What is your most memorable wildlife sighting?

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rottingjohnny

Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
Feb 7, 2019 - 08:25pm PT
Paddling on the north - east side of crowley lake i drifted towards a small herd of deer watering by a alcove...There was a sage hen by the shore and one of the deer lowered its' head and nudged the sage hen , in what seemed like a playful manner , up the hill..
Chewybacca

Trad climber
Kelly Morgan, Whitefish MT
Feb 7, 2019 - 10:36pm PT
Great thread!

As a lover of wildlife I enjoyed all the stories, thanks for sharing them.

As I've aged I find myself climbing less and watching wildlife more. Photographing wildlife has helped fill the void that non-climbing has created in my life. It is very challenging and I often fail, just like my climbing career.

I mostly photo things like birds, moose, bighorn, mt goats, and bears. But occasionally I get something supercool. Last week I was X/C skiing in the NW corner of Glacier NP when I spotted a momma Canada Lynx with 4 kittens. A very rare encounter for me. I figured she would split the scene while I was pulling my camera out of my pack. Instead she came closer and closer. I had packed my 150-600mm zoom and started shooting at around 75 meters. Eventually she walked within 10 meters of me, I was in heaven. The kittens mostly stayed in the doghair (small close spaced trees) so I didn't get many shots of them. But mom was pretty much posing for me. Here are a few shots of her.











donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 8, 2019 - 03:07am PT
Great shots of the Lynx!
tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Feb 8, 2019 - 03:24am PT
WOW!

Isa and I saw a very small falcon???? snag a bird from her front yard last sat.. happened so fast. a puff of feathers and then it flew away with the little songbird in its talons.
cornel

climber
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Feb 8, 2019 - 06:34am PT
Hey Cliff, Yes indeed, There are a number of animals that can climb Blank overhanging slabs of rock. Rats especially, I’ve even seen a Pine Martin Dyno lunge up a 15 section of overhanging rock on Tioga rd one winter.. about 2ft a lunge. Way impressive.. But not in the case I mentioned. There were at least 10 or 12 frogs visible (probably more hidden) in that 3 foot long 1 inch overhung crack about 40 feet off the deck. So how probable is it that that number of frogs would all hop up that blank section of El cap and jam themselves in this tiny crack? Extremely improbable, so just like the frog you saw on Half Dome isn’t more likely that they washed down through the formation.?
Willoughby

Social climber
Truckee, CA
Feb 8, 2019 - 06:42am PT
Hard to say, as I've had a lot of them. Some quite intimate, like mother bears lying on their back nursing their young.

Getting screamed at, point blank, by a silverback Lowland Gorilla surely ranks up there.

Got to see lots of White Sharks up close and personal when I worked on the Farallones for five seasons, and a few of the really big females hit my primal monkey brain with a terror that's hard to explain. I got that same sensation once accidentally getting way to close to a particularly gigantic bear in the Carson Range at Tahoe. With no hyperbole, I felt it must've been 500-600 lbs.

Watching this Orca swim around with a dead White Shark in its mouth was certainly memorable


After the shark was thoroughly incapacitated, the Orca ripped open its belly and out popped a ~ 6-foot liver. I tried and tried to gaff a piece for biopsy, but it was like trying to gaff cottage cheese. So I simply reached in and grabbed a handful to stuff in a whirl-pak. My hand reeked of fish oil for a week!
10b4me

Social climber
Lida Junction
Feb 8, 2019 - 07:57am PT
Haven't really seen anything too memorable. I guess the closest would be Pronghorn Antelope, in the Mojave Desert.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 8, 2019 - 08:00am PT
Wow, Chewy! Maybe the best lynx shots evah! You using a Sigma?


Tradman, given your locale I’m going with Sharp-shinned.
Fritz

Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
Feb 8, 2019 - 08:15am PT
James! Beautiful lynx photos. I appreciate being there with the correct tools was not an accident.

However, I must report that your friendly lynx was sizing you up & figuring out if she could take you.

Sorry, but you didn't make her menu choices list.
little Z

Trad climber
un cafetal en Naranjo
Feb 8, 2019 - 11:37am PT
I was surprised when this critter came walking out of the bush and crossed the road in front of me about 15 ft away. I think he (no doubt about the sex) was making a statement

Ocelote, or Manigordo here in Costa Rica (look how big his front paws are when compared to the rear ones)
TWP

Trad climber
Mancos, CO & Bend, OR
Feb 8, 2019 - 12:48pm PT
Most memorable?

No, most improbable!

"Mouse from Merced" saw the same crazy Moose in Idaho (see post upthread at
Jan 4, 2019 - 05:33pm PT) that I saw in Baltistan!

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 8, 2019 - 06:04pm PT
del, I assumed that! 😝


tradmanclimbs

Ice climber
Pomfert VT
Feb 8, 2019 - 07:51pm PT
Reiley. I am In northern VT. The falcon was so fast and very white with black wings? very small the seize of a very large bluejay??? or medium woodpecker???
originalpmac

Mountain climber
Timbers of Fennario
Feb 9, 2019 - 12:33am PT
"Eye bound feces" That's some, uhh, funny sh!t.

I knew an old hillbilly that was legally blind from getting raccoon sh!t in his eye when cleaning a shed. Couldn't have a license so he drove a tractor around. Virginia is a strange place.

Great lynx shots. Saw one on Red Mountain Pass years back.
perswig

climber
Feb 9, 2019 - 03:28am PT
Trad, at that size I'd wonder about a female kestrel; the one's around here seem to have a predominant brown/black trailing wing edge. Every year or two we get a pair who stay nearby and hunt the fields and river behind the house.

Chewy's beautiful shots reminded me of a canoe trip with my father down the Aroostook years ago. Although late fall, it had been a pretty rainy week and the river was high and moving; for some reason we got a false-dawn start one morning and just after setting out we caught a blurry left-to-right movement through the surface fog. Assuming a deer (too low to be a moose), we didn't expend too much energy in getting closer, but as we came even to her landing spot, we were startled to see a lynx slink silently from the water, give us a quick once-over and disappear into the brush. Having seen several bobcats since then, this girl was clearly not that.

Dale
john hansen

climber
Feb 9, 2019 - 06:33am PT
Trad man, how about a Northern Shrike?
steve s

Trad climber
eldo
Feb 9, 2019 - 07:32am PT
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Feb 9, 2019 - 08:58am PT
Virginia is a strange place.

Give them a little credit; they're celebrating Blackface History Month.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Feb 9, 2019 - 10:11am PT
A Shrike fits the B&W description but could one fly off with a songbird?
A Sharpie in certain lighting could appear B&W.
john hansen

climber
Feb 9, 2019 - 10:19am PT

From Wiki,


Feeding

Northern shrikes often sit on tall poles and branches surveying for food. They prey on arthropods such as spiders, beetles, bugs, and grasshoppers, and small vertebrates. Prey identified include passerine birds such as horned lark, black-capped chickadee, common starling, brewer's sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, dark-eyed junco, pine siskin, house sparrow, small mammals such as the vagrant shrew, western harvest mouse, deer mouse, long-tailed vole, meadow vole and house mouse, and reptiles such as spiny lizards. They have been observed hunting finches and house sparrows at bird feeders.[5]
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