The above picture is a barred owl, photographed by my dad from their living room window in West Bath. This owl has been frequenting the trees above their bird feeders, most likely hoping to snag a rodent stopping by to feed on the seed.
For our first week, I'd like for you to share a personal wildlife experience you've had. Have you ever had an owl visit in your backyard? Chased a fisher away from your pet cat? Watched a moose swim by your camp up north? Seen seals off the beach down at Popham? Think about a time where you saw something that really interested or excited you and share it with the group. Describe the setting- give the who, what, where, and when, and why it was so memorable for you. Write in a way that we can relive that experience with you.
One summer when I was in college, I went backpacking in Canada with a group of friends from home. We spent a couple of nights in a provincial park and the rest of the time at a cabin my best friend's parents have had for years (about 4 hours north of Toronto). One night, we went to a wolf howl in the provincial park, where the rangers & wolf biologists, after giving their wolf talk, led everyone out to a location not far from where they suspected the pack was at that time. Then they howled. It was amazing to be among hundreds of people and no one made a sound! After a short pause, we heard wolves calling back- and b/c it was August, we heard the yips of young pups. It was so exciting! We were all still beside ourselves with excitement, even after we got back to our friend's cabin (about a 45 min. drive from the park). The cabin is at the end of a long, dirt road, neighbors are a ways off, and there are no cabins on the other side of the lake. Remote would be an understatement! Well, a couple of the guys in the group said they were going to go outside and howl for wolves, to which we all had a good laugh. But out they went, onto the deck, and Jason let out his best howl into the dark, Canadian night. There was a brief pause and then suddenly, we heard wolves howling from behind us and from across the lake. The rest of the group came running out of the cabin, and it was the most enthusiastic and yet silent celebration! I still get chills thinking about it nearly 15 years later!
ReplyDeleteWell, five of six years ago my family as well as Jake's went out west. My family went to visit my aunt and uncle who live in Montana. My Uncle Ron was going to take us on an awesome four wheel drive trip to go see a ghost town, it was going to be so epic. So we're driving down this old dirt road on our way to the intense off-road that will lead us to the ghost town was. Soon we see three bears run across the road. They were cinnamon bears, one big one and two babies. They were so cute! So after we see the bears run across the road we drive a little further. My Uncle suddenly stops the car. He says that he sees a rattle snake outside. So we back up a bit and sure enough there is a rattle snake sitting in the sun right outside the car. After a minute of sitting there Uncle Ron gets out of the car. Now we're all super excited, maybe he'll poke it with a stick and make it rattle! Even better, he kicks it with his boot! The snake rattles and even takes a snap at him! It was so cool I'll never forget it.
ReplyDeleteI live in the woods and we have lots of random animals that tend to come up on our lawn during the different seasons. One that always sticks out in my mind is the porcupine. One night I was letting my dog out and out comes this pointy thing that I could barley see because it was night time. My dog starting freaking out and ran towards it. I grabbed his leash before he got to it and got him inside. We flashed the flashlight at him and the porcupine ran away. When we thought it was safe we let the dog out again and a few minutes later the dog comes running to the down with a chin full of needles...He had meant a new friend. The next few days we didn't see the porcupine again but then we found him sitting in a tree, which is where they spend a lot of their time. We hunted that thing and shot him with an arrow... We didn't need another 200 dollar vet bill. Its not like I wanted it to die, I love animals but it just needed to go.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, during winter break, my family and I went up to our camp near Carrabasset Valley. Our goal for vacation was to enjoy the beauty of winter and ski as much as possible. We intended to go to all the nearby ski resorts and both cross-country and downhill ski. In the middle of the week, we drove about thirty minutes up to Rangelely, to cross-country ski on their trails. It was a perfect day for skiing. The sky was clear blue, the trails were groomed to perfection, with soft powder lining the outside. I couldn’t have asked for a better day.
