So imagine walking into your garage and finding this under your car?! And how many of you actually check under your car before you back out. This happened in my little town yesterday.
He was just a young’un – probably under two – and he was safely tranquilized and relocated.
You can see how small (relatively!) he is in this photo. Probably less than a hundred pounds.
We have our share of wildlife here – I believe I’ve told the story before of how I was sitting on my favorite bench near the ponds where I would cycle and a couple was walking toward me and I heard “See that bench where that lady is sitting, that’s where I saw the mountain lion” – yikes!
Since I’ve lived here we’ve had a juvenile moose wander through town, a deer try to go shopping a the local grocery store, along with the occasional bear and mountain lion. You just never know what you’re going to get living downstream from a mountain river (they follow it down, then get lost in the suburbs, poor things).
FYI, if you want to see wildlife, stay far, far away from me. I swear I’m a wildlife repellant (except maybe birds of prey). Hikes, despite my companions’ desire, are big animal free.
Although we did find a moose, once, on the side of road…
Much needed respite open thread
Roger Moore
Does Longmont really classify as a “little town”? Sure, it’s not a great metropolis, but it’s not Berthoud or Lyons or something.
TaMara (HFG)
@Roger Moore: It feels small. Everyone talks to each other, it’s got real neighborhoods and a downtown. We throw street parties for any reason at all (or we did and will again). All the things that drew me here.
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): I used to be in a 60s cover band, and some of my favorite gigs were in Longmont. One of our drummers lived there – for all I know, he’s living there still.
But I get a good lot of wildlife watching in up here in the Sangres. With much less traffic. : )
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I knew Longmont (or as the Boulder locals call it post-weed legalization, Bongmont) oh so well back in the late 70s and early 80s. Go up on a Saturday night and watch the cars cruise up and down main street for hours.
It’s almost unrecognizable today, not unlike (Dreary) Erie which back in the day had one paved street and where most of the biker gang members in the state lived.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I broke my website this morning. I broke it badly enough that it wouldn’t come up at all. After an hour on the phone with tech support, it’s all better, but that was scary.
HumboldtBlue
TaMara maybe black out the license plate number, that can be used as an identifier and in this online digital age the less private info shared publicly the better.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Glad you’re back up and running.
joel hanes
I swear I’m a wildlife repellant
Do you talk while hiking ? While resting on a hike?
If you talk, you’ll never see anything.
The sound of your voice alerts wildlife to move away before you can see them, and if you’re talking, you’re probably not actually watching.
Watching is a learned skill. These days hardly anyone acquires it.
Gin & Tonic
I now have a family of wild turkeys in the neighborhood, and at least one comes by to eat the seed that all the smaller birds drop when they’re at the feeder. Doesn’t seem to be particularly concerned about the comings and goings of humans.
WereBear
We have Bigfoot sightings. But no mountain lions. Officially. Trail cams catch one now and hen.
Kristine
::looks up Longmont on map::
(Don’t mind me–I always look up the places that folks here mention)
::finds it’s near a town called “Hygiene.”
“Oligarchy Reservoir 1?” We don’t need one in reserve–the one we have is quite enough.
The Pale Scot
Remember back in the day, ( 2008?
Gott Himmel!“O, Mой бог”) when we were calling each other comrade?The Motherland is calling
Edited repeatedly, no vodka involved
Elizabelle
TaMara: would you consider Longmont “affordable?”
Have been to Denver and Boulder … do love Colorado, at least the mountainous part.
Miss Bianca
@HumboldtBlue: I had the same thought.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yow! Scary indeed! Glad you’re back up and running!
Elizabelle
@joel hanes:
As is listening. And again…
dlwchico
A Møøse once bit my sister… No realli!
Scout211
We only have wild turkeys, coyotes, an occasional bobcat or fox and even more rarely, a mountain lion. We have found a rattlesnake in our garage, though. We were hoping it ate a lot of mice before we removed it.
