Scary moments whilst birding (1 Viewer)

eddy the eagle · Oct 15, 2013

I thought that I would start a thread on scary moments as about six months ago whilst out and about in the vicinity of Los Barrios,Cadiz,Spain,I watched a great number of Griffon vultures circling over the local cork oak forest.I tracked them down to a deer carcass on a forest track.I watched as they came and went and then got the camera out as they were coming towards me along the track a couple metres off the ground.One came directly at me and I stood and took it's picture before diving to the ground.I am sure that it would have hit me had it not moved,scary or what.The attached picture is out of focus but I think you can see just how close it was.
Anyone else have a scary story to tell,related to birdwatching of course.Regards.....Eddy

Phil Andrews · Oct 15, 2013

Whilst on our now annual autumn birding holiday in Shetland a few years we went up to Lamba Ness at the top of Unst to see a flock of c100 Snow Buntings. On opening the boot to get our scopes the gale force wind caught a borrowed OS map and sent it tumbling at high speed across the ground. I hurtled after it and only just managed to stop myself approx a foot from the cliff edge and a 60 foot drop below. If anyone wants a free copy of OS Map No.3 you know where to look!

JeffMoh · Oct 15, 2013

About 15 years ago I was taking photos of a Cooper's Hawk in Everglades Nat Park. I dropped my lens cap and looked down to find a mid-sized alligator was stretched out on the path maybe 6 feet ahead of me.

A bit after that I was looking for woodpeckers in a wooded area in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. When I stopped looking up at the trees, I saw I had wandered into the middle of a herd of elk. I froze. A large bull 20-25 feet away stood up and checked me out. He sat back down. I sat down, too, and spent half-an-hour just enjoying being in the middle of the herd.

A few years ago I was trying to photograph a Northern Waterthrush in a Houston park when I realized I was 2-3 feet away from a water moccasin. I kept very still while I photographed the snake. Then I slowly turned around to find I was even closer to a second water moccasin that I hadn't noticed. I guess they were a pair. Luckily, like most snakes, they weren't aggressive.

Having been in Texas for a while now, I've learned to keep looking down for snakes and alligators while I'm birding, particularly if I'm in anything resembling a wetland area.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

Chris D · Oct 15, 2013

This should be good.

Jeff Hopkins · Oct 15, 2013

I was in Anchorage, Alaska birding on my own in a city park on the edge of town when a man rode by me on a bicycle with a set of jingling "bear bells" on the back of it. I found myself thinking, "This is a city park. You don't need bear bells." But just as he turned and went down a different fork than I'd just taken, a bull moose came up out of the brush maybe 20 feet from me and chased that guy down the path! Maybe he did need bear bells.

Closer to home, I was up on our hawk watch last year, when one of the other hawkwatchers pointed down maybe 6 or 8 feet from me and said, "Look. A baby milk snake." A couple of us looked at it and recognized it immediately for what it was. "Uh, Bob. That's a copperhead." We gave it a wider berth until it went on its way.

eddy the eagle · Oct 15, 2013

I think Jeff,you should stay at home from now on I think you have had enough close calls to last a birding lifeline.Stay safe ....Eddy

JTweedie · Oct 15, 2013

JeffMoh said:
A bit after that I was looking for woodpeckers in a wooded area in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. When I stopped looking up at the trees, I saw I had wandered into the middle of a herd of elk. I froze. A large bull 20-25 feet away stood up and checked me out. He sat back down. I sat down, too, and spent half-an-hour just enjoying being in the middle of the herd.

I'm sure it could give you a bit of a fright at first, but it sounds like it turned out to be a really pleasant experience. To have large wild animals comfortable in your presence is one of life's pleasures.

