Last night, about 6pm, my kids and I were driving the "back road" between East Point Washington and 395. As we came around the corner, about 100 feet ahead of us we saw a pair of eyes glowing from the car headlights. At first we thought it was a large racoon, but it didn't have the racoon "swagger". As we eased ahead, instead of running back into the woods, the creature started to scamper up a pine tree at the road's edge. We watched from about 30 feet away as the creature stopped about 15 feet above the ground and looked straight at us....it was clearly a young bobcat, probably 20-25 pounds in size. I wish that I had had time to get a photo, but our whole adventure was over in about 45 seconds.
I told my kids that the last (and only) time I saw a bobcat in the wild was when a few neighbor teens treed a grown bobcat in the woods across from our house and were trying to shake him out of the tree (not sure what they were thinking they'd do with him when the shook him loose) as me and a few other neighbor kids watched them in awe....such was life growing up in the boonies of South Florida. So, my girls understand what a rarity they were privileged to behold.
As I transited the same area 15 or so minutes later, I saw a fox crossing in nearly the exact same place as where we saw the bobcat. Isn't living in SOWAL unique?! The cool thing that I thought of is that where there is a young bobcat, there must be a mother bobcat....and a father bobcat.... At least now it makes sense that the local housecat population has dwindled. Better keep our eyes peeled!
I told my kids that the last (and only) time I saw a bobcat in the wild was when a few neighbor teens treed a grown bobcat in the woods across from our house and were trying to shake him out of the tree (not sure what they were thinking they'd do with him when the shook him loose) as me and a few other neighbor kids watched them in awe....such was life growing up in the boonies of South Florida. So, my girls understand what a rarity they were privileged to behold.
As I transited the same area 15 or so minutes later, I saw a fox crossing in nearly the exact same place as where we saw the bobcat. Isn't living in SOWAL unique?! The cool thing that I thought of is that where there is a young bobcat, there must be a mother bobcat....and a father bobcat.... At least now it makes sense that the local housecat population has dwindled. Better keep our eyes peeled!