riding a bike...

Motorcycle riders call cars "cages," and for good reason. Sealed off from the world, in your own little environment you disconnect from the real environment -- the one creatures inhabit. You can see a lot if you park your car and just get out in the grass for a moment.

For example on my mountain bike ride today I stopped several times to enjoy these critters:

One huge banana slug
Two ducks
Two bees drinking from the mud
Three deer cresting a hill
Way more than four pollywog
and about a billion mosquitoes (ok, only half a billion)