What animals have you seen on your rides?

[ColinJ]

I saw a low-flying deer once...

There are some deer in this area but they are so shy that I have only seen them 4 or 5 times in the 30 years that I have lived here. One of those occasions was when I was doing a fast descent on a narrow lane with dry stone walls either side. Suddenly a deer jumped over the wall on my nearside and cleared my head by a couple of inches!

(The hillside sloped steeply up to my left so the deer only had to jump a foot or so to clear the wall and the road was 4 or 5 feet lower.)

It landed safely on my right and promptly jumped over the other wall and disappeared into the woods.

 

[gbb]

unusual stuff...
Osprey, perched in a tree several hundred feet away.
Badger not so unusual, but unusual to get nearly knocked off by one in the dark
Red Kite, used to see 50 and more on one ride, very common round here.
Deer, bigger than Muntjack, never sure which ones.
Also rode along a quiet country lane once, two young deer came running out the trees...and ran startled alongside me for a good few meters, then off into the trees again.
Grass snakes
Adder.
Jay?
Tawny owl
Loads of barn owls over the years.
A fish quite a big one, dead in the road. I always wondered how it got there, I m not aware of any lakes or rivers nearby.
Marsh Harriers, there are a few in the Fens.
Once, a common lizard...not so common it seems.

 

[Gwylan]

Automobilus vulgaris, various sizes and genders. Generally the quasi amphibious, multi terrain species are known to maim and kill anything in their path.

Several species introduced from Germany seem prone to be aggressive, even fatal. They are not afraid to try and unnerve their prey with close passes and aggressive displays and calls.

 

[steveindenmark]

I live out in the wilds of Denmark and ride to work at 4.30am. There are so many deer, they can be a hazard. Im suprised that I have not been knocked off yet. We have a lot of badgers, hare, foxes, white egrets and heron. Thousands of geese and swans. Plenty of prey birds.

Wolves have been reintroduced to Denmark but are a bit further north. I keep hoping to see one.

 

[Fredo76]

On vacation in Tucson, riding around Saguaro National Park, I saw a Gila Monster on the side of the road.

I could tell he didn't like me.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think black squirrels are an easter-european mutation of the grey, so should be considered in the same way..

You can get black variants of grey squirrels, and black variants of red squirrels.

So it depends where you are. The only time I've ever seen a black squirrel was in northern Finland, which had to have been a black coloured red squirrel, cos they don't have grey squirrels there

 

[Cathryn]

Most exciting ever was an otter in France last summer. Favourite generally...hares

 

[Alex H]

A coulple of years later. I was cycling near Warkworth and i could see this odd black blob moving towards me on the side of the road. I stopped. It didn't and it turned out to be a stoat / weasel (?) with a blackbird in it's mouth.

 

[Drago]

Seen a big cat, but I was walking to dog and not on my bike.

 

[Illaveago]

My best spot was of a Peregrine Falcon . I was cycling back home when In heard a strange cry from a bird . I stopped to look round for it and eventually spotted it high up in an electricity pylon. It was quite a way away , but I managed to zoom in on it with my camera . It must have been calling out to it's mate .
A few days later I was stopped looking up at some specks flying in the sky above me. I had a pair of binoculars with me so I could see that they were Buzzards . I kept them in view but then noticed two other birds which were way above them. It was a pair of Peregrines ! It's no wonder that they are so elusive if they fly that high!

 

[Kingfisher101]

Allsorts, I live nearish to a wetland site and there I have seen everything, most notable are marsh harriers, bitterns, short eared owls, stoats and weasels, kingfishers etc. I've seen loads of kestrels, red kites, buzzards etc.
I have actually seen a white tailed sea eagle as well but not there in Scotland, up close as well, it was massive.
I'd like to see an adder/slo worm and a hummingbird hawk moth.

 

[ColinJ]

I got an email last week from a mate who is on his annual winter trip to Texas. He had been out on a road ride in a desert area of one national park when he was flagged down by a big hairy biker on a Harley coming the other way. He warned that there was a huge rattlesnake sunning itself on the road back the way...

If someone told me that there was a big venomous creature ahead, I would have turned round and gone home!

My mate is made of sterner stuff though (a.k.a. MAD) - he decided to carry on and check it out! Yep, it was LONG - about 2.5 metres in length. There was just enough space to get between the rattler's head and the edge of the road so crazy matey rode back a way, turned and sprinted past the snake before it had the chance to react...

 

[Dogtrousers]

Nothing special. Live mammals - squirrels, rats, deer, badgers, rabbits, foxes, a brown wiggly stoaty thing. And also dead examples of all of those except the stoaty one. And one squirrel that was alive before doubling back under my wheels and probably not after the bump-bump of both wheels going over it.

Birds of interest, both on the same ride, coincidentally - A peacock running clumsily down a lane in Kent. A small bird of prey, a kestrel I think, that came and flew alongside and ahead of me, flicking from side to side, low and very close. Perhaps it was expecting me to alarm a mouse or two into breaking cover.

 

[C R]

The usual pheasants, rabbits, deer and foxes. The most exciting were some kind of mustelid, a juvenile stoat maybe, and recently an otter.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Once saw a weasel (or stoat, who knows) carrying a kit in its mouth, Forest of Bowland.

Seen stoat/ weasels several times around there.