Back yard pheasant. This banded male is probably an escapee from the DEC game farm two miles away.

This got me thinking about all the rarely seen animals I've observed in the wild. Brown Bear, Black Bear, Moose, Badger, Big Horn Sheep, Dall Sheep, Mountain Goat, Bobcat, Fox, Dolphin, Sea Lion, Seal, Nene. That doesn't include all the animals in Australia and Africa.

The same day I saw a deer exhibiting behavior I had never noticed before. As I walked past less than 10' away, its head ratcheted as it followed me, rather than moving smoothly.    Ithaca -- 11/14/2006