Out in Idaho, Stephen Barnard not only sends a photo, but admits that he has paranormal abilities (I believe Rupert Sheldrake has studied the “eyes on the back on the neck” phenomenon:
I was photographing some geese in the field when I felt eyes on the back of my neck. I turned around and this moose was staring at me.
The moose is truly a magnificent beast, and this picture explains why.
I was going to say that’s a damn funny looking animal!
And interestingly a recent arrival in North America from across Beringia.
“Eyes on the back of the neck” -phenomena is interesting. Quite often when i’m hunting I can “sense” that something is coming before I can really see or hear anything. I think this happens because senses pick up faint things that you don’t consciously register. You just get the feeling that something is going on.
Of course there is lot of confirmation bias here as there are no referees counting stuff I don’t notice 😛 (probably half of the time).
I figured that “eyes on the back of the neck” comment would get a reaction. No doubt it was a subliminal noise, like a twig snapping.
Perhaps… but I believe there’s something extra special about moose-stares, in particular. It has something to do with how they blink, and also with the aspect of their eyebrows. I’ve developed a special compound that enhances the effect.
😀 har har
Better to feel eyes on the back of your neck than hot breath.
Yeah you also forget all the times that you think something is there and you look but nothing is there.
It probably says something about my mental map of the US, but whenever I see “Idaho”, I think “what are all these very wild animals doing on the outskirts of Chicago?” I’m probably confusing Idaho and Illinois (or some other ‘I’ state), and it triggers an internal “Idaho, that’s the one next to Mt St Helens” conversation as a Pavlovian response to the “I” word.
Friendly locator service for the “I” States.
Idaho: Between Mt Saint Helens and Mount Rushmore. Western.
Illinois: Chicago is on its northern border along Lake Michigan (wouldn’t it have been better to call it Lake Illinois?).
Indiana: the state that keeps Ohio and Illinois from bumping into each other. Serves no other purpose.
Iowa: Who cares?
Iowa is the state that starts the presidential election insanity which serves no real purpose since we don’t really “elect” the president and the election can be stolen anyway. And mooses sometimes wander here from the great white north!
You’re living in your own Private Idaho
Living in your own Private Idaho
– The B-52’s
And just because you don’t feel eyes on the back of your neck does not mean they are not watching you.
Good one! Even the thought makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I guess the back of one’s neck is a very active site.
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you”. 🙂
If you don’t like that “eyes on the back of the neck” feeling, just let your hair grow down to your shoulders. Your neck will be covered up then. Should work, right??:-)
But now ‘they’ are looking at the hair.
“Urrgh! He’s got no nose and his face is covered in long hair!”
“He’s standing with his back to us, you fool!”
– ‘Take It From Here’, I think, or possibly the Goons.
(Dates me doesn’t it?)
Nope, doesn’t work. I’ve had that feeling sometimes even with long hair. And one of my more memorable creepy time was ‘in the gloaming’, when I was letting in the cat. I felt something staring at me. I scanned the yard and saw an entire family of raccoon traipsing along the top of the fence.
Funny how you never get that eyes thing from things that don’t make any noise.
About a year ago I told my son–then only seven–that all mothers have eyes in the backs of their heads, so he better be careful. I realized a couple of days later that I had really freaked the poor kid out. His sisters still tease him about that…Years ago my wife and I happened upon a moose and her calf(?) that were very near the trail while we were hiking in the Grand Tetons near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Full grown moose are BIG.
Same here in Grand Tetons; also New Brunswick. They are big, but adolescent ones are charmingly gawky, kinda like wildebeeste.
Had the same experience in the same area. We were a member of a group of teenagers on a hiking and camping excursion. In hindsight it was dumb that we kept approaching the moose to take pictures, and it kept moving away. Those things are big.
Moose whammy! Once I was taking macro shots of flowers and was crouched in a field. I heard snorting, stood up and deer all took off. They were grazing all around me.
They can be dangerous so be careful!
The flowers? It’s ok, I was wearing sunglasses. ;). The deer were away from me a bit in the longer grass, probably putting ticks everywhere.
With that much moose, you’re gonna need a truckload of chocolate….
b&