RSPB Communities Christmas Advent calendar

Now this is a tough one! I'll limit it to the UK to make it easier. Every time I see a barn owl is an incredible moment so they come very high on the list, although some of my best memories of wildlife encounters have come from doing bird surveys. Coming across a downy tawny owl branchling in a late March survey was a surprise and also having a badger wander past within feet of where I was standing was pretty amazing but watching a red kite harass a fox was also a pretty special encounter. But then there was a time at Lakenheath when a couple of weasels chased each other around my feet, watching otters at Fowlmere, starling murmurations on my local patch...I can't do it...there are so many!!!

In the south of Spain a few years ago we took a boat trip out from Tarifa to see dolphins etc. which pass through the Strait of Gibraltar in September. We were lucky enough to encounter a Sperm Whale which was basking on the surface. The boat sidled gently closer to it until we were no more than about 20m away. The giant creature watched us with its large eye for quite a while until it eventually got fed up and dived giving us the classic view of its tail in the air, a sight I shall never forget.

When our local reserve was still a working quarry I was sat on the tracks of an excavator (after working time) and a Short Eared Owl came and landed on the same tracks about 10 feet away.I dare not move to use the old SLR camera I carried in those days but the memory will always be there,rates pretty high in my 50 odd years birding.Another high rating was watching a White Tailed Eagle being "bombed" by a couple of Common Buzzards in N.W.Scotland

Stalking a pair of cheetahs on foot in Kruger National Park. (I say stalking, we more or less just walked up to them, but quietly). Apparently they are a pair of brothers and don't really pay that much attention to humans. Then we heard a lion "cough" somewhere nearby and all did the fastest 400m casual stroll back to the vehicle ever recorded ;-)

My first ever visit to Leighton Moss during the 1970's and been absolutely enthralled by my close view of the Bittern, slowly walking through the water and reeds and then suddenly flying off. Even though I've returned to Leighton Moss on numerous occasions I've never been able to see or view the Bittern again either at Leighton Moss or the one occasion I visited Minsmere. But I will always remember that one and only occasion I saw and viewed that very rare bird.

We went on a 'twitch' to nearby Pons to see a wall-creeper that was wintering on the old buidings there. It eventually arrived & was really beautiful. Then another bird arrived & we looked at it, & it was a snow finch. We checked our local bird book & it wasn't even listed. Unfortunately it flew off before we could get photos of it. The next day we went back & it came again & we got the photos. It was the first in our departement for 400 years & got us involved with the local groups, voluntary work, surveys etc. It kicked off our birdwatching. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it!

We had only had our computer for a year & still hadn't worked out how to send photos,  so we had to learn jolly quick. Luckily it stayed around so other people got to see it too.

Used to have a holiday home in the country, one year we had a family of stoats that used to run around playing right outside the kitchen window.  OH got some great pics of them.

Hazel C said:

Then another bird arrived & we looked at it, & it was a snow finch.

Wow, I would have been thrilled to have seen that, Hazel. I had to look it up as I wasn't familiar with it.

When I was in the army and serving in Kenya, many years ago, I was part of a convoy of troops when we saw a water hole - and I spotted a pride of lions, with cubs.  No sooner had I expressed a wish to get close to the cubs and stroke them everybody around me dared me to do it (I was known to never turn down a dare) and money started changing hands.  Not having much choice I got my camera, slung a rifle over my shoulder and leopard-crawled up to two of the cubs.  The parents were watching me but didn't seem too bothered as I started to make a fuss of the cubs - their paws and teeth were huge for their size.  Eventually the male lion fixed his beady eyes on me and started to growl a warning, as if to say 'OK, you've been taking the mick for quite long enough'.  I took the hint and crawled backwards until I reached the vehicles - the lions didn't come after me (happily).  I found myself receiving quite a lot of money, as well as many amazed comments that I actually went up to the lions.  The last question, though, was why had I bothered with a rifle; I had had no ammunition for it as I crawled up to the lions.....!

Here's a picture I got with my Kodak Instamatic:

Certainly a once in a lifetime experience that one Limpy