Sorry Peter it was aimed at StirlingMouse not you, I just wondered if he was from the Stirling area as that is where i was brought up, quite near there.
Another sort of magic moment, perhaps more an engaging one, something I’ve never seen before. Something for cat lovers.
A semi-wild female cat, thin black and very long legged, about a year old, came into my garden with a brother, but smaller than she. Both became friendly, liking to be touched, and turned up for regular meals.
Then, one day, in the open gateway to my garden, about 90cms wide, a big tom cat slowly appeared, stage left, facing up to the young brother who just happened to be sitting there at the time, stage right. The tom cat slowly advanced, the young male seemingly transfixed to the spot.
It was a slow, threatening, fierce-some looking, about to happen encounter. When their faces were literally just a couple of inches apart, I intended to shoo the big tom away. The young male looked completely helpless.
Before I could say ‘shoo’ a small black face appeared, pushing its way slowly between their faces, touching both but inclined towards the big male’s face. It was the young male’s sister. She remained there very still, and waited – her face right in the face of the big tom. Three faces seemed locked together there unmoving, for ages! She was not threatening tom cat, but stood still, looking determined, with a benign look on her face, waiting. Then I can only attribute a human attribute to the tom cat – a look or sense of embarrassment.
After some hesitation, not knowing quite what to do, he slowly inched back, all aggression gone, then disappeared stage left to where he’d come from. Tom cat had been given a message! Lay off!
The whole episode was in complete silence.
I’m no specialist on cat behaviour but I’d say that was an act of protecting a sibling. Something I’ll always remember. In my eyes she was a very special cat.
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Nor me, but it reminds me of our Rottweiler, Boss’, encounter with One-Eye, a stray cat who used to visit from time to time. Without the initial aggression though. I have described it somewhere on this forum before. 
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There is magic everywhere…a couple of days ago, here in Horsham, (it’ll be France one day) I was walking through the woods as I do twice daily. As I ambled along the boardwalk in the gathering gloom I saw right in front of me what I thought was a large dog jump right up and over the railings and across the little meandering stream. It stopped and turned to me and the little deer and I looked at each other for a few beautiful seconds before it bounded silently away into the night.
I absolutely love this thread…makes a welcome change to the usual Brit/Boris bashing and general carping…although even I am getting a little weary of his antics recently.
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Watched Chris Packham last night on BBC 4 TV / The Wonder of Animals / Elephants.
I saw a group of African elephants stay still, undisturbed, when voice recordings of a particular tribe that do no harm to elephants, were broadcast. Then they heard voice recordings of a tribe that regularly kill elephants and they immediately took flight. They can tell the difference between voices and dialect.
Quote: “Chris reveals how hairs on the skin help keep elephants cool, how sensors in their feet may be able to guide them towards rain and how a unique pouch in their mouths stores water. Recent research has even discovered that elephants can distinguish between the voices of human friend and foe.”
I’m sure there is much more to discover about animals. I think the more we know about them the greater the respect they’ll be given.
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Last year while walking his dog, our next door neighbour spotted some fox cubs in a nearby field on the far side of th canal. He was kind enough to mention it, so I wandered down one evening a few days after with a camera. They came out gradually as the sun was setting, cautiously at first, then running and play fighting in the field. Unfortunately I didn’t have a long lens handy at the time, though I did get a few pictures, and when I returned a few days later with more suitable kit, they were nowhere to be seen.
Fox cubs-00855 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
Fox cubs-00851 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
While I was taking photos one of the local deer wandered past to see what the fuss was.
Fox cubs-00882 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
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We see this sort of thing quite frequently… but it never ceases to thrill… 
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We all have different things that make for special moment. I’m not really a ‘wildlife’ person, but do sometimes see things that are special in people or landscapes.
A couple of years back we went to Morocco, and spent a few days in Essauoira. In one of the back streets I came across a boy and girl talking together, and the body language said so much about how people are just people across cultures. This was a special moment for me.
