Saw a Bobcat today...

[toycarver]

I deliver mail in the country. Today I saw a baby Bobcat! ...what do you call it, a kitten or a cub?...whatever, I call it cool! It walked right across in front of my car. I also saw two spotted fawns with their mom, only 100 yds or so from the Bobcat. Sure turned my hot, dusty Monday into a winner.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

I came across a full size Bobcat on a walking trail a couple years back, kinda scary but it was a beauty. My heart did skip a beat. lol

Dave

[Nancy-G]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

I'm so jealous of both of you

[toycarver]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

Wow Dave, I like being INSIDE my CAR when I have a cat or bear sighting!

[Larry Bev]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

Kris and Dave you are lucky all we have around here is a lot of deer coons and coyote. One mamma coon i named Betsey i feed every day.Dave do you have armadillo in Florida those nasty things are taking over here.
Larry

[susieq]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

About a year ago while driving through Georgia, we went off the main road to a place that is a restaurant/ fruit stand where they grow their own peaches and strawberries. We ate at the restaurant, then continued down the road. Ahead of us on the little 2 lane road, it looked like a kitten playing in the grass on the right of way....only it was a BIG KITTEN! As we went past, I saw the short tail and figured it was a bobcat kitten.

We do have all kinds of wildlife here in FL. The armadillos are kind of neat as long as they're not tearing up your yard... As a teenager, I grabbed one once, as it was rooting around in some high grass and didn't see me walk up on it. It dug into the grass and took off nearly taking my arm with it...they're very strong. I knew a lady who kept one as a pet too. Did you know that their litters are all the same sex and all genetically identical? All the young are from a single egg that split...twins, triplets or what ever.... saw that on a documentary once...

[Paul_Guraedy]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

We are fortunate here in Whooping Hollow to live among the wildlife. See deer, turkey, racoons, armadillos all the time; but in the 15 years we have lived here bobcats and bear have been observed only a few times (this includes members of the hunting club who lease the property for deer and turkey). They are here because we see a lot of tracks; but they are very wary.

This year, I was concerned about the hummingbirds. Their appearance started out very slowly. I shouldn't have worried: it now takes over a gallon of feed a day to keep them humming.

[toycarver]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

Susieq, that is intersting about the armadillo litters. I've never seen a live one, just a few dead ones on a Texas highway.
Neat that you got to see a bobcat kitten too.
Paul, those hummingbirds are keeping you busy!

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

Kris and Dave you are lucky all we have around here is a lot of deer coons and coyote. One mamma coon i named Betsey i feed every day.Dave do you have armadillo in Florida those nasty things are taking over here.
Larry

Here also Larry. I have one living in my back yard, he made a tunnel and tried to dig under my house, I filled the hole in several times and he empties it out. Then snacks on my flowers and plants, thinks he is at a buffet.

Dave

[susieq]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

I cannot put into words, just how much I hate living in Florida...the heat, the bugs, the BIG SPIDERS...no real change of seasons, and currently the hottest summer (I'm talking about the every day heat of at least 95, usually 98) that I can remember us every having since we moved here in 1966.

But the wildlife is fantastic...slowly disappearing, but over the years I have seen some fascinating things...at least fascinating to me, but then I'm easily entertained..LOL. I have seen Florida panthers twice. Most who live here have never seen one and never will. They're nearly gone now.

The first year that we moved here, (we lived on the outskirts of town on the main HWY but with woods all around us) a black bear stood up on it's hind legs, put his paws on the window sill and looked into my brother's bedroom window. We found the paw prints on the window sill and on the ground underneath, the next day. Wild boar had run through our yard...although those are not native here, they were introduced...God only knows why....

A brushfire one year, caused just about anything you could imagine, to run through our yard trying to escape the fire....coons, gopher turtles, all manner of snakes, wild pigs. Dad was out back with the garden hose, wetting down our roof and he had to be careful not to step on fleeing critters....

Later, after I married and we built our house near a small swamp at the end of the road, we had otters running around, a huge coral snake in the garage and one or 2 other venomous snakes early on..... we had lived out west for years and coral snakes out west are a subspecies of the Eastern coral snake. Western corals only get 18 inches long, tops. Eastern corals, on the other hand, can grow to over 45 inches in length. I read somewhere once that the record was 48 inches...I think. It's been a while.... anyhow, the one we found in our garage was 47 inches long. I wish I had taken the skin. It was pretty awesome. We haven't found a venomous snake on the place in over 20 years now.

I used to see Mike off to work early in the morning, then the dog and I would wander down to the swamp and watch the Greater Egrets fly in at sunrise, for the morning...to wade around in the swamp. We'd see the otters once in a while and the alligator snapping turtles. Funny how the dog would sit very quietly with me and watch. He seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. By the way, that little swamp is right in the middle of town, just like a small oasis. You'd never know all that was in there unless someone showed you.

The otters are gone now, haven't seen one in a long time. But there are King Fishers that hang out there and after the neighbor who owns land adjacent to the swamp, gave permission for a cell tower to go in, a pair of American Bald Eagles discovered it and have been nesting there every fall for the past 7 years or so. I keep a "scope" handy so I can watch them from my back door. We've watched a bunch of eagle chicks grow up and leave the nest. One year, a first flight resulted in a crash landing in our back yard and I got to see one of those things up close and personal....it's obscene to call anything that large, a "chick". He stood 24 inches tall and was not a happy camper..... Licensed eagle rescue came to the house and took him for observation. They called later to say he was fine and had been released.