ReplyDeleteThat day I knew I wanted a workout, with lot’s of climbs and hills to race down. I chose one of the most challenging trails Rangeley had to offer. The trail averaged 12 kilometers, which converts to roughly 7.5 miles. I remember finally making it up a hill that I had been climbing for what it felt like hours. I was thoroughly exhausted, and excited to begin my retreat down the hill. The hill was steep, and had many curves. This made it all the more fun for me, and I made sure to stay in the tracks. The longer I descended down the hill, the more momentum I gained. Soon I turned around a corner sharply, expecting to continue my descent. Instead, I arrived face to face with a female moose! Both of us were extremely startled, but stared at each other for a substantial amount of time. Finally, afraid I would make her feel threatened, I started skiing back up the hill, to look for my parents. After a while, I found my mom, and told her of my experience. We skied down again, this time a little more cautiously, to find my new friend. Sure enough, the female moose was still on the trail, walking right in the center. We followed her for about a half hour, observing her in her own habitat. It was so amazing to see such a beautiful creature in the wild. I had never before seen a moose up close, and I was very glad I got that opportunity.
one time, i was watching a movie, and i lived near varnum, but i heard my dogs start barking out back, and of course they are lap dogs so they are annoying anyways, but when i heard them barking, i thought that they needed to come in, so i went, looked out back and they were barking at a fisher, i thought that they were going to die, so i grabbed my pocket knife, run out back and the fisher ran off into a swampy area in back of my house, i didnt want to lose my little pups, they mean so much to me, but then another time, when i still lived there, i was letting my dogs out, and then i thought i saw something moving in that same swampy area, so i started looking back there, i didnt see anything for a couple minutes, then i saw a buck head pop up, then a doe head and then i saw three little baby deer jumping around in the swamp behind them, i thought that was soooo cool, i had never seen a live deer b4, and the first time i do, it was a whole family of them!!!! it was great :)
ReplyDeleteLast year, I went with my mom and some other family on a vacation to Wyoming. We stayed at a ranch out in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. Every morning, there would be a trail ride scheduled. One day, it was a six hour ride and I had just gone on a six hour ride the day before, so I stayed behind with my grandma and cousins. Later in the day, we decided to take a little off-road vehicle for a ride. We didn't see much until after lunch. We drove down one long dusty road and started getting lost. A rancher and his dog drove by us in a truck and we stopped him for directions. He pointed us down an even more deserted looking road. We drove down that for about a half an hour and we came over a hill into a very pretty valley. We could see the people who had left with the rancher for the trail ride in the distance and decided to try and catch up with them. I looked off to my right and saw a small herd of pronghorn antelope. They looked up and ran across the road in front of us. We thought we had scared them, but then a coyote ran across the road after them. The antelope and coyote disappeared and I looked back at the line of trail horses we were heading for. They were surrounded by what looked like a herd of wild horses. Later on, when I talked to my mom, she said that it was some guy's horses that got loose. One of the ranchers who had been leading my mom and the others on horses rode off to find the rancher who lost his horses and tell him where they were. My mom told me that she was holding on for dear life because she thought that her trail horse was going to start freaking out when all of these other strange horses came charging over. I wish I would have gone on that ride, it was the only one that I skipped.
ReplyDeleteEvery year, My uncle's and they're families come up to vist the second weekend in september, and we all go camping at Hermit Island. Usually the second night, the older kids in the group and the uncles go for a midnight walk. We dont take flashlights and we walk across the island in the dark. This was my First year going and It was so cool. As we were walking, telling scary stories and creeping each other out, We came across a field with a few trees. My uncle said last year they saw deer there. so we stopped and strained out eyes looking for some. We didn't see any, but one of my cousins walked towards and into the field to double check. right as he stepped, a deer was laying down right next to the road. The dear leaped up and took off right infront of us. We were all so startled we screamed, then died laughing immediately after. We still continue to tell this story, and still can't do so without laughing. (:
ReplyDeleteA long time ago I had an orange tabby cat named Ollie, he was very adventurous and loved to leave dead animals on our door steps. One day he was outside and I was calling him in, all I could see was him hunched over in the woods jumping around as if he were chasing something. I walked out into the woods and I saw he had a little chipmunk in his mouth. I picked Ollie up and took the chipmunk out and let it free. After a few seconds of letting him scurry away I set Ollie back down but apparently I didn't give the poor chipmunk enough time to escape because Ollie had him again. So I tried again but this time I just carried Ollie back to the house and the chipmunk got away. :)
ReplyDeleteThis christmas my family and I traveled down to Belize, Central America. My Dad, brother (otto) and I planned to go diving and maybe some snorkeling. After four plane rides we were down in beautiful sunny Belize. The next day we walked down to the local dive shop where we met our instructor Pataho. After being fit into all of our equipment we headed out to the local reef. It was amazing I had never seen such crazy reef structures and colors. Pataho had this large tube filled with bait. which he dropped to the sea's floor. Sharks had begun to move in on the bait. I was frozen for a minute and the became extremely excited and swam towards the sharks. After we had about 15 sharks swimming around us Pataho decided to grab one and put it on its back it was one of the craziest thing i have seen. During all of the excitement i was oblivious to the moray eel swimming in between my legs!
