If Audubon and the University of California can collect census through roadkills, then I can, too.
Recently, I covered over 6,000 miles of highway and back roads, traveling to and from Utah (twice) and then Maine and back. I saw a lot of wildlife, including mountain goats as I was crossing over Wolf Creek Pass.
Unfortunately, most of the mammals I saw were dead. As I joined the vehicular masses, I couldn’t help feeling that people come to view road kill with the same disconnection or compartmentalization as supermarket meat. “Those fleshy packages were once animals!” was what I wished highway billboards would say.
Of course, many animals adapt. I watched as a red tailed hawk dove straight down from a 80-foot-high street light to grab a mouse. It then ascended straight back up, too. Quite a feat.
Here’s the Special Cross Country Species Parade, 69 species.
Mammals:
Coyote
Mule Deer
A robin at dusk
White Tailed Deer
Cottontail Rabbit
Badger
Armadillo
Brush Mouse
Pocket Gopher
Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel
Rock Squirrel
Prairie Dog
Skunk
Raccoon
Woodchuck
Possum
Turkeys roosting WAY up in a pine tree. There are about eight in this photo.
Porcupine
Antelope
Elk
Chipmunk
Birds:
Brewer’s Blackbird
Black-headed Grosbeak
Bobolink
Dickcissel
Killdeer
Chipping Sparrow
Mute Swan
Cardinal
Say’s Phoebe
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Black headed grosbeak
Red-Naped Sapsucker
Nuthatch
House Sparrow
Red-Winged Black Bird
Purple Finch
Gadwall
Canada Goose
Mallard
Townsend’s Solitaire
Red Shafted Flicker
Steller’s Jay
Blue Jay
Black Capped Chickadee
American Crow
Common Raven
Scrub Jay
Magpie
Turkey
Great Blue Heron
Dark-Eyed Junco (and its many varieties)
Ringed Turtle Dove
Rock Dove
Meadowlark
Mountain Bluebird
Western Bluebird
American Kestrel
Turkey Vulture
Red-Tailed Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Small-eared Owl
Starling
American Robin
Great Horned Owl
Golden Eagle
Bald Eagle
Rufous Sided Towhee
Western Tanager
Audubon Warbler