We live right on the edge of the city up against the mountains. The photo from a few minutes ago is horrible. Mrs. B told me to grab my camera, but didn’t have time to adjust the settings before the bobcat on our deck saw us and ran off. It was about the size of our beagle with a stubby little tail.
During the time we’ve lived here, we’ve had visits from moose, coyotes, mule deer, a cougar, Rocky Mountain elk, red foxes, raccoons, Great Basin rattlesnakes, gopher snakes and today, a bobcat. We’re still waiting for a black bear to show up, which I’m sort of hoping doesn’t happen.
LOL RKK, that happened in my backyard. We have a lot of neighborhood cats, most with owners and are pretty friendly.
Beautiful “kitty” sitting in the middle of the lawn. I started walking over to it and it let me get way too close before turning and running off. Short tail. Bobcat. LOL! It didn’t have really long ear tufts. It was just like B’s photo, which my own cat has.
We have fishercats and foxes too but I just watch those from inside. I do have a video somewhere of the fox pups playing on the lawn though.
This is Toronto, so all you’ll see are garden variety of squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, cardinals, blue jays, skunks, and, of course, raccoons. About five years ago, for some unknown reason, the city was swarmed by crows. I saw a red fox once in a friend’s ravine home.
Same … and those Fishercats are vicious! I have no desire to try to pet them either lmao
One time, many moons ago…
I was out with my Dad collecting evergreens for our wreath business we had in the Winter. I was sitting under a tree eating my lunch and a beautiful gray fox came out of no where. (about 2 feet away … if that) We were both startled I stayed perfectly still and so did he/she. The little darling slowly backed away back into the brush like Homer disappearing in the bush LOL. It was funny, scary and breathtaking all at the same time. Other than the occasional snake here and there. That’s my closest encounter with true wildlife.
We have Stellar’s jays and scrub jays, and even though they’re blue, they’re not blue jays. We don’t have cardinals. I wish we did. I’ve never seen a cardinal, even though I’ve kept an eye out for them when I’ve been back east. We have lots of yellow-billed magpies, which are really cool, but awfully noisy. There are sometimes turkey vultures that circle overhead and sit on the bedrock outcroppings above our house. In the far southern part of the state (Utah), we have roadrunners, which always make me laugh out loud. There are also California condors, which are huge.
In the highly urban environment I’ll be lucky to spot even rabbits, though I did see them a few times, sometimes a whole family of them. One of the more uplifting signs in winter will be sightings of cardinals. Not sure why, but winters don’t seem to bother them.
I stayed perfectly still and so did he/she. The little darling slowly backed away back into the brush like Homer disappearing in the bush LOL. It was funny, scary and breathtaking all at the same time. Other than the occasional snake here and there. That’s my closest encounter with true wildlife.