Oddest Wildlife encounter

[rat31465]

Heres a question I would like to pose to the members of this forum...

What is the oddest encounter you have ever had with Wildlife while out camping, fishing, hunting etc...?

Personally I have many but one of the oddest happened when I was 20 years old while squirrel hunting wearing full camo.
I was sitting under a dead tree at the edge of a field watching the tree line some 30 yards in front of me when a shadow on the ground caught my attention.
I looked up to see a Red Tailed Hawk diving directly at me. Startled as I was I jumped and started clawing my way to the ground.
The Hawk suddenly realizing that I was a little too big for it to handle started flapping his wings hard to manuvere away from me. I could feel the air movement as it finally started gaining altitude not more than 10 feet or so away from me and the ground. Needless to say I was very relieved not to have this big Raptor in my lap.

[SARKY]

My oddest was also with a hawk, I was driving up o our raining facilty in the Rangley Lakes region of Maine and ou of he dich on he side of he road comes this hawk. As I didn't think he was going to get enough altitude to clear my car i was easing into the oncomming lane. He didn't but I had moved over far enough so that I didn't hit it head on with the windshield, instead he/she wound up puting a butt imprint on he passenger side window, and pushed off with his/her claws scraping along the glass. No harm no fowl!

[Ken]

Seagull.

About 30 years ago, this guy was trolling on Buzzards Bay, and a gull swooped down on his bait. Hook got snagged in the gull's mouth.

The fisherman brought the gull on board, released the hook, and set the gull free.

Well, that gull just caught an air current, with his wings spread wide, and drifted up and backwards 'till it reached about 75 feet high. THEN, he "dive-bombed" at the fisherman's head. The guy held his hand up to protect his face, and the gull bit down on his cagina - (No, it's not a sex organ. ) - that web of skin between the thumb and the index finger, ripping a nice chunk of it away. Probably ate it, too.

The poor guy bled like crazy! I patched him up as he cursed about how he should have had his shotgun with him.

[snakeman]

I was once canoeing on my 7 acre lake and I was fishing in the middle when a something the size of a something between a grapefruit and a cantelope fell out of the sky not 5 feet in front of me. There was a big hawk or falcon ( I couldn't tell) at the same time.I still dont know what it dropped on me but my guess is a turtle. The will drop them on rocks to crack their shell. I might be way off, but atleast it missed me.

[mcfd45]

I was once canoeing on my 7 acre lake and I was fishing in the middle when a something the size of a something between a grapefruit and a cantelope fell out of the sky not 5 feet in front of me. There was a big hawk or falcon ( I couldn't tell) at the same time.I still dont know what it dropped on me but my guess is a turtle. The will drop them on rocks to crack their shell. I might be way off, but atleast it missed me.

A famous greek or roman died the same way. obviously you were a bit more lucky than he.

I was hunting rabbits when I came upon some squirrels fighting. I watched as they fought till one died. I then shot the other one and took them both home.

[trax]

Similar to what Sarky experienced. About 25 years ago, I had a sandhill crane fly up in front of my car and he got caught in the wind tunnel right in front of us. I was doing about 65 mph, had the whole family in the car It was pretty cool for about 30 seconds watching this huge pre-historic looking bird flapping those massive wings trying to break free. I realized that when the bird became too exhausted it was going to become part of the windshield in a spectacular fashion and I figured if I speed up, I'll hit it, if I slow down, the wind tunnel will suck it into the car, so I had the highway to myself I just snapped the wheel hard left and right and the crane shot up like a rocket. Poor old bird must have been putting everything it had into flapping those wings to get out of there.Sure was cool for the kids (well for Dad too....)

One time when I was about 12 years old I was out with my .22. I drew a bead on a rabbit and was just about to squeeze the trigger when I kind of sensed something. I looked up and a hawk was diving for the same rabbit. I thought to myself (being a kid) "I wonder if I can get both of them" By the time I thought it, the hawk was on his way back up with the rabbit in his talons. I was about 40 yards away and I could hear the rabbit's neck when the hawk nailed it.

[crashdive123]

I speared a five foot Ling Cod with a Hawaiian sling. The fish did not die (don't think it even phased it). He decided we should go on a ride together.

