Northeastern Illinois, Suburbia-Residential lot just blocks from a highway:
Snowy Owl
Coyotes
Red Fox
Deer, with evidence of deer bedding under a Maple on the front lawn in the fall.
Great Horned Owl - regularly fed mice and other rodents caught around perimeter of my structure.
Bats circling under/between the tree canopy in the back yard-one night I held my hand up and one dove straight at it and veered off when about three feet away.
Great Blue Heron on lawn and stealing neighbors pond fish. It is what I think landed on the side rail of a cot I was resting on one summer late night on the patio, right next to my left leg. I had my head fully covered with a blanket, half asleep. I didn't want to remove it to look, but instead, see how long it would stay there if I remained motionless. Its wingbeats and the rocking of the cot woke me. After a few seconds, it lifted and landed on the opposite side, and sat a few seconds more while I debated moving the covers. It then took off. Wing beats so loud and slow, and the rocking of the cot were so much, I highly doubted it would be the resident Owl (they fly soundlessly), or the Cooper’s, (too small for the commotion), or one of the Redtails or Perigrins we see regularly here.
Palm Coast FL
An oft seen and suspected escaped or released primate from the area ran across the road in front of my truck one night.
I was pretty sure it was a large cat that crossed the road in front of me another time. I imagined a black Panther as others in the area had reported seeing the same. I know others say they aren’t living there....none the less, twas a large black cat.
Gator in a parking at a gun store and along greenway trail I biked. Wild Turkeys at the fire dept. Feral Hog damage along the greenway.
Whales spouting and Dolphins offshore
Swallow-Tail Kites were in the neighborhood and would follow mowing crews, circling the lots being maintained, eating the bugs stirred up by the equipment.
Wisconsin, Driftless region, and near Superior:
Bald Eagles
Snowy Owl
Coyotes
Red Fox
Deer, with evidence of deer bedding under a Maple on the front lawn in the fall.
Great Horned Owl - regularly fed mice and other rodents caught around perimeter of my structure.
Bats circling under/between the tree canopy in the back yard-one night I held my hand up and one dove straight at it and veered off when about three feet away.
Great Blue Heron on lawn and stealing neighbors pond fish. It is what I think landed on the side rail of a cot I was resting on one summer late night on the patio, right next to my left leg. I had my head fully covered with a blanket, half asleep. I didn't want to remove it to look, but instead, see how long it would stay there if I remained motionless. Its wingbeats and the rocking of the cot woke me. After a few seconds, it lifted and landed on the opposite side, and sat a few seconds more while I debated moving the covers. It then took off. Wing beats so loud and slow, and the rocking of the cot were so much, I highly doubted it would be the resident Owl (they fly soundlessly), or the Cooper’s, (too small for the commotion), or one of the Redtails or Perigrins we see regularly here.
Palm Coast FL
An oft seen and suspected escaped or released primate from the area ran across the road in front of my truck one night.
I was pretty sure it was a large cat that crossed the road in front of me another time. I imagined a black Panther as others in the area had reported seeing the same. I know others say they aren’t living there....none the less, twas a large black cat.
Gator in a parking at a gun store and along greenway trail I biked. Wild Turkeys at the fire dept. Feral Hog damage along the greenway.
Whales spouting and Dolphins offshore
Swallow-Tail Kites were in the neighborhood and would follow mowing crews, circling the lots being maintained, eating the bugs stirred up by the equipment.
Wisconsin, Driftless region, and near Superior:
Bald Eagles