ReplyDeleteTwo summers ago in 2009. I went up to my friends camp in Kanojo, it was the first time I have ever been up to his camp and we saw a bunch of moose on the way up which was really awesome. when we got there it was nite time so we ended up going to bed. the next morning we set up all our stuff and we went out in my friends truck to go get some wood. We were driving down the dirt road (which we are way out in the woods) and out of nowhere a giant moose comes out of the woods and starts running right beside us and it was awesome like i could have stuck my hand out the window and touched him he was so close. I thought it was one of the coolest things cause i have never been that close to a moose before so it was really exciting and i had only seen like 3 mooses in my lifetime at that time so it was pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteOne day last summer around 530 pm I was surfing with Albin. It was a typical day of catching waves and just chillin' on the water. The sun was just starting to go down, and after one ride I was paddling back out, and I duck-dived this one wave and when I popped back up I opened my eyes and saw the dorsal fins coming out of the water about 50 feet away from me. I looked at Albin who was already past the break of the waves and realized he was watching the same thing I was. It was probably one of the coolest moments in my life, just floating out beyond the waves and seeing these 6 or 7 dorsal fins that kept popping up and swimming around us. We were able to sit there on our surfboards for about 10 minutes and watch the porpoises swim.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago i was on my way home with my mom dad and three sisters, we live in Phippsburg and we were driving down our drive way and i looked into the woods and there was a bear but no one believed me. I just went down to the house because no on believed me and we just went on, A few days later in the news there was a report that a bear got loose and was in Phippsburg right near my house. Everyone said they were sorry and finally believed it.
ReplyDeleteI used to live on a private road in Phippsburg and would see deer all the time in the woods and foxes, but like every day I would see the same porcupine around my house. In the spring it would always be in the center tree of our yard eating the buds off the branches. I would have to let my dog out at some point and she would jump up at the tree like an idiot wanting the porcupine. One night in winter I let her out the back door and closed it and immediately she started barking. I panicked and reopened the door to see the porcupine on top of a snowbank and my dog directly in front of it on the ground. I screamed SALLYYY and thank god she turned around and booked it inside. I was really scared... and apparently she was too.
ReplyDeleteLast year in Georgetown, during the summer I was working at my dads and I had to go back outside to finish. I saw something moving in the bushes, but I was thinking that it's probably his dog Duke. I went on to finish up, and I turned around and there was a turkey with about 3 or 4 baby turkeys. When I saw them I knew I had to be quite so they wouldn't run off, so I sat down on the grass and waited for them to be a pretty good distance away from me before I started to move again. I thought it was pretty cool seeing them because I've never seen baby turkeys before.
ReplyDeleteMost summers my grandfather and I go out west and go backpacking and to the major NP. One of my favorite experiences with just one particular animal, not the overall environment, was when we were in Arizona a javelina, a wild pig, followed us for one of our entire day hikes. She had six babies stumbling behind her the entire time and it made the trip even better. On a more bitter sweet note that same summer when we were going up to Moab, Utah along the road there was a lot of road kill about half way there was a little sagebrush lizard on the side of the road the was still squirming I convinced my grandfather to stop and I brought it with me to Dead Horse Point. Everyday I fed it ants and spiders. By the time we moved on to Arches NP it had almost made a full recovery Unfortunately Utah was to far north for the kind of lizard he was so we had to back track and return him to his home. So after I helped him he helped me by adding three days onto our trip. I have several stories similar to this one about my trips out west and even hiking close to home in places like Baxter Park.
