Mammal Sightings

[Whiskey Jack]

All right, the best sighting of the week for me!!! Well, more like a track sighting. Stinger was telling me there was a Black Bear over in the Shangrila area at Roosevelt, so while we were there we ended up seeing both bear scat and huge bear prints in the sand! Thats the closest I had been to a bear since I lived in Madera Canyon, and it felt good to be back in their presence once again. In fact, I thought that "The Black Bear of Shangri-la" sounded like such a good title that I am going to write a song about it.

[Chromiusdomius]

Excellent sighting my friend. Though you did not see the Black Bear of Shangri La, it still had to be an awesome felling. Congrats! I want to hear the Bear song on the 18th.

[Stinger]

Yeah Crow, you are the man!! I cannot wait to hear the story about the " The Black Bear of Shangri-la" that is gonna be one kick butt song! I have not seen him yet just his sign. I was at the Tonto inflow on Wed. and saw some scat there too!

[Stinger]

OK, now for my mammal sightings!
In Shangri-La I was monitoring a nest waiting for a Cowbird to leave the area so I could video pole the nest when the girl I was with heard something in the distance, we looked over and there was a small herd of Javelina ( about 5 or 6 that I saw). The rest of the heard saw/heard us and stopped but this big male had his nose to the ground and kept walking the trail he was on, he ended up walking with in 6 feet of us and heading right towards us, so I clapped loudly and he took off!
On Saturday, I was coming back from fishing the river with a crew mate and there were 3 Muley does right next to the road near the Windy Hill entrance!
On Sunday, I saw one Javelina on the road into Shangri-La.
Now this next sighting was not made by me personally but by my crew as they were going to Shangri-La, I unfortunately was up at the Tonto inflow that day! I guess a fairly large Mountain Lion ran across the road and then later they saw a herd of Javelinas and a small herd of Muleys!! Figures, the one time I decide to be nice and help out another crew I miss the Mountain Lion!!!!!!! > > Teach me to be a nice guy!

And of course there are plenty of Cottontails and Black-tailed Jackrabbits!! I know where I want to go rabbit hunting! And many, many Coyotes!!! HOWL!!!!!!!

[Whiskey Jack]

I am still working on that song, but there is a mentioning of the willow flycatcher in there, and the Rattlesnake man too.

Awesome sighting man! It is amazing to me how much we can see as field workers that we might otherewise miss. Just going out to places that humans don't normally rread can turn up all kinds of things, be it a lone turtle shell, or Great-horned Owl feather, or an ancient ruin or petroglyph or something like that. But getting to see all the animals is by far the best. Working so early in the morning when they are all out is a definite benifit to the bird jobs. Latley I have seen a Beaver and Raccoon on the Verde River (the Beaver was slapping its tail on the water to warn everyone I was in the area sneaking around I guess), a Muskrat on Oak Creek, an Elk on Wet Beaver Creek in Montezumas Castle as well as an Elk carcass in the creek bed there too (looked like it broke its leg or something), a herd of Muleys foraging along a cliff at West Clear Creek, and a Gray Fox ran across the road on the way to Moon Crater. There are also 4 Southwestern River Otters at Red Rock State Park that have been hanging around there for a while.
The desert is full of life. I love it!

[eaglewoman]

O.K., so aside from the elk, racoons, foxes, deer, etc, etc, I have seen, the other day I had an encounter with a Mountain Lion. It was just up the road from the trailer trotting along as if no one were there. ABOSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Love,
Eaglewoman

[Chromiusdomius]

I bet that mountain lion sighting was awesome Eaglewoman! I am so jealous of all you guys and your sightings.

[Whiskey Jack]

Oh man, Eaglewoman, how I wish I had been in your shoes!!
Sparrowhawk and I saw a heard of Javelina at Walker Creek. In fact we seperated them, which was a bit of a bad move. The other side really wanted to cross the creek bed, and there was just us little people in the way, eventually one broke free and ran like hell right in front of us. It was so fast! Remind me never to get caught in the middle of a migrating Javelina heard again...
Sparrowhawk also saw a Muskrat at Campbells Place Wildife Area today, it got really colse to her too.

