They're generally pretty common throughout their range. No need to run from it though, black widows aren't very fast and as long as you don't try and touch it or pick it up it's got no reason to consider biting.
Wild animal sighting you felt the luckiest to experience?
- Thread starter elefante
- Start date
They're generally pretty common throughout their range. No need to run from it though, black widows aren't very fast and as long as you don't try and touch it or pick it up it's got no reason to consider biting.
Seeing an otter is not “nothing”; yes I have seen many super species but I still think my first sighting of a wild otter on Shetland where it came on shore and dozed off just a couple of yards away remains in my global top ten! My only comparable British sighting is of fighting Adders.
I've only seen North American river otters in the wild twice. Both sightings were neat.
I have seen a wild (North American River) Otter a total of 4 times. It's always a delight, easily one of my favorite mammals I've seen in the wild.
Apparently I'm lucky with river otters, I've seen them numerous times! Even including actively fishing and young otters at play. Always awesome to see them, but surprised they're that rare for many people.
Prochilodus246
Well-Known Member
I would have to say my sighting last summer of a Black browed albatross at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, which I had no knowledge prior to visiting as I only went to see the gannets and kittiwakes.
I know my experiences won't hold a candle to anyone else's here, but here are my favorite sightings
1. Buffalo, NY, 2018. I saw a stripped skunk on the quad of my college campus. This is surrounded by houses a few minutes from downtown, probably wandered over from the cemetery across the street.
2. Somewhere in upstate NY, 2016. Driving to SUNY Delhi, a college I considered going to after high school, I swear I saw a bald eagle soaring in the forest next to us along a creek. First time I saw one in the wild.
3. Tampa, FL, 2021. Two instances in which I saw at least three North American river otters cavorting about in and around a small creek near the International Plaza Mall. First time I saw otters outside of a zoo or aquarium.
4. Tampa, FL, 2021. I saw two or three bottlenose dolphins, my first wild marine mammals sighting, during a dolphin watching tour with the Florida Aquarium. I tried to take pictures, but there was always a pole or a woman's hair blowing in the wind in my way.
5. Bergenfield, New Jersey, 2021. I work for a business that does educational animal shows for children, and we were set up at an outdoor show at a school. As we waited to begin, I saw two bald eagles soar overhead. My partner, I, and some of the parents joked about how they were part of the show.
1. Buffalo, NY, 2018. I saw a stripped skunk on the quad of my college campus. This is surrounded by houses a few minutes from downtown, probably wandered over from the cemetery across the street.
2. Somewhere in upstate NY, 2016. Driving to SUNY Delhi, a college I considered going to after high school, I swear I saw a bald eagle soaring in the forest next to us along a creek. First time I saw one in the wild.
3. Tampa, FL, 2021. Two instances in which I saw at least three North American river otters cavorting about in and around a small creek near the International Plaza Mall. First time I saw otters outside of a zoo or aquarium.
4. Tampa, FL, 2021. I saw two or three bottlenose dolphins, my first wild marine mammals sighting, during a dolphin watching tour with the Florida Aquarium. I tried to take pictures, but there was always a pole or a woman's hair blowing in the wind in my way.
5. Bergenfield, New Jersey, 2021. I work for a business that does educational animal shows for children, and we were set up at an outdoor show at a school. As we waited to begin, I saw two bald eagles soar overhead. My partner, I, and some of the parents joked about how they were part of the show.
zoo_sipsik
Active Member
- Red-billed Streamertail (Jamaica)
- Jamaican Mango (Jamaica)
- Northern Potoo (Jamaica)
- Jamaican Tody (Jamaica)
- American Red Squirrel (Yellowstone)
- Male Caribou (Denali)
- Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Grand Teton)
- Antelope Jack-rabbit (Arizona)
- Steller's Sea Lion (Alaska)
- Orca (Alaska) – No photo
- Tufted Puffin (Alaska)
- Horned Puffin (Alaska)
- Harbor Seal Colony (Iceland)
- Arctic Terns (Iceland)
- Atlantic Puffin (Iceland)
I love that red squirrel photo, although I must admit that species doesn't stand out to me compared to the other species on your list, as I seem them nearly every day.These were incredible animals to see!