I am endlessly fascinated with reptiles and love to watch our various tree frogs and lizards. We have skinks (lizards)...shiny scales and purple tails. We have anoles, the green, native variety that was everywhere when we moved here, is rare now as a brown, South American anole has taken over. The males bob their heads up and down and balloon their bright orange/yellow throats. They tend to make any inanimate object (like a pile of wood or a wheel barrow left in one spot too long) their "territory" and defend it against other males.

They have harems of females and when 2 males fight, it's hysterical to watch. They look like miniature dinosaurs. They have a ridge down their backs that is only visible when they are trying to intimidate each other. They grab onto each other and roll around on the ground, break and retreat briefly, then go at each other again. One afternoon, a pair of males were fighting on our window sill and I know they fought for 3 or 4 hours. I have only seen one fight that might have actually resulted in a death. Usually, it's pretty harmless. I find the small, oval shaped, leathery skinned eggs of the anoles buried in leaf litter, as I work in the garden sometimes.

We have several species of gecko here too. They are nocturnal and very shy so you only see them at night unless you accidentally uncover one while moving things around outside. They don't like to be seen and will "let go" and drop to the ground (even from high places) to run and hide until you are gone. They have toes that look as though a steam roller rolled over them...very flattened. There are tiny ridges on the bottoms of their feet/toes. I have heard that they generate an electro magnetic field that allows them to run or climb any surface at any angle. I have seen them run upside down, across our ceilings in the house....or straight up a clean/shiny glass window.

We get them in the house several times over a summer and they're hard to catch. We'll be sitting watching tv at night and Mike will say, "there's one of your little buddies". We usually don't have a light on and except for the tv, it's dark...one will come out from it's hiding place and be on the wall just at ceiling level. I try to grab them to release them back outside...either I'm getting older, or they'er getting a lot faster...LOL.

We had a brutal winter...at least by Florida standards. Weeks of freezing temperatures in Jan & Feb. It killed off a large part of the gecko population so this year, I haven't had any in the house but am still finding a few outside on the exterior walls of the house and shop. I find their eggs, (rounder and with a hard shell, much like a chicken egg) all over the inside of my studio. They hide them in boxes of things, in old pots or containers, anyplace that is high and dry and out of direct sun and they seem to love to put them indoors. Mike's shop has them everywhere.... the grandkids get a kick out of seeing them.

Oh my...I have rambled on here....sorry about that. Time to get to work in the studio.

[Callynne]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

Wow, I'm jealous of all the wildlife you all are seeing!!! Susan, I don't think I'd like the summer weather down there and all the bugs, but I'd sure enjoy all the critters!!! Although a bear looking in the window would be a bit too unnerving!!!!!! Hmmmmm, come to think of it....there are claw marks in the apple tree off our study window where a bear climbed up in it....probably watching me type away on the computer!!!!
When we built our house we didn't put any steps off the deck, which is up off the ground several feet. Everyone asked why and Ben said because he didn't want bears coming up onto it and in through the french doors!!! We actually know someone who left their door open (screen closed) one particularly hot night and woke up to a bear going through their kitchen cupboards!!!!! I can't even imagine that!!!!! Deborah

[Rooster]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

WOW, it's like National Geographic . The only thing we ever see out our window is birds and the odd cat. Oh and a rat, which we duly got rid of. Well you don't get many exciting critters in our climate. 20 Celsius (68) is hot for me. If it got anywhere near 38 (100) here, you would find lots of puddles of melted Irish people.

And according to Wikipedia, baby bobcats are kittens, which is just so wrong. Any cat creature that is born bigger than a domestic cat surely cannot be called a kitten. Awww isn't he so ... Aaarrrgghhhhh!!!

Anyway off to watch NatGeo now
Rooster,
Older but now wiser

[susieq]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

Hi Deborah,
I'd trade all the wildlife here for a cooler climate somewhere...like Ireland, perhaps...LOL. I was watching a program on Vermont late last night, when I couldn't sleep and boy, it's beautiful. But I have friends who live there in the summer and come here for the winter. It gets really really cold there. Still, I'd give it a shot for a year or two to try it. I'll never get Mike up there to live though....so that's out.

Everyone has some wildlife in their area though. Sometimes it's small critters that we're too busy to pay attention to. I love the little critters, even when they surprise me. I took something outside to the garbage last night, after dark....as I was walking back into the house, something cold and wet "plopped" onto the back of my leg....made me jump a little, til I looked and saw it was a little tree frog. LOL. I gave him a little tap with a finger to get him to continue on his way.

[Country_Carver]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

I once saw a bob cat while on a camping trip. Didn't see it for long, my dog scared it away.
Didn't know bobcats were afraid of dachshunds.

Alex

[susieq]

Re: Saw a Bobcat today...

LOL....any critter with half a brain is frightened of a Dachshund. They're ferocious little devils. Our daughter had one and he would take on ANYTHING.
She hated it when they would come to visit us and Max would head straight for the wood pile to hunt rats. He got a couple too. They were bred to follow a badger into it's hole...badgers being the smaller cousin to the wolverine, they're quite ferocious for their size too. Don't mess with Dachshunds....