Rare Sightings

[Elkman]

I have been fortunate over the years to have been able to spend a fair amount of time in the out of doors. While doing so I have seen a few animals that are rare, or actually endangered. It is not uncommon for hunters in the NW to have seen Grizzly Bears or lions and such. But I saw a Wolverine in Idaho a few years ago and last saturday I saw another very rare animal. I was doing a morning hike (6 miles) in Joshua Tree National Park, I had just finished my 3 mile leg and had turned around and headed back to the trailhead, when I just about fell over a Desert Tortoise. He was not a big one (probably 6 +pounds), and was sunning himself right in the middle of the trail. I took a couple of pictures and then picked him up and moved him away from the trail, out of sight. Thought it was worth mentioning, anyone else have something unusual to share?????

 

[DrMike]

Hate to hear that, Bill. BLM will undoubtedly be out there shortly to shut down all hiking. :shock: They will want to build a wind farm or a solar farm there.

 

[dubyam]

I've seen a few interesting things. Got up close with a bobcat, had a grey squirrel get within 2' of me before he realized I was there, had a fox squirrel declare i was on his tree with my climber, about 2hrs into my hunt. I've seen various snakes both venomous and non-venomous - some close enough to be cool or concerning, depending on your perspective. I've seen two endangered or threatened species in the wild. An Eastern Apalachicola Lowlands King Snake about five feet long was stunning to see. And I've seen an endangered Gopher Tortoise walking along a sandy two-rut road in panhandle Florida. The King Snake is by rare, and the Gopher Tortoise is endangered.

 

[wildgene]

...cruising timber for a lot of years, I've ran into a few, wolverines, fishers, pine martins, lynx, & woodland caribou from the last small herd in the continental US...

...cougars, grizzly bears, & woofs, just because the vast majority have never been off the pavement & have never seen one doesn't make them "rare". Besides, they should be served "medium-medium well" like pork...

 

[truck driver]

I had an Apeleated Wood pecker land on my shoulder while bow hunting in a tree stand. Hunting deer a fox was chasing a rabbit and it found shelter between my feet and the fox walked up looked at the rabbit and then at me. I told the fox not today and he walked off after look up at me and then the rabbit. I've had a lot of interaction with wild life while in the woods most people will never experience.

 

[Guy Miner]

I think hunters are so much more in tune with the ways of wildlife than most other casual hikers...

Had a friend, a very experienced backpacker, tell me once "I don't know why you waste your time hunting in the Cascades, there's no game in these mountains." :shock: He'd been not only hiking, but spending a week at a time backpacking the Cascades for a couple of decades. We were on a backpacking trip when he mentioned that, so I opened his eyes for him.

We saw black bear, mule deer, elk, hoary marmots, and he had never seen them before. They'd been there all along. People just don't slow down, look, listen and see. He had seen the marmots.

Can't claim I've seen anything all that unusual. Desert tortoise were pretty common in the Southern California desert where the USMC made sure I spent plenty of time... Wonder how many of them we blew up in our live fire training, dropping artillery & 500 pound bombs freely?

Have been fortunate enough to see three or four cougars over the years. Had a blast playing hide and seek with a pine marten a few years ago. He was watching the elk hunter, and I quit hunting elk to watch the pine marten. Pretty funny. Cool little rascal.

Otters are fun to watch too. I've seen some kind of weasel critter along the river bank, I think they were wild mink?

Have been WAY TOO CLOSE, unexpectedly to grizzly. :shock: Armed with a fly rod and a Swiss Army Knife too. By golly I was ready for him. :roll:

Lots of cool critters out there. I enjoy seeing them. It's been fun seeing my wife develop her animal-finding skills. She loves hopping in the Jeep with me, grabbing a pair of binos and the spotting scope and seeing what wildlife we can find & watch.

Regards, Guy

 

[DrMike]

Your post stimulates the memories of my wife and her evolution into someone who can see animals. When we first moved to Jasper, I would point out various animals. In time, she would begin to exclaim, "Look! A big animal!" She made rapid progress, and in a matter of months, she would say things like, "Oooo, big brown animal!" After a few months more, she had progressed to the point of being able to say, "Oh, look! A moose!" or "There's an elk." She has become pretty good, sometimes spotting game before I see them, so long as she isn't driving. When she is driving, she may not see the policeman standing on the shoulder trying to flag her down. :shock:

 

[6mm Remington]

I've been blessed to see three grizzly bears in the wilds of Montana. All were in Glacier Park. I have seen grizzly bear tracks in several locations I have hunted though. That was almost as neat to me to just see the tracks.

I've seen a bobcat out and about and we had a wolverine run across the highway one night as we were heading to central Montana to hunt deer and antelope. The pine martins, mink, and other assorted weasels are pretty fun to see and watch do their thing.

I've seen a lot of elk in the wilds, but one of my favorite experiences was seeing elk out in the open sagebrush and grasslands out near Lewistown Montana where you are hunting deer and antelope. Back in their own favorite digs so to speak.