- Red-billed Streamertail (Jamaica)
- Jamaican Mango (Jamaica)
- Northern Potoo (Jamaica)
- Jamaican Tody (Jamaica)
- American Red Squirrel (Yellowstone)
- Male Caribou (Denali)
- Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Grand Teton)
- Antelope Jack-rabbit (Arizona)
- Steller's Sea Lion (Alaska)
- Orca (Alaska) – No photo
- Tufted Puffin (Alaska)
- Horned Puffin (Alaska)
- Harbor Seal Colony (Iceland)
- Arctic Terns (Iceland)
- Atlantic Puffin (Iceland)
Of course, many, however the reality is in most cases I had deliberately placed myself in a position where I was most likely to see them. So, a couple of exceptions:
1. When I was a kid, an Australasian (purple) swamphen standing beside the road as we drove past. I just thought what an incredible bird.
2. A leopard, which was becoming my nemesis species. First was four days in Botswana, including waiting outside a thicket of trees which we knew contained a female and cubs. Then two weeks in Sri Lanka without a sighting, including one that crossed the road two minutes before we arrived. And thirty days in Uganda without a sighting, including having to sit beside some birders showing me great photos of one they saw that morning. Then on the last afternoon of the last day driving to a lake cruise, we finally saw one.
3. On my trip to Panama earlier this year waking on the second last morning to see a sunbittern working the stream that flowed through the lodge grounds. This beautiful bird was totally unexpected, I had written it off as a possibility in my planning. It was there in plain view for more than half an hour.
1. When I was a kid, an Australasian (purple) swamphen standing beside the road as we drove past. I just thought what an incredible bird.
2. A leopard, which was becoming my nemesis species. First was four days in Botswana, including waiting outside a thicket of trees which we knew contained a female and cubs. Then two weeks in Sri Lanka without a sighting, including one that crossed the road two minutes before we arrived. And thirty days in Uganda without a sighting, including having to sit beside some birders showing me great photos of one they saw that morning. Then on the last afternoon of the last day driving to a lake cruise, we finally saw one.
3. On my trip to Panama earlier this year waking on the second last morning to see a sunbittern working the stream that flowed through the lodge grounds. This beautiful bird was totally unexpected, I had written it off as a possibility in my planning. It was there in plain view for more than half an hour.
CarnotaurusSastrei
Well-Known Member
Seeing both a manatee and an alligator while on a tour of Kennedy Space Center.
I know they're far from the rarest bird, but I kinda felt rather lucky to see some mute swans in the Thames when I visited London (and Great Britain in general) for the first time last year.
Seeing an unbanded piping plover that briefly stopped at a beach in Hyde Park in April 2023.
The rest of these all come from a trip I took this past summer:
-Seeing both Sonoyta pupfish and a Sonoyta mud turtle at Quitobaquito (the only place where they are found in the US)
-Seeing a lone loggerhead shrike one day on the drive to Quitobaquito
-Seeing a couple Cocos boobies flying over the Gulf of California (prior to the 65th supplement to the AOS's checklist of North American birds being published)
-Seeing a California condor perching beneath Navajo Bridge before it eventually took flight
-Spotting a Devil's Hole pupfish from the viewing platform through a pair of binoculars
I know they're far from the rarest bird, but I kinda felt rather lucky to see some mute swans in the Thames when I visited London (and Great Britain in general) for the first time last year.
Seeing an unbanded piping plover that briefly stopped at a beach in Hyde Park in April 2023.
The rest of these all come from a trip I took this past summer:
-Seeing both Sonoyta pupfish and a Sonoyta mud turtle at Quitobaquito (the only place where they are found in the US)
-Seeing a lone loggerhead shrike one day on the drive to Quitobaquito
-Seeing a couple Cocos boobies flying over the Gulf of California (prior to the 65th supplement to the AOS's checklist of North American birds being published)
-Seeing a California condor perching beneath Navajo Bridge before it eventually took flight
-Spotting a Devil's Hole pupfish from the viewing platform through a pair of binoculars
Luck is not really quantifiable, something that seems amazingly lucky to you might be an everyday experience for someone else. Perhaps the closest you can get to a measurement is not just an experience that you never expected, or even that you had never heard of before, but one one for which you can only find a few records of something similar happening.
Using that criterion, I would say that the experience I described above, when I saw a thresher shark leaping out of the water several times, was quite lucky.
Likewise the appearance of a Cape rock sengi as our little group was eating a picnic lunch near the shore of False Bay, seemed very lucky. It posed nicely for my camera and pottered around the rocks where we sat for a few minutes, apparently quite undisturbed by our presence.
