# Things I've Seen



## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

I recently posted about seeing bald eagles pinwheeling out of the sky with talons locked. This seemed to strike a chord with other members. I am starting a thread where you are invited to post things you have experienced in the great outdoors that non-outdoors people never see.

I'll start. Every spring, and to a lesser extent fall, snow geese stage in ND on their way to/from nesting grounds in the arctic. I've been there and the pictures and videos don't do it justice. When they all lift off at once it's awesome. You have to shout to talk to someone right next to you. I couldn't find a video that shows them like the picture and the volume doesn't go high enough on the video. 

Oh ya, the hunting is pretty good if you time it right. They do hunt snows and blues in the spring as well as the fall.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/wildlife/3985066-watch-500000-snow-geese-lift-north-dakota 

https://www.facebook.com/289270101143243/videos/vb.289270101143243/988746364528943/?type=2&theater


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## HoofPick (Jan 16, 2012)

That is awesome!

A few years ago I took the dog out to a lake and ended up in a marshy spot. A garter snake stalked, caught, and ate a frog right at my feet! There was a camera malfunction so I didn't get any pictures but it was still incredible to watch first hand. You see that kinda stuff on tv but never think you'll see it in person.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Just watching turkeys trudge thru 19 inches of snow is some thing non out door people see.

Having momma bring her babies to the front yard then looking up as if to say see my pretty kids.





Mom so comfortable she brings her baby by the window so we can see it feeding.



A hen with chicks cleaning up bugs in the yard also.









Not to mention the black bear that walks 15 feet from you and doesn't even know your close. No camera for that one.

Never slow down long enough to see the frog on the milkweed leaf.










The future monarch butter fly if it escapes the army bug.









From the big green tomato worm the gardener didn't see to kill.










 Al


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## mmoetc (Oct 9, 2012)

Paused the van for about ten minutes yesterday to watch a flock of about 25 turkeys mill about. A handful of Toms starting to strut and fan and everyone else just wandering back and forth. It was a back road shortcut and I was sent on my way by the guy in the truck coming up fast behind me who apparently wasn't forethinking enough to build some time into his day for such eventualities.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

mmoetc said:


> Paused the van for about ten minutes yesterday to watch a flock of about 25 turkeys mill about. A handful of Toms starting to strut and fan and everyone else just wandering back and forth. It was a back road shortcut and I was sent on my way by the guy in the truck coming up fast behind me who apparently wasn't forethinking enough to build some time into his day for such eventualities.


I agree. Most people don't take the time to notice the neat things right in front of them.

It doesn't have to be out in the boonies. I was walking the dog in a state park that is in the middle of the Twin Cities. There was a great horned owl perched on a stump on the edge of a slough. Crows were bedeviling it unbelievably. I didn't have a camera to record it. This video shows a similar situation.






Next?


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I once saw where an otter had hauled a half dozen large snapping turtles up onto the ice near a spring hole. You could see where he pushed them around through the slush before abandoning them to freeze to death.

I also saw where an otter hauled about 100 really large snails up onto the ice near some spring holes. I think they were invasive Mystery Snails.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Sitting on the deck overlooking the snake river reading a book. Watched a moose go over the bank onto the rocks. Heard a bunch of grunting. 10 minutes later she came back over the bank with a baby and then spent the day in the yard.

Husband was horn hunting two or three springs ago. He could hear the wolves but had not seen them. She sat down to have lunch. Over the hill comes a wolf and takes a path 100 yards across the draw in front of him. Then another, then another etc as 10 wolves amble past him. He was pretty sure one or two saw him but luckily no decided to investigate him.


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

Noticed my first Turkey Vulture of the season. We have a lot of those here from now until fall when they Migrate to South America for the Winter. They clean up any dead critters and keep diseases from spreading...they don't become ill from eating rotting flesh, and their feces is void of contamination.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I've wondered about them eating the bacteria ridden meat. They must have some really strong stomach acid but so do we.


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

Two things I've seen that came to mind reading this thread.
The first one I tried to find examples of on film, but none were close enough.

1) A hummingbird courtship dance.

