Floyd Wildlife
On this day, Joe and I walked a stone path lined with emerald green moss against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Appalachian Mountain Range, one of the oldest in the world, is a gently rolling scene of overlapping mountains for as far as the eye can see. It looks prehistoric, and I always expect to see pterodactyls. Today I saw turkeys instead. ~ Excerpt from The Jim and Dan Stories
Crows have emptied my peach tree of ripe fruit overnight, skunks have dug spoon-sized holes all over my yard, and last year a black snake stretched across my gravel driveway blocking my path to the mailbox. It also ate the newly hatched phoebes in the nest on our porch rafter.
Such is country life.
Deer, opossum, and raccoon are common here. So are turkeys. But my first experience with a flock of turkey was anything but common. I was sunbathing in my yard when I heard them before I saw them. Startled by the loud clumsy sound of flapping, which was low to the ground and very CLOSE, I felt like my yard was being invaded and was surprised when I saw how big, how many, and how pre-historic looking they were. Of course, when they saw me they couldn’t get out of my yard fast enough.
The first time I saw a fox I felt like I had entered into the plot of a fairytale. It strutted brazenly by me, more self-assured than a dog, which is what I first took it for. It was snowing and the fox seemed charmed, standing out blatantly against the winter white wonderland. Had it lost its den hole under a drift, I wondered?
It took nearly twenty years of living in the country before I encountered my first black bear and because it was standing upright, I thought for a second that it was someone wearing a bear costume. I was on the Blue Ridge Parkway, about a stone’s throw away from my house. Riding by in my car, I screamed when I saw it, not because I was afraid but because I was excited to be seeing a wild bear for the first time.
They say there are panthers and mountain lions in these hills. I haven’t seen any…yet.
March 28th, 2006 9:21 am
We get lots of deer and an occasional fox in our backyard. I would love to see a bear!
March 28th, 2006 10:11 am
I’m not home often enough to see things on a daily basis in my yard; but my older next door neighbor was! He claimed we had skunks living in our old, broken down barn (I’m not going to look for them!) and I have seen skunks in the yard, including the biggest skunk I’ve ever seen in my life which was sauntering about late one night when I pulled into the driveway. I’ve seen turkeys nibbling at my garden and at least once a week I hear coyotes howling (such an eerie sound!) out in the woods in the back of the house. Haven’t seen one of those in my yard, but I have seen one about 1/4 of a mile from my house, it crossed the street in front of my car early one morning. Your mind says…oh, it’s just a german shepherd, but your brain knows the truth. Oh, and hi, Michele sent me, today 🙂
March 28th, 2006 10:34 am
My friends refer to my home as the “little house on the prairie”. We live in the city but right on the edge. Our backyard has field behind it. I have seen Foxes, skunks and loons but never a wild turkey.. and NEVER a bear.
March 28th, 2006 11:15 am
“Your mind says…oh, it’s just a german shepherd but your brain knows the truth…” EXACTLY what I was trying to say. I saw a family of skunks at my mailbox last year (the ones I blame for later digging all over my yard. I never knew skunks did that until after I researched it some) and one was an albino! The baby skunks were cute, but of course even cute ones can stink!
March 28th, 2006 11:48 am
Just up the road from you, here the bears bed down in the woods sometimes, creating hollows of crushed grass that look like huge nests. I found a hollow once in the field below the pond. Skunks aplenty; sometimes I almost pet them in the dark because I have a black fluffy cat. They seem very tame. Foxes always seem so businesslike, trotting along as if they know exactly where they’re going. ‘Possums eat the cat food while the cats stare owl-eyed. I hear bobcats sometimes and see them on rare occasions, between here and Floyd. No panthers, but otters play in the bottom by the creek in late fall.
March 28th, 2006 1:13 pm
That’s an even better description of foxes…they act so business-like. It’s true!
They walk by you like nobody’s business, as if they do it everyday.
I love the line about petting the skunks. I’ve never seen an otter around here…and birds eat our dog food! I’ve never seen or heard a coyote here. I’ve heard they’re moving into the suburbs.
March 28th, 2006 3:21 pm
I live not only in the suburbs, but in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. And I’m amazed at the number of wild animals I see. Last year, I had to stop my car on my street to let a huge wild turkey cross. He was “goose stepping” and there seemed to be some connection between the movement of his left leg and his neck. My neighbor had an 8-point buck on his front yard one morning. And one of the hottest political topics each year locally is whether or not to have the annual bear hunt. Soon bobcats will be renting lofts in Tribeca.
March 28th, 2006 4:22 pm
I see deer often, racoons once in a while, snakes occasionally. If I ever saw a bear – I’d move!
March 28th, 2006 5:47 pm
Sorry I haven’t been around for awhile. This post of yours today reminds me of two things: have you seen SRP’s post today? She has a similar picture up. And I once wrote a blog article about the time I saw a puma bounding across the Arizona desert. Other than rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, and jackrabbits, that’s my claim to enounters of the wild life kind.
I’ll be back more often.
March 28th, 2006 11:46 pm
That fox strutting beside you is simply magical. I’ve loved my encounters with urban wildlife — possum in NYC; raccoon, skunk, and red-tailed hawks in Boston. Where we live now is quasi-rural. I haven’t seen any large wildlife locally (though rabbits and snakes are fairly common, along with an occasional gopher tortoise), but we’re not too far from the Ocala National Forest and its signs warning drivers to be on the lookout for bear and deer.
March 29th, 2006 12:16 am
I love your panorama view. Since we lived in the valley there in Roanoke for seven years and my mom even longer (her home town), I loved the Blue Ridge in the spring and fall particularly. The wild turkey are very funny looking and seem disheveled and disorganized, almost flustered all the time. LOL.
March 29th, 2006 8:10 am
Twice last year, within a short span of time, a fox did a little “fox trot” by me while I was in the back yard minding my own business. On the second occasion, it was less than 2 feet away. It took me by surprise to say the least. Later I wondered if it had some kind of hidden meaning attached – because at the time I was making a transition. I recall finding out (gotta love the internet) that the fox is an archetype for intelligence and cunningness. Knowing this, I began to pay close attention to something that was going on for me at the time.
Long story short – I think the fox was telling me something.
At any rate, soon after seeing the second fox, I made a decison that was hard for me, but that I don’t regret .
March 29th, 2006 8:32 am
Kath, I do believe, as the Native Amercians do, that animal sitings can be omens. The skunks I saw last year certainly were. I have the Medicine Card tarot deck and it says fox is, yes for cunning and camouflage…observing without being seen.
March 29th, 2006 7:26 pm
Love that post as I can relate….and I love our wildlife. A few weeks back when three wild turkeys trapsed down through the pasture I couldn’t believe how big or fast they were.
The black snacks are constantly killing the chickens or eating the eggs but I hate for Martin to kill them because they DO keep copperheads away. And I had rather not have chickens than HAVE copperheads. We have screech owl attacks and I’ve seen some foxes and bobcats, but after all my years in Patrick I have yet to see a black bear here. Though my dad has a cabin and swears he sees them all the time. And my mother has told us stories about how the panthers used to cry outside her bedroom window….I would die!
March 30th, 2006 12:45 am
hi
is it thru carol ( FFMB) that I know of you?
i have a hard time keeping track of anything lately
( turning 50 is taking its toll)