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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask for beautiful experiences with wild animals

150 replies

freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 17:45

I was just curious, as a family member have been to see the seals today (we come from a part of the UK where they come up onto a local beach to breed. It’s all patrolled by volunteers to make sure people don’t get too close but you can have a lovely walk and see all the rotund little babies and juveniles flobbing about adoringly on the sand)

He’s sent me some lovely pictures and it made me remember the summers I spent with my mates near that beach when regularly a seal or two would come and swim with us. We never courted it or tried to get overly close but they’d just hang out for a bit, bobbing up and down. It was lovely.

The time I rescued a stag beetle from a pint in our local London beer garden was pretty cool, and I once re-launched a beautiful sparrow hawk who’d got trapped in our shed after our guinea pigs, and there was the time I found a lame fox in Southwark (I’ve name changed as all my family and friends know this one) and persuaded the nearest Pizza Express to let me guide it into their enclosed foyer and sit with it (it was very very calm and gentle) fit two hours while a rescue centre could get a van to us. It did chew my handbag but it was only a cheap thing Grin

AIBU to ask for yours?

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Skyejuly · 30/12/2018 19:51

I've swam in the Galapagoes which was the best but my heart is in scotland. The Golden Eagles were amazing and have seen some magnificent deer.

HesterSue · 30/12/2018 19:54

Our lovely rescue Dobermann was used in a puppy farm so wasn't treated well at all. She was a lovely calm dog and would run to the end of our garden as quietly as she could and watch the fox cubs playing in the woodland. It was beautiful to see her watching them and they knew she was there but didn't seem bothered.

gregcal · 30/12/2018 19:54

Our son work in India and as part of our visit to see him we went on safari to see the tigers. We had been out all afternoon and had not seen any when we pulled up next to another jeep and could see a male tiger not to far away. The tiger walked to our jeep and walked around it. It was such an amazing experience. We were all so overwhelmed when next a tigress and her cub came into view in the creek below us. It was a privilege to see these magnificent beasts in their own environment.

ISawSassyKissingSantaClaus · 30/12/2018 19:57

Also have a dolphin tale. Off coast of NZ late in the afternoon and there was a super pod with hundreds of animals all joined up in one gathering. Incredible! Got in with them and had a mother push her tiny baby right up to me! We were all eyeballing each other through my snorkel mask and I swear mum was laughing at me. Her and her baby chatted to each other and kept looking at me before disappearing back off into the ocean. It was funny, staggering and hugely emotional all at the same time and I felt very privileged Smile

Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 19:58

Hester that almost brought a tear to my eye, and that’s no easy feat. How lovely.

gregcal that sounds really amazing, I’ve heard how lucky you actually have to be to see the tigers, let alone that close!

Gibraltar ive been To and did go on a boat to see dolphins, but we were really unlucky- the 4 trips before us saw loads!

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MissMarplesKnitting · 30/12/2018 19:58

Swimming with a wild manatee was pretty mind-blowing. It sought out humans as it liked s belly scratch,then swam off once it had enough.

This week I got within a few feet of a squirrel doing classic squirrel eating pose. So lovely.

Seeing a barn owl out hunting one evening whilst out for a run.

Hedgehogs feeding in the garden. Love them.

We are big on wildlife in my family so I've had lots of lovely wildlife experience around the world.

Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 19:59

Giving a matinee a belly scratch Shock that is incredible

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Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 20:00

Autocorrect *manitee

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MissMarplesKnitting · 30/12/2018 20:00

It was awesome. Up there in my top 5 life experiences!!

HeffalumpsDaughter · 30/12/2018 20:06

In spring a pair of dopey seagulls built their nest on next doors very steep roof. Two of their eggs hatched and when the babies were about a week old they stepped out of the nest, fell off the roof and into our garden. The parents were still feeding them and at night I shooed them into our chicken run and they slept in there in a cardboard box with a hot water bottle. They soon learned to follow our chickens around and they learned to fly and flew off a few weeks later, the parents still staying near them.

They still come back and sleep on top of the chicken run most nights. I live in a little fishing town that’s overrun with seagulls, I haven’t told anyone that I was looking after these chicks as everyone local hates them. Quite often if I’m in town I’ll see one of them and it will follow me about for a bit. I don’t feed them anymore so I like to think they just like me.

curlykaren · 30/12/2018 20:06

Anyone seen the recent footage of the bloke in the kayak being slapped in the face by a seal holding an octopus?
Enjoy!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=TjRdo2ddqR8

Badcat666 · 30/12/2018 20:08

Every year growing up my family and I would go camping near the river Arun for about 4 weeks during the summer holiday (was a lot cheaper back in those days and we were a big family) and from about 4 years old to late teens I would spend all my pocket money on special swan food and hand feed a large group of swans that lived by the boat yard at the campsite.

The boat master taught me how to call to them and every day I would be surrounded by them as they fed gently out my hands, I was even able to feed the little ones.

