I was amazed!!!! So early in the season, but maybe it was a juvenile that didn't know any better. And, geesh, I don't have a dog anymore for protection on my woods walks!! Thank goodness I was a few hundred feet away and he (or she) was busy digging in an old stump.

In the 26 years we've lived here, I'd only seen a black bear once...and that was when it ran across the road in front of my truck. This state has the highest concentration of black bears east of the Mississippi River so, now that I think about it, wonder why we don't see more!!?? Mostly what we see around here now are wild turkeys. Anyone else have any wild animal tales?

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2004

Answers

Just the deer 2" from the bumper kind. (Or the deer in two pieces and the radiator spewing kind.) No big or scary wild critters here that I know of, except maybe panthers. Pop and Ivan were running a trot line down in the backwaters late one night and had one scream in a tree right over their heads; and I've heard them scream in the distance (I'm too chicken to go out in the woods after dark, unless it's with a group of coon hunters. Which, come to think of it, are pretty dangerous wild animals themselves...) Lots of coyotes, coons, possums, groundhogs, fox, etc...; some turkeys, a few pheasants and quail altho the coyotes keep them and the bunnies thinned out.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2004

Don't ya just hate those kind of deer, Polly!!! Me too!

We don't have any pheasants and quail...other than the ones the local guns clubs bring in so they can have their target practice!! But we have tons and tons of wild turkey now. In fact, you stand more of a chance hitting a turkey with your vehicle than a deer :-)!! Lots of coyotes and other smaller critters, too. Bobcat are finally making a good comeback along with the cougar. This is my favorite time of the year to sit out at dusk and listen to the coyotes, the ruffed grouse "drumming" and the woodcock whistling!!

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2004

Ain't too many bear in the 'burbs; (thank goodness; I'm sure the neighbors would go nuts!). We have lots of deer though, and wild turkeys every once in while in our 3 acres of woods,and of course pond critters like muskrats and snappers and coons. Oh, and mosquitoes, comin pretty soon.

There was a bear in our woods on the farm though; a dangerous one I was told, it came after a couple of guys for no apparent reason (?),scared the bejezzus out of em,and finally someone shot the thing.

We had a coyote on our mini-farm years ago; saw it just once, up close and personal, during lambing season,but never saw it again. Having come fairly recently from California, we stood frozen, staring at each other, me in amazement at how huge it was compared to coyotes in CA. I actually wondered if it was a wolf,and after doing some research read somewhere that coyotes are much bigger here than the puny pitiful things out west,and that they actually have been known to interbreed with wolves. So I'm still not sure. It was beautiful though,and never took any of my lambs.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2004

Something keeps coming in through the cat's doggie door and eating his food at night. Sometimes it's a raccoon, sometimes it's a skunk. We have something new...can't wait to see what it is this time.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2004

Boy, Marcia, I wish we had more bears around here so we could see them too!!!

We have the usual wild critters, deer feeding in the yard and hay fields all the time, big bunches of wild turkeys covering the hay fields like over-grown chickens, quail and bobwhite, wild bunnies, the occasional coyote just passing not close by (very wary of the dogs!),the hungry-curious raccoon and possums that raid the dry cat food every chance they get, and we are supposed to have mountain lions sighted on the far side of our acreage here, yep, here in Podunk, Ohio! Turkey hunters sighted one female a few springs ago and reported it to the Game Warden. West Virginia has a few "unofficial" sightings, so I guess they come over the Ohio River to around here, we are just 5 miles from the River as the crow flies, and we do have really dense, old growth forest and enough small animals for adequate prey, so why not have mountain lions? Wish we had wolves as well, they sing so beautifully at night.

We have never had any problem with wild critters, the four big dogs keep everything at bay, and it really helps keeping the chickens in a stout, strong coop, I don't even let them out during the day, it is large enough for them to do their scratching and digging in their shavings inside their large coop and I pick them a 5 gallon bucket of green stuff everyday for them. Rather have them safe than wild critter food!

The raccoons, possums and skunks are a nuisance in that they make a beeline for any dry cat and dog food left out at night, so I have to put all that up every night or its eaten by them, but they seem to have enough sense to avoid being seen by the dogs at night. The raccoons even raid the farthest bird feeders at night for the sunflower seed, they are really smart little dickens!

We could never have a cat door into the house, the raccoons and possums, and I strongly suspect, skunks, would be in here every night as well as the cats! Wouldn't want to "surprise" a skunk in the middle of the night in the kitchen!

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2004

I have a very large cinnamin colored bear that loves to rip off my shed door on occasion! Likes turpintine and also chews plastic rolls like a dog bone. Say.... I believe I have a picture of his gift he left me in the meadow last fall

http://www.geocities.com/kirkay/AnimalD.jpg

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2004