I live in Astoria, Oregon. Wildlife is all around. A day does not go by that I do not see deer, eagles, blue and green heron. I often see several herd of elk in the area, there are a breeding pair of harriers who fly over the field across from where I work. For a time I ate lunch with a pair of crows, who would talk to me. We live on a path deer take into Astoria. Apparently people leave food out for them, they have walked right up to our front door and looked in. If you sit still they will stay for a time.

At a local nudist clubg I go to (Mountaindale Sun Resort in North Plains, OR) there rte wild deer roaming around.

I was hiking in the Black Hills with two friends, and we stopped for a break and to eat some trail mix. Suddenly a large mink ran right up to us, raised up on its hind legs, looked at us, and then took off. Don't know if he was looking for a snack, or what.

As a young man, I was working on a woods crew, getting rid of scrub oaks in an area where St. Regis Paper Company was planting pines. As I was swinging my axe, I caught the flicker of movement at my feet in the corner of my eye. I looked down and saw a 2 to 2 and 1/2 foot pigmy rattler coming from behind me. I am not sure the it was even aware that I was there, but was simply crawling along and I happened to be in its path. I froze, and when the snake was just in front of me, then simply dropped the axe head on it, I did not want to take the chance of mywelf or any of our crew getting bitten.

I had a cool experience in Crystal River Florida near the Manatee Sanctuary.

The manatees have learned that when the tour guided pontoons let out 50 or 60 screaming splashing people, that nobody follows them when they are near the island that is roped off. So they typically stay on the other side of the rope.

My ex and I rented a pontoon and went out by ourselves. I was in the water for about 15 minutes and was taking pics of the manatees on the other side of the rope. I have a beard, so the mask leaks a bit. I had to clear my mask which makes bubbles. When I did, a manatee turned and started swimming towards me.

I have a sequence of pictures of it getting closer. The last picture is of a blurry eyeball, as it had come up and bumped it’s nose to my mask. Sitting there with it’s nose touching my mask I started rubbing it’s side. It continued sitting there, so I reached under and rubbed under its flipper. It rolled over on to its back so I could rub it’s belly.

My ex had came over on the other side, of this giant, cow sized “puppy” and was rubbing it’s belly as well. Both of us were giggling like little kids.

Then of course, one of the tour pontoons came up and dumped it’s load of screaming splashing people, and turned and went back to the other side of the rope.

Ingalls Lake (6,300' has a resident herd of mountain goats. Dogs are banned. People are warned to stay a minimum of 200 feet away from mountain goats. These animals can be dangerous.

As we sat quietly on a rock, a mountain goat mother and kid wandered down to the lake to graze. The baby followed the mother closely. This is the smallest kid I have ever seen. Mountain goats were shedding in late June 2015.

2015 was the fourth year of a four-year drought, that ended (this time) in the winter of 2016. With little mountain snow, we could hike higher earlier in the year. I felt shocked by how little snow was on Mt. Stuart (9,416'.

Ingalls Lake is a take-off point for climbing Mt. Stuart. People die each year from falls while climbing Mt. Stuart. Last summer, a man leaned against a boulder on the edge of a cliff. The boulder fell over the cliff, taking the man with it. He fell to his death before his wife's horrified eyes.

Out in the woods in retreat with my mother's father in Odanak, the rez in Canada. Ended up with a snuggling lynx, she just wanted to get warm, I think.

I haven't gotten close to wildlife except a black bear staring at me from a dumpster enclosure in a White Mountains log cabin resort in NH. I have seen a mother black bear and her two cubs run across the highway four lanes, all cars stopping to let them pass. That was beautiful.

A while back I went to my bank to get a Money Order , when I came out there was a small bird, kinda like a wren, sitting on the hood of my car. Because I parked under a tree I figured it fell from there and I picked it up off my hood, no fuss with the bird at all. I set the bird in the tree and it just perched there staring at me with a cocked head, I thought it was cute the bird was thanking me.

When I got home I was informed that a woman I was close friends with had died that morning, we were both in recovery from alcohol together and shared a bond. That incident still freaks me out to this day. Really, really weird.

Years ago, I would go to a woodcarving retreat in eastern Nebraska, in the fall. It took place at a 4H camp situated in a national forest or preserve. There was of course a lot of wildlife around and it was not unusual to see some while hiking the trails or even at the cabins. One day we heard turkeys outside the work cabin (we were there to carve and enjoy nature) so the group of us went out to the deck. There was a group of 8-10 turkeys, walking in a group, making "turkey noises" but not the "gobble, gobble".

As the got closer to the cabin, I started imitating the noise, kind of an "urr,urr,urr" sound and apparently I was reasonably good at it. The turkeys started making noise back and as we "chatted" back and forth, they got more wound up. Pretty soon they started fanning their tails and some were gobbling, then they started "turkey fighting" although it was not really fighting, more of a display. They would puff their chests up, butt against each other and kind of twist their necks around each other's. Not sure how else to describe it as talking to them is the biggest part of my interaction and knowledge of them.

They kept it up for quite a while, as long as I made the sounds every so often. Clearly the sound was similar to what the females would make and this bunch appeared to be all males as they all seemed to strut and fan at times. All of us on the deck kept breaking out in laughter, surprised that they were not bothered at all by the our presence. They are pretty protected in this setting so don't act real fearful of people.

In fact, later in the week a friend and I went out for an afternoon walk on the forest trails. We encountered a good size group of turkeys. They moved away when they saw us coming but didn't run, although they kept an eye on us. Then I started making the call and it was like a signal, they would all start pecking around on the ground. When we moved their heads would pop up but if I "urr,urred" at them they would start pecking again. We played this game with them for several minutes then got tired of it and decided to move on up the trail.

We walked on and when we were maybe 20 feet from them their heads suddenly popped up and they started RUNNING after us. We weren't sure what to think, turkeys look FUNNY when they run. We jogged, they ran, we laughed and jogged some more. We stopped, they stopped and went back to picking in the grass. They did give up on following us when I didn't "talk" to them again but it was certainly an entertaining trek.

Around 15 years ago I went to visit my daughter. I noticed a small bird on the ground and I thought it was hurt because it didn't fly away as my wife and I approached. It was very small and beautiful so I picked it up and held it in my hand and stroked it's back. The bird didn't seem to mind. I noticed it had a long beak, but I didn't realize what type of bird it was. So I walked it over to a tree and placed it on a branch. A minute later it flew in the air and hovered near me. I was overwhelmed with pleasure when it flew, and amazed that I finally figured out what kind of bird it was. It was a hummingbird, and I had no idea when I saw it and picked it up.

That's a really cool story and a lot more exciting than mine. I was walking on a trail the other day and for the brief moment I looked down texting, I barely missed walking into a rabbit right in front of my foot. He just casually hopped aside and remained only a couple feet away, nibbling on a piece of grass, totally comfortable so I took a couple pictures. I've also been charged by a squirrel once haha. Also a full grown buck ran across a trail about 15 feet in front of me once, and I saw a bobcat walk across a trail right in front of me. That's about it!