share your fun wildlife sighting

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

When I lived in Port Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver) I used to see black bears every spring coming down to check out the bluberry farms in the area. No problem, except that my dog was interested in what that strange animal might be; good thing he was on the leash. He was interested in the coyotes too.

There was also a creek along the road a couple of blocks away, and my ex scared up a blue heron one morning on her way to work. It came out of the creek and flew directly over the windshield - the wings are big enough that they would have covered it completely.

A friend of mine lived on the riverbank up next to the watershed (it’s a closed area, since it’s part of Vancouver’s water supply). One morning she noticed her dog staring over the edge of her deck, and acting strange and nervous. She went to look, and thought to herself “What a funny colour for a cat!” The cat turned to look at her, and she suddenly realized it was about eight feet long …

42

That’s “blueberry”, dammit!

43

My parents live on the edge of a wildlife preserve, so there’s all kinds of animals around, but most of them don’t get too close. There was a fearless opossum, though, that would come up to their patio door almost every night looking for a handout!

A few weeks ago, hubby was in the yard with the kids and the front door was open. I looked out just as a pigeon hopped in. I shooed it back out, but we found it dead under a bush not too much later :frowning:

–tygre

44

Thanks everyone for sharing some great stories. My little roadrunner might seem pathetic in comparison, but I’m not going to disavow him. He’s a cool dude and well deserving of my respect. :slight_smile:

45

I will limit Myself to two short ones.

  1. Nice doggie…
    I was living in Yosemite National Park back in '83. I was walking back to my tent at dawn one autumn morning, taking the long way home to work off a particularly bad shift at work.

Head down I wandered through the forest until I notice a shadow to my immediate right. I looked up to see a coyote(!) who casually looked back at me with big, clear, bright eyes. He stood just over knee high at the shoulder and seemed to be very healthy.

I knew better than to try to run from a preditor, but my instinct was to get the holy hell out of there. I looked to the left, thinking I would just wander in the other direction, but there to my immediate left were five or six more coyotes! Like the first one, they were just hiking home, without a care in the world.

By then I figured that if they had wanted me for breakfast, I’d have already had teeth marks, so I relaxed. We walked together maybe 50 yards before they turned off and disappeared. I still get chills. Awesome!!

  1. Macho, Macho Man…
    I have camped in Europe and the US and I lived in Yosemite and Yellowstone, but now (5/1994) I was in Alaska and the “last frontier.” The place is HUGE! And as beautiful as anything I had seen. This was the REAL wilderness which could very easily kill a man if he were not careful.

I spent the first couple of nights on the beach of Reserection Bay, watching eagles fish. To save money and get out of the breeze near the water, I moved to a fern grove in the forest just out of town. (The day after I moved, the locals rangers killed a grizz on the beach not far from where I had slept.)

Several other tents were set up in this amazingly green patch, all at a distance which seemed to indicate that everyone wanted to stay to themselves. The ferns were three to four feet high and solid, so it took some effort to get through the grove unless one used the paths which snaked in various directions. I tramped out a “crop circle,” set up my trusty tent and made camp.

As dusk fell, I started a small fire, and cooked a steak on a stick, dusted a beer and at midnight, under the bright sun, I crawled into my bag to slept.

Very early in the morning, feeling completely rested and eager to start the day, I pulled on some britches in order to go outside to “water the plants.”

The sky was clear, the air was crisp and fresh and I was feeling full of vim and vigor. The forest always makes me feel strong, wiley and macho. I had danced with coyotes! I had slept on a sleeping volcano at 10,000 feet! I had ridden the Snake! (A river in Wyoming.) And now I was in Alaska, ready to chew it up and spit it out!!

So, there I stood, Python in hand, drowning this poor old tree and feeling like John Wayne on a good day, when, from the other side of a fallen tree maybe 20 yards straight ahead of me, a moose raised his massive head and antlers completely blocked out the sun.

My eyes got very wide and everything else…shrivelled.

Myself

46

We see quail (No not Dan) most of the year as well as wild turkeys, deer, elk, beavers and once in a while a porcupine. It is nice to live here in Washington.

