Awesome Backyard Wildlife: Share Your Stories!

We were driving at dusk one evening down a country road and hit an owl! He/she flew right across the road and hit our windshield quite hard--it was like slow motion. Very sad. I've never heard of an own getting hit by a car. Felt just terrible.

We don't have much where I live now (San Jose), but there is a nearby park where my dog & I sometimes encounter wildlife... mostly Coyotes, and recently a HUGE owl flew over my head and perched on the water tower for a minute. I snapped a photo, but iPhones in the dark don't accomplish much. I also have a cool sound recording of the Coyotes howling away, and will try to upload/post that later.

But when I lived up in Lake Tahoe, I had more than my share of wildlife experiences! Once I was getting out of my car, in the dark, when something ran past me and brushed my leg - thought it was a dog at first, but quickly realized it was a Coyote. Then there was the day my cats were sitting in the windowsill, and suddenly went flying across the room with their fur poofed out x5. I was like "what on earth scared them?" So I looked outside, and saw a gorgeous baby bear drinking from the birdbath. My neighbors and I walked outside to watch him for a while, but kept a safe distance - since (as every mountain-dweller knows) where there's a baby bear, there's usually a momma bear lurking nearby. :oops:

P.S. I did get a couple pics of that baby bear, but this was before the days of digital cameras... so I'd have to get it scanned to share here.