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Watching wildlife
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johnsonbob
 
 
2014-04-23, 09:40

I've recently come back from a scuba diving course in the Bahamas and had a great time watching the underwater life there. I'll try and get some photos up.
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drewprops
Space Pirate
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2014-04-23, 10:13

Holy shit. I feel like I need to get drunk now after reading THAT!!!!!


!!!
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-04-23, 21:24

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
LOL The story Windy is referring to...


Seriously, thanks for taking the time to tell that story. Holy.. freakin'... hell !!! I had forgotten more than I realized.

It's hard to believe it really happened and that it's not a work of fiction. I wish we could get an audio clip of that blood-curdling scream and insert it into your story at the right spot. sheesh!

I wonder if anyone else on this board has ever undergone the kind of primal fear you experienced... that of being the *prey* of a determined and ravenous predator. Oh, God! *shiver*

Your story needs to be perpetually *stuck* at the end of this thread, because anything posted *after* it will always be anti-climactic. Know what I mean?

Brad, is there any way to 'stick' Kickaha's story so that it would always be the *last* post in this thread, even while the thread is still active? Just wondering.
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Kickaha
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2014-04-23, 21:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by Windswept View Post
I wonder if anyone else on this board has ever undergone the kind of primal fear you experienced... that of being the *prey* of a determined and ravenous predator. Oh, God! *shiver*
*pfft* Like you haven't been in a frat bar...



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billybobsky
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Inner Swabia. If you have to ask twice, don't.
 
2014-04-24, 04:58

I was stuck at a river crossing in Costa Rica once for a few hours where bull sharks and crocodiles regularly kill people who cross (4-10/year) while a 6' crocodile was swimming where I needed to be and daylight was fading to dusk in a jungle with higher apex creatures... But really that is a story of the 16 km beach hike with full gear and tides that did not cooperate.

On the opposite end of the scale:
Soon after hurricane Hugo, while schools were still closed and my hometown was under National Guard protection, I was chased by a screaming squirrel while I was on a bike. Terrifying, loud, angry screeching followed me for a 100', and I was limited in speed due to the downed branches on the street; eventually my bike slipped out from underneath me and as the squirrel leapt in the air to jump on me, it was taken out by a neighborhood cat (an orange blur that removed the squirrel from my sight). So not a predator exactly (they're omnivores), but for 9 yo me, it was pretty terrifying.

But then again, where I grew up wasn't exactly a safe haven. You would be walking down the street and poisonous snakes would rush out from the underbrush. A water moccasin tried to take out my father's car like it would any other prey, by an airborne attack from above. I walked up to a lake once and another water snake was just staring at me from below the surface. We had alligators sun on our back yard, which if you looked closely during the summer was pulsing with small black scorpions. Walking in the water along the beach would often involve brushing against either nurse sharks or tiger sharks, it involves stopping, swallowing nervously, and moving on. My father loves to tell a story about us sailing along the intercoastal waterway when I was quite small, 4 or 5. We stopped at a small island, and he and I went on shore and walked around for a while; it's hard to explain to people not from the region, but you have to imagine a sand pathway cut in between scrub brush surrounded by marsh (that was the island). At some point my dad picked me up, and was walking slowly back down the path. I evidently insisted that we move faster. Three or four adult alligators had emerged from scrub brush and were following us. But that was life where I grew up. Estuaries are great, if sometimes dangerous places to live.
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Kickaha
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2014-04-24, 11:13

bbob, are you another Carolinas native?
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billybobsky
BANNED
I am worthless beyond hope.
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Inner Swabia. If you have to ask twice, don't.
 
2014-04-24, 11:30

Yup. SC...
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Kickaha
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2014-04-24, 12:21

Yeah, when I moved to NC from WA, I was struck by the way that Nature downsized the evil into concentrated form. Up this way, we have big toothy critters with fur, most of which have reputations worse than their reality.

