Moderator: Modern Buddy Staff
You see it coming and nothing will change it. Suddenly the duck developed the agility if not the speed of a squirrel, reversed course and waddled back to the bushes on the side of the road. Big, big sigh of relief. 
Hehehe... you're invisible, even to them!italiaguy wrote:I cut through a metro park on the way to work. Yesterday a family of deer crossed in front of me, not close enough for me to break hard, but close enough to make me think that I'd better keep an eye out for deer in the future.
On the way home that day, the same deer family jumped out again heading the other way. This time I had to break.
Even wildlife doesn't think twice about pulling out in front of us.
Years ago you could ride thru most wooded roads and never see a deer. We usta go camping, and seeing if you could spot a deer was a great kid's sport..! Now it appears that even the most developed areas of my NJ suburban area will have a deer or two just waiting to pop out on you, and sometimes even in daylight!jfrost2 wrote:To be honest, I ride through a wooded area with no lights every week, the roads are pitch black besides a occasional house light and my head light. I've never seen 1 raccoon, deer, or anything. I always ride real slow incase one jumps out I can stop easily. Once I get back into the main roads, I ride at the speed limit.
PHEW. Ducks are some of my favorite people. I never would have forgiven you if you had turned his quack into a croak.DennisD wrote:Timely thread.
My route to work takes me around a bayou and I call it the devil's triangle. Its where I've been hammered in thunderstorms 3 times this summer. Yesterday, riding a bit faster than usual, a duck wandered from behind some shrubs and into my path. A car was oncoming so maneuvering space was limited. The more I went to the left the faster the duck waddled into my path. All of this happened really fast including the realization that "Oh s***, this is gonna hurt!"
holy $h!^! That's a crazy story o_O I would have demanded she buy me a new jacket ><dorian wrote:During the lunch hour today I was riding down a busy street (El Camino Real). I usually split lanes when coming up to a traffic light with stopped traffic so I can start out in front.
As I was going by a pickup truck some little SOB of a fuzzy dog suddenly stuck its head out the window and bit the shoulder of my jacket. I wear a Joe Rocket mesh jacket, and its teeth apparently got hung up in the mesh and padding of the shoulder. So I came to a stop and this fuzzy snorting 2 pound rat of a dog is stuck to my shoulder and this bleach blonde Hilton wannabe is yelling at the top of her lung capacity from the pickup truck.
I put the side stand down and basically parked the scooter on the cross walk at the intersection. Amazed that the dog is still hanging from my shoulder, and half hoping it would fall off and put itself out of my misery, I walked back to the pick up truck. I didn't bother taking off my helmet in fear that little purse-rodent would next attack my ear. The blonde in the truck leaned back away from me in fear as I approached her door. I asked her to please remove her @^$%$#@ beast from my shoulder before I scraped it off on the pavement. She reached out the window and delicately disengaged the oddly silent beast from my jacket.
Thats the only critter encounter I've had so far with scooter.
Actually it's not that we're encroaching, they are just getting smarter. If you talk with fish and game officials, it's a trend happening all over. Deer have figured out they get food and safety in residential neighborhoods. A neighborhood has a virtual salad bar for them to feast on along with a ready supply of water. They have figured out they are also protected from hunters and natural predators. Deer population studies have been done where they find the thousands of square miles of surrounding forest/grasslands are devoid of deer, yet the adjacent few square miles of subdivisions are full of them. I know that has held true in several neighborhoods in several states I've lived in. The scary trend is bears. They are beginning to figure out neighborhoods mean food and water too. And that is not a good thing for bears or people.Drumwoulf wrote:I think the problem is that in many areas of the USA we're over-developing the burbs, and the deer have less and less deep wooded areas to live in; that's why we now find small herds of them feeding on people's front lawns in my area!
I feel sorry for the deer, but I certainly don't want to hit one on my scooter!
Well, I think the underlying fact is that wild animals don't know any better than to go down into developed areas. The concept of boundaries to them is foreign.k1dude wrote:Actually it not that we're encroaching, they are just getting smarter. If you talk with fish and game officials, it a trend happening all over. Deer have figured out they get food and safety in residential neighborhoods. A neighborhood has a virtual salad bar for them to feast on along with a ready supply of water. They have figured out they are also protected from hunters and natural predators. Deer population studies have be done where they find the thousands of square miles of surrounding forest/grasslands are devoid of deer, yet the adjacent few square miles of subdivisions are full of them. I know that has held true in several neighborhoods in several states I've lived in. The scary trend is bears. They are beginning to figure out neighborhoods mean food and water too. And that is not a good thing for bears or people.Drumwoulf wrote:I think the problem is that in many areas of the USA we're over-developing the burbs, and the deer have less and less deep wooded areas to live in; that's why we now find small herds of them feeding on people's front lawns in my area!
I feel sorry for the deer, but I certainly don't want to hit one on my scooter!
