Your Wildlife Encounters, Anything

I thourght it might be nice if we could talk about the wildlife encounters we have had, being as this is, a wildlife orientated forum.

My parents were once walking home and saw a family of fox cubs playing in the fields in the moonlight ^_^.
We were walking along a beach in Western Austrailia by the starlight and saw two dolphins playing right next to the beach... a truely magical moment... :).
I was going to open the alotment gate for Gareth to get his car out when a hedgehog walked into the middle of the road and froze at the sight of me, so I picked it up and put it in a bush on the side it seemed to want to be on.
My sister and I saved a sparrow from a wire it was caught in.

That sort of thing, only in more detail.

I go down to the local Boat Launch and capture some starfish to examine them. They're mainly Ochre stars, but I did manage to find a Red sunstar down at a local beach, washed up. That's pretty rare.

When I went down the boat launch last time, two very friendly seals showed up. I've been told they'll take the fish out of your hands. I tried to feed them a starfish but they didn't want it!

Walking to school one morning two years ago. Ahead a man and his dog stood stock still. I carried on, came level, and there was a great fox looking us right in the eye. I looked back. Calm as anything, it crossed the road and went down into the drive of a big house ( that one just before the turning into my old street on North Lane with the big walls around it Luke).

A few months later I was walking through a ginnel (that one near Luke's house) and another big fox walked straight out of a side ally, had a staring contest with me, then turned around and went back down the allyway.

I need to go fox spotting round here one morning.

Hmmmm. :/

I watched my parents rescue an Alligator Snapping Turtle on the road coming home from church! We had to put him in a tire and I had to keep my legs up unitl we got to the park! It was quite an intersting experience. We had to take him to the big pond because the little one had ducklings.

I went to the boat launch again today. Managed to capture ten stars with my friend's help and his nets. We set them free though after a while.
I also saw the seal again today. He came right up to me and I managed to touch his nose! He's extremely friendly, and I must say he was huge!

omg yeh and once i went 2 a forest and saw loads ov foxs and they were reli friendly and they all let me stroke them and took one home and its rly cute pics 2 come!

mi fox
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I see foxes often enough now, doesn't really thrill me anymore.

For me the more unusual the encounter the better. Like seeing Dolphins off the coast of dorset, southern England. Or seeing sea turtles on the North Wales coast.

Sea turtles off the coast of North Wales?! Awesome!!!

Oooo I love seeing basking sharks ^_^ That's so awesome ^_^

You know what I have never seen, but have always wanted to see? A pine marten O_O I caught a glimpse of what could have been one, once...But not good enough to say it actually was one.

I see loads of red squirrels and roe deer at work ^_^ It's lovely to see them ^_____^ And of course, loads of rabbits ^_^

I saw a weasel last year, in February and it was literally right on my doorstep ^___^ They are quick little critters, and they are so small! Omg! I was pretty chuffed with that!

I saved a swallow last year, that has bashed itself against the window, and was stunned, and my cat was about outside...so I picked up Mr Swallow carefully and let him fly off again from my hand...My goodness, those things fairly screech! They are awesome though...it's lovely to get close to wildlife ^_^

Hedgehogs, I haven't seen one in a while...but they are about ^_^ They visit my garden sometimes. There's a family of foxes that live not too far from where I live, and I see them from the bus quite a lot.

I've never seen a live wild badger, although I'd love to.

I see loads of hares! I love hares! They are so awesome! And omg birds! I love birds! I was so lucky to see one of the ospreys that are nesting on the estate near where I live...awww...beautiful birds! Plenty of buzzards and kestrels about too...OMG!! I have woodpeckers in my garden! I was so thrilled! They are one of my favourite birds! They are greater spotted woodpeckers! Gorgeous birds! And there was a Scottish crossbill in my garden earlier on this year too! Omg!

Encounters...hmm...well, I have encountered many geese recently...loads of greylags, Canada geese, Brent geese and many ducks...Saw a beautiful red squirrel today! They have that kind of blonde tip on their tails at the moment...ehehe, awesome. And I saw a stoat the other week too...it had a young rabbit, and it was desperately trying to drag the thing across the road...Poor stoat...He managed in the end though!

I've been seeing loads of seals lately too, off the coast of Aberdeen. They lounge around at the mouth of the River Don...ehe! Saw some dolphins about two months ago in the sea, off the coast of Aberdeen beach. And porpoises too! Ooooooooo and I went sea bird watching the other day...saw loads of puffins and cormerants (or shags mwaha...awesome birds...) And fulmars...Omg I love fulmars! They are so agile in the air! And I love the noise kittewakes make! Eheheh! I got attacked by an angry herring gull! YAY GO ME!!

I saw a field mouse the other day too! Awwww such cute little things...

OH!! I once rescued a family of field mice! My mother and father were shifting the old coal bunker and they disturbed a nest of field mice...and my mum went mental and was all set on killing them T_T So I came to their rescue and picked them all up, one by one (poor things were petrified) and put them in a slightly safer, covered over place...Because my parents weren't going to move back the coal bunker...so...They'd have been too exposed...My mum was going to kill them if I left them there...so I had to do something...

I rescued a beautiful moth last night too! He was lovely...Huge hawkmoth, he was...I love moths and butterflies...I'm always rescuing my family from bugs and insects and rodents and all sorts...because they are all so squeamish...they see a beetle and it's ARGH! OMG KILL IT T_T and I'm like...emmmm no *saves* I have no fear of bugs and things...The only thing I am weary around is a wasp O_O

I saved a moth today at work too! Just a little clothes moth. But he was going to get killed anyway, so I put him outside ^___^

I met a pigeon yesterday. He was awesome. And he sat on my lawn. He was a wood pigeon...And he was quite tame...Ooooo there are loads of collared doves about at the moment too...