Down there, every damned thing off your back porch is trying to kill, maim, poison, or bite you, and they're all small and sneaky little buggers. :P
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Windswept
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-04-24, 19:26

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnsonbob View Post
I've recently come back from a scuba diving course in the Bahamas and had a great time watching the underwater life there. I'll try and get some photos up.
By the way, welcome to AppleNova, Bob.

Thanks for posting. We're looking forward to seeing your photos.
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Windswept
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-04-27, 17:54

I used to drive to the Oregon coast every summer and rent a beach cottage for three weeks. At one cottage, I would open all the windows, and then open the entry door too, to get cross-currents of fresh air. One evening, I had grilled a steak, had eaten it, and then had thrown the leftover bone into the trash container under the kitchen sink with the cabinet door firmly closed.

I then was sitting across the room watching the tv news, when through the open door came a small female raccoon with clear evidence that she had been nursing some babies. That she would track down that steak bone and fearlessly enter an occupied house showed me just how hungry she was, undoubtedly because she was ravenous from feeding three or four little raccoons. That she was so small herself let me believe that she was inexperienced and probably a first-time mother.

I found out later that she had probably had her babies in the house next door that was under renovation. She may have had them in a hidden place under the house before the construction started. She couldn't leave her 'den' during the day, because the workers brought two large dogs to the site with them. When the carpenter crew left at 4:00 or 5:00pm, she was able to forage for food and get water to drink from a small man-made pond on one of the properties. I wasn't going to go buy her crayfish from the market, but I did buy a bag of premium-quality dry catfood that I thought would give her enough nutrition to support her little ones and tide her over while she found whatever natural food source she normally came across in the area. I named her "Sweetie." Raccoon babies are so incredibly cute. I never saw her babies though, and I hope they all made it okay.

Baby raccoon eating cherries


Last edited by Windswept : 2014-04-30 at 18:38.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-04-28, 21:41

My parents' house was/is in a master-planned community with vast expanses of grass, with trees and parks and lakes. No residential yards were fenced in, so the greenbelt surrounding all the homes was completely like parkland. That water was abundantly available attracted a variety of wildlife.

A coyote would lie in the shade of trees in the grassy common area out my parents' sliding glass doors, and he looked so blissful and relaxed to have such a comfortable cool spot to stretch out in. When he wasn't around, rabbits would chase each other around the trees, and leap high into the air in play. I was amazed to see them having such a joyous time together, and 'joy' was the only way it could be described.

(My dad was trimming a lantana bush next to the front porch when he discovered some newly-born baby rabbits in a nest under the bush. Unfortunately, the mother rabbit moved the little ones after her nest was disturbed, and I doubt that she found a better place for them with no time to prepare.)

The sprinklers would come on every day at 4:00pm, and sure enough, a huge (great horned?) owl would wait in the grass for the water to come spraying out over him. He held his wings spread out and had his beak open as he panted to cool off. He too seemed in total bliss to feel the sprinkler water cooling him down.

In spring, as we watched through the wall of glass, we'd see quail parents with 7-8 little ball-of-fluff chicks pecking in the grass for tasty morsels. The chicks had these little stick-like legs with a body of fluff the size of a walnut, and they were so tiny that getting through the blades of grass was like hacking through a jungle. I loved that both parents stayed with the chicks, and those babies certainly needed the protection that two parents could provide.

Back to that owl, when various other birds had nests in nearby trees with young in them, the birds would dive-bomb that owl as he sat in the grass. They would come swooping down through the air and smack the owl on the head with their feet as they flew past. Eventually, he would retaliate and go chasing them through the trees. They wanted him out of the area to keep their young safe from him. I think the birds were grackles, or something like that.

My brother's cat was lying in the grass in the front yard one night when a coyote saw him and gave chase. My brother had inherited the cat from a lady who'd had the cat's front paws declawed, so it was hard for him to escape through the grass without the traction of front claws. The coyote caught him and sank his teeth in on either side of the cat's spine. But the cat freed himself, probably by tearing into the coyote with his back claws. After escaping, the cat stayed in the house and hid under the bed for three days without coming out. Poor thing. It was pretty awful. The daytime coyote hadn't been seen for over a year, but maybe this was a different one altogether that only came around at night.

