Unforgettable experiences in nature while hunting

In late November of 2011 I was hunting south of Sundre Alberta along the Elkton river a half mile south of the Bergen road just off hi way 22 and encountered a mallard drake sitting in a pool of unfrozen water which is normal.

I walked a few yards past it and heard the loudest "whoosh" ever that seemed right beside my head causing me to duck.

I looked back and seen a gyrfalcon rocketing straight up after coming out of a unsuccessful stoop at the mallard.

She circled once and kept flying south down the river valley. 2 minutes later I seen a fox heading towards where the duck was at the rivers edge.

That duck was having one hell of a bad day.
 
I was shooting pigeons being flushed out of an implement shed as they were crapping on machinery.Using up some poor low velocity early steel shot.Had several dead on the lawn and a single flapping cripple.Out of nowhere at knee height a gyrfalcon goes rocketing 10 ft beside me and nails the pigeon.Looks up at me as if to say thanks and flies off with his meal.I had earlier found a bunch of duck wings under a tree down by a slough.Now I know who did it. At least eating the steel shot would not harm him.
 
Whether you hear an owl in flight depends entirely on the owl itself.
They are capable of near-silent flight, but can also fly making enough
noise to be audible.
I had a Great Grey land on a fencepost right in front of my Hay Bale blind,
within 5 feet....never heard a sound, all of a sudden, there he was, on the
post. But 20 minutes later, when He took off, I heard 2-3 wingbeats as he
gained altitude, then silence again. Dave.
 
Eagleye said:
Whether you hear an owl in flight depends entirely on the owl itself.
They are capable of near-silent flight, but can also fly making enough
noise to be audible.
I had a Great Grey land on a fencepost right in front of my Hay Bale blind,
within 5 feet....never heard a sound, all of a sudden, there he was, on the
post. But 20 minutes later, when He took off, I heard 2-3 wingbeats as he
gained altitude, then silence again. Dave.
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I was working down in New Mexico approx ten years ago. While walking to a set of mountains one day we found an old steel drive shed, the slider door was open enough that I had to turn sideways to get in with all my kit on. Once inside my eyes were somewhat adjusting to the low light and I heard a faint whoosh noise. A couple feet above my head this owl with a 4 foot wingspan comes off his perch in the trusses and turns his wings and body perpendicular with the ground and makes it through that barely open door.
 
While bow hunting from the ground one evening near my spring, it was late, and I was packing up when I noticed this Robin sized bird near the trunk of a fir tree.

I actually spoke to it. Something silly like "time you were in bed little fellow"

Then it swiveled it's head completely around and looked at me, and I realized I was looking at a Saw-Whet owl, ten feet away. Just awakened for his evening hunt.

He may have been there the whole time I was there.
 
I was out a few weeks ago checking rabbit snares, and when I came across one I noticed that the snare had been tripped, and that the rabbit had managed to bury itself down in the snow a bit. I thought it was odd, but figured maybe he thrashed and dug himself down a bit, so I didn't worry to much about it. I pulled it up out of the snow and immediately noticed that it's neck/shoulder area had a big piece missing out of it. Before I could inspect any further, something started squawking at me from the hole. I looked down and an Ermine had ran out of its burrow to yell at me for stealing his dinner! I chatted back and forth with it a bit before conceding that he did have it first, so I stuffed it back down into the hole and packed up. As I was leaving I noticed him pulling the bunny further into his hole to make sure it didn't happen again!
 
I had a couple whitetail does walk into within about 8-10 feet of me before they noticed. I had a doe tag too but let them wander off as the experience was pretty cool.
 
Eagleye said:
Whether you hear an owl in flight depends entirely on the owl itself.
They are capable of near-silent flight, but can also fly making enough
noise to be audible.
I had a Great Grey land on a fencepost right in front of my Hay Bale blind,
within 5 feet....never heard a sound, all of a sudden, there he was, on the
post. But 20 minutes later, when He took off, I heard 2-3 wingbeats as he
gained altitude, then silence again. Dave.
Click to expand...

I never heard them land, or actually in flight. Every time I heard one was on take-off. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, I was absolutely shocked at how long it took to kill a rabbit.
 
out hunting with a buddy. he was walking the ridge and i was walking the bottom. he signaled me he heard some thing and was going to push it down towards me. he was assuming a deer as the bush was thick and tall. i found a good spot and was ready to shoot when he pushed it out. about 10 feet in front of me a vary large cougar popped out and proceeded to sit staring at me. a few minutes later my buddy pushed threw and asked what was it, you didn't shoot. i pointed at the sitting cougar. he almost s---t himself. after a few minutes mr cougar started walking down the trail, took a hard right and disappeared in the trees. still don't know why he sat there so long. any others i have bumped into head out so quick you can hardly see them.
 
Edit; might as well give this some context; WMU 410, Bow-only zone; early season elk; evening hunting near the top of Pigeon Mountain; had successfully called in a small bull that had silhouetted itself on the ridge. I was juiced about it all and looking forward to the rest of the season while at the same time wondering why Graham had not let the arrow fly; he had a clear shot at that dam elk. We were coming down the power line...............






