks, so majestic they thought it was a statue That's how wildlife sightings go.
ETA: Wolves are now confirmed back in CO, but not many & not easily found.
I am reading this thread, sitting in my kitchen at 10:25 PM. Outside, I hear a Great Horned Owl hooting in the wild cherry trees at the back of my yard. Cool. But kind of spooky, too.
a few evenings after i moved to New Mexico, I decided to go outside and sit on my front porch. It was dark, so I turned on the porch light, the porch was covered something like this:
so i decided to relax indoors instead. they were all gone by morning.
i thought the roaches were big in New Orleans, until i moved to New Mexico. I got used to the 2" long roaches after a while, but it's still creepy at night to come across them in large bunches. my son's girlfriend from New York visited, and she has some sort of insect phobia, so we would have to take roundabout ways to get into my building at night, and sometimes cover her eyes, so she would not see them. she was a bit high strung, we could not even talk about them around her or she got upset.
The deer are everywhere, as are the antelope, but they are separated by about 10-20 miles, with the deer living mainly in the foothill & wooded areas, while the antelope live on the plains. It was so disappointing when I moved here...I always imagined the deer & antelope playing with each other :-) At my present house, it's conceivable I would see both, as we are in a rather unique area that both inhabit, but so far, I've only seen antelope.
As long as the skies are not cloudy all day!
What a lovely thread. It's past midnight, and I'm actually too tired to make a comprehensive list, but we're part-time North Idahoans and (still) SoCal residents. Wildlife all over both places, but so different! We're on a canyon in East San Diego County, and coyotes come up to our fence, taunting our dogs. We've got bobcats, racoons, foxes (haven't seen any, but I've smelled them!), skunks (seen and smelled them), possums, tree rats, and lots of birds including hawks, and an occasional visit from beautiful white-tailed kites. I had a thread going about the kites a few years back. Lots of lizards, even huge ones. Mountain lions up in the hills, and even in suburbia. And then of course the snakes--good snakes, and rattlesnakes. As much as they are part of the environment, I can't move beyond the fact that our dog was killed by a rattler three years ago...And then we have termites, and ants, tiny horrors that live everywhere, in the ground, under the house, in the walls..I'm beginning to think that all of SoCal is one gigantic ant colony. Tarantulas are having a great year down here.
In North Idaho there are no rattlers to threaten our dogs, but on the other hand we have wolves, mountain lions and black bears! In our neighborhood, and passing through our property on a regular basis. And moose, probably the worst threat to dogs, because moose aren't afraid of anything, they're too stupid. Plus elk and deer, and bighorn sheep and mountain goats up in the Cabinet Mountains. Grizzlies, too. And coyotes, of course, because they are ubiquitous. If I were into fishing, I could tell you about all the wonderful fish we have in the lakes and rivers, but all I know is that it is a fisherman's and -woman's paradise. And it's just neat to know that the waterways are alive with beautiful fish. We have golden eagles circling over our property, and bald eagles on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille and Lake Coeur d'Alene, plus ospreys anywhere there is room for a nest. Turkey buzzards seem to be a recent addition to the bird population. And then we have lots and lots of spiders...
Here it's rats, coqui frogs, bufo toads, chickens, mongoose, feral cats, pigs, goats, barn owls, pueo owls, io hawks, mynahs, canaries and many other birds. And one native bat.
I'm just going to name the ones that have no business being spotted running around neighborhoods: foxes, there was a report of a coyote once, one time someone ran over an alligator, black bears, wild bobcats. i don't even live in the country!
I used to live in a fairly urban area of Los Angeles and I would see coyotes walking down the sidewalk around sunrise almost daily. Saw a bobcat crossing the street in a crosswalk in that neighborhood one morning.
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That's how wildlife sightings go.
