Other wildlife

[blueboar]

One of my fondest memories was many many years ago, was when I was doing species protection contract; was watching a pair of Hen Harriers sky dancing during their courtship displays.

Also another one was, when I was a volunteer on a nature reserve, we were clearing out the side of the main dyke, when we saw an otter slowly swimming along it. It got out of the water less than 50 meters way and started to preen itself, we then saw a very large pike basking on the surface, the otter then spotted it and chased it, eventually it caught up with it and proceeded to eat it.

Both were pretty amazing

 

[monynut]

l have had a few other encounters with nature over the years like on more than one occasion l have been calling foxes at nite and l have called in owls, l was once sitting in a highseat and a tawny owl landed on my rifle barrel don't know who was more surprised, also had kingfishers land on the rod when l have been coarse fishing and another time l was fishing and heard some rustling in the grass beside me and a weasel poked his head out looked at me and disappeared only to return a few seconds later carrying a mouse and proceeded to run over my boots and continued on his way, great times, great memories and the wonder of nature.

 

[griffshrek]

i have few memories and experiences that come to mind, i spent 1994-1997 backpacking around australia and south east asia 25mths in total.

1st/ whilst snorkling at a place called "rottnest island" off pearth/freemantel i came across a 6foot tiger shark slowly cruiseing just under the surface i came up from a 25 foot bottom snorkle and there it was right in front of me less than 6 foot away, it did not do anythig just kept cruiseing very slowly by . i spoke to locals who said it was sleeping ??? i can still see the very vivid mackrel like stripes down its side. that same evening sat on my own waiting for another fantastic sunset , i was sat on a rock edge feet in the sea and a "dogong/manatee" came right up to me and bumped my feet in the water. it put its head up looked me in the eye for a few seconds and then just sank back away out of sight.

2nd/ whilst at Cape Tribulation australia i was speer fishing wth a SA guy called oscar we were about 100m from shore fishing on some rockreef.
we had some fish and crayfish that we had caught and kept them attached to us by lines 10m long i had just surfaced with a crayfish i was face to face with oscar snorkles above water but masks below looking about the fish line had drifted right by us. the viz was 20-25m and out of the gloom came a huge bronze whaler shark steaming straight at us both ,it must have been 12-14 foot long .

the shark came straight at us and closed the gap in an instant i was thinking this is it im dead ,then hope it gets oscar first . when it truned 90 degrees a matter of two feet from us both and disapeared , the wash from its tail shook us like corks in the water. the swim back to shoar was the longest i have ever done. the shark had come not to us but the fish/crayfish attached to us .i know it sounds funny but the shark looked fantastic .

3rd / i travelled through south east asia on a 400cc trails bike. i would get up early 4am and try and make the most mileage i could, at this time it was safer and cooler to travel . anyway rideing through central malasia early one morning , not a care in the world, no one else about in the middle of a jungle i start to have a it of fun and wind the bike up , i come around a bend and low and behold the road is blocked by elephants jungle edge to edge. i run through my options dump bike (concrete rd im in shorts vest and flip flops) hit elephant (they are massive ) i locked on breaks and hoped for best. bike not slowing down enough and RTA with elephant is going to be 100% . just like that one of the elephants turned away and gave me just enough room to get through.
i stop bike and find a pile of local mad as hatters as i nearly hit their elephants. with big sorrys from me in broken malay i smoothed things over i later went with them to the river and gave the elephants a wash/bath , they do this every morning before they put them to work in the jungle. a fantastic experience

sorry if they were a bit long winded but i enjoyed reliving them as i wrote them down , hope you enjoy .....neil

 

[wadashot]

griffshrek,

Now that`s just bloody showing off
It`s okay, i`m only jealous, seriously, I wish I had done something like that, It sounds like you had a blast for 2 years mate, well done, and what an experience. oooohhh the memories.

wadashot

 

[buckup]

Griffshrek,
fantastic memories that will be with you forever. You reinforce my belief, that we should do as much and see as much as our wallets will allow. Better today than tomorow.
Great tales to tell the grand kids!
Mark

 

[mudman]

Two stalking related incidents, I was on my 'devoid of all deer' stalking ground and on rounding a slight bend saw a large bird sat in the branches of a larch barely 20 meters away. The bird was against the light and I could only see a rough shape, i was hoping it was a blackgrouse as i had never seen one before. I raised my binoculars to get a better look and for a second came eyeball to eyeball with the meanest, biggest, baddest Goshawk! With that it was off carrying the remains of a woodpigeon in its talons.

The other incident happened to my brother, we had just taken on the gameshooting on a small farm with plans to release pheasants for 'mini driven days' for ourselves and friends. He went early one summers morning to wait for a fox coming out of a plantation. He was fully camoflaged, including facemask and gloves, and was sat at the base of an old oak tree to wait for Mr Foxy. A Roebuck lept out of the plantation about 20 meters away and started to browse the wood edge. After a while the buck became aware of something at the the bottom of the tree and over a period of many minutes very slowly and very cautiously approched my motionless brother. It eventually got so close that it sniffed my brothers jacket sleeve, leaving a small damp patch where its nose had actually touched his arm. With that it lept straight backwards and fled back into the plantation barking continuously.

 

[buckup]

Hi Mudman,
reading your account of your brothers encounter with the roe buck reminded me of an incident that happened one hot June day. I had an Italian mate over, and was trying to get a roe buck for him. We stalked in the morning, saw several shot none. I had driven down directly after my daughters 18th birthday party. While he stood in one corner of a field shooting pigeons as they floated over a hedge, I stretched out at the opposite end of the field to catch forty winks. I woke after an hour or so, (with a burned face) and had a roe doe stood not six feet away from me. It was magical, neither one of us could believe what we were seeing. We seemed locked in each others gaze for what seemed like ages, but probably no more than a few seconds before she vanished. I never could have been that still if I were awake!
Mark.