I was camping with friends at Lake Pinkston the following week. One morning I drove to Center for beer and ice and never saw so many black Suburbans in my life. Most of them had a NASA decal on the doors.

Lets see.. off the top of my head...

I've seen many falling stars.

Once, while in a tripod blind about 20' off the ground, I watched a coyote coming towards me from about 200 yrds out... he kept disappearing and reappearing, always getting closer, until he was directly underneath my blind, sniffing at my backpack that I had left on the ground. He had no clue I was there until I spat a nice stream of Red Man tobacco juice on him.. he took off like he had been electrocuted lol...

Couple of years later, same tripod blind.... had a young, 8 pt buck do nearly the same thing. Came in until he was directly underneath me. Neither time did I have a video camera with me..

On a night hunt once.. witnessed a trio of coyotes burst out of the brush and attack a rabbit. They were so close I could hear them crunching the bones of the rabbit while they were eating it. Fortunately for them, the had moved behind a clump of bushes and I couldnt get a clear shot at them.

Sitting around a stock tank one summer evening.... leaning up against a tree and hidden by undergrowth... waiting for some hogs to show up... Bobcat slipped down to the water's edge and started drinking, not 20 yrds away from me..... Tried to video, but my movement startled it and it took off....

End of deer season one year, I had already gotten my deer for the year, so was just armed with a pistol and binoculars... was glassing a young buck as he was eating grass and moving closer.. suddenly, his head pops up.... he looks to the side when out of the brush burst a rabbit running for its life... rabbit goes between the buck's legs.... hot on the heels of the rabbit was a coyote.... coyote did the same.... all three do a few circles around each other like some scene out of a cartoon and then rabbit and coyote race across the opening and out of sight....

Watched a red tailed hawk ride the thermals and swoop up and down to the ground for a good 30 minutes one year before dear season as we were filling feeders and setting out game cameras.. I do have a video of the that one...

I am sure I will think of others, but those are the ones that first come to mind...

I wasn't in the stand, but I drove up on a couple playing bedroom rodeo in the truck on my way out of my land.

Like, really, really aggressively.

cameron00, my wife and I did the same thing. They had pulled up and were blocking the gate to get out. After sitting my my truck for 5 minutes thinking that they would notice, I finally got out and knocked on their window. Never seen people move so fast. After they pulled off my wife said, "maybe we should name this road, Lovers Lane." We been calling it that ever since.

I was sitting in a lien to one evening in east tx and had an owl fly up not 3 feet from me.. I didn't hear him, but caught movement out of the corner of my eye. We locked eyes and both gave the "oh sheet" face.. and he went on his way.
Those suckers are stealthy

I set up a doe decoy in front of my tree stand. A large male bobcat walked under my stand....saw the decoy and started staking it about 40 yards away. He spent probably 10 minutes getting within 10 yards of the decoy. He hunkered down in the pounce mode and started wiggling his butt getting ready to leap. He stopped and looked at the decoy for about a minute. Than suddenly got scared crouched down and walked off hunkered down with its belly practically dragging the ground. It was facinating to watch and he really behaved just like my pet house cats.

I was setting up duck hunting early one morning 4:00 am and saw what I bet was the same satellite enter the atmosphere. It was spectacular and lite up the night sky with one single light and then broke up into a bunch of smaller pieces.

While fishing for stealhead on the Salmon river one year I watched a bald eagle drop from a dead tree branch and snag a fish out of the water not 20 yards from me. Awesome sight.

On a lease in Llano I was sitting on a rock we called 'point of the mountain' and had two bobcat kittens play in the tree to my right for about 30 minutes.

In a box blind on the ground I saw a red fox come down the two-track. I started making squeaking noises on my hand and fox came up to the stand and was looking hard for that mouse in distress. When I kicked the door open the fox made like a cartoon character - trying to go every direction at once.

While bow hunting I had a squirrel come up on the platform stand I was in and walk up and pat on my leg like he was trying to figure out if I was a tree or not. He then went over to my pack and looked inside and pulled out a bag of peanuts I had and proceeded to tear them open and eat about half of them. I told a friend back in camp what happened and he didn't believe me. The next week he was hunting there and said that the squirrel came up and checked his pack for something to eat.

Had Blackhawk helicopters fly below me while I was hunting the 'point of the Mountain'. The stand is only 100' above the rest of the area. Ran deer all over the place.

1. While in the service I went on a hunting trip for moose. The guide and I were over looking a swampy place and saw another hunter using a bow creeping toward a nice bull. He got up on one knee drew and hit the bull. The bull charged and we watched the hunter go airborne.

2. A buddy of mine had shot a hog weeks before but couldn't find it. While i was in the stand a hog that had a hole clean through it showed up at the feeder. another week later we caught it in a trap.

3. My favorite was in Rocksprings looking down in a valley watching a mountain lion was chasing some sheep.

5 or 6 years back, dad and I were on a lease outside of Lampasas. I typically hunted a box blind about 4 foot off the ground and right next to the blind, we had an old non-working tripod feeder laying on it's side. I would often watch birds perch up on the leg that was sticking up in the air. Early one morning, a BIG hoot-owl lit on that feeder leg and I watched him for a long time while he was watching the field for critters.