47

First off: beatle, the way you told that condor story send shivers down my spine. I, too, love those scarce moments when you’re in the great outdoors, and something happens that makes you think you could suddenly be a couple of million years back in the past. Of course, fleeing an elephant in a Nissan Sentra is not part of that category :smiley:

Now, I’ll relate a story that happened to a friend of mine. It was inspired by the emu-on-the-loose story.

This friend of mine was visiting his parents in the rural east of the Netherlands. This is basically a very stereotypical part of the country: flat, wide open spaces with the occasional small village, farms, and lots of meadows and some woods.
He was driving his car through his native province, and was generally enjoying the ride through the wooded area. Being somewhat of a boy racer, he was cornering fast along the winding road. Untill, after one particular corner, he had to hit the breaks to avoid hitting a large animal.

Now, you’re thinking: a cow, of course. A horse, perhaps? Maybe some sheep?

No, sir. A CAMEL. In the Dutch countryside. It turns out that there was a retired farmer nearby that converted his farm to a shelter for retired circus animals. The camel was one of them, and had somehow broken through the fence and gone for a little strawl :smiley:

48

Dolphins, flying fish, porpoises, whales, sea snakes and on a near daily basis.

49

My hubby and I go places where there is wildlife all the time, but:

Most wildlife in one day:

2 Armadillos
2 Hawks
1 Gator
2 Snapping Turtles
1 Black snake
1 Water moccassin
3 Deer
2 Sandhill Cranes
2 Swans (not exactly wild)
Many squirrels
Quail

50

I got home the other day on a Friday to find a turtle trying to lay eggs in the dirt right beside the driveway. If I’d being going through, I would have run over him.

The land behind my house and most of the other homes on our street is now owned by a local park. We have owls that nest back there every year and we hear them talking to the throughout the spring to winter.

I was on the UNC campus waiting for a friend to finish her GED when I saw a hawk strike at a squirrel not 10 feet in front of me. He missed and glided to a nearby tree. When he realized that I had scared off his prey, he looked at me for 1/2 a minute and then flew off.

On a similar note, I had turned off of one street onto the one that my office was on. There is a deep ditch that runs into a large culvert beside the road. I caught a glimpse of something on my right out of the corner of my eye and when I looked to see what it was, there was this hawk gliding beside my car. We must have covered 2/10 of a mile side by side like that. Where is my camera when I most want it?

51

Most dangerous encounter was probably the rattlesnake that Mom killed on our back porch (house in New Mexico) when I was around 4 years old. Mom’s a tough lady. I’ve seen rattlesnakes in the area since then, but haven’t been even remotely close to them.

I can remember catching gila monsters and horny toads (horned lizards for you purists) almost routinely when I was young. Yes, they really can shoot blood out of their eyes.

Golden eagles occasionally build nests on the cliffs near my parents’ NM home.

Although I’ve never seen a mountain lion around the NM house, we have found tracks. The mountain lions are probably responsible for a good number of missing dogs and cats over the years.

The coyotes in that area are getting more and more bold, and getting closer and closer to the house; they’re a recognized pest, but not really dangerous to humans (although outdoor pets or poultry are at risk). A few years ago, in broad daylight, a coyote walked right up to the house and stood next to Mom’s strawberry patch. Dad ran out the front door with his rifle in order to avoid scaring it away before he could get a shot off. He hit and wounded it, but then had to dash back into the house because, in his haste, he’d only taken one bullet with him. Kinda funny to see ol’ Dad scramble…

Dad, incidentally, has taken to keeping unusual animals lately. He recently traded three peacocks (including an albino male) for an emu. Other animals kept over the years include thousands of chickens of various types, domestic turkeys, rabbits, goats, a horse, and a mule.

Because New Mexico is a free-range state, the parents often get cattle wandering onto their land when they (the cattle) get away from the herd. I can clearly recall one incident with a bull that wandered into our then-vacant horse corral. We moved an aluminum watering tub into the area where the gate (that had fallen off) should have been and began to fill it with water to keep the bull penned in. Being thirsty, the bull wandered over and tried to drink from the nearly-empty tub, which meant putting his head so deeply into it that he caught one of his horns on it. We were then treated to a confused bull with a watering tub on its head tossing and stomping around for a while.

