Post by bschmor on Mar 23, 2008 21:38:48 GMT -8
Hello birders,
Carolynn and I had one of those rare encounters with wildlife that seem to leave you a little breathless. Carolynn was doing a long training run down Morris Valley Road in Harrison Mills today and for a little security I was following her in the car. I decided to pull up a km and park in the forest recreation site by the Chehalis River and have a look for Dippers. I saw Carolynn coming to the bridge that crosses the river and continued my scan of the river. As Carolynn was half way across the bridge, a large Bobcat crossed the road on my side of the bridge. She stopped in amazement and then thought where's Brent. She didn't realize that I was within earshot of her. She continued to run to where she spotted the Bobcat and then noticed me. She yelled to me to ask if I had seen the cat as she had lost sight of it. As I yelled no, I suddenly noticed it was coming towards me. My yelling back to Carolynn, over the noise of the river, made the Bobcat turn and head into the forest. The cat headed into the forest and then began to climb a mossy, rocky area where we were able to watch it for about 5 minutes as it glided effortlessly up the rocky slope.
I was very surprised at its size. We had seen three bobcats in Arizona with Thor and they weren't much bigger than house cats. This was significantly bigger-a fair size dog. It also had a beautiful rusty brown coat that helped camouflage it very well. What a beautiful animal!
Brent Schmor
Harrison Mills
Carolynn and I had one of those rare encounters with wildlife that seem to leave you a little breathless. Carolynn was doing a long training run down Morris Valley Road in Harrison Mills today and for a little security I was following her in the car. I decided to pull up a km and park in the forest recreation site by the Chehalis River and have a look for Dippers. I saw Carolynn coming to the bridge that crosses the river and continued my scan of the river. As Carolynn was half way across the bridge, a large Bobcat crossed the road on my side of the bridge. She stopped in amazement and then thought where's Brent. She didn't realize that I was within earshot of her. She continued to run to where she spotted the Bobcat and then noticed me. She yelled to me to ask if I had seen the cat as she had lost sight of it. As I yelled no, I suddenly noticed it was coming towards me. My yelling back to Carolynn, over the noise of the river, made the Bobcat turn and head into the forest. The cat headed into the forest and then began to climb a mossy, rocky area where we were able to watch it for about 5 minutes as it glided effortlessly up the rocky slope.
I was very surprised at its size. We had seen three bobcats in Arizona with Thor and they weren't much bigger than house cats. This was significantly bigger-a fair size dog. It also had a beautiful rusty brown coat that helped camouflage it very well. What a beautiful animal!
Brent Schmor
Harrison Mills