ReplyDeleteAs my semester at the Island School, in Eleuthera, Bahamas was coming to a close we had a final research symposium for us to present the research we did to visiting scientists, governmental officials and local community members. That weekend a couple friends and I went out sharking with the deep water sharks team, which included a world renowned visiting deep water sharks researcher. We traveled miles off shore do go and haul the line that was set with bait earlier that day. Just hauling the line is a huge task. The lines go thousands of feet deep. It took us almost an hour just to reach the bait hooks. As we began pulling up and documenting the hooks, each hook continued to turn up empty, instead of with a shark attached. Towards the end of the hooks set, we see a tiny white dot in the blue vastness. As the small white dot got closer and closer, it suddenly turned into a massive 10 ft male Bluntnose Sixgill shark. The deep water sharks team goes out sharking everyday, and they had only caught two before. Even the students on the deep water sharks team had not seen this rare shark. Less than 50 people in the entire world has ever laid eyes on this shark species, and now I am of the 50.
ReplyDeleteOnce the shark was tied down to the side of the boat, we all grabbed our mask and snorkel and jumped in the water with it. Measurements were being documented and a DNA samples were taken while we watched, touched, and swam with this beautiful massive shark. I feel so lucky to have experienced something as amazing as a Bluntnose Sixgill.
One Christmas day a few years ago my family and I were at my grandmother's house for a big lunch. While some of us kids were sitting in her living room Brittany, one of my cousins, shouted that she saw an owl. We all raced to the window and saw a giant owl just sitting on a branch next to the window. My sister and I raced to get our grandmother's bird watching book to try to figure out what kind of owl it was. Due to the fact that it was at lest a foot and a half tall and dark grey I told everyone that it must be a great grey owl. We all gathered around the window and looked up at it in amazement since it was the first owl that any of us had seen. Then the parents came over to see what all the commotion was about and we told them that there was an owl right next to us. Then my grandmother came in to tell us that lunch was ready and saw the owl. She then mused that it could be my late grandfather, since she always loved owls. Soon we left to go eat and once we settled down the owl finally flew off before flying around the house.
ReplyDeleteI will never forget when we came home one day and my brother saw his cat by the steps all scared because there was a fisher about 10 feet from it. It was awesome cause my brother saw the fisher and ran over and grabed the cat and the fisher ran towards my brother to try and get the cat and my brother kicked it right in the head and it ran away. Later that day we called animal control and they captured it then they came back and asked my brother if he got scratched or anything because the fisher had rabbies it was so cool ill never forget it.
ReplyDeleteOne time late at night my mom, sister, and I were driving home from my aunt's house and we saw an owl fly by the bridge we were beside. We slowed down and a moment later the snowy owl landed on the road in front of us. It stood there for a moment and stared at our car, and then flew off.
ReplyDeleteI live in Phippsburg with about 80 acres or so of land. One day a few years back I was walking around down by a stream in the woods my family owns and heard a bunch of crunching around. I'm not much of a fan of strange noises in the woods, so I walked a few meters away and looked to the stream. I saw nothing, so I decided to head back to my walking route. A few minutes later I heard a louder sound, turned around, and there across the little stream was a very large bull moose. The thing scared the hell out of me. I had heard of moose charging at people before, but I was in shock, so I didn't move. It stared at me for a little bit, grunted, and began to drink from the stream. About five minutes later it had finally walked on by and I was able to move away from the area. I wish I had had my camera to get a picture.