 

[sask boy]

I have seen numerous wolves along with a Lynx in the forest. But the rare thing I have seen is a cougar came to my bear stand. She came in from behind me crossed the cut sniffed around the bait and then left. It was really neat as she did not have a clue I was there or at least made me thing she didn't know :wink:.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[tim629]

mine isn't per say "rare" but my most memorable sighting while hunting would be when I was hunting a piece of woods maybe 100 yards wide between 2 fields, I was tucked up against the base of a tree hunting deer in PA when a red fox & her 2 offspring (kits?) came out of their den. I don't think they knew I was there watched the 2 young ones play on a log for a bit while the mother sat back and watched them (or watched for mice)

 

[Vince]

I don't know if you'd call them rare but the most unseen animal to my eye, in the desert southwest, has been the Gila Monster. They just aren't too common around here except in nature museums.

I've managed to see two of them but it took me about forty years or so to see the first one.

 

[baltz526]

I saw a weasel so rare the Biologist did not know what it was. Called this Bobcat in for some pictures

 

[Oldtrader3]

The most scarce animal that I have ever seen was a "Red Lobo" Mexican wolf in the White Mountains between California and Nevada. He was on the California side at 14,000 feet, headed for Nevada because he had seen me. They are "extinct" in CA, according to F&G, of course.

I have seen a grizzly in the Gray's River range in Wyoming. I saw an albino whitetail in New Jersey and of course pine martens, mink and weasels.

 

[big rifle man]

This sighting didn't take place in the woods but on and under the water off the central East coast of Florida where I live and Scuba dive/spearfish. I know most of the commercial fishermen and local divers and on three different occasions a great white has been observed swimming in our local waters. Both divers and fisherman have taken pictures (not too much you can do if your already in the water) and the pictures were published in our local newspaper. Hasn't stopped the local populace from staying out of the water.

 

[baltz526]

I saw a Wolverine on the east boundary of Crater Lake National Park. Caught it hunting Golden Mantles

 

[chrispbrown27]

I had an Apeleated Wood pecker land on my shoulder while bow hunting in a tree stand. Hunting deer a fox was chasing a rabbit and it found shelter between my feet and the fox walked up looked at the rabbit and then at me. I told the fox not today and he walked off after look up at me and then the rabbit. I've had a lot of interaction with wild life while in the woods most people will never experience.

This story reminded me of a hunting trip I took back in high school. Just outside of town there was a tract of land that my buddy and I hit up every afternoon from August til January for everything from deer to squirrel. One time I was out there alone with my Grandpa's old beagle. That beagle would run a rabbit like no ones business but if he saw a shotgun he went off on his own and hunted as far away from you as he could (interestingly he didn't mind if you shot the rabbit he was running but he just didn't like to see the gun). On this day I had brought the gun out of the case a bit early and he took off on me. I climbed up on an old tree stump (the "stumps" were stumps that had been pulled out of the ground, root ball and all, and left sitting so I was probably 6 ft off the ground) that sat on the edge of a ditch line that rabbits frequently passed through and enjoyed the warm December sun. Suddenly I hear something coming through the brush and here comes a rabbit running straight at the stump I was sitting on and shot underneath me into the root ball. As I sat there wondering why I hadn't thought to grab the shotgun, I looked up to see a redtail hawk coming straight at my face at a rather fast speed with talons outstretched. When I moved he realized his mistake and quickly turned. If I hadn't looked up he probably would have buried those talons into my head thinking I was just part of that stump! ha ha Nature never ceases to amaze me. The things I have seen while out hunting will forever be a part of who I am.

 

[DrMike]

Fascinating story, Chris. Always fun to see the reactions of wildlife.

 

[PJGunner]

THis was a few years back when I was still gainfully employed. I was at the range and it was hotter'n hell. I do remember that three days later we set a new all time record high of 117* so it was probably around 113 give or take a degree. I used to do some of my serious load work ups during the hottest part of summer but not so much these days. Getting smarter or just don't feel like putting up with that much heat. Take your choice. I'm at the bench shooting and waiting for the barrels to cool when my wife who was sitting in my truck said, "Look between your feet." with a rather scared look on her face. There were two Gila Monsters or possibly Mexican Beaded Lizards (I never could tell the difference) right between my two feet. Made me a bit nervous for a while but that was the only available shade. Finally one walked away and parked itself right against the front tire of my truck while the other was content to stay between my feet. Kind of a shaky truce for a while but after a while I guess we both decided we were not going to do each other harm. Kind of a very cool experience fone one very hot day.
I've seen a few Mountain Lions when I lived in Nevada. I did have to kill one as I firmly believe she had me down as dinner. To make a long story short, I was out scouting for deer and also looking for coyotes to see what shape the hides were in. Three times I looked at my back trail and she was close enough to make me feel uncomfortable. The third time she was about 25 yards away and crouhed as if to spring so I shot her. Game & Fish took her and I later learned that while she was perfectly healthy, her stomach held no contents that could be called food. The wierd thing was about three weeks earlier, in that same area a bow hunter had the same experience while hunting for deer. In that case, that cat also had an empty stomach. :?: :?: :?: Both cats were young females.
Paul B.

 

[nvbroncrider]

Here's one for you guys last summer about 20 yards from my reloading room.

 

[chrispbrown27]

I was fishing a small river up the road from where we lived at the time one day trolling along trying to catch some crappie. I was heading for a beaver hut, which was a pretty rare thing on this stretch of the river. As I approached I glanced at the hut and went back to fishing, but something seemed out of place. I looked back and there was a bobcat sitting on top of the hut just watching me. He watched me troll by and then swing back around. When I got closer for the second time his ears perked up and he just slowly walked off. That was the closest I had ever been to a live bobcat, roughly 20 yards.