In a few months I'll try to capture it on video with sound. It is definitely something you won't forget.
The male comes up to a female usually when she's perched on a branch with a good view.
He starts flying sideways in a U shaped path in front of her and making a whirring/clicking sound I can't describe.
If she starts paying attention, then he really tries to impress her.
As with all things hummingbird, if you aren't quick, you'll miss it, lol.

2) A young crow and a young wild rabbit playing with each other in a clearing.
There was no aggression, it was definitely play, as they chased each other.

I've seen all kinds of young animals play, but never that combo, before or since.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Some unrecorded things I have seen is deer stretching their legs after a day of laying chewing their cuds. They will come tearing full tilt down the trail across the creek and when about to the road turn in a large U and run full tilt thru the woods. It is fun to watch when there are 4 or 5 doing it at once.

Once while deer hunting after a heavy snow fall a squirrel gets caught a good distance away from a handy tree as a red tail hawk come swooping in. Lucky for the squirrel it ducked to the right as the hawk was ready to snatch it up. The squirrel made it to a tree top that had came down in the wind before the storm. That hawk chased it around that tree top for a good 15 minutes before giving up.

Once on a coyote hunt one was shot and went down a second one grabbed it by the neck and shook it as if to say, hey not a safe spot to lay and take a nap.

Years ago while bow deer hunting a funnel between two swampy pounds a buck arrives to the area. Decides a smallish maple with about a 4 inch dia. trunk is in its way. Buck would back up about two feet and hit that tree hard and push it sliding its rack up and down it. Did it for a good half hour before it turned and left with that maple mostly laying flat on the ground some roots sticking up and all kinds of bark residue under it and the ground all pawed up. Taught that tree to grow where that buck didn't want it.

Setting in my favorite deer blind UP deer camp.



Not only do I get to see a glories sun rise on a cold frosty Nov morning I get to watch a mature eagle take a bath in the cold water of Big Bay DeNoc. It was on a large rock sticking up out of the water which was about 6 inches deep there. It would hop of the rock into the water and as if to say OH CRAP that water was cold jump backup on that rock and flap its wings. It was there doing that for close to an hour.

Once canoeing the Sturgeon river with Kare doing a bit of small mouth fishing she didn't warn me of some shallows nor try to steer us away from them. We grounded and I was not happy at all about it as I tried to work us loose with the paddle before getting out on the slippery shale. A black bear came ambling along the bank farthest from us and sat down, That's right sat down to enjoy me turning the air blue as I worked at getting loose. Once I had given up on the paddle and stepped on the shale and went to to my knees after slipping, I got the canoe loose and the bear got up and ambled off. Weird I thought but have had other bear incidents that make me think they enjoy a good laugh and scare people.

Snakes in a mating embarrass.

 

Great Blue Heron comes to the house to preen after frogging in the creek.

 

Mister mom and this is more than once.



GBH over looking the pond from a tree stand.



Humming bird feeding on Bee Balm.



And the white Robin we had for 2 summers.



 Al


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## gilberte (Sep 25, 2004)

Man, you really need to gather up all these posts you've made and consider either writing a book or making contact with someone who can. They're a treasure.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

The strategy we employed to hunt hungarian partridge in the Red River Valley (think flat farm fields with straight dirt roads on a 1 mile grid) was to drive slowly down a road while looking for a covey. When one was spotted we continued to drive several hundred feet past them then get out of the car and crawled up the ditch on the side of the road opposite the covey. Then we would come charging over the road and maybe get some shots.

A covey of huns sitting in a plowed field look just like more clumps of dirt. They are very hard to see unless they move. So we were driving down the road when a hawk pounced on a covey that was in the ditch. He got one and the rest flew a few hundred yards. We marked where they came down and stalked them. Got several. We appreciated the help.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

*gilbert* Your post meant for me about doing a book?

