I’m not that ongiong to have a group, lol, and I’m going in irregular times, when I’m free, can be 7a.m. or 5p.m., can go for long walk or realize after 15 mins I need to go back, plus other people really distract from the purpose (plus it’s a small suburb, I only know like 3 birders around, one I met right in the forest and we’re seeing each other pretty often, he’s very knowledgable, but I feel like I need tips, but don’t need the actual person with me).
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Like a month ago police refuse to come when a guy was beating his wife to death, multiple people called them many times, for hours, neighbours had to break into the flat, but woman was already dead and police came only after that, and knowing how mostly they work to solve stuff and will just refuse to take your complain or throw it out when you’ll leave I won’t go with just a pic to them, there’s no actual evidence.
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That’s SO HORRIBLE! How can they be so irresponsible?!
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Some guy chased my dad out of the National Forest with a firearm. We figured that he must have had a meth lab or a marijuana grow in that area, because he was very determined that nobody go down that forest road even though it was all public property.
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Pretty easy I can tell.)
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Police can be rather selective about what they respond to in many cities, including mine. That case told by @fffffffff, where the violence went on for hours and was reported many times is particularly egregious, though. @karen5lund I am not sure I would expect the police to do much of anything here, if I went to them with a photo of a dog and a story about what happened on a nature walk (unless I sustained injuries). Maybe they would have me fill in an online form. You may have more responsive policing in your community, though.
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That’s about all I would expect. This coming from someone who has learned from experience that there is no point in reporting a theft; the only reason to bother is if the stolen items were insured, and you need to prove to your insurance company that you did.
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Where I live there’s usually no drugs, but I have seen some really indiscreet teens smoking weed behind trees, or under bushes. Once I came across people smoking something producing vast quantities of pink smoke (I am yet to know what that was) and also most weirdly, I found a trio of old men with grey hair and beards roasting a plastic water bottle on a fire, before running straight into the forest when I saw. I laughed so hard XD
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Speaking of drugs: there have been several times when local people thought we are drug couriers making caches. As a result, we had a couple of very unpleasant conversations… Of course, if you are guys in camo, with cameras, turning over rocks or logs, doing something near the ground, and then put it back in place - you are definitely a drug courier. Jokes about drug caches now are an integral part of our herping trips. And once, when I was searching for amphibians, the mushroom pickers thought that I was collecting psilocybin mushrooms. Seems to be rather common stereotype - at least in Russia - that if you met young or middle-aged man in the forest, he is for sure doing something with drugs.
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Reminds me of doing plant surveys along a main road in Iowa in the season when wild Cannibis sativa (the hemp, not the marijuana version) was growing. The police were called on me so often that eventually they stopped coming out to investigate.
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Will paranoia decline if we, as a society, stop pandering to it?
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sometimes walking around with binoculars, staring in grass and diving into ponds attracts attention, and often the bad sense of humour in other people, but it is usually best to ignore it, and if they start being weird about it, or mean, I guess telling them to stop or laughing it off might work? I have only experienced the cruelty of 12 - 15 year olds, and I suppose it is very different to that which you mentioned.
I am questioning why said man wanted his dog to be photographed in the first place? He probably was a bit out there.
My not so important advice is keep going out, since 1 bad experience can be overshadowed by many good ones, but If I were confronted by a big strange man, I think without my dad, I would probably be in the same position as you.
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I’m not a person that plays social games well, so if the person annoys me I’m not gonna hide it and make it as if it’s funny, cause it’s not at themoment, doesn’t help with such weird people. I have no idea why he needed his dog to be photographed, something to do with his ego I guess, as if I was his servant, no “please” was said.
I’m going out now and only saw normal curious people after that accident, but I’m trying to get my husband with me, he’s an expert in dealing with people, so I can do my thing an not talk.
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May have been a ploy to exchange contact details…kinda controlling and creepy
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personally, i definitely consider human to be the most dangerous creature to be encountered in the wild, aside from maybe like, thrashing into brush where grizzly bears are living or something. I am a tall, male-bodied guy, so i encounter less issues than most people but i actually am usually off trail when alone (for work or in areas where it is legal and ecologically acceptable) and thankfully rarely encounter other humans. It’s different for others. I had an alternatively positive experience yesterday where i was wearing an inat shirt and met two people out with a bug net and they were collecting iNat data too :) Hopefully i was not the irritating one to them, but i don’t think so.
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First day in the states and already got a bad experience. I was taking photos of the aninals in the lakes and in the sidewalk, and a man just started harrasing me because he thaught I was trespasing property and taking photos of maybe little girls, I showed him the photos and how none of them were on private property but still insisted and even menaced me with calling the cops
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We should start a thread on “Your best iNatter meetings/encounters!”
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I had razy day today! For 30 mins I had to explain to a drunk woman that I can’t record her an angry video for her ex and “put it everywhere”, it was a rollercoaster of insanity, I can’t put too much details about what she told me about her life, as it’s pretty embarassing, but it’s a first for me and it ruined my first day of bioblitz as I had to head home much faster than I thought I would, almost no insults, just really weird and I tried this time not to say anything controversial and it helped.
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