We have seen so much wildlife since the big move to Texas.
Our house is not exactly in a conventional neighborhood. We have a lot of land around us and each house is on a larger than normal lot.
Just around our house we have seen:
Lizards, deer, opossum, tarantulas, cardinals, blue jays, northern cardinals, black vultures, frogs and hummingbirds.
Out and about we have seen:
western coachwhip snake, various fish and aquatic animals - carp, bass, bluegill, crawfish, bullhead, catfish, longhorn cattle, mules (an especially pretty white one!), horses, llama, goats, alpaca, turtles, road runner, pronghorn antelope, ducks, and an armadillo shell (long dead, we haven't seen a live one - yet!).
The Western Coachwhip was the scariest sighting. We were wading in the river and took a turn up a branch of the river that was bone chillingly cold (the rest of the river was very warm!).
Now this area is pure wilderness. You may have a few people here and there fishing or hiking. Otherwise, there is pretty much nothing for miles.
The boys got out of the water and walked along the path ahead of me.
The path narrows.
I'm a little nervous because this is prime snake territory and I know it just by looking at it. There are plenty of dangerous rattle snakes that live here.
I was walking with a heavy foot to make noise and being very observant.....when I spotted it.
It stood between them and I. It had the front part of its body raised off of the ground and it was BIG! The portion off of the ground was a good 18", I bet it was almost 5-6 feet long total.
I said "OH S$#@&*!, Huge SNAKE!" and I ran backward as fast as I could. They turned around and saw it but, it was blocking their only way back to me.
Luckily that snake took a slow look at each of us and then just slithered away back through the tall grass. I came home and identified it by the way it held its body off of the ground, the small head and the pattern on its skin.
Pic from Texas Parks and Wildlife
The antelope was a pretty scary encounter itself!
We were driving along a major road that is basically in the middle of nowhere. Special Agent Dad was driving and there was one car in front of us.
Out of nowhere and faster than you can imagine, an animal flew from the fields on the left, crossed four lanes and smashed into that car in front of us.
We were travelling at about 70 mph!
The animal stumbled, was thrown into the air, spun a 360 and got up, continued running and ran through a fence running just as fast as it had been before smashing the car.
The car pulled over and I got out to see if they were okay. The driver didn't see anything happen, it was too fast! She just saw glass flying.
We inspected the car and there was a huge dent in the rear left of the vehicle with all of the corner lights blown out. Incredible speed and recovery by this animal.
I knew it was no ordinary deer. It was stockier and had horns. Plus, it was REALLY fast.
I could be wrong but, I am pretty sure it was a pronghorn antelope.
Our house is not exactly in a conventional neighborhood. We have a lot of land around us and each house is on a larger than normal lot.
Just around our house we have seen:
Lizards, deer, opossum, tarantulas, cardinals, blue jays, northern cardinals, black vultures, frogs and hummingbirds.
Tarantula Crossing the road
Out and about we have seen:
western coachwhip snake, various fish and aquatic animals - carp, bass, bluegill, crawfish, bullhead, catfish, longhorn cattle, mules (an especially pretty white one!), horses, llama, goats, alpaca, turtles, road runner, pronghorn antelope, ducks, and an armadillo shell (long dead, we haven't seen a live one - yet!).
Armadillo bones
Now this area is pure wilderness. You may have a few people here and there fishing or hiking. Otherwise, there is pretty much nothing for miles.
The boys got out of the water and walked along the path ahead of me.
The path narrows.
I'm a little nervous because this is prime snake territory and I know it just by looking at it. There are plenty of dangerous rattle snakes that live here.
I was walking with a heavy foot to make noise and being very observant.....when I spotted it.
It stood between them and I. It had the front part of its body raised off of the ground and it was BIG! The portion off of the ground was a good 18", I bet it was almost 5-6 feet long total.
I said "OH S$#@&*!, Huge SNAKE!" and I ran backward as fast as I could. They turned around and saw it but, it was blocking their only way back to me.
Luckily that snake took a slow look at each of us and then just slithered away back through the tall grass. I came home and identified it by the way it held its body off of the ground, the small head and the pattern on its skin.
Pic from Texas Parks and Wildlife
The antelope was a pretty scary encounter itself!
We were driving along a major road that is basically in the middle of nowhere. Special Agent Dad was driving and there was one car in front of us.
Out of nowhere and faster than you can imagine, an animal flew from the fields on the left, crossed four lanes and smashed into that car in front of us.
We were travelling at about 70 mph!
The animal stumbled, was thrown into the air, spun a 360 and got up, continued running and ran through a fence running just as fast as it had been before smashing the car.
The car pulled over and I got out to see if they were okay. The driver didn't see anything happen, it was too fast! She just saw glass flying.
We inspected the car and there was a huge dent in the rear left of the vehicle with all of the corner lights blown out. Incredible speed and recovery by this animal.
I knew it was no ordinary deer. It was stockier and had horns. Plus, it was REALLY fast.
I could be wrong but, I am pretty sure it was a pronghorn antelope.
Pic from the Texas Parks and Wildlife.
We love living and visiting spots where we can enjoy the wildlife.
We are just hoping we don't run into any wandering Mountain Lions while we are in the remote canyons of the river!
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