But how lucky were we? It was not a regular picnic location, so it seems unlikely that the sengi was habituated to human visitors. Our guide was surprised, but she had much more experience of marine mammals and of the wildlife of Kruger National Park. On the other hand, when I looked at the iNaturalist website I found more than 20 sets of photos of the species, almost all appeared to be taken in the wild, so it was hardly unique. On that basis, I would estimate that we were very lucky, but perhaps not very very lucky 
Using that criterion, I would say that the experience I described above, when I saw a thresher shark leaping out of the water several times, was quite lucky.
Likewise the appearance of a Cape rock sengi as our little group was eating a picnic lunch near the shore of False Bay, seemed very lucky. It posed nicely for my camera and pottered around the rocks where we sat for a few minutes, apparently quite undisturbed by our presence.
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I guess there are two types of sighting. The first are of species that are rare, either in general or in a specific place:
- Ocean sunfish in Pembrokeshire - I think they have become more regular since I saw one (I cannot actually recall the year it was when I saw it); definitely a real surprise when on the boat tour that travelled around Ramsey Island.
- Pied-billed grebe in Costa Rica - when I saw this species on Lake Arenal in 2009, it was regarded as a rare vagrant in the country. Certainly my guide, who had lived in the country his entire life and guided bird tours there, had never seen one.
- European serin in Essex - I found one of these quite by chance along some gravel pits not far from my house in 2016; looking at the records at the time, it was one of only two individual serins in the UK at the time. It flew away as I was watching and no other birders found it again (fortunately, I got images of it, so the identification is undeniable).
- In April 2014, was looking over the garden fence into the field behind on what was a sunny day, when a European badger ran past with a red fox in hot pursuit - the fox briefly nipped at the badger's rump before both animals disappeared into a bank of trees. I have certainly never seen the like before - not even seen a wild badger in daylight before or since.
- Cannot remember what year it was, but on the south coast of England (either Dorset or Hampshire), heard a squeaking off the path and, on investigating further, found a barred grass snake had caught a vole and was swallowing it alive, tail-first - by this stage, just the head was poking out of the snake's mouth. By the time I had got my camera, the snake had finished swallowing and I just got a glimpse of its tail disappearing into the grass. A very lucky sight for me to see, even if it was desperately unlucky for the vole.
USZOOfan42
Well-Known Member
Here’s a few:
• Seeing 20+ Manatees in Tampa
• Seeing a Sea Turtle’s head pop up while fishing
• Caught a Shark (no idea on species was in Myrtle beach)
• Seeing a Bald Eagle and its nest
• 50+ Sea Lions in La Jolla
• Seeing 20+ Manatees in Tampa
• Seeing a Sea Turtle’s head pop up while fishing
• Caught a Shark (no idea on species was in Myrtle beach)
• Seeing a Bald Eagle and its nest
• 50+ Sea Lions in La Jolla
I've been fortunate enough to swim with whale sharks (Mexico), manta rays (Indonesia), bottlenosed dolphins (Egypt) and sea turtles (hawksbill in Egypt and green in Mexico). I have also seen loggerhead sea turtles (Spain), ocean sun fishes (Spain), humpback whales (Australia, Costa Rica), Edens whales (Thailand), and a selection of other dolphin species, but from a boat only.
Watching a green sea turtle lay her eggs on the beach in Costa Rica in almost complete darkness (using red lights only)
Seeing not one but two subspecies of leopard in the wild. Got some amazing views of a Sri Lankan leopard in Yala National Park. And last year in Thailand, during our very last moments of our final day there, we saw an Indo-Chinese leopard cross the road. A black/melanistic one at that!
Watching a green sea turtle lay her eggs on the beach in Costa Rica in almost complete darkness (using red lights only)
Seeing not one but two subspecies of leopard in the wild. Got some amazing views of a Sri Lankan leopard in Yala National Park. And last year in Thailand, during our very last moments of our final day there, we saw an Indo-Chinese leopard cross the road. A black/melanistic one at that!
Local_Shark
Well-Known Member
I’m gonna say blue and fin whales off the coast of California. The sheer immensity of these animals is just unbelievable to witness. I feel beyond lucky to have gotten to see both species a handful of times. Somehow I still haven’t yet caught a glimpse of one of our commonly migratory gray whales though! 
I also did once run across a shortfin mako shark while boating along Catalina, and on the same trip I was towed behind the boat alongside some offshore bottlenose dolphins. Both were pretty damn crazy experiences haha.
I also did once run across a shortfin mako shark while boating along Catalina, and on the same trip I was towed behind the boat alongside some offshore bottlenose dolphins. Both were pretty damn crazy experiences haha.