The Pale Scot
@WereBear:
Bigfoot(s), Bigfeet?
Theyz selling their houz
Bigfoot Poses in Real Estate Photos for $1M House
raven
@TaMara (HFG): In the 70’s lots of people from Champaign-Urbana moved to Boulder and some lived near the Caribou Ranch since Fogelberg lived up there. Ruby Gulch I think it was.
TaMara (HFG)
@HumboldtBlue: That’s all over the news, which is where I snagged it from, so cat’s out of the bag, so to speak.
oldster
My god, those giant bunny paws are adorable!
Elizabelle
You know the CPW (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) officers loved helping that young mountain lion. Has to have been the highlight of their day, week, month, to deal with such a beautiful young animal, who was alive …
Here’s footage from Denver channel 7 of the release. “CPW wildlife officers Sam Peterson and Jason Duetsch released the mountain lion into a remote part of the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.”
Make new friends, teen mountain lion.
TaMara (HFG)
@Elizabelle: Oh, god no. We are Boulder-adjacent. Actually, nowhere along the front range would be considered affordable.
Amir Khalid
Last week, I ordered a 10-pack of D’Addario EXL120 guitar strings online. Today I checked my order status and found the order was cancelled with refund — but without explanation. I didn’t want my money back, damnit, I wanted my bloody guitar strings. Feh.
TaMara (HFG)
@joel hanes: So you think after 30+ years of wilderness hiking I’m a novice, huh?
And to be clear, moose and bears wander down the streets of certain mountain towns…where plenty of folks are having a good time…and yet when we arrive…nope, not a one.
Elizabelle
@TaMara (HFG): Yeah. Suspected that was the case. Thanks.
TaMara (HFG)
@Elizabelle: Especially since the last encounter (last month I think, who the fuck knows with this timeline) was rabid and attacked the CPW officer and a bystander who was bravely getting in its way so it couldn’t attack children in a RV park.
Salty Sam
One of my most cherished memories was when I was mid-teens, on a family camping trip in Gros Ventre Nat’l Forest. My dad had disappeared for a little while, then came sneaking back into camp, made “follow me” and “shush” hand signs. I followed him quietly along a small creek bank, we stopped and spent the good part of an afternoon hidden in some brush watching a family of beavers building their dam and lodge. We never spoke a word, and it was magical.
ETA- My niece lives in Longmont, I visited her there last year. Seemed quite the little suburb.
Miss Bianca
@dlwchico: I was waiting for that one!
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): With the possible exceptions of Pueblo? Walsenburg, Trinidad?
Those cities are considered part of the Front Range, right? Never having been a Front Ranger, I am perhaps a bit unclear on the concept.
narya
@dlwchico: Beat me to it!!
TaMara (HFG)
My then 4-year-old niece really, really wanted to see a bear, so we went hiking in a place where there is always bear sightings. I walked with her for a very short hike (figuring she’d get tired and we’d just say, oh, well, no bears). We took the right fork in the trail. My brother and SIL (and baby nephew) suddenly got nervous and decided to follow us. They took the LEFT fork in the road – a mama and three cubs walked right across their path.
Me and my niece – no bears. She has never let me forget it. We still go ‘bear hunting’ on our hikes, to no avail. She should probably stick with her dad.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TaMara (HFG): a rabid mountain lion? zounds
trollhattan
@TaMara (HFG):
Can string together multiple high country backpacks with no megafauna sightings. Popular areas can be one reason, hunted areas another, but in sum, the mountain environment is harsh and does not support concentrations of large critters.
OTOH, in national parks the deer are often quite brave, as they’re not hunted. At least they aren’t until fall has them migrating to the low country. “Bang!”
Aleta
On a camping hike, about 6 days out from a road on a very hot day, I stopped on the trail overlooking a small lake. At that moment a moose emerged from the woods down below with her babe. She walked into the lake calling back to him to come along. He stayed on shore making distress calls at her and moving back and forth at the water’s edge.