There was a program on PBS the other night about a man who went out into the wilderness to live, and would stay for hours on end in a place where mule deer visited. The mule deer eventually got used to him and didn't consider him a threat after months and months of his presence. So one day, the female head of the herd came over to him and let him pat her. It was amazing to watch, since these were completely wild deer who were used to fleeing from even the distant sight of humans. The deer actually began to consider him as one of them, in a way, and would groom him as they groomed each other. It was such a great program and fit perfectly into the "encountering wildlife" aspect of this thread. I hope others get a chance to watch the show.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-04-29, 21:35

When out driving on the surface streets during rush hour one morning, I stopped in the middle of the road to let a mother duck and her seven or eight little ducklings cross from one side of the four-lane street to the other. This part of the landscape happened to have vacant land on both sides of the road for about the length of a city block, and this mother duck needed to get to a water source on the opposite side of the road.

I was so glad that over the course of about four or five minutes, all the cars coming from both directions stopped to let this mom and her babies make it across... probably about 10-12 cars at least. It was great, especially because I was sure that most of the people were in a hurry to get to work and didn't have time to sit in traffic as we all did that morning. No one honked or tried to rush things. I think everyone thought it was such a sweet scene, with a kind of natural innocence unfolding before us, these fragile little life forms at the mercy of massive metal machines.



And finally, I think I posted this next story at AI, when I was a new member there (but I'm not really sure). My husband and I were driving from the States down through Mexico and into Guatemala over the course of a six-week trip. When we were at a ruin in southern Mexico called Palenque, we were sitting in the jungle with our camping stove, boiling water to make some kind of noodle meal from a packet, when along came a guy from Switzerland who made a fire in a grill area. He cooked some scrambled eggs and put tomatoes and bananas in them, all of which he'd bought from a lady in a fruit stand alongside the road. He said he was glad to have protein for that meal, because he had been eating off the land as he backpacked through Mexico, and he didn't always get enough protein. He told us that he had learned to consume beetle type bugs to add protein into his diet. He said that he wouldn't kill the bugs, but he'd swallow them like a pill with a big gulp of water to wash them down. Then he added that of course he'd pull the legs off before he swallowed the bugs. I asked why he'd pull the legs off, and he said so the bugs wouldn't be able to crawl back up his throat.

After I posted this story, I started seeing it here and there around the internet over the next months, posted by all kinds of people who didn't know where the story came from but who posted it as if it were their own. At least, that's how it seemed to me. Of course, my husband and I were the actual people that this incident 'happened to.' I was just amazed how others seemed to claim it as their own. It 'was' a good story though. But still...

One last thing about the Swiss guy, if I remember correctly, I think he was travelling with a baby ocelot. Intensely cute, sweet and playful as a kitten, but I bet he released it in the jungle as it got older.

Last edited by Windswept : 2014-05-10 at 17:35.
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Windswept
On Pacific time
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Moderator's Pub
 
2014-05-15, 21:40

More backyard stuff...

I happened to look out the sliding glass door that is one wall of my bedroom. My very large white and fluffy Samoyed lay on the patio in the shade, stretched out on the cool concrete.

Next to her, out of her view, was a little mouse, colored dark sable, with her tiny size and dark color making a huge contrast with the mammoth fluffy whiteness of my dog.

The mouse took in the continent of whiteness before her and didn't know what to do or where to go. A mouse of that color was clearly not from the western U.S., so she must have hitched a cross-country ride in the packing boxes of my new next-door neighbors who had just moved in within the recent week from back east.

I had to leave and couldn't keep watching, but the sight of these two such different creatures made an imprint in my memory.

On that same patio, a few months later, I saw a hummingbird swooping underneath a lawn chair repeatedly, and then flying off somewhere. Back and forth, over and over again. I soon realized that the hummingbird was using the silk from a spider web under the chair to help build the tiny nest she was constructing in a nearby bush. It never occurred to me that an abandoned spider web might be used for such a great reason.