[Stinger]

Ok, let me set the stage for you. It was Thursday morning about 0730, the morning after the first monsoon storm of the year! (Yes! we did get rain!) it was a cool cloudy morning, I was lying in some cattails monitoring a territory just off the main trail in Shangri-la, there were no WIFL's in the area and then I found out a possible reason why. Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement about 30 meters to my east, the animal was about 2-3 shades darker than the grass. At first I thought it was a coyote since I did not get a good look at it, as I watched it mosey along it's nose to the ground, it cleared the trees and got into the open and soon discovered I was 20 meters away from the "Black Bear of Shangri-La"!!! Let me say this hear and now, my heart skipped a beat and then began to race like you would not believe! So, I got up onto one knee (luckily I was in the grass and not make any noise) and I stayed as still as I possibly could. He continued walking without a care in the world until he was within 5 meters of me!! Then I think he caught my scent, cause I was not moving!, he picked his head up, looked right at me for about 30 seconds and then continued walking towards the river! Oh man it was awesome! I am pretty sure that he was a just a yearling, maybe only 1 meter tall at the shoulders and about 150-200 pounds. He was a cinnamon brown with some black on his butt, just beautiful! I just wonder, if he was just a yearling, where momma is?
I hope my words come across with the excitement that I truly was and still am feeling, and I will be more than glad to tell the story again and again in person! My first actuak bear sighting and so close!!
Today, we were driving out to Old Salt and Shangi-La and saw a Badger run across the road, that was pretty cool too! And also as we were surveying Old Salt and I was walking one of my hellish transects, I found a deer shed 4 pointer. There is one good looking Mule Deer out here!

[Whiskey Jack]

Oh man......I am speechless.....

[Whiskey Jack]

Driving out to the crater fields one morning I got to see a rather sleepy Badger stumble down the road. I stopped the truck aways from it, and once it realized I was there, it began to run towards the truck like it was going to attack it! Remind me not to mess with a Badger!

Sparrowhawk and I also got to see another Muskrat at Page Springs right after the big flood that raised up Oak Creek pretty damn high! It looked pleased to see all the water and Sparrowhawk took some pretty nice pictures too.

[Whiskey Jack]

At Raymond Ranch Wildlife Area last week we , of course, got to see the entire herd of Buffalo that roams around out there. But we also got to see a sight that I am sure we shall never forget. At one of the work areas, on the rocky ridgeline above a large pond, Turkey Vultures were circling over a large carcass. Once we finally took the journey up there we were suprised to find a dead buffalo, probably a yearling due to its size. The sad thing was that it had died giving birth, and there was a newborn calf there too (also dead) that had partly emerged from the mother. It was a very intense scene to witness.

_____________________

Colorado revealed many Deer and Elk along its roads as we traveled here and there a couple of weeks ago. And I saw something on the way to Durango that I had never seen before....an Elk Farm.

[Whiskey Jack]

This evening, on a long dirt road out near the crater fields, Emily and I creeped up in our truck to a small herd of Elk. They consisted of about 5 females, one young male with two long, one pointed antlers, and a large male that had six points.
I don't think I mentioned too that over the summer we saw many, many, many Pronghorn out near a couple of our sites (by Chino Valley). I posted a few photographs of them on the Wildlife Society Website (Mammals Page), but I figured I'd toss them up here too just to add some color. (I also put up spme bird photos on the Birds Page, like a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Great Blue Heron and a couple others dana.ucc.nau.edu/%7Ewild-soc/birds.html.

[eaglewoman]

Just want to say that website is sure lookin' sharp!
Also, I saw a good little Whitetail Buck down by Payson the otehr day. They are such interesting creatures...so elusive!

[Kitfox]

Not exactly a sighting, but kind of an interesting story. My brother and his girlfriend visited this Saturday, and I took them out to a small lake about a half hour from Flag (I think...Schroe lake or something...I can't remember...it's mentioned somewhere else in the forums).

Anyway, it was mostly dark when we arrived, but the moon was abnormally bright that night so we felt comfortable enough. Also, my brother had a small flashlight on his phone which would barely illuminate the ground before us. We stood in the dark looking over the lake. Of course, we couldn't see any animals, but we heard what I think was a loud elk (or something elkish - I'm not sure what's around these parts yet) cry from across the water. It sounded kind of odd for an an elk, so my brother (Wade) told his girlfriend (Ashley) that it sounded like it was rabid. It's kind of funny to think of an elk being rabid and dangerous, but she was already scared enough from being out in the dark. So we decided to go with it, and I brought up the fact that there are hungry wolves around, and she was getting pretty scared. Plus, the elk noise sounded a few more times.

Eventually we decided to head back because she was too scared (our fault, I suppose), and the elk noise started to follow us and come from different directions around us. It was kind of creepy and kind of amusing at the same time. We couldn't see more than 10 feet in any direction so all of us were imagination a hungry elk with red eyes and dripping fangs waiting in the shadows. Lol. But anyway, we eventually made it to my car, and discussed how it'd be freaky if, upon turning on the headlights, the elk was standing in front of our car. Of course, that didn't happen, but it was fun to think about it and we all had a good laugh.

Well that's my dumb story. Just be careful next time you're out at that lake...the rabid elk might come 'round. I wonder if I can start a legend?

Not really a mammal sighting, but these seemed the best place for it. ¬.¬