One spring day a really beautiful one that makes you glad to be alive brother and I decided to go shrooning. We also are picking winter green berries as we go and find good patches of them. When we each got a full bag of morels and beef steaks we decide to take a short cut back to the house. Short cut required us to cross the river (head waters) at a beaver dam. We get to the dam and suckers, lots of suckers are trying to get over it. Rob and I go cut a Popple sucker with a good Y branch and start picking suckers off the dam and stringing them on that popple stringer. Arrive back at the house as victors with a dozen suckers, two bags of shroons and 2 bags of winter green berries.

May 1996 I received a call that lives just up the road from my UP deer camp. He asked if I was going to come up on memorial week end. I tell him that is the plan so he says I should bring my bow and fish arrows. the carp are a spawning and coming in really shallow and the wind has been changing directions and the carp get stranded in pools left when the water goes out almost like a tide. We get there Saturday near noon and as Frank said I see all kinds of carp and Burbout on the beach that got trapped on dry land when the wind took the water out.
Later after I had gotten all I wanted to clean that day looking out on the beach I counted 15 adult bears and 6 cubs cleaning up out there.
The whole week end went that way. I always thought it was funny the bears never showed up till in the afternoon when we had left.

Rob and I are fishing in Canada on a lake were we drove the CJ back down some pretty ruff old logging trails. We made it to a medium size river the map showed flowed into to a good sized lake. We put the boat in and make the 20 minute trip down the river thru a narrow with rapids to the lake. We fish to our hearts content then head back up the river to get back to camp. As we round a curve in the river just before the rapids here stands a cow moose half way out in the water half way up her sides. There is no way we can get by her every time we tried she acted aggressive and we would back off. we ended up floating back to the lake and fishing a bit longer. We tried again in an hour and she was still there but this time she decided to just leave. We got back to the jeep and loaded the boat up then drove out in the dark.

 Al


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## CircleC (Feb 22, 2017)

I was about 10 years old and i was standing by the clinton river just staring off into space, when for no reason a huge tree decided to tip over and fall out right in front of me. 

There was no wind, nothing happening. It was a huge tree, probably about 4 feet across at the trunk. I couldn't believe that after standing for a hundred years the tree would just fall while i was there to watch. The tips of the branches ended up about 20 feet in front of me. 

When i got closer i saw there were mice living in the big hollow core of the trunk. 

What are the chances is all im sayin


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

One Spring I had back surgery for a ruptured disc. Upon coming home, my therapy was to walk every day, gradually increasing to 5 miles a day. It took 2 weeks to work up to several miles and heal enough to push the clutch on the truck. Stir crazy and then some.

I went for a daily walk around Gun Club Lake which is a shallow spring fed lake that drains over a dam into the Minnesota river. So, I got around to the dam and the pool below the dam was full of carp. They were trying to jump the falls, about 4 feet, to get into Gun Club and spawn. Most fell short and wound up throwing themselves onto a small beach behind the falls. I dubbed them Iowa salmon.

The next days I came back with a stout fishing pole and a lightweight folding lawn chair. I had a great deal of fun catching 20 pound + carp.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

At one time there was a draw bridge over the Saginaw river on I 75, boats would stack up on the river over the week end rush hour times.
On a Monday morning Brother Rob and I were on our way home from up north where we had been shooting suckers in the river. The bridge was up so we were just sitting there, Rob says I think the carp are in the ditch spawning. I drive the jeep off the road and we get out and look and sure enough the carp are in there spawning. We put our waders on and got our bows from the back and started shooting carp. Next thing we had people asking what we were going to do with them. Told them if they wanted them they could have them. I think if I remember right we had to clean about a half dozen of them and throw them in the cooler with the suckers before we were told we had to leave by a state cop. Can't park on Express way property unless it is a emergency he says.


One year I am at my deer hunting partners place, we had been floating the maple river small mouth fishing. He had to go into work one day for a while so I went with his sons to the maple river flats to fish, carp were spawning so we ran back to the house and got bows & a spear so we could shoot & spear them. One of the boys shot at a carp and got 3 on the arrow at once about 2 pounds each. Another boy speared one I though was going to dround him, weighed 24 pounds.