ReplyDeleteAbout one year ago my mother took me and my brothers to the Topsham library. It was spring time and there was a trail/path way out back of the Library. I took my little brother to go walk it with me. About two minutes into the trail I noticed there was this squirrel behind us just standing there. We looked around for an acorn, which we found about a minute later, and held it out to him. The squirrel came about two feet in front of us, but he wouldn't come and grab it from us. We were all standing there for about 30 seconds then I gave it to my brother to gently toss it to him. He threw it about a foot in front of us and the squirrel came and picked it up. I remember watching him pick it up and peel the top off and crack open the shell to get to the seed inside. He ran off after that and we proceeded to walk the little path, but I noticed he was still following us so we threw another acorn to him, as he was eating it my brother, being two at the time, wanted to go up and pet it most likely so he ran towards it. The squirrel ran off and we didn't see him again. But I still remember watching that squirrel and being astounded by how close he came up to us.
ReplyDeleteMy family and I were out camping in New Hampshire, at the base of one of the Presidential Mountains, and we just got back from hiking Mt. Washington hoping to go relax by the fire after such a busy day. But little did we know we had a little visitor on our hands. We here this movement in the woods thinking its a squirrel or something then out walks a bear cub. I thought it was really cool but my dad wanted to make it go away because the mom was probably pretty close by, so my dad scared off the bear cub and we didn't see it since.
ReplyDeleteI live in Phippsburg with 10 acres of land around my house. One night during the summer I was just getting home from work it was a late shift and it was around 9pm. As I was walking from the garage to the house I heard a terrible screech. I figured I should investigate, so I quietly jogged to the place where the screech was coming from. Upon arrival I saw that a baby fisher had been trapped within the garden's deer fence and couldn't get out. By this time my parents who had woken up from the screeching came outside and joined me. We agreed that the baby fisher had to be released, so I got a branch that had fallen off a nearby tree to lift up the deer net while my dad flushed it towards me, where it was able to escape and flee into the woods.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in Georgetown, and about 2 years ago my brother and I were out back, because we had a really big yard. there was a dirt road that lead to a neighbors house, and all of a sudden three coyotes come running up the road, as soon as my dog started to bark they ran the other way. we were really surprised, because it was only five or 6 in the evening, it was really scary in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAbout a year ago my dad told me to go by the window and look outside so I did and then I saw one of the chickens we had at the time in the backyard next to the woods. My dad was about to tell me to go and get the chicken so it wouldn't wonder off and just before he finished his sentence a fox came out of the woods and started attacking the chicken. So I ran outside yelling at the stupid fox to go away. The chicken was freaking out and flying up in the air clucking it was actually pretty funny. Finally the fox went away and then I went up to the chicken and it seemed fine so I lead the chicken back up to the front yard where the other chickens were. That day was pretty neat to see how a fox pounces and attacks its pray, but the poor chicken was traumatized.
ReplyDeleteOnce when I was a kid I lost my cat named mittens we traveled for days out in the woods looking for that kitten in the snow every day and mostly every hour we never found mittens but while we were looking for him I stumbed onto a bunch of different animal prints and droppings it was not very interesting but that's about my only wildlife experence not a very big experence but Ive seen a few turkeys and a few dears crossing the road but thats about it.
ReplyDeleteLast summer I took several trips out to Seguin Island. On occasion you could always locate a seal or even a whale but it was always from the distance of the boat. One day when I went to the island, I was giving tours of the lighthouse to all of the visitors; it kept me busy until it was time for me to leave. When I headed down the path to the shore where I was to catch my boat ride, there were five seals just laying near the rocks. It was the closest I have ever gotten to a seal that wasn't being held captive in an aquarium.
ReplyDeleteI was at the beach one time and it was filled with segulles. A normal day right. The only thing was they were eating at whale. It had been washed up from the night before and my grandmother heard about it. We thought it would be cool to go see it. It was a small one but still to see it was sad. What did that little baby whale do to anyone? I have actually seen three.
ReplyDeleteOne summer night at my dads house, we were all outside around a fire. We heard a crash in the garage. We went in to see what it was, and didn't see anything. We looked all around, and somebody pointed out a tiny baby barn owl on one of the rafters. He was so little and cute, and he had really big, round eyes. He hooted a couple of times, and tried to fly out through the window, which was closed. We let him out by opening the garage door, he quickly flew away. We aren't sure how he got in there, but he sure was cute!
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