Last year in Ozona, I watched a fox piddle around my hunting area for a good 30 minutes. I had seen them in the wild in the past, but haven't really watched them more than a short time. That little fella reminded me of a cross between a cat and a puppy. Very light on its feet, yet playful and jumping/pouncing on any and everything. Pretty neat animal to watch.

A few times in Freestone Co. I watched squirrels chase rabbits out from under the feeder. The rabbits would keep coming back and the squirrel would get after him and chase him off 20 yards or so. The rabbit would sit back for a while then head back to the feeder, only to be chased off a few more times. Never ending cycle it seemed like.

This reminded me of another one...

My buddy shot a hog right between the eyes with his bow and was shocked it ran off.

As I was getting out of my blind it appeared in the road in front of me. The internal bleeding had taken its toll on the pig, and though the body was still going, the lights upstairs were barely flickering. Thing was walking in big circles kinda unaware of everything. I shot it, obviously.

Gosh I've seen so many wonders from the stand it's hard to list them. Three that really stick out.

A big male Ocelot sitting on a tank dam in the morning sun grooming himself.

A melanistic bobcat walks out into a sendero and sits down for a couple minutes. Then slowly walked off into the brush. I would have shot him but he was 644 yards away on my range finder and I just ain't that good.

One morning, a pack of coyotes sounded off for about a minute in dense brush to the west of my stand. About five minutes later, a big female missing her left front leg comes walking out of the brush with a cotton tail in her mouth. She sits down at the edge of the sendero and starts with her breakfast. Five other yotes came out with her, but none got any rabbit.

All of these sightings were in Webb County.

I'm sitting in the dark in some cedars hunting hogs and I just heard something walking from behind me then a dang skunk walks within 2 ft of me. I didn't move a muscle haha

wow, this thread got going good. I'll have to read over everything I've missed the last 2 days or so. keep the stories coming, folks, its fun to share the little things that make hunting so special. its why I'll always keep going back to the hunting grounds that I can get access to each and every fall until I can no longer physically hunt. you never know what will happen when you become a part of nature and just observe it play out, I can always find a reason to enjoy my time out there regardless of successful hunting harvest or not.

Watched a big 10 point buck chasing a doe in heat for several minutes in and out of trees and the open areas. Finally she got tired of running form him and swam out in to the small lake roughly 40 acres. The buck stopped for a brief second then went in after her. She swam at least 6 to 7 hundred yards before reaching the other bank. He eventually made it out but she was long gone. They were in the water swimming for at least 30 min. Lots of jokes made about the bucks dedication to his cause.

Same thing here, buddy told me to sit by the road which ran right alongside a fence and watch a certain area. I'm sitting injun, er American Indian-style against a fence post with my knees just about out to the nearest rut. I see something ambling down the rut towards me. SKUNK! He went by with about a foot to spare and just kept on walking, thank God.

I threw some taco bell out of my blind once and a damn skunk found it and was loving it right as I needed to leave. Right at the base of my blind ladder. Every time I opened the door, it went into defensive posture and picked it's tail up and then would gradually settle back down to the soft taco supreme leftovers. Seriously probably took close to an hour. Guess I could have shot it, but I didn't want it reflexively spraying an area I had to walk through.

Over my life there have been some great moments. Here are a couple.

Looking for arrowheads one day in the spring on our property I heard a noise and turned and saw a cottontail rabbit chasing a big black snake. The rabbit was biting as the snakes tail jumping up and down. The snake found a very small pine tree sapling and crawled up in the tree. The tree was so small and the snake so big the little tree was leaning over near the ground. The rabbit sat there for about 10 minutes under the tree then hopped back towards where it came from about 20 yards. About 30 minutes passed and the snake decided to come down and started to crawl in the direction I was standing. As soon as it started crawling here came the rabbit out of the brush and started attacking the snake again headed right at me. I had to step out of the way as they were right at my feet. They acted like they never saw me. They went into some more brush where I could not see them. About 10 minutes later the rabbit came out and hopped by me going back to the original brush it all started. I went back to the house were my brother and other friends were who were all wildlife biologist. We were having turkey camp. I reluctantly told them the story and they looked at me like I had been smoking something!

My wife and I were on our deer lease in west Texas going down a game trail when I told her to be quiet and step off of the trail and be still. Coming down the trail was a mama opossum and she had 3-4 babies on her back hanging on. She was walking very slowly, and when she got within a few feet from us she stopped and could smell us turning her nose up toward us. We watched and she started back on her way down the trail babies hanging on. I have to say my wife was in awe as she had never seen anything like this. I will never forget it either.