Dad, Rob and I took a trip to the UP to fish for Walleye and Small Mouth on a lake that is really supposed to be good. We had been there about 4 days and were not doing very well. Had caught a few good Perch a couple decent Walleyes and Small Mouths, but not what we expected from that lake. Dad says fooy on this I am going to rig for perch, so he did but was not catching perch. He was catching huge dark blue gills, lots of blue gills. We spent the rest of the week after the big blue gills and caught a goodly number of perch too. 

Mom and I had been fishing on morning and needed to get back to the house to do chores. I back the boat trailer in the lake and load up the boat, pull up out of the way to tie it down and find a purple crawler and harness laying on the ground. I throw it up on the dash of the boat and go home. Later that afternoon mom and I go to a different lake to fish, since that harness with the purple worm was laying out I rigged it on my line. I was catching bass about every cast with that thing and it was a great worm and harness for a long time then it just got so tore up I replaced it.
Never caught fish again with an artificial crawler like I did with that one. Always wonder when I think about it what made it so special?

 Al


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

There was an old barn that was falling down. One of the doors was lying on the ground. When I flipped it over there were hundreds of garter snakes under it. Not my picture but they looked like this. Look out Indians Jones.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Saw my first snake of the season yesterday. Guess spring has arrived for sure now despite all this mud.

I was out working on one of my old tractors about 5 years ago and saw this crow not far away swooping down low they soaring up higher then all of a sudden it swooped down again and flew up in a big Elm near by with a snake in its claws. Never had seen any birds with snakes.

Kare had always allowed snakes in her gardens then one day she is dead heading some of the flowers and hear this screaming an investigation found a snake with a frog it was trying to swallow. Snake never did swallow that frog made Kare so mad it was trying to eat another of her bug catchers she used here shears to cut it's head off to release the frog. Today any snake she sees in the garden and she has her dead heading shears becomes head less.

We have a lot of these white toads (yup that's their name.) here.










Find them in some of the darndest places. I seen one on the brown metal roof of the honey house one hot sunny day. thought it was probably going to cook there if it didn't move soon, it did move over the edge of the roof to the under sides of the eaves. Went to take my tractor to do some work and there is one on the seat, another time one was inside a big bloom of an Asiatic Lily.
They eat a lot of bugs so I am glad to have them around. By the way they can be green like above and move to a different area and they will turn a grey color with splotches.

 Al


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

It was just before ice out on a sunny day. The ice had melted around the shore so there was about 5 feet of open water between the shore and the ice. I was walking along the shore and came to a grassy area that was flooded about 4 inches deep. There were hundreds of Northern pike spawning there. Their backs were above the surface because the water wasn't deep enough. Many were absolutely huge. I'd fished that lake but I had no idea there were northerns that big in it. No more skinny dipping.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

At 70 there isn't much I haven't seen in northern Michigan.

 Al


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

alleyyooper said:


> At 70 there isn't much I haven't seen in northern Michigan.
> 
> Al


Those of us that spend a significant amount of time outdoors have all seen many unique things. The idea of this thread is to share those experiences. Nobody has seen everything.

Your pictures are very good Alley. I never seem to have a camera when something cool happens.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

I admit before digital I rarely had a camera with me when I was out and about. I kind of regret that some what today as there were things I would love to see again like the beautiful Oct. day dad brother myself and dog Skunk. Dad had just shot a Pat and Skunk had went and retrieved it bring it to me. Dad had a big silly grin and says ain't that some thing dog is Robs, I've been feeding her, and she brings you the bird.
Would like to have a picture of that moment but I still see it in my minds eye.

Then there are time there is no way to snap a picture it just has to be in the minds eye. Rob and I had been out snowmobiling all day and were returning back home about 2:00 AM on a very cold moon lite night so there were lots of hore frost sparkles in the air as we rode there the wood trail just wide enough for a sled and lots to turns so it was slow going. Then break out into the road and a quick full throttle dash for a bit over a mile to a wire line thru a swamp a short ways and up a hill crest. Once on top of that hill we could see dads corn field stubble and deer feeding. I counted 51 before the wind carried our scent or some thing to get them to running. I'll never for get that picture of the frost shimmering and deer feeding then running.


