If you go out and walk around in a moderately rural area, chances are good that you are walking right past an abundance of wild life. Chances are also pretty good that you dont see ANY of it, save for a couple hundred rabbits and the occasional ground squirrel.
The reason for this is simple, people are loud, not in tune with their surroundings, and in a hurry. After hiking for years in SLO where wildlife abounds I have learned to be keenly aware of my surroundings when I hike and as a result I see a fair amount of wildlife. Add to that the fact that I often hiked (and still do today) in mountain lion country and you begin to develop an awareness. On my hikes both here and in SLO I have seen wild turkeys, quail, roadrunners, the elusive jack rabbit which are few and far between, coyotees, foxes, bobcats, raccoons, deer, wild pigs, a mountain lion, one seemingly wild goat, rattlesnakes, gopher garder and king snakes, skinks, monitor lizards, tarantulas (I saw one tonight on my walk scurry into a hole and was able to coax it out by giving it a small twig to attack, very cool), hawks, owls, a bald eagle, ospreys, vultures and even a couple of ravens.
The most surprising thing is that of the larger animals, I have seen almost all of them with my dog in tow. My dog, mind you, is always bounding ahead, tags jingling, panting heavily with his nose to the ground....seeking. I would think that most animals would scurry off and hide at the site of a large canine steaming their way, but it is quite the opposite. Duke finds coyotees, bobcats and foxes, deer and raccoons and convinces them to stick around long enough for me to see. One bobcat threatened to fight duke for the dinner he was eating when duke sniffed him out. A pack of coyotees followed a very nervous duke back to me. Several deer came bounding out of the brush towards me with duke in hot pursuit. And I have lost track of the number of raccoons he has managed to chase up a tree or kill.
Sometimes it goes a little differently, and D in all his cluelessness goes running right past something. In these cases I think i spot them because after he passes they make a break for better cover and I end up catching a glimpse of them on the move. A few weeks ago the big dog ran right past a 6' rattlesnake that was plopped right in the middle of a trail (thank god!) and I came along in time to have to stand at a distance while it rattled its way threateningly off of the path.
Occasionally I will loose the big dog for a while, and on more than one occasion he has come back bloodied but happy.Once he returned proudly carrying an overweight ground squirrel as a trophy. I have chased the dog around a field for 20 minutes while he chased a horse and I have beaten him off of a 2000lb bull he was trying to drag it to the ground by its nose. I have been backpacking and had D get up, walk slowly to the edge of the firelight with the fur standing up on his back, head down, and growl for over a minute before pacing several times and returning to his spot by the fire. To this day I am not sure if it was a bear or a chipmunk that rattled the big dog. What I do know is that I have heard him growl scarcely a half dozen times in 6 years. My mom will tell you about having to scrape two halves of an opossum into the trash can after it was caught in the open by the big dog (or possibly the little dog and then followed up by the big dog as the little dog has a knack for pulling opossums out of trees and bushes, especially if he is wearing the cone of shame).
So if you ever have a need to experience some wild life, get yourself a hound dog, teach it a whistle command or two, and take the lease off. I promise that you will be surprised with the result every single time. I can't, however, promise you'll be happy with it.
