Mute Swans but not too surprising since they are raising them along with Trumpeters on a Preserve near us.
A juvenile Bald Eagle. I have seen many adult and juveniles but never before so close up. He was enjoying a birdie buffet AKA a birdfeeder snack. From the feathers left behind he snagged a pigeon (one of the neighbors out here in farm country raised them). Contrary to popular thought they do not eat just fish.
I saw a Monarch Butterfly this summer. They used to be a common sight in the hundreds or thousands. Seeing just the one was quite a treat.
I guess that phainopeplas aren’t uncommon in Mexico or the desert Southwest but up here in Seattle, they are nonexistent. Except for the male we saw at a Sea-Tac Airport overlook some years ago. Poor thing must have hitched a ride on a plane and survived to tell the tale. Still, he seemed to be doing quite well. It was summertime and he was dining on a multitude of bugs, swooping up from a fence, grabbing one and landing on the fence again. Over and over.
Shortly after that sighting, they closed that overlook in order to build the third runway. I’ve often wondered how that phainopepla did and if he managed to make his way home. I sure hope so.
Try the images on this National Geographic page. The fur gets longer in colder seasons and seems wavier to me when wet. The forelimbs have that longer look that you describe.
I saw an albino male lion at a zoo. He was magnificent. He got special handling as a result of his poor vision, and had become very tame. After he had eaten, adults were allowed to come over and pet him “At their own risk,” but no one under 18. There were no problems, and he seemed to like the attention. His claws in front had been capped (NOT removed), but nothing had been done to his teeth. He rolled over for his handler to give him belly rubs, just like a house cat. It really tickles me when big cats act like little cats.
I have also seen a stuffed Dodo. I don’t remember if it’s at the Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian, or the one in Manhattan, I just remember that it looked a little shabby, and there was a note that is was bout to be removed for restoration. There was a note on the plaque stating how many stuffed Dodos there were, worldwide, and it was about eight. This would have been at the least, 25 years ago, so there may be even fewer now.
I have seen Condors. They are impressive. My parents lived out near a prison in Southern California. Some of the released birds liked to come and sit on the fence watching the prisoners in the exercise yard. The neighborhood found it amusing.
I’ve seen desert big horn, and mountain big horn, and mountain goats on various trips. Mountain goats are interesting. They are either on the other side of a river 2 thousand feet up, and require binoculars to see, or they’re next to the road where a mineral lick has been exposed.
I’ve seen a lot of birds and animals over the years. I’ll mention a few that seem special to me. Yellowstone is always fantastic for wildlife. My most recent trip I saw grizzly, brown bear, elk, deer, black bear, bison, and, for the first time in the wild, wolf. A young, black wolf was stalking bison calves. He’d take his time, get closer and closer, and finally mom would notice him, get angry, stand up, bellow and stamp off for a cluster of other bison. This happened 3 or so times while we watched. Finally, from all over the herd, males peeled out of their social groupings, and trotted towards one another and towards the wolf. It was like watching a cavalry line form up. The wolf watched them coming, then turned and ran. Harmony descended upon the land.
Orca in Alaska. Humpback in the wild in Alaska, and Hawaii. Grey Whales off of California.
Kestrel. I smile every time I see them. Tiny, little fierce guys.
Peregine falcon. One lived near my house somewhere. It used to fly through regularly. Took me completely by surprise the first time. It passed me at head height.
Osprey and Bald Eagle. I’ve seen both on many occasions, but coming out of work one day, I saw these two fighting over a fish. Whole new meaning to air combat.
Great Horned Owl - a pair lived in my grandparents front yard.
In 2009, we stopped on a highway in Wisconsin because there was a large turtle crossing the road. My wife, trying to be a good person, wanted to move it off the road. It was our first and only encounter with a snapping turtle. Holy shit, those things can strike like a snake! Luckily, it missed her.
Kudu were always cool to see while on safari. Not rare or endangered, just very noble-looking.
We also saw an African eagle owl, which are quite large. And I saw a snowy owl in Kotzebue, AK.
We had some neighbors with a pushmi-pullyu. It had very special and awkward dietary requirements to keep it healthy, including such oddities as 250 mg of upsidaisium daily, and raisins dipped in brandy. When they took it for a walk around the block, it always went around the block in both directions at once. I pet-sat for it once in a while. It was very timid until it got to know one, which took a long time. I never found out if it was a he-pushmi-pullyu or a she-pushmi-pullyu or maybe one of each.
We evicted one of those on the highway in Minnesota. If you get a good look at one, those things are primordial awesomeness, with huge claws, spikes on the tail and absurdly muscular limbs. We flipped it over to get a look at its underbody and it was back in action-position in less than a couple seconds. If you approach one, make sure you have a long, stout stick in your hand.
Yes, I don’t know how unusual they are, but I wasn’t expecting a wild (feral?) flock of parrots in the Stockton suburbs. I hear there are some in San Francisco, too.
They used to come around fairly regularly, then a hawk make a nest in one of our trees, nesting there for three years. That apparently put us off of their forage route.
Saw a mature bull elk with a full rack strolling along the shoulder of Hwy385 between Ft.Stockton and Marathon in Texas. Must have escaped from an exotic game ranch near there, bet he was trained to come to the sound of a rifle bolt being worked.
I had an encounter with the “next to the road” variety at Logan Pass in Glacier NP. A flock was browsing on the hillside right next to the road, so we pulled over and ran up the hill to get a vantage point above them to take photos. Once we sat down it became obvious that the flock was working its way up the hillside right towards us. We just sat still and they moseyed right past us, less than a dozen feet away. It was way cool at the time, but I later read about tourists being gored by aggressive mountain goats at the same spot. :eek:
In the reptile house of the Mexico City zoo, there was a rattlesnake from the jungled Yucatan – it was a green rattlesnake, jade green with black markings – one of the most beautiful reptiles I have ever seen. I had no idea that there were rattlesnakes in the jungle.
The last time we went to the San Francisco Zoo, we went to the Tropical Rainforest exhibit–and there were sloths there, honest-to-Richard-Attenborough (sp?) sloths! They looked like the ones we’d seen in documentaries, except somewhat more weirdly human-like. And they could move * fast*, too -we saw the one on the ground bustle up to a tree and just* scramble* up the trunk --until it got out onto a branch where it immediately began to resemble an oriole’s nest, just hanging there.
I saw Celebes Macaques in the Washington DC zoo way back when, does that count?