I was spring turkey hunting for Easterns one evening really just scouting. I was sitting next to a big pine in all camo face net ect… A gray squirrel came up to within 3 feet of me and was not sure what I was. I had my head down and cap bill blocking my face watching the squirrel. All of a sudden hell broke loose with a big crash and rolling fight in the leaves next to and now in front of me. I almost came out of my skin, but stayed still. To my surprise a red tailed hawk and swooped in and hit the squirrel catching it in its talons. It had its wings open and down on the ground. Once it got its composure it realized I was something that was not right setting there. We looked at each other for what seemed like 5 minutes but was probably 30 seconds when the hawk let go of the squirrel and flew up in a near tree. I could see the squirrel breathing laying their like it was dead. After a few minutes I decided to get up and soon as I moved the hawk flew off. I got up and looked at the squirrel. I nudged it with my shotgun barrel and it jumped up and jumped about 3 feet on to a tree about 2 feet off the ground. I nudged it again with my gun barrel and it jumped off and ran down the hill and was gone. Today was his lucky day!

We had an Barred owl one day stealing our ducks we killed on a slough off the Red River. We shot several ducks that landed near the bank about 30 yards to our side. The owl swooped off the limb and landed on the duck in the water. Then using its wings to flap and padding back to the bank with the duck. We went and got the duck from it which it had retrieved for us, as it flew back up in the tree and set there. This happened a couple of times before we decided to let the owl have one of them. We still talk about the owl who retrieved our ducks that morning and wonder how that owl sat near us and watched us shooting and talking and overcame whatever fear it had to hunt with us.

While turkey hunting the Caddo Grasslands WMA I was camoed up and sitting at the base of a tree. An owl flew by my head and landing on a limb in the tree across from me. He sat there and stared at me for a long time ... I guess trying to decide whether or not to try to eat me. Anytime he got bored I'd make a squeak on my turkey call and he'd whip his head around to stare at me some more.


Last year while turkey hunting at the lease I had some decoys out. A juvenile bobcat came strolling up to check them out. He sat down about 5 feet from a hen decoy and stared at it like he just couldn't figure out what the heck it was. Finally he gave it a good sniff and wandered off.

I watched a bird fly over a doe in a food plot and clip it's ear each time, pretty amusing. Owls are always cool too.

While hunting Canada geese in northern New Mexico we had a bald eagle swoop down and destroy one of our full body decoy's. Thought he had a meal for sure.

I wasn't hunting when this happenned, but when I was about 5 years old my parents, my sister, and I went on a family vacation with my uncle, aunt and their three sons that were all around my age. We were camping in west Texas over spring break. One night in Big Bend NP the parents wanted to stay up and enjoy the campfire, so they stuck all 5 of us kids in our family's tent, left the door open and unzipped it so they could watch us, and we proceeded to go to sleep. As the story goes, told basically the same way by all 4 adult witnesses, a skunk walked right through our campsite, walked right into our tent, was in there for at least 30 seconds, but somehow by the grace of God the skunk walked out of the tent and went on his way never to spray us. It was a 6 person dome tent, so it wasn't that big of an area when you put 5 different kids in it, and luckily none of us sleeping kids rolled over while the skunk was in there.

This story is told at least once every time we all get together ... fun times, no matter the exact truth behind it, this story is approaching family folk lore.

1) In Bandera, I was sitting in a natural ground blind from the Medina River flood flotsam and had a ringtail cat nearly crawl into my lap. A little later out came a red fox. And then a herd of axis and I shot one in velvet.

2) Not very uncommon, but seeing alligators while in the duck blind is entertaining

3) Saw a bobcat hiss at a couple raccoons. He was not impressed.

4) Around midnight, when I was in high school, was in a far off the main road pasture under a tree calling predators. After 45 minutes, I gave up and reached over to turn off my remote speaker. A big old owl from the tree I was under, swooped down to grab my hand and I screamed and wet myself (just a little) and the owl did the same.

That's awesome

So I am sitting in my tower blind Wed. of opening week of gun season and I keep hearing this scratching noise. The blind is right next to a fence and I finally realize the noise is coming from an 8" well pipe that was driven into the ground as a gate post. I had shined a flashlight down in it once and it is about 6' deep and someone in years past had thrown a 1 gal. plastic jug down it. Something is scratching that jug about every 20 min. or so then the noise stops. I didn't see any deer all evening and after it got past shooting time I had to get down out of the tower and see what is in this pipe. All evening I am thinking is it a possum, snake, rat?
So I shine a flashlight down it and I see a young hawk that can't be more than 10" tall. He is trying to get out but he can't open his wings wide enough to get any lift. I decide I got to get this bird out of here but how? I remember the tow strap I have under the seat of my Rhino so I get it, unroll about 6' feet and start lowering it down while holding the flashlight in my mouth. When the silver hook started getting close to the hawk he/she started freaking out so I move the strap as far away as I could and kept lowering it. As soon as the steel hook gets past him the hawk latches on to the strap and I start hoisting it up hand-over-hand. As soon as his head and shoulders cleared the top of the pipe he took flight. What a great feeling to see him fly off!
It was a rotten week for hunting as for as seeing any deer but that experience made it all worthwhile.
Two days later I am sitting in the same blind and I see a small hawk cruising over the blind and I know it probably wasn't him but I like to think it might have been.