Strangest, weirdest, coolest thing seen in the woods?

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Well, I'm in my mid 20's now and when I was little, as Art said, when summer time came, shoes left. I chased a rabbit down our driveway until I caught it. Wanted to keep it for a pet, but folks wouldn't let me.
Another time when I was about 16, while just driving the back-roads (as we say) my friend and I came across a doe and a fawn in the middle of the road. Of course, he stopped the truck and I jumped out and after the fawn I ran. It was easier to catch than I thought it would be. I proceeded to carry that fawn back to the truck thinking I would keep it for a pet. Not a smart idea. I didn't get halfway back to the truck when that doe starts "blowing" at me and charges. :what: .... I dropped that fawn and ran like heck back to the truck.
 
Does hearing count as well as seeing?

I don't know about strange, weird or cool, but I thought this was kind of funny.

In March of 2002 I was backpacking at Hawn St. Park in Missouri, and slept at campsite #2 which is right next to a creek. Although it's not generally necessary in MO, packing in other parts of the country have put me in the habit of "bear-bagging" my food. Because I didn't expect to see any bears, I only hung the bag about 5 feet high - out of the reach of little critters.

In the middle of the night I was startled awake by a lot of clattering and clunking downstream. While I was trying to reason out the noise, the source became clear when I heard a deer's hoofbeats making quick time toward the campsite (in the dark). Just as they reached the other edge of the campsite, where the bag was hung, they were interrupted by a muffled (THUMP), followed by a snort & confused grunt, and then the hoofs made double-time back the way they came.

I went back to sleep snickering. :D
 
Around sundown, sitting out on the deck of a boat moored in a creek about 1/2-mile in from the Chesapeake Bay. The creek is home to a large marina, and they were dredging to keep the channel open. The dredge crew had gone home for the day, and had left their work boat moored out in the creek.

An osprey comes flying by with a large snake (probably a bull snake) in its talons. As it crosses over the work boat the snake manages to work loose, falls on the boat, and manages to get into the cabin through a slightly open window. The osprey banged around the outside of the cabin for about 10 minutes trying to get at its dinner, with no success.

Work crew shows up the next morning, and we were watching. One guy opens the cabin door, starts to step inside, looks down and lets out a yell like you have never heard as he levitates backward. Never laughed harder in my life...
 
Not sure what you'd call this. maybe "Thing that makes you go hmmmm..."
During hunting season a few yrs back, while heading to my spot, a noticed another vehicle pull up. Four large - all 300+ - men get out , full orange. Even if the sun wasn't out, they glowed enough to light up the whole area. Anyways, off they go into the woods after some deer. Ok now...if these four large men each get a deer they'd been in a preddicament; they arrived in an Escort!:what:
 
1. Once saw 2 rattlesnakes...ummm....stuck together, you know?
Didn't think much about it at the time, but later learned that is a pretty rare sight. FYI, they will stay stuck together several hours after you bash their heads in.

2. Father, brother and I were moving cattle one evening. Got the pasture cleared and we were heading back to the trailer. WE saw a coyote chasing a rabbit. We stopped and watched him for a while and he seemed to be herding it more than chasing it. He finally ran the rabbit by
the other coyote which promptly jumped out and grabbed it.
Very impressive, I didn't know they worked in teams.

3. Once saw a young mountain lion run out in the road in front of my pickup ran in front of me for about a 100 yards then went back up the hill he came from.

4. Scariest. I had a calf die and drug it off in a cedar break next to a caliche hill. aA few days later I had another calf die and drug it to the same spot only to find the first one gone. I followed the drag marks to where whatever it was had left the carcass. The rib cage was cleaned as if by a very good bitcher with an extremely sharp knife. I looked around for prints and found none. After looking for a bit I finally found a cat track....a BIG cat track. (this was a 400# calf) I looked around a little more and started getting a bad feeling. I left plenty fast. Went back a couple of days later and the first calf was gone. Completely. Second calf was not bothered at all.
 
