Jun 24, 2022·edited Jun 24, 2022Liked by Mark Starlin
Loved your video! Sounds like a great family vacation. :) It was unexpected the time a hummingbird flew into our garage and stunned itself. It needed assistance to get going again but it was amazing to be up close before it flew away. Also watching a fox trot across 4 lanes of traffic right in front of me was a bit unexpected. Maybe not “gasp worthy” in either case but cool nonetheless.
I walked out onto my back deck a couple weeks ago and stood face to face with a bobcat, maybe 5-10 feet separating us. There are no rails on our deck because it’s close to the ground. It was almost dusk. We both froze and just stared at each other. It felt like forever...maybe thirty seconds? I finally took a small step back, so did he. Eventually he went down the hill and turned to face me again. He then lay down in a pounce/hunting position and continued staring at me. At that point I went back inside. 😅
I had a bobcat staring at me through the weeds. Could just see the eyes. I was next to my house so I was close to safety, just was surprised to see it out there. Only one I've ever seen to this day.
In 1962 my folks took us on a long trip around the west. En route to the Seattle World's Fair, we stopped for a day in Yellowstone. My Dad hadn't reserved a motel for the six of us. Who expected so many tourists in Yellowstone in June? We ended up driving for hours until we found a vacancy somewhere in Idaho. Exhausted, we all went straight to sleep.
The next morning I stepped onto the little porch of the cabin we were in. There, a few yards away stood a huge elk munching on some grass. It appeared to be much less shocked at my appearance than I was at its. It stared at me for a while and then sauntered off into the forest.
It was huge. Before that, I'd only seen mule deer which at most were half its size.
A few years ago, sitting in our four-season porch in back, Deb and I noticed a couple robins, a jay, and a little bird (sparrow?) being noisy on our backyard hillside. They seemed to be focused on one of the bushes. Or maybe what was under it, because a black snake wriggled out — about six feet long, eventually. The robins and jay swooped over it, and the snake hurried to the next bush. Despite screams and (I assume) dire avian threats, it stayed put. So the little bird landed on the ground about a yard from the snake’s bush, and proceeded to put on the world’s worst imitation of a wounded bird, fluttering with wing held out, occasionally shivering as if struck with fever. Didn’t work. The snake took off on the opposite direction, found cover in heavy shrubbery, and eventually the Neighborhood Watch (as we call them now) gave up and went elsewhere.
I, too, saw a bear. We were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for what we thought was the first (and would turn out to be the last) great college friend hangout. Everyone else was upstairs playing pool. I came downstairs and went out on the deck and there was a bear. They were bigger than the car they were sniffing. There was an electric wave of terror that washed over me, so I calmly went back inside and closed the door. There were tons of windows, so I could easily see the bear still, but was safe. I didn't feel safe, but knew I was. Then I got super excited and grabbed the Hi8, tried to get some decent footage of it, while sounding the bear alarm. But by the time everyone came down, the bear was walking back down the mountain. Never felt anything like it before or since.
I saw a snake in our office at work recently that caught me off guard. It wasn't that big, and didn't really scare me. But surprised me because I almost stepped on it and tit was the exact same color and pattern as the brown carpet so when it started to move I was shocked for sure.
Yes, I was out for a morning run near my home, but on a gravel back road that went through some woods. Through the underbrush I saw what I thought was a cow on the loose coming from a side road. It was actually a bear. I stopped on a dime as the bear crossed the road at a distance that was way too close for comfort (probably embarrassingly far away if anyone had measured 😂). He or she briefly turned to look in my direction and then disappeared into the trees on the other side. Glad I wasn’t wearing a heart monitor during THAT run!
When I lived in Washington, DC, I saw a fox outside our house. It was beautiful.
Loved your video! Sounds like a great family vacation. :) It was unexpected the time a hummingbird flew into our garage and stunned itself. It needed assistance to get going again but it was amazing to be up close before it flew away. Also watching a fox trot across 4 lanes of traffic right in front of me was a bit unexpected. Maybe not “gasp worthy” in either case but cool nonetheless.
I walked out onto my back deck a couple weeks ago and stood face to face with a bobcat, maybe 5-10 feet separating us. There are no rails on our deck because it’s close to the ground. It was almost dusk. We both froze and just stared at each other. It felt like forever...maybe thirty seconds? I finally took a small step back, so did he. Eventually he went down the hill and turned to face me again. He then lay down in a pounce/hunting position and continued staring at me. At that point I went back inside. 😅
I had a bobcat staring at me through the weeds. Could just see the eyes. I was next to my house so I was close to safety, just was surprised to see it out there. Only one I've ever seen to this day.
In 1962 my folks took us on a long trip around the west. En route to the Seattle World's Fair, we stopped for a day in Yellowstone. My Dad hadn't reserved a motel for the six of us. Who expected so many tourists in Yellowstone in June? We ended up driving for hours until we found a vacancy somewhere in Idaho. Exhausted, we all went straight to sleep.
The next morning I stepped onto the little porch of the cabin we were in. There, a few yards away stood a huge elk munching on some grass. It appeared to be much less shocked at my appearance than I was at its. It stared at me for a while and then sauntered off into the forest.
It was huge. Before that, I'd only seen mule deer which at most were half its size.
Never forgot it.
A few years ago, sitting in our four-season porch in back, Deb and I noticed a couple robins, a jay, and a little bird (sparrow?) being noisy on our backyard hillside. They seemed to be focused on one of the bushes. Or maybe what was under it, because a black snake wriggled out — about six feet long, eventually. The robins and jay swooped over it, and the snake hurried to the next bush. Despite screams and (I assume) dire avian threats, it stayed put. So the little bird landed on the ground about a yard from the snake’s bush, and proceeded to put on the world’s worst imitation of a wounded bird, fluttering with wing held out, occasionally shivering as if struck with fever. Didn’t work. The snake took off on the opposite direction, found cover in heavy shrubbery, and eventually the Neighborhood Watch (as we call them now) gave up and went elsewhere.
I, too, saw a bear. We were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for what we thought was the first (and would turn out to be the last) great college friend hangout. Everyone else was upstairs playing pool. I came downstairs and went out on the deck and there was a bear. They were bigger than the car they were sniffing. There was an electric wave of terror that washed over me, so I calmly went back inside and closed the door. There were tons of windows, so I could easily see the bear still, but was safe. I didn't feel safe, but knew I was. Then I got super excited and grabbed the Hi8, tried to get some decent footage of it, while sounding the bear alarm. But by the time everyone came down, the bear was walking back down the mountain. Never felt anything like it before or since.
I JUST saw a giant moose while hiking yesterday. It was 10 feet away (a litttttle too close of you ask me, but very majestic!)
I saw a snake in our office at work recently that caught me off guard. It wasn't that big, and didn't really scare me. But surprised me because I almost stepped on it and tit was the exact same color and pattern as the brown carpet so when it started to move I was shocked for sure.
Not a wild animal in particular, but a goat that smelled like the devil himself.
Yes, I was out for a morning run near my home, but on a gravel back road that went through some woods. Through the underbrush I saw what I thought was a cow on the loose coming from a side road. It was actually a bear. I stopped on a dime as the bear crossed the road at a distance that was way too close for comfort (probably embarrassingly far away if anyone had measured 😂). He or she briefly turned to look in my direction and then disappeared into the trees on the other side. Glad I wasn’t wearing a heart monitor during THAT run!