...I love shield bugs!!! OMG!! There was one on the sage three weeks ago and I took a photo of him but I don't know what happened to that photo O_O I have a thing for beetles and bugs! Ladybirds and OMG BURNET MOTHS!!! OMG I LOVE THOSE GUYS!! I have loads of photos of burnet moths that I have taken! Omg I haven't uploaded them yet! Maybe I'll post a few in the post your wildlife pics thread!

Anyway, that's all I can think of right now, although I am sure that there is more! ^_^

OMG I HAVE WRITTEN SO MUCH! I MUST GET BACK TO STUDYING!!!!!

Sea turtles off the coast of North Wales?! Awesome!!!

Yup :)

Check this out...

Turtles

Do things have to be healthy to count as wildlife? Because I cant seem to go 2 months without either personally picking up a downed pigeon or being chucked a hedgehog with a cold...
I see loads of non-sick wildlife though-its really weird that that seems to be unusual. In England alone (and not always the countryside), Ive seen seals, dolphins, foxes, newts, mice, rats, voles, birds of prey, what Im sure was a red kite, deer *prattles on...* :D Have never seen a wild healthy badger though, or any weasels.

When we were builing the new pond, we'd filled it and everything and put all the fish and newts in from the pond at our old house, but we hadn't oput the white capping stones on. The next day when we came to do so, some of the newts had decieded that the holes in the bricks made nice homes, and we nearly trapped them in there! But we got them all out.

On a more exotic note, when I was wlking along a beach in Fiji all the rocks were covered in blue starfish and there were also black ones with spikes.

This post has been edited by The Roundhay Fox on Jul 24 2007, 10:55 PM

Unfortunatly my last experience with wildlife wasn't a pleasent one! I was driving back from work, turned a corner and a baby rabbit was sitting in the road. The car wasn't going to stop in time so I lined him up so he (or her!) would pass under the car but he jumped under the drivers side wheel. Poor rabbit, probably only been alive for a few days, I wonder if any other rabbits new it was missing and were out searching.

I just remembered one of my favorite wildlife encounters! A few years ago, before I started 4th grade, I was in Colorado with my grandparents (it was just me and them ^_^ ). My grandmother and I went on all these trips to places like The Garden of the Gods and the zoo and such and this is where it starts. We were in the car, and my grandmother went, "Katie, look!" and I looked out my window and a STAG had just gotten across the street and on the other side. I can't remember clearly but I think he was whitsh-grey. I do remember by the shape of his antlers and by the number of branches that he was a young buck...young buck! Lol! Geddit? Young buck?

Earlier today there were LOTS of birds in my back yard and a ton of fuzzy dragon catapillers crawling on the barbeque :D . Those things are all over the place! My mom and I also saved a baby gecko. Gosh that was a TINY thing...but not as tiny as the one I rescued from my great-aunt's house. That one was in the sink! My great uncle helped a bit.

I saw a hedgehog today it was in the middle of the path so I almost stood on it but the poor thing didn't look great as I came back it looked as if it could of kicked or hurt in someway as it wasn't moving much which is a shame.

Another hedgehog sighting! I came back from a nightout last night and found this happy critter in our garden ^_^ . After taking the pic I watched him amble up the grass and cross the road into the hedges, I've never seen one that close before - I was very impressed!

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Here's a once-in-a-lifetime experience! I was expecting a stream nearby my school to see if any work had been done on it (Unfortunately not), I stayed there for about ten minutes, and I was about to leave when I saw something moving in the tunnel. My eyes snapped over to the tunnel (Where the stream runs under the road), and a raccoon ambled out of it! It didn't notice me at first, but when it did, it started to creep towards me, curiously. Then the raccoon went back into the tunnel. It's the first time I've seen one up close!

Well, I've seen a few lovely fence lizards...one was on the tree. *sniff* But I still wanna see some prettyful snakies :( . (I found out today that Hawaii does have a snake! Just one...an 8-inch blind snake. There was a creepy up-close picture of it...looked like a magnified hair...its nostrols and tongue can only be seen when it is magnified! Found it in a June 2000 (!!!) National Geografics magazine at school).

The only wild snakes I've seen was a big old (GORGEOUS) rat snake my neighbor found. I hope she finds more snakies soon...probobly babies since August and September is the time that ickle baby snakies come out . :wub: .

WOW! A racoon, Foxfan! That's cool! My relatives in Ohio had a funny experience with raccoons. They live in an old house (it's horror in August and September because it's so hot...upstairs) and before the upstairs bathroom was closed off they found a baby coon in the tub and the mommy couldn't get it back :( . So my relatives called animal control to get the raccoons out of the house.

When I lived in California, I was taking something to the sink. There was something next to it and I SCREAMED...then I realized it was a youngish rat! We had a rat problem in the house but we never saw one outside of the wall! She eventually died...my brother was upset by that.

I was out for a walk yesterday when I saw this bird hovering near the edge of the cliffs before it swooped down to try and catch something, it did it two or three times, couldn't see what it was trying to get though! I can't find our book on birds so does anyone know what bird it is?

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Most likely it's a Golden Eagle. Where I live you can sometimes see Bald Eagles hovering in the sky. I have a little book on birds and that bird of prey that you have posted is almost definitely a Golden Eagle.

Thank-you for looking that up, I've never seen a bird with such concentration or sense of purpose!