She continued to call back to him, reassuringly I thought, but still she took that long, cooling swim for herself. They called back and forth as she slowly swam all the way across the lake, then slowly all the way back. She got out and they went back into the forest together.
TaMara (HFG)
@Salty Sam: There’s nothing suburb about Longmont. I actually fled the suburbs after my divorce to come here because of that.
@Miss Bianca: That’s a good question – I always assumed the front range ended at Pueblo (and google says, yes). And I don’t know their housing situation, but I know they have a mighty recession going on there – few jobs – low income, etc. So maybe houses are less expensive there?
TaMara (HFG)
@Aleta: My dream!
Cheryl Rofer
Saw a cottontail in the yard on my walkaround before I took the cats out this morning. Saw a coyote a couple of times last week, and, since i’ve had a bobcat in the yard too, I always do a walkaround to scare the predators away before I take the cats out.
Also ordered a trail camera just now.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
We’ve experienced delays but not cancellations. Sorry to hear about your string woes.
Ruckus
Was once walking through the housing area of Grand Canyon south rim national park, where the workers live and there’s a bunch of kids playing. All of a sudden the kids scattered. As I am trying to figure out why I turned to my right and 15-20 feet away was a full grown moose. I’m just shy of 6ft and the shoulders were over my head. A somewhat impressive sight up close and way too personal. I walked away. Seemed like the thing to do.
Was a video on the twitter yesterday of a moose walking on a center divider, people driving along side filming. Glad they felt safe in their cars.
TaMara (HFG)
@Kristine: Now Hygiene is a little town. LOL Two roads, one post office, a fire station an elementary school and a church. I’d live there if I could.
Salty Sam
@Salty Sam: There’s nothing suburb about Longmont. I actually fled the suburbs after my divorce to come here because of that: There’s nothing suburb about Longmont. I actually fled the suburbs after my divorce to come here because of that
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): That makes sense, actually – the Front Range essentially being one long metropolis sprawling from Greeley and Fort Collins in the north to Colorado Springs and Pueblo in the south.
Salty Sam
Tamara, all I really saw of it was my nieces home, which was a nice little box made out of ticky-tacky in a neighborhood where they all looked the same. I’m sorry now I didn’t see more…
Benw
@Amir Khalid: we ordered a small Orange amp and cords a little while ago DP (During Pandemic time). The amp came in 2 days. The cords 3 weeks later!!
:D
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Their beaks will hit you in just about the worst place you would think of. Can not imagine that would feel OK.
It’s possible they know more anatomy than you might think.
ellie
Longmont is nice. I live in Broomfield on the corner of the city limits. Across the street is Superior. I was looking at housing prices and wow, it is very expensive.
TaMara (HFG)
@Salty Sam: I would have given you the grand tour – it’s a very beautiful, often overlooked gem of a city (and it can stay that way, please).
TaMara (HFG)
There are no cookies in my house.
I need to go rectify the situation. I look forward to reading more about your animal encounters.
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
Is the company closed for the pandemic? Were they just out of stock? Why no explanation? That’s what really bugs me.
joel hanes
@Elizabelle:
It’s probably not what you meant, but I have an aunt who can identify by ear nearly every bird in her area. She and a friend who’s almost blind always do the Christmas bird count, and almost every year they have the biggest reported tally, because they don’t need to see the birds to identify them.
Elizabelle
@Aleta: How wonderful to see that.
Just One More Canuck
@dlwchico: I hear they can be pretti nasti
J R in WV
Back when I could still backpack, before injuries added up to make my back undependable, was hiking in Cranberry Backcountry with my younger brother (now a RWNJ!) and we saw first a mother and 3 cubs working for breakfast in the little Cranberry River.
First a cub ran up the hill, then Mom and another cub. Bro wanted to start walking up the river, I said “Shhh, wait a minute!” really quietly, and after not very long a very scared and lonely third cub blazed across the old roadbed and up the hillside after his family.