But since digital I just about always have a camera with me when out and about. Sort of stopped carrying one when out on our trails running The dogs in the morning and evening, been leaving the pistol home then too.
I keep one in my truck too.


 Al


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## Vahomesteaders (Jun 4, 2014)

I've seen some wonderful things in the woods. I've watched trophy class deer fight, bald eagles eat a meal 20 yards from me, great horned owls swoop in and grab squirrel off the tree next to me. I've seen a opossum hang by its tail in slumber. Watched otters play 15 feet away then they antagonized a poor **** trying to come down its tree. Seen heards of over 75 deer at once many times. Walked within 5 yards of sleeping buck. I've seen many beautiful sunrises and sunsets. All of this made possible because of a love for the outdoors and farming. The sun hasn't made it up before me in many years. And I dont think it ever will. Lol


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Yesterday while coyote hunting we are all set up and can see down this lane that goes to other fields and the woods we expect the coyotes to come from We see this brown critter come out of the grass on one side and set in the middle I put my scope on it and turn it to 18X as this little critter is a good 100 + yards away. I decide it is a Mink, all brown with just a little white on it. I had just got the scope back down to 6X when this coyote comes running out of the bushes next to the lane grabs, shakes the snot out of it and is gone before I can react. Darnest thing I ever saw.

 Al


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

Just got back from Texas. Saw wild hogs, armadillos, deer, skunk, raccoon, rabbits, road runners, many birds I couldn't identify, hawks, owls, etc., but best of all was just seeing the beautiful landscape along the Red river between Texas & Oklahoma.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

My house in the Cities was about half way between the two downtowns. I always figured if the Russians were going to nuke the Twin Cities they wouldn't send separate bombs for each city. They would just let one off right over my head and get a twofer.

The house was on the corner. I was sitting on the front porch, after dark, one summer evening. Then the crows started showing up. Eventually there were at least a hundred in a big furball over the intersection. For a half hour they just flew around in a ball about 60 feet in diameter, cawing like crazy. I have no theory what motivated them to do this. 

Sometimes nature puts on a show right in the middle of a metropolitan area.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

One night in the 1970's Brother Rob, hunting partner Rick, and my self were night fishing a beaver pond at night. One of those nights it is so dark you can't see your hand on your nose. Using top water lures such as Jitter bugs and Crazy crawlers standing out from shore roughly125 feet and casting in and reeling out we were catching some really nice small mouth bass. I am setting in the stern and thought I saw some thing go ghosting by when all of a sudden a big splash covered Robs back and Ricks front with water. We figure what I thought I had seen was a beaver and for what ever reason it decided to do the warning slap just as it got mid canoe. Scared the Bee Jabbers out of us any way.

We have been fishing during the day time and had beavers slapping the water around us. 

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I once saw a trumpeter swan, a domestic goose, a Canada goose, a muscovy duck, and a mallard standing together. It would have made a great size comparison picture but I didn't have my camera.

I also saw an big otter in hole in the ice with the front 1/2 out of the water standing on the ice as tall as it could. My dog was standing on the ice facing it. By the time my camera booted up the otter had slipped back under the ice and never came up again.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Nimrod said:


> It was just before ice out on a sunny day. The ice had melted around the shore so there was about 5 feet of open water between the shore and the ice. I was walking along the shore and came to a grassy area that was flooded about 4 inches deep. There were hundreds of Northern pike spawning there. Their backs were above the surface because the water wasn't deep enough. Many were absolutely huge. I'd fished that lake but I had no idea there were northerns that big in it. No more skinny dipping.


One spring I was walking along the shoreline of Emily Lake and saw something huge squirming partially out of water. My first thought was alligator because it was so big. It turned out to be a female northern and several small males spawning.


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

While hunting a Wildlife Management area I kicked up a deer. As the deer ran away it kicked up a rooster. The rooster was just disturbed enough to fly up in the air for a second and then come down in almost the same place in the waist tall grass. I marked where he was and walked up and got him.


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

One time while fishing I caught about the most diverse assortment of fresh water fish in the same outing I've ever encountered; largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, crappie, bluegill, rock bass, channel catfish and perch all from the same spot.


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