In another part of the yard, one day while I was reading, I watched a hummingbird mother bringing food to her two babies. They were old enough to be out of the nest and were sitting on twigs near each other in a single bush. The mother would bring food and the babies would fight over it, so she finally separated them to opposite sides of that same bush. I was amazed to see these baby hummingbirds being disciplined by their mother just a few feet from where I sat.
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Wrao
Yarp
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Road Warrior
 
2014-05-16, 04:06

A couple of nights ago I went for a hike with a friend who is not a hiker(let alone a night hiker). It was a dead silent night, the type that in retrospect probably should have clued me in to 'something' being amiss. We hiked for only about 10 minutes before hearing a sound. At first I thought the sound might be a vehicle of some kind, we were fairly deep in the canyons(there's a trailhead and road out there but it's remote) and sound can push itself in weird ways. But when we heard it again it was obvious it wasn't a vehicle. It was a large cat that was purr/growling. Okay, so we didn't actually see the thing. My friend freaked out and demanded we turn around at once. I wanted to investigate a little more, but I felt responsible for my friend and respected their request. So we about-faced carefully, checking over shoulder vigilantly to be sure we weren't followed/stalked.

Upon returning home and doing some additional research I am 100% convinced we heard a large cat. That means either Bobcat or Mountain Lion. Statistically and habitually, bobcat is much more likely. Mountain Lions don't tend to share space and at least in my area there are probably only a dozen of them in a 200 mile radius. What's more, the forest service tracks most of them and they rarely ever hang out near trails(though they will stumble in and around people's backyards on occasion). Adding to the bobcat theory, I returned to the spot we heard the noise a couple days later and investigated carefully for tracks, scat, scratches, tufts of fur or any other indication of what it might have been. Found evidence of coyote, insects, snakes, dogs, rodents and humans in the immediate area. One pile of scat looked kind of like bobcat scat but it was hard to tell. However, up the trail a bit I did definitely find bobcat droppings strewn about. Even further up trail(about 3 miles from where we were + 500 yards off trail) I found another pile of large cat droppings that might have been Mountain Lion, as they were a bit larger and also located near a big rocky cliff system that I would have to imagine a Mountain Lion loves hanging out in.

So, that's my story. It was exciting because it's so rare to encounter either. Even if I didn't actually see or interact with the thing directly, in so many years of hiking this is maybe the third time I've ever had a near-encounter like this.

--

I would never consider myself a "tracker". I have taken a couple of seminars and read a couple of books and spent a lot of time outdoors but there's still plenty I do not know. Still, I do try to apply that perspective when I go out. It's a fun and rewarding activity and I highly recommend it to anyone at all interested in hiking or the outdoors. It never ceases to amaze me just how many *things* you can and will find if you just take a moment to crouch down and pay attention to the detail of the surroundings. For one simple example. While I was investigating for bobcat/ML evidence I found the dried out desiccated husk of what looked like a bee just sitting on a branch tucked away on the side of the trail. Such a tiny little 'thing' to find but just right there, how many hundreds if not thousands of hikers have passed it by completely unaware. That's a cool feeling to figure something out or find something hidden, even if it is just an insect carapace on a stick.
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Kickaha
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Join Date: May 2004
 
2014-05-16, 14:18

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wrao View Post
Mountain Lions don't tend to share space and at least in my area there are probably only a dozen of them in a 200 mile radius.
We've got plenty.

http://www.livescience.com/13595-rar...ht-camera.html

The day I closed on my house, I watched a bobcat go bouncing across the backyard. Had a couple more go through, once when we were out *in* the yard. It didn't care we were there at all.
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drewprops
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
 
2018-02-19, 22:37

I came back here just to read this story to someone.

Good old AppleNova!!!

<3


...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
LOL The story Windy is referring to was when I was a senior in high school. I decided to go cross country skiing in the backwoods around Cashmere, WA, and went hella up Mission Creek. Threw the skis in the back of my '76 Jeep Cherokee, and went for it.

At some point on this beautifully blue skied cold crisp day, I realized that I was laying down the only tire tracks this road had seen in... a long time. Certainly since the last few snowfalls. Decided it was a good time to turn around.