Then a couple of miles farther up the river, we saw a pretty big bear out in the trout stream, flipping honking big rocks over to see if a big fish was underneath. He couldn’t hear us for the rushing river, and we watched for quite a while, was fascinating. Then when he finally noticed us standing on the roadbed (there was a narrow gauge RR in there a hundred years ago) he did the most amazing double take, and ran up the hill on the other side of the river.
We could hear and see the bushes and trees moving as he pushed his way through the thicket. Then no more excitement all the way up to the parking lots at the bogs. In the 3000-4000 foot range mostly. Very nice country back then.
joel hanes
@TaMara (HFG):
So you think after 30+ years of wilderness hiking I’m a novice, huh?
I was asking; I regret wording it to sound like an accusation.
And I didn’t know about your wilderness experience.
I have been on long backpacking and canoe trips with experienced campers who never see anything, and it’s usually because they talk, or feel compelled to move about, instead of sitting silently.
If you’re not one of them, then we’ll need another explanation.
joel hanes
@TaMara (HFG):
We still go ‘bear hunting’ on our hikes
It’s a beautiful day.
We’re not afraid!
LuciaMia
@Elizabelle: Please, I hope they didnt say they took big kitty to a farm way upstate.
joel hanes
@J R in WV:
ran up the hill
This is the ability of bears that amazes me most to see — they can run, fast, directly up steep hillsides.
Aleta
@Miss Bianca: Btw I’d love to hear about your horse if you ever feel like it. (Like talking about it, that is : ) ) I remember some years ago you were without one. How did you come by, or choose, this one? What is she /he like? I like reading that you just came in from riding. I once had a badly trained QH. Had been a barrel racer. (It was an issue.)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Miss Bianca:
The official term for that is “megalopolis”. We saw the beginnings back in the early 80s but given the CO boom/bust economic cycle since white people first showed up until the Great Recession, it never really managed to grow into what we predicted.
Until just about now. The thing that amazes me has been the growth north of Fort Collins. Drive up I-25 to Wellington. Even 10 years ago it was essentially a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Now, the housing developments…yeee ikes.
Aleta
@TaMara (HFG): I recently ordered some ‘bear bells.’ They are smaller than I expected, attach to a belt loop or pack, and make quite a sweet sound. (Reminds me of a distant Alpine cow.) I’ve been wondering: since bears where I go have learned that campers carry granola bars etc., wouldn’t they come to associate bear bells with approaching snacks?
Roger Moore
@TaMara (HFG):
I remember reading about that attack. What I find interesting about it is that people will say things like this are a sign wildlife is returning, or we’re encroaching on its habitat, or something similar as if these encounters are something new. But I know the area where that attack was because I grew up in Loveland. Back in the 1980s there was a mountain lion in the same neighborhood. People saw it on the playground of a nearby elementary school and demanded the school district put in mountain lion-proof fences to protect the kids. My mother was on the school board at the time, so I remember the panic about it quite distinctly.
Miss Bianca
@Aleta: She’s an off-track Thoroughbred. One of these days I’m going to post some photos and things to WaterGirl. Right now, my trainer and I are trying to figure out why she’s not gaining any weight, even though she’s eating like, well…a horse…and her coat looks a little dull. Educated guess based on symptoms and on consultation with my neighbor, one of the veterinarians for Arapaho Race Track, is that she has ulcers. Which apparently about 90% of racehorses, and 80% of other horses in high-stress sports like barrel racing, 3-day eventing, etc., are prone to. (Wonder if that might have been an issue with your QH!)
So I am going to start her on ulcer meds, as well as worming, and then on to some diet changes…adding alfalfa to her hay intake, for example, because it helps with the mucus membranes in the gut. As well as a supplement to take care of trace minerals and vitamins she might not be getting otherwise.