JeffMoh · Oct 16, 2013

eddy the eagle said:
I think Jeff,you should stay at home from now on I think you have had enough close calls to last a birding lifeline.Stay safe ....Eddy

It's difficult to bird our part of Texas without getting close to snakes and alligators, Eddy. Even the college campus where I work has lots of water moccasins / cottonmouths, like the one in the photo.
Luckily, alligators and snakes generally are not aggressive. Even the snake in the photo was just telling me to watch where I was walking.
Jeff

JeffMoh · Oct 16, 2013

JTweedie said:
I'm sure it could give you a bit of a fright at first, but it sounds like it turned out to be a really pleasant experience. To have large wild animals comfortable in your presence is one of life's pleasures.

Couldn't agree more. It's one of the highlights of my wildlife viewing in the USA. The bull elk is in the first photo.

BTW, less of a highlight happened during an early morning birding walk last year in Estes Park, CO. I stopped to get photos of an elk calf accompanied by its mom. They were maybe 20 feet away. Then mom charged me, I screamed, and she stooped literally 3-4 feet from my nose. I thought she was going to rear up and stomp me to death. But she didn't. Having made her point, she let me walk away, while she went back to coddle her calf (second photo).

Jeff

Jeff Hopkins · Oct 16, 2013

Back before I became a birder I went camping in the Okavango. The guide, who grew up there, said he felt perfectly comfortable living in a small hut in the middle of the African savannah, but couldn't understand how Americans could live in the same areas where there are bears.

His logic was that with lions or elephants or Cape buffalo there was a certain way to behave if you came upon one that 99% of the time would keep you safe. For example, in the case of a lion, slowly back away and don't run. For an elephant or buffalo, run downwind in a zigzag. But with a bear, your safety was subject to their whims. If you run, they'll chase you. If you play dead, they could still maul you. You couldn't even climb a tree to get away.

It's all in your frame of reference.

chris butterworth · Oct 16, 2013

Apart from being given a good kicking by the Turkish Army and being shot at a couple of times in various parts of Africa one of my biggest scares was the first time I went to Danum Valley, Sabah. I was walking along Rhinos Ridge Trail when I came to a large log across the trail. Soft lad vaulted over it to find some large, black and hairy thing leaping up on the other side, and bellowing. My first thought was "Bear!" ( actually it was "****", I thought about Bear a few seconds later). Contrary to all advice I'd heard - I shot off back down the trail, faster than my legs would allow. After a while I realised nothing was following me ( apart from those bits of my body that couldn't keep up ) and I returned. Skirting the log this time I found the ground all torn up and a trail of footprints leading off in the opposite direction. Bearded Pig footprints. :-C

Chris

John Cantelo · Oct 16, 2013

eddy the eagle said:
I thought that I would start a thread on scary moments as about six months ago whilst out and about in the vicinity of Los Barrios,Cadiz,Spain,I watched a great number of Griffon vultures circling over the local cork oak forest.I tracked them down to a deer carcass on a forest track.I watched as they came and went and then got the camera out as they were coming towards me along the track a couple metres off the ground.One came directly at me and I stood and took it's picture before diving to the ground.I am sure that it would have hit me had it not moved,scary or what.The attached picture is out of focus but I think you can see just how close it was.
Anyone else have a scary story to tell,related to birdwatching of course.Regards.....Eddy

Interesting, Eddy. I read somewhere (here?) that vultures have problems seeing straight in front of them hence they fly into rotor blades - your tale perhaps confirms this..... unless, of course, the bird thought that you were carrion!

Andrew Whitehouse · Oct 16, 2013

A long time ago I was an exchange student at an American university and we went on a field trip to the Rocky Mountains. We were camping out in the woods and had been given plenty of warning about Black Bears in the area.

But, I thought it wouldn't be too big a deal to go for a short walk from the campsite to look for birds. Everything was fine until I was heading back about five minutes from camp and I heard a rapid, heavy running through the forest to the left. Something about the power in those footsteps had me alarmed straight away. Then, out bounded a Black Bear on to the track, probably only 20-30 metres away. It stopped. I stopped. We looked at each other. Then the bear turned... and ran back into the forest.