Boy meets girl, Essaouira by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
Likewise when we were in Jericho a few years back, this boy was obviously interested in the group, yet fearful for his safety, and I found the tension between the 2 quite compelling.
Jericho boy by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
Quite different, on Fuerteventura we sat and watched the waves rolling in at Playa del Valle for an hour or so - it was really hard to tear ourselves away.
Making waves-9444 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
And in contrast again, last time we were in Canada I managed a sunrise at Lake Moraine, about an hour outside Banff. I arrived in the dark to find an already crowded car park, then found a spot to myself and sat on a rock in freezing temperatures for almost an hour before the light became interesting. The mountains took on a beautiful magenta glow, and there were streamers of mist moving through the view above the lake. Despite the crowded start it was a lovely, peaceful place. I had sat so still and become so chilled that despite the hour drive back I had to get in the shower to warm up properly.
Lake moraine morning- by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
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Lovely photos by the way…especially the first two…
Good old B&W…
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Thank you, very kind.
Does arrival of the ‘decree nisi’ through the letterbox count? 
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I’ve been fortunate to have spent quite a lot of time in southern African game reserves (sometimes on funded research, which made things even better). However, my favourite moment, was actually a whole day that began with a dawn bushwalk from a camp in the former Swaziland over on the Mozambique border.
Going beyond the camp’s protective fence on foot is a very different experience to driving around in the animals’ territory. Even with an armed ranger guide, one felt very vulnerable and had to continually be plotting new escape routes as you moved through the bush. We emerged onto a dirt track where about twenty metres away was a group of rhino, just standing around. The adults are virtually blind and couldn’t see us, but their calves could and watched us very carefully. After standing very still for a few minute,looking at them in fear and wonder, we very quietly walked on. I’ll skip the subsequent encounter with the elephants because the wind was a problem and I’ve been much closer to a herd than was possible that day
That afternoon OH and self spent a couple of hours in a tree hide that overlooked a lake full of hippos, but you could only see their eyes and nostrils above the water. they remained fairly still all afternoon, just disappearing Eventually as dusk fell - and it falls fast in such low latitudes - the hippos started moving towards the shore, but a little too quickly We jumped down from the hide and legged it back through the bush to our car, pausing only to pick up a large elephant turd that now sits on a table at the other end of the room. Driving back to the camp in the dark our headlights picked out a group of rhino crossing the track ahead, for a few seconds they were white and spectral, then like ghosts they vanished back into the darkness…
I think it does…! I was certainly glad to get mine many moons ago but the path since has been a delicate balancing act 
Two of mine now they are adults can’t understand why I stayed as long as I did and defend me consistently for leaving and one still works for him in the family business but dislikes how he talks about me even all these years later…
Have you seen that footage of Asian elephants trekking through China and all laying down to rest while the newest little one is wide awake but still protected by the sleeping/resting adults….??? All drone footage I think….
And then the drone footage of a mother bear leading her infant up a snow face and her infant keeps sliding back down….
It’s interpreted as “just keep trying” but I kind of think that had the drone not been trying to capture the footage (it seems the mother bear tries to swat it away) that her bear cub may have made it up the slope following his mother on the first attempt and not kept sliding down numerous times 
Nope, I hadn’t seen the footage but did hear on the news that an elephant herd had trekked across part of China. Didn’t know that China had elephants!
Looked for it and found this video.
Good to know that China has a sympathetic attitude towards their elephants. Excellent news!
Only wish that China did more about the elicit Chinese trade in African elephant tusks!
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In middle school, first time my crush touched my hand and i got goose bumps. For me that was my magical moments.
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I’m currently exploring my childhood, and recall that I too had a crush - on a young student teacher who took our class for one year. I was 10 and I adored her!
At the end of her year at our junior school she asked me to meet her at the bottom of the road the following Saturday morning at 9am.
I met her there full of I don’t know what. She said goodbye and gave me a little present – a plastic magnifying glass. I can still see her getting on a coach full of student teachers, and off she went!
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Yesss… those were the days, btw almost every student once have crush on their teacher. This reminded me of my computer teacher
26 year old…