What interesting things have you seen lately?

200Meters

A real bustard
Last night around 21:30, I was walking the hounds (we love them dawgs) on the dirt (actually it's paved, sort of, in places) security road that encircles our neighborhood (Jerusalem suburbs) lower down the slope of the hill on which our neighborhood stretches. There is some light down there but it's very dark for the most part, which I like and find rather comforting. I can let the dogs off their leashes there. All of a sudden, our younger and much bigger dog (a mostly Canaanite mix) stops, the hair on his back goes up and he growls, staring at something. I can make out a shape on the other side of the fence, very close to where we were. At first I thought it was a goat (local Bedouin shepherds sometimes graze their flocks in the area) or a shepherd's dog. But then as I got a little closer I could see that it was a BIG wild boar! Ubercool! I got a good look at it for a few seconds before it turned and scampered off down the hill. The dogs barked at it as it disappeared into the gloom. I am grateful for the fence as the younger-bigger dog would surely have chased it, risking injury if it had tusks.

Over the years, while walking the hounds on that security road at night, I have seen rock hyraxes (all the time), gazelles (occasionally; there is a small herd of about 6-7 in the area) , foxes (once in a long while), porcupines (twice) and now a wild boar! Like I said, ubercool!

So, what interesting things have you (plural) seen lately?
 

Nomad

Well-Known Member
Staff member
wow!
We came home one day, to discover HUGE, tall birds walking around our backyard. They were about 5 feet tall. (I'm 5'2" ...so they were VERY intimidating to me!) I'm NOT EXAGGERATING. HUGE!!!! One had a red head. I think he was a the leader! I heard later from locals, that they travel in families. They didn't seem afraid of us...although we were cowering mostly inside looking out the windows. My husband ventured into the screened patio. One started to go up to him...and the big guy squawked him away. I think he was trying to tell his "child," I'm in charge here. My husband had some fruit for the huge bird. He didn't want fruit. I found out later, you actually aren't suppose to feed them. They are somewhat protected. And someone else told me they prefer bugs. We were completely astonished. We don't know how they got there. They were walking on two legs. They were a greyish color...sort of having a picnic in our back yard. They looked like something from a movie. After about an hour, they left...but sadly, we didn't see them leave. Their wing span must of been AMAZING.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Mine is maybe not amazing, but amusing - one of my neighbors, a guy in his 20's, was being pulled on his skateboard by his big white dog. They were sailing down the street having a great time.
 

ChickPea

Well-Known Member
I actually take notes off and on about my walks and what I saw, heard, smelled, etc.
Can't say that I've seen a wild boar. WOW!!! That's insane.

So, most recently we were just about to head out on a walk, and my husband spotted a bird that the thought, at first, was a seagull. But the location for it was quite off. We watched for a while and realized it was an albino hawk! We were able to watch it for about 10 minutes before it soared away.
 

JMom

Well-Known Member
I work on a college campus from 9 pm-7am and I have 11 cats that live here (We feed them and they mouse for us). We have one fox with 3 babies and several opossum, raccoons and an occasional coyote.

This one particular cat id our "pd cat" (police department) because he sleeps on our patrol cars. Well, there is this little silver plate that covers a drain pipe. I keep seeing it propped open with the cats bowl. I could never figure out why. Low and behold at 2:30 a.m. I see a raccoon climb out of the whole, eat the cat food, climb back in the hole and prop the door open with the cat's bowl.

What even???? I have lots of birds and squirrels and critters looking for adventure. Just call me ellie-may.
 
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