I got back to camp and everyone knew what had happened without me even having to say. The look of anxiety on my face and the shortness of breath said it all.

A2GG · Oct 16, 2013

I haven't been birding nearly as long as the rest of you, so I only have two small incidents which pale in comparison to the above stories:

A couple of years ago I must've alarmed a Turkey Vulture grounded and hidden on the other side of the brush in a small open area (couldn't see him). I think the vulture was probably only 5-10 yards away. The vulture made that loud threatening hissing noise that sounds like a demon straight from hell. I literally took off and ran with my heart beating like mad...scared the sh*t out of me !

This summer I did the same thing essentially and scared a fox this time which I couldn't see (only part of the tail). The fox made an alarm noise and 'growling' type sound while fleeing from the trail into the brush which scared the bejesus out of me.

John Cantelo · Oct 16, 2013

I was birding just south of Medina Sidonia - fighting bull country - a few years back with a friend from rural Wiltshire (is there any other kind?). A couple of km along the track I aspied 7-8 large bulls trotting along towards us. I suggested that we should return to the car PDQ, but my naive friend - it was his first visit to Spain - laughed at my caution telling me bulls were nothing to fear as there was always one in the meadow next to his house which was never any trouble. He reluctantly retreated with me and a few minutes later two mounted gouchos, armed with long poles, came past herding a cow and calf towards the bulls. When they saw us - and they very nearly didn't as we were off to one side - they told us in no uncertain terms to get back to the car (c200m away). This we did, pausing only to have a quick drink. However, the sight of the cow obviously encouraged the bulls to start running for we'd scarcely got there before these huge Fray Bentos tanks came tearing round the corner. The horseman yelled at us to get in the car which we managed to do with little time to spare.

eddy the eagle · Oct 16, 2013

These bulls can be really dangerous,they never see humans on foot always on horseback,normally the first human they see on foot is the matador in the ring.Big notices and metal poled fences are law in these parts.Stay away or else,a lucky escape John....Eddy

JTweedie · Oct 16, 2013

When I was staying at the Sumburgh Hotel in Shetland I was discouraged from taking a coastal path up to the lighthouse due to the presence of a bull with lots of cows in a field in front of the hotel. The thing that put me off was that there was a narrow path in front of a high wall and you couldn't see if the bull was just round the corner.

JeffMoh · Oct 16, 2013

"A couple of years ago I must've alarmed a Turkey Vulture grounded and hidden on the other side of the brush in a small open area (couldn't see him). I think the vulture was probably only 5-10 yards away. The vulture made that loud threatening hissing noise that sounds like a demon straight from hell. I literally took off and ran with my heart beating like mad...scared the sh*t out of me !"

I know how you felt, Annabeth. I once got chased by a couple of Canada Geese, hissing and snapping at my ankles. Much scarier than snakes!

Jeff

Xenospiza · Oct 16, 2013

People are definitely the scariest, probably topped by a drunk Papua telling us we should not be birding on "his" road, a guy wrestling me to the ground in the Dutch dunes after stealing my bicycle keys, a guy in a suit looking for us after we had left the trail in Jiuzhaigou and of course various drivers and boatmen in an array of third world countries...
Almost stepping on two death adders on Tanimbar was less pleasant.
Losing my bearings in a New Guinea rain forest (with a GPS and probably within screaming distance from the camp) was definitely scary – but at least I saw that sicklebill.
Trees crashing down after heavy rain in various forests also did not make for carefree birding.
In Eaglenest (India) I demanded a retreat after hearing an elephant nearby, but luckily that never got really scary (it did not show up).

stevo · Oct 16, 2013

A long time ago I opened a gate & walked into a field where there were a herd of cows,carried on walking then noticed a bull.So I stopped & the bull started raking the ground with its foot,getting pretty scared at this point when I noticed the bull had seen an adder a feet away,the adder slid off & the bull turned around & walked off in the opposite direction.

Steve.

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