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Please jump right in and share your wildlife sightings and stories with other dotCANTON readers.
Have you spotted a moose on the loose?
Seen a black bear and want to share a big BEWARE!!!
Bumped into a bodacious buck, about the size of a pickup truck?
Are the turkeys gobbling up space at the base of West Mountain Road?
Jeepers! Have you heard the creepers???
Just type in your name below (it certainly can be a nom de plume), fill in the e-mail address box (it will not be published), share away and then hit submit. You don’t have to reveal the specifics of your location — a neighborhood would be plenty if you wish (North Canton, Canton Center, Collinsville, etc.). Your first submission to dotCANTON will need the editor’s approval before being visible. Subsequent submissions will be visible immediately.
And thanks for sharing!
Send In Your Pics
dotCANTON.com readers are encouraged to send in photos they take of wildlife in town. Birds, bats, bees, bruins, butterflies and boll weevils are all eligible, as are deer, foxes, raccoons, mice, moose, etc.. When you have what you think is an interesting shot, e-mail the jpeg file to editor@dotCANTON.com and we’ll post it in a photo gallery right here on the “Wildlife” page.
You don’t have to reveal your real name, but it would be great if you did say when the photo was taken and give us a general idea, at least, of where it was taken. That way, we can write a caption — something like: Bear on the run off Barbourtown Road, near Hanson Road, at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 21 / Submitted by Wise Ol’ Owl.
The Spring Peepers have been peeping away in the Canton Center wetlands. Wood Frogs are busy on Meadow Road and the American Toads are co-mingling with the Perry cows on Barbourtown.
Predator Alert: Canton cats in peril
I own 8 cats and have always had a strict “indoor only” philosophy, with a couple of exceptions I was able to rationalize. One was a kitty who turned up years ago at my office building on Route 44 as a battered stray. He was exceptionally street savvy so I had no concerns about him with traffic. I also believed he was safe from predators since, in the 25 years I’ve owned my building, I’ve never seen any evidence of coyote, fox, bobcat or the like. And this kitty seemed miserable without his daily outdoor jaunt, which I limited to just a few hours in the middle of the day. I’m sorry to report that I let him out in the middle of September, around 2:00 in the afternoon, and never saw him again. I called for him at 5:00 in broad daylight but got no response. I found beaten down grass in the yard and a few tufts of fur. I now realize what I’ve known intellectually all along. There is no safe place outdoors for cats in our environment. Please consider converting any “outdoor” cats to indoors only so they don’t suffer the same heartbreaking fate as mine.
Quite a deer sighting on Spaulding Road about 8:30 Friday night. With my brights on, I pulled to a stop when I spotted a deer at the side of the road looking to cross. Then, one by one, two adult females crossed first, then two or three very young ones, followed by a buck with a decent-size rack, and then two more young ones. I never thought to turn off the brights, but they didn’t seem to mind, crossing about 30 feet in front of me quite casually.
Saturday evening Oct 23 spotted a strange white animal in the front yard. On closer examination (from inside) decided it must have been a large white skunk. Could I be right? Found some web pictures that show there is such a thing!
Black bear reported crossing Spaulding Road, not far from Indian Hill Road intersection at 3:35 9/20
This is my first time inputting into this site. However, I live on Lawton Rd and lately deer frequent my backyard now that the apple tree is dropping apples. The more notable sighting is the black bear was sauntering through my backyard towards the apple tree at 9:30 saturday the 14th. Kind of scary since I was out there earlier with my dog!
Bear sighting … 11:55 a.m. romping across Indian Hill Road, couple hundred feet above the West Mountain Road split … moving left to right if you’re heading down the mountain.
My husband surprised a red fox in our yard (East Hill Road) very close to our back door in the afternoon last Wednesday. The fox bolted into the woods pretty quickly.
Fledging Indigo Buntings finally made it out of the nest in my backyard and left the yard with their parents.
I do love the peepers! Haven’t heard them as much lately where we are, they were much louder earlier this year.
Are there other frogs that are loud at this time of year?
We did see the pair of hawks that come over our cul-de-sac at Trailsend Dr., and happily saw some bats a few nights ago!
lIZZIE,
A good portion of the sounds that you hear are probably the cute little green Tree Frogs!!
Love hearing those coyote sing…will have to look up Ratlum Mountain (unless we get a good map on here….
).
I’ve been curious lately about all the insects I hear when I walk our dogs late at night…or even just putting our daughter to bed, and she asks me what is what. Crickets I know, but everything else is such a mystery it’s amazing I never realized it before. Anyone out there know what’s singing in the evenings right now?
We have had more than our share of visitors this summer. Along with the foxes and deers, we have had a family of 20 turkeys and a huge “untagged” bear visiting us. My vegetable garden is non-existent this summer!
Saw a young red fox this morning in our backyard (Dyer Ave.).
Coyotes singing on Ratlum Mountain about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.