Years later the boat mans son told me I was one of a handful of people he had taught the call to and when I wasn't there the swans would chase most people away that tried to get near them. He called me the little swan girl. Went back about 15 years later a couple years ago and they came to me when I called to them. Mr BC know thinks I am some sort of swan witch LOL :)

Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 20:08

Aw Heffalump!! That’s awesome!

Funny image of juvenile seagulls walking around like chickens Grin

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Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 20:10

Badcat that’s really special Smile

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Scarymovie73 · 30/12/2018 20:10

Swam with turtles and then dolphins on honeymoon. Probably will never happen again but humbling and would die a happy woman if I could experience it again😭

Junkmail · 30/12/2018 20:19

My sister and I hike a lot and we have had some lovely experiences. We hiked on Christmas Day and met a strangely friendly robin who appeared to adore my sister. It approached her and started singing and when she crouched down hopped closer. It was incredibly sweet and seemed completely fearless. I don’t know if it had been fed by other hikers but it was just intent on my sister and followed her for a while coming closer than I’ve ever seen a wild bird come before.

My sister and I also had a lovely experience with seals. We were at a deserted beach during the summer and it was so hot we had waded in to the water to around chest height. Again incredibly close, a group of seals just popped their heads above the waves to watch us. I love them and it was so nice to have them come up to inspect us. They stayed for quite a while too as we were just enjoying the water so hung out there for a while and the seals did too!

Makido · 30/12/2018 20:21

I had a school project to make a snail house in middle school. I remember me and my mum sitting for ages watching as the snail took teeny tiny bites out of a lettuce leaf.

I also saw tigers while travelling in northern India, you get in a jeep at dawn and off you go. We saw crocodiles, deer and loads of amazing birds but the tigers were jaw dropping. Makes me sad to hear the numbers reducing and that my children may never get the chance.

Also a separate trip as a child in India, we went to a waterful in the jungle where there were lots of monkeys very used to people. You could buy bananas and they would take them out of your hand. On that trip we also slept on a beach one night and were lucky enough to see both a turtle laying eggs and some turtles being born, all in one night. The mama turtle's shell was covered in phospherence it was beautiful.

Think we live near your seals - Horsey? I also have very fond memories of swimming at Waxham as a child with couple of seals for company Grin and remember walking there once in winter and coming across loads of seals and their babies with absolutely nobody else around. I find Horsey a bit busy now.

Haypanky · 30/12/2018 20:32

Thank you for this lovely thread! I once helped to catch a barn owl that had got into a colleagues workshops loo. Had to put it in a box and drive it to a rescue centre 20 miles down the motorway! It was lovely seeing one so close! They released it near to where it was found once it had put some weight on.

LadyWithLapdog · 30/12/2018 20:33

What a lovely, uplifting thread. Beautiful.

Popuppippa · 30/12/2018 20:37

I was clearing out our garage a couple of days ago and this gorgeous robin was inches away from me. We looked at each other for ages, with me speaking softly to it. It kept coming back as I worked and at one point flew inside the garage with me.

To ask for beautiful experiences with wild animals
Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 20:38

Love robins. So bold! That’s a handsome chappy.

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70isaLimitNotaTarget · 30/12/2018 20:39

We have a pair of grey squirrels that patrol the back gardens (I know they aren't loyal to me Grin )

I leave them a few monkey nuts and they bury them in the garden.
One was running along the fence with a nut in it's mouth , I was "Oh hello where are you off to"?

It looked at me like "I'm not one of your guinea-pigs , matey" and scootled off .

Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 20:43

I’ve also forgotten my slow-worm! At uni, last year, in a little ground floor studio flat I was living in, a little slow worm appeared to have fallen down from the shrubbery on a higher bit of wall onto a tiny patio underneath. I put her back constantly at first but every morning I’d look out and she’d come back down. In the winter I bought a little wooden house and filled it wouthpaper and dry leaves and she slept on there. In the summer I’d sunbathe and she’d stretch out alongside me, it was so nice Smile

I could hardly bear to leave her. There was a heath near the flat (South Downs) that I knew had a lot of slow worms so I did take her there to release when I left. Loved that little slow worm.

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ISawSassyKissingSantaClaus · 30/12/2018 20:44

That's reminded me of my "pet" robins. Lived in a garden flat years ago now and there was a pair or robins always hanging about. Started to put food out on top of a fence for them and they got very used to seeing me and as soon as opened my back door would appear on the fence. After a while I would stay by the fence and the braver of the two would literally eat next to me. Eventually I put the food on my hand and it would come and sit in my palm to have its mealworms. Was very special!

Also hand-fed a young wild rabbit I spotted at a service station on a grass bank. And a red squirrel on Brownsea Island Smile

Original poster
freeAnneBoleyn · 30/12/2018 20:45

*I mean last year I was AT uni, it wasn’t last year, sadly, I’m a bit older than that!!

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