Get a horse, she said…it’ll be fun, she said…//
Jim, Foolish Literalist
who was it who said we need assault rifles to protect the school playgrounds of Montana from the grizzlies? I don’t think it was a Montana pol. Was it Joni Ernst?
ETA: it was Betsy DeVos
Just One More Canuck
@Aleta: an ice cream truck for bears? That can’t end well
Yukoner
@Aleta: Up here in northern Canada we refer to them as the bears’ dinner bells. And also tell the visiting tourists that our bears prefer their humans well peppered. (As they always carry pepper-based bear spray).
Rugosa
@Gin & Tonic: Wild turkeys are becoming a nuisance in some urban neighborhoods. They aren’t afraid of humans and will become agressive if they see their reflection in a window or a mirror or chrome on a car. I’s almost a running joke on Universal Hub (universalhub.com). Bird feeders are part of the problem – the turkeys get used to human contact when they visit backyard feeders.
@Gin & Tonic:
mrmoshpotato
Here moosey moosey moosey.
Care for a swim?
TaMara (HFG)
@joel hanes: No biggie -I hope you read that with the humor intended.
I believe the same thing that allows lost dogs, cats and children to find me in a crowd to get them back to their homes is what must repel the large wild critters. (it’s the best I got)
My dream vaca is an African Safari – but I have visions of spending two weeks in some great preserve only to see nothing but beautiful scenery.
mrmoshpotato
@Just One More Canuck: Hahaha
Doc Sardonic
@Aleta: The best way to identify the difference between Kodak, Grizzly and Black bear poop is Black bear poop has no bear bells in it.
Roger Moore
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
It makes me realize how smart Fort Collins and Loveland were to buy up a greenway between the cities while they still had the chance. The would have completely merged by now if they hadn’t.
mrmoshpotato
Ahhhhhhh…..
mrmoshpotato
@mrmoshpotato: Also.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Doc Sardonic:
ha!
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato: Oh, where’s Mnemosyne? This would be right up her alley!
Where did she go? : (
mrmoshpotato
Cats AND beer (boxes)
Quaker in a Basement
@Kristine: Yeah, that’s a local joke for some: “Cleanliness is next to godliness, but Hygiene is next to Boulder.”
Catherine D.
My neighbor and I have seen a curious creature that we think is a Samson fox but haven’t gotten a good picture of. A genetic mutation of the red fox that doesn’t have guard hairs in its coat – really weird in movement and looks.
Sab
We were organizing to walk the dogs latw this morning. My husband went outside with the dogs but I had to wash my hands since I had just put on and tied my street shoes. I glanced out the kitchen window, and a great blue heron was flpping up the creek behind my house. Second time I have seen her/him. I hope she/he becomes a regular in the area.
The national park just north of us used to have great blue herons, but they moved out when the bald eagles moved in. They can deal with the eagles, but they don’t like to raise their chicks around them.
Very cool for me because they (herons) moved south into my area, and have been regulars for about twenty years. Regulars means a mile away on the Cuyahoga. This is the first time I have seen them on my creek. I hope it wasn’t a bad move on their part. Happy chicks, birds!
laura
@mrmoshpotato: beer box kiki looks suspiciously like that fog pelty beauty samwise without his usual bow tie.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
My daughter woke me up at six am this Saturday with this text “Welp we are wide awake. Neighbors from a few campsites down drive up and started honking on their car horn and yelling There’s a bear on your table!! We scrambled into their car. Boyfriend is kinda freaked, I am just mad I forgot the coffee”
Another Scott
@Doc Sardonic: :-)
I joke I heard from my dad (roughly):
A sure-fire way to identify the type of bear you see when you’re hiking is to climb the nearest tree. A Black Bear will climb the tree after you. A Grizzly Bear will just knock the tree down.
Hehe.
Yikes! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Brian
@Amir Khalid: D’Addario and La Bella have greatly reduced operations because of New York State restrictions, so your retailer may not have been able to reorder. They should have said so, though, and maybe even directed to you to another source.