Stop the uploading! We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post to report a special and rare sighting.
After I wrote my 2,000 words this morning, I got up to do a lap around the room. I made my usual stops, first at the east window, then at a south window, and finally at the west window. It was just getting light.
At the last stop, I noticed movement amongst the aspen trees. Gasp!
“Mike! Mike!” I whispered. I guess it’s instinctive to be quiet around wildlife. He was still in bed in the loft. He didn’t hear me. “Mike! Mike!” I tried again, only kinda sorta whispering, and bouncing on my toes with excitement.
“What?” Mike asks, instantly alert from my tone.
“It’s a lynx!”
Mike moved quickly; the lynx moved slowly. Mike got to see it, too, as it wended its way up the hill out back.
After several seconds of stunned gawking, we scrambled to take a picture, each with our own camera. I snapped one picture:
Ahem.
When the sun came up, I went out and shot this on the driveway:
That’s it. That’s all there is besides the memory.
The snowshoe hare population around here is high right now, cycling up and down about every seven years. The lynx population follows the hare’s because hares are their primary prey. It makes sense that there are more lynx around right now; it’s just very rare that we see them. In twenty years up here, I’ve seen about half-a-dozen lynx, and you know I’m looking.
My favorite lynx sighting: We caught up to one that was swimming across the Kenai River. Got very close to it with our boat. Heard it breathing heavily. We watched it climb out on the other side, shake off, and disappear into the trees.
So exciting to see one here at home!
Categories: Alaska
Cool! I have a single sighting to my name. But to be honest, I’m not sure if we saw a lynx or a bobcat. Is it easy to discern when the animal in question is running as fast as it can away from you?
We were in the Outer Banks of NC, traveling the rural road between Duck and Corolla at night. I saw what appeared to be a very large cat in the brush alongside the car. Knowing that it wasn’t a cat cat, I tried to get a little closer to see what it was. Of course, I startled the poor creature, causing it to flea. I tried to keep up, wanting to get a better look. I think I saw the animal for a total of 10 seconds. None of the early morning hush that you enjoyed…my observation was a bit of a frenzy.
Ooops. Flee. It may have had fleas, too, but that’s beside the point.
I looked up some wild cat info and NC cat info.
There’s been a lot of debate about how to classify bobcats, but currently it seems they are classified as a lynx. I did not know that.
It’s frustrating to not be able to positively identify an animal, but any wild cat sighting is darn cool. They are so rare.