Smoke,
I'd lay dollars to donughts that BIG cat was a Jaguar. A large male has a track much larger than a Mt lion and there has been an substantial increase in Jaguar sightings in Tx, Nm, and Az in the last ten years.

Warner Glen a houndsmen from Nm treed and photographed a large male in southern Az 8 or 9 years ago. He did a real nice little book on it called fire in the eyes or some such.

You might find it interesting as it explains and pictures the difference between Cougar and Jaguar tracks.
 
I've read of coyotes working in pairs, to catch some supper. One report had it that two of them worked an antelope: The antelope ran in a circle with a roughly one-mile diameter. One coyote would chase for a while and the other would cut across the circle. They eventually wore the antelope down and killed it.

I once had a cottontail run past me, only a few feet away. About five feet behind him was a coyote. Neither one of them saw me. Wide open throttle, for sure! (The reason a rabbit is hard to catch is that he doesn't know where he's going next, either.)

H&H, in Bosque County, the odds are more likely it was a cougar, not a jaguar. That's northwest of Waco...

Oilman Clinton Manges, at his 120,000-acre ranch near Freer in south Texas, decided he wanted to start an elk herd there. (!) A female lion of no more than 100 pounds killed a 500-pound cow elk and dragged the carcass over a hundred yards into the brush...

:), Art
 
Art,
Yep, I didn't realize that it was that far north and east.

But you never know it may have been a Chuchacabra or La Yarona or even the Co-Co Drino.;)
 
Best : First time I saw an eagle...we call it the KingEagle I don`t know what you call it .

It was NO DOUBT it was one of them...it was quite high above ground though , but hoovering still , I guess he was looking for something :D , maybe he was looking at me :eek: :eek:

Cutest : My parents had rented a cabin near the Oslofjord
one summer and I was sitting in a chair on the porch reading a book .
There was a branch in the left corner of my eye and all of a sudden I saw it beaking downwards :confused: I slowly turned around and saw a squirrel that was looking into my eyes maybe 40 cm distance , it just stared at me for a little bit with the huge brown eyes then all of a sudden it ran away .

Stangest : Well NOT in the forest though , but nature related .
I was walking to school at around 7.30 am in the morning and I was walking in a side-street that doesn`t have much traffic .I walked in the middle of the street when heard the sounds of a horse coming upon me from behind .

The sound just stopped and I decided to turn around as I guessed the horse and the rider would pass me , so I turned around







And it was a HUGE FREAKING MOOSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

I was paralized and just froze....fortunatley the moose just looked at me and headed towards downtown after I moved .
He was of course shot later that day , poor moose must have been scared and deffinitly potentially dangerous to people so.........I think they gave the meat to some elder hospits or something :)
 
2 Strangest?
1. I saw a Black Panther in SE Alabama. He crossed the road right in front of me. It didnt seem to be in a hurry either. I had to slow down to a near stop for it to cross. I was likw ***!!
Others have seen it or them also. Rare in Bama. They are most common in FL.

2.I was Bream fishing a small creek with a nephew and what we thought was a log was a 8ft Alligator. Not common in SE Bama either. You should have seen us High Tail It out of there..:) But there have been more and more sightings by local fishermen,hunters. The Game Warden said to leave them alone.:eek:
 
turkey parade

Once during the early muzzleloading deer season in Kentucky, it became very windy (and noisy), so around 9:00 I decided to get up and scout around because I sure as heck couldn't hear anything . I walked out on a point scouting for sign and as I walked back I noticed something out of the corner of my eye . It was three turkey hens walking in a row parallel to me down in a bowl to my right and they were just enough ahead of me to not spot me. I just kept walking the same pace and they gradually veered up the ridge right in front of me! I sped up until I was so close that I could have touched the rear bird with the muzzle of my longrifle. We walked together in this bizarre spectacle for about 150 yards with me trying not to laugh out loud! I was grinning like a opossum the whole time. I would have given anything for a camera. Eventually they veered back down another hollow and never once saw or heard me!!

PS, for you nature children, they never once landed on my shoulder.
 