Rarest animal seen in the wild: whooping crane. By sheer chance, a migrating group flew right over our house. They were flying so high that we needed binoculars to see them, but the whooping sound they made was loud and unmistakable.

Another benefit of New Mexico: the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque has a very well-funded and successful breeding program, which means that they get a lot of rare animals. There, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a baby elephant, bald eagles with a nest full of eaglets, komodo dragons, Andean condors, white tigers, and some other rare beasties that don’t spring immediately to mind. I know, it’s not in the wild, but the Rio Grande Zoo deserved to be mentioned for the good work they do.

52

A couple of months ago, we got up kind of early - small one was at a friends house - and looked out the window in the mudroom which looks into the back yard. We have a creek running through the very back, and a bunch of trees.

There were two of the most beautiful deer standing under the willow tree.

Then the dog went ballistic, they jumped over the creek and were gone. Turned out, they meandered down through some yards - my son comes home from the sleep over at his friends, and says “MOM!!! We saw some deer in Lenny’s backyard!!!”

Oh, also, several weeks ago, my SO is out in front puttering (or doing whatever it is he does when he’s hanging out in the front lawn) and swears to me (although I didn’t SEE it, I did hear the brakes screech and see the resultant chaos across the street) that a large deer ran kitty corner through our yard, up our driveway, and into the Jewel parking lot across from the house. He has NO idea how it avoided getting hit by a car (5 lanes right there). The people in the parking lot WERE freaking out - but I didn’t get to see it.

Benefits of living next to a huge forest preserve, I guess.

53

Just a few minutes ago, some sort of bird smacked right into my office window! Seriously! For a minute he just laid there on the ground, but now he’s sort of hobbling around.

Oh, and I saw a bunny in the parking lot earlier.

Either of these count? :slight_smile:

54

When I was a child in Alaska I was out on a boat fishing with my family and one of us caught a fish. Since it was not the kind we were fishing for we threw it over the side. The process of unhooking the fish must have killed it since it just floated on the surface. A few minutes later a bald eagle started flying in circles around the fish and finally flew down, grabbed the fish in its claws and flew away. it was very memorable.

55

My parents lived near a rock quarry (rural South Carolina). As the result of an accident that the driver of a truck carrying 20 tons of *“crusher run,” we had a big pile of stuff that my father used for years whenever he needed to fill in some rut.

One day, while we were outside getting a pickup load of crusher run to fill in some holes somewhere, we look out across the field and what do we see?

One. . .

No, two. . .

No, FIVE American Bison!

Very patiently walking our way, ignoring us, and eventually moving on.

Well, we knew where they had come from. There was a guy in the community (about 5 miles away) who raised them, and I had heard stories about how they were always getting out.

That was the first time I had seen it, though.

About 15 minutes later, we saw the owner driving slowly down our road. My father flagged him down, pointed, and said, “They went that-a-way.”

56

About 8th grade, we moved from the Nashville suburbs out to the boondocks of Tennessee. You’ve heard of Minnie Pearl. Well, Grinder’s Switch is in the same county, but our house was about 18 miles away from there, down a dirt road and next to a creek.

Early one morning, mom was taking some mail down to the mailbox. We heard her calling “Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty”. When she came back to the house we asked her what was going on. She explained that there was a nice black and white striped cat that walked by with three little babies following behind. We had to explain that wasn’t a cat, but a skunk. She told us it was OK, the skunk wasn’t afraid, it even turned its back to her!

57

My sophomore year at college and one day I decided to walk from campus to the public library. I was out of books to read and desperately needed to correct the situation.
As I’m walking past the old historical cemetary I see something on this bit of hill between the sidewalk and the fence. The “something” turned out to be a very large hawk just standing there watching me. He was about two feet tall and had a fist full of light grey feathers.
Oh, shit. I’ve interrupted his lunch! Nice birdy, good birdy. Go back to your bit of pigeon. I don’t want your lunch. I’m just minding my own business…
He watched me intently as I edged closer to the road so as not to disturb him any further. I was a little surprised that he just let me walk on by without even fussing at me.

In hindsight, I wished I’d stayed around a little longer to admire him. He was a beautiful bird, all brown and black feathers and such bright eyes. Back then though, I didn’t want him to think I had any interest in his pigeon.

chrisbar