bdixon1989's Journal, 27 Dec 21

Ah. Coyote. 

raccoon or possum 

Spark, Eek! Thankfully the animals around here keep mostly to themselves. The bears can be dangerous in hyperphagia before winter and the deer can be dangerous especially if you have food but that's about it. Theyre more dangerous to pets than people as well. We have lots of eagles, hawks, and owls too but they don't often leave tracks. I did see a bald eagle and a raven fighting over lunch the other day but nobody would have wanted to see the pictures 🙈 considering they're both scavengers you can guess what it looked like.  

yote  

Four toes and u can see the claw tips in the print. It is dog of some kind, right? 

Yep, a little red fox 🦊. 

Many of the places where I hike here in Southern California are still habitat for mountain lions so I still have to be situationally alert— I always am looking for evidence of mountain lion, Especially when I hike alone. 

Kenna I've never seen a mountain lion up close in the wild but I've been reading about how attacks are getting more frequent. Absolutely terrifying and if I lived in Mountain lion territory I would definetly be carrying something for defense and being more wary. I swear I saw one in a field in Oklahoma once but my friend who was driving didn't believe me. It's very rare but they do sometimes pop up there. It was in a field, far from the road. I first thought it was a cow because all I saw was a big light brown silhouette but then it's head moved and the tip of its tail flicked all in a destinctly feline manner.  

One of the areas I hike is A huge protected State Park area of beautiful, unimproved land right on the edge of a fancy housing area of multi million dollar homes. I parked my car in the authorized area and right away a man came out of his home yelling at me and pointing at a not to distant knoll.. I turned around and looked and saw a mountain lion sitting under one of the trees. The man said the lion was about 175 pounds and about 6-7 feet tall if he were upright. He apparently had been there over 24 hours. Appeared healthy. The wildlife team were there with tranquilizer guns and rifles— just watching to give him a chance to move off on his own. They ultimately tranquilizer him and a vet came to make sure he was health and then they relocated him. Even in some of our suburban areas we have to be cautions. 

Wow Kenna, just wow.