In the moonlight I came to grips that it was a large pan face.....30 feet

Why would "it" not let us by...Graham and I.....

Then the sounds to our right...another one...sounded much smaller than the large pan face.......10 feet

Somehow silently she makes it through the willows towards us until....

Then that god awful paw smash to the ground......right there, right in front of us....we felt the ground more than heard it.......6 feet

That pan face then silently backs up, and lets us live.......


That night changed me forever...I'll leave it at that.
 
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A cow moose walked slowly up to me, I stuck my gun out to poke her in the face. She calmly sniffed the muzzle of my 300 for a couple minutes, left some nose juice and calmly and slowly walked off. She stood about 10ft away looking back at me for at least 10mins trying to figure me out. The more I talked to her the more her ears moved all over up and down. She finally moozied on her way back the way she came. Damn I felt small standing a couple feet away.
 
First day of archery season last year. Got in to my spot before first light. Had a head lamp on and I was going through some camera gear. Saw 2 glowing eyes about 30 yards away. Thought it was a racoon; didn't think much of it. It kept inching closer, and sure enough, it was a cougar. Came to about 8 yards of me. I'm screaming and standing tall. It wouldn't budge; just waiting for me to avert my attention with its head low to the ground. When first light came, it brought its head up. Big cat. Slowly and silently walked away. Definitely won't forget that one.
 
Several years ago I was hunting just off the forestry trunk road west of Sundre, Alta, all camouflaged up and waiting for a moose to cross the meadow, when a large dark grey solitary wolf crosses the meadow directly in front of me, glances toward me and slowly and silently continues to cross the meadow and disappear into the bush.

He never saw me so I was obviously in pretty good camo. My hunting bud says I should have shot him as we are in competition for the same game.
I say No as he needs that game to live, I don't - personal choice and I was just glad for the opportunity to have seen one this close. Made my whole hunt worthwhile.
 
This thread has been dormant for almost a year.

And evidently my memory is none too good. I started (today) at page 1 and kind of remembered some of the stories, did not at all remember others, and was thinking I should chime in with a few experiences. And by golly, I found out that I had already done so.

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.................

.............but let's get some more cool stories up, shall we?

Maybe I will tell the story about being held hostage in my outhouse by a black bear..........:eek:

Doug
 
Thanksgiving weekend 1978, I got into a herd of barren ground caribou. Turned off my snowmobile and sat and watched them. Held up my hands, straight out from my shoulders, and counted 200 between my hands - and the herd wrapped all the way around me.
 
ChewyChewbacca said:
I’m thinking why is this guy taking a run at me? Now I’m going to be lectured on why weasels turn color when they do? I was there he wasn’t. It wasn’t my imagination, was it? So I’m sitting here reliving that moment and visualizing the scene, no leaves on the trees, the leaves and grass all dried with the ice starting to form on the edges of the beaver pond. Me hoping a beaver would poke his nose out of the water so I could put a .22LR out of the old Cooey. The weasel coming down through the dried grass along side the poplar that the beaver had spent time to cut down but was to big to handle.How it’s coat was the whitest of white it seemed against the bark of the Aspen. Skittering along about a foot or so at time, stopping to quickly look around when it stopped. The feel of its weight on the top of my foot when it’s tiny claws hooked over the top of my boot when it climbed up and took a look in all directions before it got down and left.
Nope not my imagination, sure of that.
I go wait a minute!
I hang my head in shame and am scuffing the dirt with my toe.
It was in the fall, not the spring.
I can never post again because I was politely called out for telling a homemade story and I admitted it. How can I contribute anything to a conversation moving forward without being remembered as that guy who told a story about a memorable moment and didn’t know the difference between spring and fall?
I am very embarrassed.
I will now go quietly to my corner.
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Why you ask? Because you’ve just come across one cgn’s biggest, one upping blow hards. On a thread full of people sharing decades worth of experience heres this guy feeling the need to let us all know he'd fill a book. In the hunting sub forum he definitely stands out as one of the few often ####ting on someone’s story, rifle, experience, the list goes on. Usually followed by similar cringe worthy patronizing posts much like the one reassuring you of his “genuine interest”. By the way a mink very much is a weasel, many refer to a ermine exclusively as a weasel but that doesn’t make one wrong in the least for calling a mink a weasel
 
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Few years ago, right after purchasing my crossbow, we went to our moose camp and I decided to go at a small swamp and wait patiently on the ground behind a fallen tree in case anything came to the salt lick we had setup. At around 9:30am ish, I had an eerie feeling. Something wasn't quiet right but I couldn't put my finger on it. Was-I being watched? I didn't hear any noises...I turned around and looked and looked, but couldn't see anything weird. I was really hoping to surprise a moose walking by! Still, that feeling lasted for a good 10 or so minutes.

At supper time, I spoke with my FIL about the day and he starts to tell me that at exactly that time, while he was sitting at the other nearby swamp (300-400m in a straight line), he saw 2 huge wolves come up to a water hole to drink a bit of water. 300m in a mature forest...that's like a 3 minutes walk for an adult wolf! The next day, I went in the blind (12' high)!

He said they didn't look like a normal dog (tongue out and smiling), but rather had the 1000 yard stare of a veteran of the forest.

David
 
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