BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

back from the dead! because i often gaze at wildlife while i ride...

i saw a cool little bluebird last week in monroeville, and i occasionally see kingfishers along squaw run in fox chapel.

i see vultures everywhere, and caught sight of several on the dirt road ramble yesterday. i took care to tell them we weren't dead yet. also frequently sighted are red tailed hawks, and today and yesterday, i swore i was watching crappy old westerns with the number of "eagle" cries i heard (the red tailed hawks call is probably the most-used stock sound effect in movie history). also saw a few swans (or maybe domesticated geese--it was too far to tell) in deer lakes park.

as you may guess, i mostly have an eye for birds.

strangely, i haven't seen a turkey in a while. nor any deer. the occasional rodent, or mustelid (dead skunks, really), or opossum (dead opossum, really). i often think i see a falcon only to find out it's a pigeon flying awkwardly. coolest thing i've seen this year was a cooper's hawk (or sharp shinned hawk--again, very difficult to tell the difference) try and fail to take a bird out of the air about 20 feet from my head. and this was in shadyside, no less!

anyone else see fun stuff? and where should i go for prime bird watching?

There is a Heron that lives near Saxonburg Blvd I see abot once a week. There is also a King Fisher there I see almost daily. He yells are me, dives into the creek bed and flies along side for awhile. Sometimes he'll fly ahead land on a power line, yell at me more and dive back down to fly a bit more with me. I think we are buddies now.

See lots of turkeys, all over the city. Saw some in the back of the zoo parking lot last night while putting around on the motorbike.

Saw a fox once in the soccor fields in the run below Schenley park. Was pretty stunned, did not expect a fox to live in such a busy area.

i saw a dead fox last week somewhere around town. i think it was probably north, but not too far out--maybe like squaw run or washington/friday.

i also saw at least one heron on the dirt road ramble, but didn't point it out because a) where i grew up, they were everywhere, and 2) it was a half mile away and i didn't want to say "because the way it flaps its wings" if anyone asked "how do you know that's a heron from here?" pretty cool birds, though. i haven't seen any egrets around here, strangely; are there any nearby?

One critter I'm hoping NOT to run into in my travels around Perrymont Road in McCandless is the skunk I've begun smelling periodically. I know I can sneak up on wildlife pretty easily on a bike, and the last thing you want to do with a skunk is surprise it.

Deer are almost a daily occurrence, fox every once in a while. There is definitely one coyote out north here; saw it along McKnight near Duncan one day.

A few years ago I was attacked by wild turkeys in Panther Hollow

I was attacked by mother goose on the Allegheny River trail a couple of months ago. I was coming into town pretty fast, we locked eyes and then she lunged straight at my head.

I sometimes ride through Braddock along the river to get to Frick. I see deer and turkeys all the time. The last time I was riding through I saw a red fox walking down the trail.

I've seen a fox out by McKeesport.