Wow Moments

This afternoon my wife and I watched a whitetailed doe and her twin yearlings grazing in our yard, about 30 yards from the window. We've watched them all summer graze across our pond from the house (about 150 yards), and we've spooked them nearly everyday for the past week or so eating acorns off of the driveway (it goes through about 1/4 mile of hardwoods), but this is the closest I've been to a deer with the opportunity to watch, without the motive to kill it. Watching them swallow was amazing to me! The size of the lump that travels down their necks is almost unreal! One of the yearlings is a button buck, and he seems to be much more wary than his sister. That kind of surprises me.

We have a couple of persimmon trees around the edge of the yard, and the persimmons will be ripe in a week or so, so we could get several more viewing treats like today.

Todd
 
Few of my "wowments" have much to do with wildlife. But I often find myself in awe of beautiful vistas. Waking at dawn on the very edge of the Grand Canyon, watching the red rock formations of Bryce Canyon change color during sunset. Those types of things really make my life better.

And I read in an earlier post about keeping a fishing pole in your trunk. That's a great idea. I live in an area with lots of water and every time I come upon a place that looks like a good hole, I'd love to give it a shot immediately.
 
Here's a few:
Hiking along the coast by the California redwoods we came to a large male elk with his harem. They were close to the trail. My wife wanted to find a way around but I figured we could ease by and went ahead - bad idea. As I got closer he charged me from perhaps 10' away and came fairly close before he stopped. Turned out it was just a warning - which I took very seriously after seeing all those sharp, pointed antlers from too close. I felt very vulnerable. Turned out it was mating season. I also felt very dumb and learned a good lesson, but WOW!

A similar experience was snorkeling on west Maui. There were lots of tourists snorkeling close to the surface. I would go further down and further out. I found 3 eagle rays. Two were following the first around. I figured it may have been a mating thing. I would go up for air and back down to follow them around. This went on a while, sometimes below the unsuspecting tourists. Finally they went into shallower water. I guess one of them decided I got to close and it charged close to me and turned around (they all had sting tails). I did take that warning and backed off. I lost them soon after, but WOW! I did not feel stupid on this one.

Okay, this is getting long. Last one. There was a pretty tame dear in our neighborhood (I live in the mountains) years ago. First time I met it I was working outside kneeling. I sensed something behind me and turned around. Literally, in my face was the deer. I stood up. It stood on it's hind legs putting its feet on my shoulders for a moment, then went down and walked off. I felt I had experienced something wonderful. Later I found out that neighbors hand fed it. Another WOW!
 
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