Years back, when my firstborn son was just a baby, my husband and I went camping over in eastern Oregon. We had an old canvas tent with a mostly-broken zipper that was such a pain to use that we rarely bothered.

One morning, I awoke before either my husband or baby son, and snuck out of the tent to enjoy the peace and quiet. I was lying in the hammock quietly watching one of the zillions of campground 'chipmunks' as it snuffled through our campsite looking for crumbs.

The little chipmunk nosed around under the picnic table for a few minutes, and then got interested in our tent.

Into the tent he went, tail and nose both twitching. I pondered Doing Something About It, but what was there to do? He'd come out as soon as he realized there was no food to be had in there. He couldn't do any harm, right?

Moments later, my husband awoke from a sound sleep to find a chipmunk perched a quarter-inch from his right eyeball. He let out a loud yell, and apparently he and the chipmunk chased each other around the tent at least four times before either one of them could find the door.

The tent looked like something out of a cartoon -- there were lumps and bulges poking out the sides of the tent, with an occasional body part visible through the screen windows. Meanwhile our son awoke and added to the general ruckus by setting up a howl so loud you could have heard it from orbit.

Finally the chipmunk made his escape, but not before my husband managed to bring the tent down on himself and our toddler (who was safely esconced in a portacrib).

I haven't laughed so hard in years.

pax
 
LMAO, that was funny.

This just in...One of my buddies lives up near Divide in a cabin with a private fishing pond. The neighbors big black Lab always comes over and plays in his pond or with his two shepards. Its kind of a wussie Lab and 'Dan' delights in sneaking up on the lab by the water and scaring him for the funny reactions of the dog.

Last weekend, dan sittin on his porch in the middle of the night enjoying some late night paint stripper (ok, he was drunk), and hears water splashin in the pond and looks over to see the black Lab nosing around the water. Dan quietly sneaks up on him like always, just looking for a laugh..reaches out with both hands and grabs him by the rump and goes WAHHH real loud...

Things get real lively all of a sudden when a medium sized black bear leaps up screaming in fright and tosses / knocks Dan in the pond.:what: His dogs are on top of the situation though and come off the porch to help, distracting the bear and treeing it long enough for Dan to climb out of the pond and gather his wits and dogs back together and call it a night. I'm still laughing.
 
The coolest thing I saw in the woods was my father shoot a rabbit running at full tilt (the rabbit , not my father) with a .22 rifle. Nice shot Dad.
 
Wow, old thread, but I will add my bit.

Used to go stay with the grandfather when he still had a farm in Cornwall. Went to count the bullocks with him in the morning, used to see badgers just snuffling about like we weren't there. There was a news story about a badger not far from where I live now, seems over the course of three days the same badger hospitalised four people.

Last year took my springer spaniel for a walk. Up trots a doberman and the two of them mess around for a bit. Suddenly they both disappear into a bush, there is a bit of barking and snarling and my dog comes out with a rabbit. He beat the doberman's ??? for it. Of course the rabbit was dead when they got there, it was missing its head and had been for some time.

This is England of course and we don't have quite the same exciting wildlife. Reasonably sure I saw a weasel once, long, low red flash shot in front of me. Too small for a fox or domestic cat. Really quick and secretive creatures.

On a stretch of canal near home I saw 5 herons and 2 kingfishers in about 200 metres.

Best for last though. While canal boating last Easter (love that pace of life) we saw three mallards drowning a third. Really vicious behaviour for such a benign looking animal. Later on a swan skimmed the top of the barge at high speed, landed in the water behind us and attacked the rear end of the boat for 20 minutes. Guess it had a nest nearby.
 
We were catching mud turtles out of the farm pond and not wanting to catch any of the BIG CAT FISH, we would leave the bate (blue gill) just out of the water, with a length of line and a milk jug. Everything was going fine; when one day this large bird (name withheld) fly's by the house with a milk jug dangling behind. The poor thing got tangled in an electric line and suffered terribly…until I shot it. :( :(

For the next several years the birds mate would be seen at the pond. We all feel terrible about this and have devised another way to catch turtles.
 