[chiye tanka]

About 4 months ago, a doe almost jumped in the bed of my truck on my way to a pow wow.
Yes, I have a witness>

[Rick]

I'm glad you posted that. I didn't think anyone would believe me either. I had one sail across the hood of the car without touching it. We were doing about 35 mph when the dang thing came out from beside a barn and bounded right over the hood. I'm sure he was in a lot better shape than I was when it was over. Scared the heck out of me!

[crashdive123]

I think there has been quite enough talk about deer and vehicles. Jeepers - are you guys trying to give Nell nightmares?

[Rick]

She just hunts funny. I'd use a gun or bow but you know those folks from Southern Indiana. They like to tenderize them at the same time they kill them.

[COWBOYSURVIVAL]

Try operating an electric trolling motor on a 12 ft. Jon Boat in 2 ft. of water filled with aligators at night! What do you do if you hit one? I hit atleast one and he hit back with his tail! time to go home don't you think?

[chiye tanka]

I'm glad you posted that. I didn't think anyone would believe me either. I had one sail across the hood of the car without touching it. We were doing about 35 mph when the dang thing came out from beside a barn and bounded right over the hood. I'm sure he was in a lot better shape than I was when it was over. Scared the heck out of me!

Yep. I was going about 40, if I had been any slower, she'd have landed in the bed.

[rat31465]

My Mother and Father lived in a Log Cabin with a sheet metal roof....In the ten years they were in that house they had turtles dropped on its roof a half a dozen times...

I also once had a Barred Owl dropped a half eaten rabbit on the hood of my car as I passed under a street light one night.

[laughingbeetle]

I don't know that it is odd, but I currently have a mother robin sitting her eggs right on the window ledge in the mudroom.

[Rick]

That would be in the "cool" category.

[DOGMAN]

I've had a few...

A Grizzly once stuck his head into the window of my tent, while my wife and I were asleep in there, my dog barked at it, the bear woofed back, the wife and I woke up and almost fainted. She screamed and the bear took off.

I had a family of river otters follow me in my kayak for over a mile once. They'd swim around me chattering. I rolled a couple of times, and when I popped upright they'd all start making this racket that sounded like laughter.

I once had a doe and fawn walk right under my tree stand and lay down and take a nap for about an hour.

I had a pack of wolves (the Chief Joseph pack) run parallel to me and my sled dogs for about 1/4 a mile. THey were across a clearing about 200 yards away standing in a group- when they spotted us they just started running in single file towards the nearest group of trees. We were running on a packed trail, they were breaking trail through 12 inches of fresh powder. We were running dead even! I was fearing we were going to have some encounter, but once we got to the trees, they split off and headed the opposite direction. My dogs never even looked over at them!

I've had some more, I'll post later. But these are my favorites

[Sarge47]

Today my wife, son, & I were driving down a 2-lane road when we saw about 8 or so Turkey Vultures fly up off of a dead deer carcass on the left shoulder.
All of a sudden 1 of them decided to fly back across the road forgetting I was almost on him/her until the last minute. Then it turned head on toward me, spread it's wings, & flew straight up & over the car! What a wing span! I thought for sure It was going to hit the windshield!

A few weeks back, I was standing on my porch when a wild rabbit came up into my yard and stood up on it's hind legs, sniffing at the air, not more than 6 feet away. I looked at it in disbelief & said: "Hey Bugs, how ya doin'?" pretty loudly, but it ignored me, trotted past, then stood up again; it looked like it was sniffin' the air.(?) Finally it move on, slowly, not acting scared at all. Just plain weird. I saw Monty Python's "Holy Grail" movie with the "attack rabbit".

[Born2Late]

We were visiting the Kruger Park the other day.Just as we were leaving the park a lioness ran across the road right in front of the vehicle.She was so close i could not see her over the hood.She ran up the bank next to the road,slipped in the mud and fell back into the road.You should have seen her face.She looked over her shoulder to make sure nobody saw her.You know the feeling.She then took a easier route up the bank.I did not know that animals could also be ashamed by their clumsiness.

[bulrush]

We had a patio that was a 2nd floor patio/deck with stairs going up to it. The stairs ended in a door leading inside the house, with a porch light. Well this big female raccoon climbed up the stairs one evening, and tried climbing up the siding to get to the porch light. She made it and we just filmed the whole thing, thinking no one would believe us. Some people think she was nesting, as it was spring (around late April, early May I think).

Another time in the spring, our back door patio door, below the patio, was covered with 1/2 inch frogs. About 20-30 of them. Weird. I think they were spring peepers or wood frogs.