You Don't See This Everyday

We all do something to relax, I hope, and my favorite is fly fishing. Nothing quite like it for me, the perfect balance of just enough focus and mindless rhythm, throw in beautiful country and amazing wildlife, well that's my thing. On a trip this past July we ran into these guys lounging. All I had was my dirty phone but trust me, there were some absolute monsters in there!

Some great racks there! Nothing nicer than a great rack.

Impressive to see so many large bucks together. I've seen massive groups of elk, but never a group of bucks like that. On one memorable occasion, I happened upon more than 100, and they were actually getting a bit aggressive when we tried to get through.

That's an impressive group! You're right they're usually a little more isolated by this time of year.

I live about 45 minutes from Redwood National Park, and the elk there are ubiquitous and tame. People living on the edge of the park see big herds like that every day. They are disturbingly unafraid of humans, so it can be a bit scary.

And, over on the “I Don’t Get It” thread, we have this ~

Caribou at Denali Park in the fall.

Our neighbors had a pet turkey, but it disappeared sometime around the end of November. I wonder what happened to it.
👎

Australian wildlife is notoriously bad at negotiating cars. I went with a mate to pick up a car for him at this golf resort community down south, and on this long winding road out I probably hit about 12 wallabies (small breed of kangaroo), they just hop directly across the road in front of the car out of the bushes hit the bumper and bounce off into another bush.

Then when I was relatively new to driving I was going down this valley and opposite me this giant pink Galah bigger than a cockatoo is heading down straight into me. I figure this knucklehead bird would veer off but he crashes straight into the bumper bar while I’m doing 50 with his face.

So I pull over and this bird is pretty munted, its bloody and its wing is all bent around and while there’s not much damage to the bumper other than scratches, I clearly have to take this stupid bird to a vet so I try to quietly go near him to usher him back to the car to get him treated or put down.

Stupid bird keeps hobbling away from me as dazed and broken as it is, and there’s a house nearby with two big Rottweilers barking at the gate. With his last bit of energy this broken bird flaps his wings just enough to get over the fence into the yard and gets torn apart by the two big dogs.

I remember watching it and thinking that bird’s mates up in the tree must be thinking “Well that’s the end of Barry, what a dumbass”

And for good measure, a lone grumpy moose that chased us through the willows during the rut.

Mule deer buck on our front lawn.

An angry moose is a terrifying beast

An angry moose is a terrifying beast