Not really the woods, as this happened at the edge of a lake in town today, but it made me laugh pretty hard nonetheless...

It's been cold enough recently that the water has started to freeze pretty well, but we've not had anything resembling real snow yet. As I looked out across the lake, I noticed that (A) just a few feet past the shoreline the ice was very smooth and clear, running out for quite some distance and (B) there was a flock of geese heading in pretty fast.

As I watched, a couple of geese dropped out and came down toward the water. The patch they were headed for was perfectly smooth and crystal clear. I'm sure they thought it would be a soft water landing. Instead, both geese hit the ice hard and skidded some distance until they stopped. The one slightly in the lead actually spun around a little more than 180 degrees before coming to rest.

It almost looked like they had little expressions, saying "What the heck was THAT??!!" The rest of the geese stayed up a little longer and came down on the other side of the road in a small lot and then started walking down towards the water.
 
Was deer hunting once and was coming out after dark and jumped a deer off the ridge I was coming down. The deer ran right into a car travelling on the road at the bottom of the hill. Finished walking down to the road and was getting a flashlight out to look for the deer (it didn't appear injured, and the car took off after hitting the deer) and came face to face with a "Kitty cat" Figured he'd been dumped out along the road, until I noticed that cat was black and white............the skunk followed me on the road for about 50 feet. I was thinking "Man have I got a story for the folks." Then a truck drove past me an stopped. I thought it was a buddy of mine heading home and looked in and said "Howdy" well it wasn't instead it was a local who had one too many himself and was skunked too. Needless to say on the drive home, I drove REAL slow.
 
Walking to my next class last week and I see a redtailed hawk standing on the ground about 2 feet away from the sidewalk, out in an open areas of campus. Bunch of big oaks and maybe 3 acres of grass crisscrossed with sidewalks.
Walk right up to it expecting it to fly off, or hop away if it was hurt.


It had one of the thousands of little gray tree rats that run around campus, in its mouth, tail hangin out. I could have touched it I was so close. It cocked its head sideways and looked at me a little while, then went back to eating and I went on to class :)
 
I was Grouse hunting in the snow in some rough Eastern Ky hills when I was a teenager. We worked our way up to a pine thicket and some snow fell off of a tree and went right down the back of my neck. I stepped under a pine tree out of the snow and bent as far over as I could to shake the snow out of my coat. When I looked down toward my feet I was looking face to beak with a very large Grouse. Directly after we locked eyes he decided to find a less crowded tree an flew up at Mach I. My first reaction was to shoot, so I grabbed my shotgun and flung it to my shoulder.....................but the barrels were pointing at me instead of the grouse!!! Of course my friends have never let me forget it. They said "don't kill yourself, it's only a grouse":D
 
May have posted this already - it's been a while, but figured I'd stick it in again if not ....

Hunting w/The Bud for pheasants along the Platte River area (Ft Morgan area SWA). See a pheasant flush & right behind him, a hawk.

The bird's doing twists & dives trying to throw off the hawk & finally just tosses into the snow, burying himself & losing the hawk. Hawk does the circle-bit, slreeching-thing & finally flies off.

The whole 3-second fly-by was incredible! The air-born twists & turns of the prey avoiding predator were unbelievable! not 10 yards away from us. No 'top gun" outfit film could have matched this aerial drill ....

Another time in the west-side Sangre de Cristos winter elk hunt, it was an absolutely beautifully clear-blue Colorado morning like nothing you'll ever see anywhere else & the minimal snow started to fall from no clouds at all. Mind you now, there were no clouds, no wind. Nothing but the most absolute, most blue, blue high.

If you've never seen it, I could never tell to you this color of sky.

Seriously.

One could watch a single snow flake from about a mile high, while tracking its entire movement to the ground.

I have never experienced such clarity in my life.

Kicked back & did nothing for at least an hour but watch one snow flake after another form & drop silently to earth through the vagarities of the non-existant winds.

A couple actually fell on & touched me.

Elk hunting? Ha! & forget it.

I got to watch, for a short while, something we would normally pass by as just "weather."
 
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