as an off shot to the strange things found streamside thread in the sound off forum, I thought this would be a good topic for us to relate to others the wonders of nature that we've all seen while out and about. i just wish i could of had some pics from some of the unexpected encounters.

While fishing the lower Youghiogheny River in SW PA a friend and I were walking the RR track up river when I heard rustling in the weeds and all of a sudden a field mouse came bursting out about 10ft in front of us, a martin was just a few feet behind it. I was in the lead and as I took a stride the mouse ran right under my boot, the martin run up to about 2 ft from my boot and stopped, we both froze. the martin was looking at my boot then looked up at me, it looked like its eyes bugged out in surprise as it turned tail and ran back a ways. It stopped and looked back 1 time then took off into the weeds. My friend looked at each other dumbfounded and laughed. I lifted my foot and the mouse was curled up, probably frozen by fear because it took a little nudge from my toe to get it to move.