The road was a single narrow lane, with a steep cliff upwards on the south slope, and a steep cliff down to the creek bed on the north. I finally found a little turnout and backed into it.

At which point the roadbed dropped away, and I hit the gas to keep my momentum a bit through the 2' deep snow, which was my downfall. The rear left tire went up and over a big assed rock, big enough to wedge against the lower frame and leave my wheel hanging on the wrong side of a piece of granite. I was high centered.

The other three wheels weren't enough to get me out, with just the snow to grab onto, even in full on Jeep 4WD goodness. I strapped on my skis, and started the several mile jaunt back down the canyon to a friend's house, where I could use the phone and call some buddies to come rescue my butt with shovels, boards, and such.

I'm actually enjoying the beautiful winter day, skiing slowly down the canyon, when I hear something in the utter stillness, up on the cliff above me. It's about 35-40' up, but I *swear* I hear something. I shake my head, and move on.

I hear it again.

And again.

And again.

It's a soft rustling, but it's getting louder, like it's getting less concerned that I can hear it.

At the next rustle, I snap my head up, and see a tawny head yank back.

Fuck. It's a fucking cougar.

Of all the animals in the wilderness, I fear the cougar. Wolf? No problem, leave them alone. Coyote? Scared little buggers, will scatter at the first noise from you. Bear? Not a worry unless you run across cubs.

But a fucking *cougar*? They will attack a full grown adult for food, plain and simple. And here I am, miles from the nearest other human, unarmed except for a pair of ski poles, and that goddamned cat is much better suited to snow than I am.

Alright, fine. It's up there, I'm down here. It's a long long drop, so I'm not worried it's going to jump down. I'm fine, unless...

Well, shit. In about a mile, the cliff drops down to within about 6' of the road. Motherpusbucket. I'm cat food.

I started out slowly, then *gradually* increased my speed. A sharp burst of speed would be more likely to trigger a predator leap, so I ever so slowly went faster, stride by stride.

At a half mile, I was going a good clip, and now the thing isn't caring if I hear it or not. It's crashing through the brush, keeping up with me.

I go faster.

At a quarter mile to go, I'm going *very* quickly, hoping like hell I don't catch a ski tip on an errant rut or something and go down. The cliff is still 30' up, but I don't trust that I can get my speed back up before I hit the critical zone.

Eighth of a mile left, and I am concentrating on every stride, every breath, every pole plant, and that fucker is now flat out sprinting to keep up, running along the cliff face in full view, utterly unconcerned that I can see it.

Right.

There.

Behind.

Me.

100 yds, and I am *FLYING*, full out speed, going full tilt boogie, because the cliff is starting to dip, and I am now a bit ahead of the beast, and mean to keep it that way.

50 yds.

20 yds. It's 20' above me.

I can hear its *paws* at this point, pounding the snow, over my own labored breathing.

10 yds. 15'.

5 yds. 10'.

And just as I hit the nadir of the cliff, just as it is right behind my fucking head...

The goddamned thing *SCREAMED*.

I don't know if you have ever heard a cougar scream, but imagine that at full frustrated volume literally 10' behind your head. Not the short screech of it being in heat, but a long, extended SCREAM of utter anger and murderous intent.

I found that I had a whole other gear I could kick into, and holy shit did I kick into it. I never looked back, I never slowed, I never stopped pumping arms, legs, and lungs.

I went about another mile before I slowed down, shaking. No cat in sight.

I made it down to my friend's house, called my buddies, who came up laughing that I'd gotten stuck. When I told them about the cougar, they didn't believe me.

On the drive up, I pointed out where the cliff dipped down, and we got out to look. Much laughter, until... one of my buddies found a print.

Then another. And another.

The thing followed me a good 100yds, also going full out by the stride, until it finally slowed, came to a stop, and slowly slunk down into the creek to look for other game.

"Jesus fuck, dude..."

We went up, got my Jeep unstuck, and I went home.

But to this day, I cannot hear or even think of a cougar scream without every hair on my neck and arms standing at attention.
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