Wild Dolphins

What encounters have you had with a wild animal, one memorable one, for me, was with a Dolphin :heart:
Funny the things that you remember, another was driving in Galloway Scotland, about this time of year, had to stop for two hares boxing in the middle of the road, sat there expecting them to buzz off, no, got out, stood beside them, totally unaware of me, I eventually had to chase them when another car came along, mad as ‘Hatters’:heart:

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ive had so many its hard to say. probably my best was sitting in a bush watching and counting ducks come in and hearing a owl then watch it slap down right in front of us and snag a tasty mouse then bug out as it realised it wasnt alone. we were sitting about 3 feet from where it slapped down.

saved 3 wild boar piglet sitting at th side of road with a dead mommy boar.

Saddest thing is having to put out of misery hit animals still alive barely but drivers just carry on, mainly deer.

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Living here we encounter wildlife all the time, we’ve had a snake in the house, a snake drop from the sky (well rock face) and land at our feet, deer and badgers in the garden.

Just thinking about owls Harry, I was crossing Biscay on my boat, going South, in an Easterly blow, one night a large owl went past, being blown to the West, and doomed poor thing. :roll_eyes:

why doomed|?

The dolphin was in the Caribb, it came into the anchorage, so I went in the water, to my surprise it was as curious as me, allowed me to hold it, it was as big as me, could have I’m sure, killed me, but just wanted to play, not a bit slimy, but like velvet and warm. There was a young lad, about 10 , on a neighbouring boat, his parents let him come in the water, the dolphin had been quite boistrous with me, but it,s behavior changed and it was so careful and gentle round the lad. We played with it for 3hrs or so, a once in a lifetime :heart:

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Long way to America for an owl :thinking:

ahh okay so he was out at see being blown further away. sorry im not good on mas and locations.

used to own a 16ft speed boat but that was for fun

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Another one off, I was anchored in a bay in Corsica, 28yrs ago, an Osprey plunged into the water, a couple of mtrs away, came up with the catch and perched in a nearby tree to munch it, funny the events that impress :slightly_smiling_face:

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A couple of years ago… here in my village…I watched a heron see-off an Osprey… fascinating to see. The heron was looking for whatever in the damp grass down in the valley-bottom… the osprey was in a nearby tree waiting his moment.

Each time the osprey tried to get whatever was “being offered for lunch” …:upside_down_face: the heron flapped his wings, strutted forward and batted at the offender with his beak…

I was enthralled and watched it repeated 2 or 3 times before the osprey gave up.

Magical… only wish I had a video camera with me at the time…

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We saw several small groups of dolphins in Florida last month, they come very close to the piers where people are fishing and at one point were no more than a few feet away. Driving through the Everglades you can stop and watch huge alligators sunning themselves.

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It’s lovely on a small boat when a pod of dolphins are swimming alongside, you can clearly hear them, inside the boat, talking to each other, twittering away, beautiful :slightly_smiling_face:

Was lucky enough to see a huge Blue Whale in the Gulf of Genoa, amazed, had no idea they ‘hang out’ there until I saw one :open_mouth:

Nothing too exotic but I had a couple of interesting wild animal experiences within minutes of each other. A couple of winters ago I went for a walk on a sunny afternoon and when walking along a road leaving my nearby town I could see something happening on the road ahead. What it turned out to be was a mole and a kitten crossing the road. They made very slow progress. When the mole moved the kitten followed it. When the mole stopped they both stopped. Less than ten minutes later when walking down the middle of the road I was aware of something falling just in front of my face. I looked down and there was a squirrel getting its act together before running away fast. I looked up to see what it had fallen from but there was nothing above me. However on the right hand side of the road was a tall lelandii hedge and I can only imagine that the squirrel had ended up on a bit of it that wasn’t strong enough to hold its body weight and that branch and squirrel had swung across the road to the point where the squirrel had let go and the tree swung back upright. I’m just so glad it landed 20cm in front of me, if it had landed on my head I would have jumped out of my skin!

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Lovely stories Dominic :slightly_smiling_face:

Trundling down a pretty wild part of the River Guadiana, S. Portugal, near Mertola, I was surprised and happy, to see a Lynx running up the hillside :slightly_smiling_face:

On route to Madiera from Portugal, the course took me over a huge ‘seamount’ where the depth comes up from ocean abyss to very shallow, It was pitch dark and out of interest I was watching the sounder to see the peak, there was a very strange loud noise emanating from near the boat, very eerie, I wasn’t sorry to leave the area! :roll_eyes:

Someone else must have had some interesting encounters :slightly_smiling_face:

We had a pair of Furet, weasels in the garden last year, one was lovely, came up to B’,sat upright, on his haunches, on the low terrace wall about a metre from Her, and they looked intently at each other, for a few minutes. :hugs:

Cuckoo, ours has arrived! :slightly_smiling_face: