Most Memorable Wildlife Experiences

I have been reflecting a lot recently about my most memorable experiences with wildlife. I decided to take an hour to write down all of the experiences that I really remember. I have personally spent an unreasonable amount of my free time observing wildlife. Only one of these experiences that I have listed occurred in the Philippines, but I think this topic is still worth posting on this blog. As expected, the majority of these experiences occurred in Africa. In Africa, wildlife is just everywhere, and you can't avoid it if you tried. I'd really enjoy hearing responses to this with some other memorable experiences others have had with wildlife. These are in no particular order. Undoubtedly, I've left some good ones out because they just haven't popped into my head in the hour I've spent thinking about this.

• My first leopard in Kasane, Botswana. I lost it and yelled leopard after spotting it at the watering hole when we were eating dinner at Elephant Valley Lodge. I guess I'm not familiar with safari etiquette. Nobody else seemed too excited about the leopard. Neither did the elephants. Are you kidding me!? 
• Morning with Sitatunga in November at Kasanka National Park, Zambia. Sitting under huge Mululu trees, listening to Baboons, Lesser Swamp-warblers, White-browed Robin-Chats, Dark-backed Weavers, and Square-tailed Drongos and them really showing me the language of nature. One of those special days in Africa, if you take the time to listen, it makes you think of the age and wisdom in the land beyond what you ever thought possible. 
• Going birding with Frank Willems in Kasanka National Park, Zambia. He is unbelievable.
• Straw-coloured Fruit Bat migration in November at Kasanka National Park, Zambia. One of the great spectacles of the natural world. Ten million bats with 80 centimeter wingspans. Enough said.
• My first Ethiopian Wolf in Bale Mountains National Park, Ethiopia. The world's rarest canid.
• Seeing a Serval in the wild in Dinsho, Ethiopia.
• Black-and-White Colubus Monkeys in the giant fig trees and one of the best days of birding of my entire life at Lake Langano, Ethiopia, December 26, 2012. 45 life birds in a morning. The sort of day that is so renewing, it makes you wonder why it is so unique. 
• Finding a 4th-cycle Slaty-backed Gull in McKinleyville, CA meanwhile getting a phone call from Rob Fowler that he had found a 3rd-cycle Slaty-backed Gull in Fernbridge, CA the same morning. So weird! The topper is that we ran into each other at the grocery store the day before (just another grey Humboldt winter day) and were talking about gulls.
• First day in the Chobe River Valley, Botswana. There is no other place in the world with so many African Elephants. I just had no idea what an incredible display the elephants would give us on this day. I estimate we saw at least 200 individual elephants at once. So epic.
• Sunset in Awash National Park, Ethiopia. Standing out on a parched grassland, looking for bustards as it quickly got dark on Christmas Eve. Lifer Hartlaub's Bustard was just a neck in the dry grass.
• Watching a rainbow skink steal a paralyzed cricket from a parasitic wasp in Lundazi, Zambia.
• Watching the lake flies on Lake Malawi.
• My first Grey-winged Robin-Chat in Kelondu, Zambia. I was taking a bath at the stream near my garden, when I heard one of the most ridiculous bird songs imaginable. I went a grabbed my I-pod and speaker and played a Grey-winged Robin-chat song. Sure enough, it popped out of the forest and started singing. I think I heard it perfectly mimic at least 10 species, including European Bee-eater, Klaas's Cuckoo, and African Yellow Warbler. I later discovered a second bird, suggesting the birds were breeding there.
• Just watching ants and termites in Africa in general.
• My first Blue Duiker, world's smallest antelope, at Zambezi Source National Heritage Site, Zambia. 99 out of 100 people would have never known it was there.
• My encounter with a herd of Impala on a solo bush-walk (stupid thing to do in a place with lions) at sunset in Kafue National Park. The moment I really learned how to walk and observe nature. I was thankful to be in Zambia, the home of the walking safari.
• Birding in the San Pedro River Valley in Sierra Vista, AZ in winter. I love sparrows. I don't know if there is a better place in the US to observe them in winter.
• Drifting the Kafue River. The most serene place in the world. My first Rock Pratincole. Way too close for comfort hippo encounters. An experience that can only be fully enjoyed with an ice-cold Castle.
• My first Moray Eel encounter in Maui, Hawaii.
• A memorable encounter with a black bear in Redwood National Park, CA when doing my master's field work. I was alone, on foot, and this bear was just way too curious about me and my equipment. Doing that project, I got some insight into the incredible psychology of the American Black Bear in my encounters with dozens of them. Surely one of the most misunderstood animals in the world.
• Watching a Black Heron forage using its "umbrella" technique for the first time at Lake Awasa, Ethiopia. If you haven't seen this, watch a Black Heron on Youtube or better yet, go to a wetland in Africa and see it for yourself.
• Watching "flocks" of hundreds of Common Nighthawks over Lower Klamath Lake National Wildlife Refuge at dusk.
• Watching a female long-tailed Weasel with a small rodent in her mouth near Klamath, CA cross a log over a creek. She spotted me and immediately dropped the rodent, which was still alive, onto the log, and she ran into the brush. The rodent sat there on the log, and about 5 seconds later, she came out on the log snagged the rodent, and ran back into the bushes, fast as lightning.
• Another long-tailed Weasel story in Humboldt County…a female chasing a small rodent across the road in front of my advancing truck, then the same thing, three seconds later, back across the road in the opposite direction. If I were a mouse, a long-tailed weasel would be my worst nightmare.
• Watching a Brown Shrike kill and eat a snake in Quezon City, Philippines.
• Watching a Western Scrub-jay kill and eat a mouse in Battle Ground, Washington.
• Having a 20 minute staring contest with a curious Northern Spotted Owl along the Elk River in Humboldt County, CA. It was only about 20 feet from my head. The owl crushed my soul with its alien wisdom.
• A Northern Saw-whet Owl landing on my tent in Redwood National Park. It was a full moon, an amazingly clear night, it was 3 am, and I had to pee. I looked up and saw a weird shadow on the top of my tent. Then it moved. I uttered various expletives to myself.  When I unzipped the door., it silently flew over to my camp chair about 15 feet away. Then it just sat there in the moonlight and stared at me while I got out of my tent and took a piss. Crazy! I swear that happened, and I was completely sober.
• Just watching American Dippers, period. Everything they do is amazing.
• The feeling when you finally, finally, finally find a bird you have spent an extremely unreasonable amount of time looking for. American Three-toed Woodpecker. Grimwood's Longclaw. many others