I was in the army and stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. We were out on a field exercise and had been out in the woods for 5 or 6 days already and were very dirty and sleep deprived and irritable.
We set up our CP and camoflauged our vehicles and dug hasty fighting positions and got finished at around daybreak. I was out on guard duty and trying to stay awake when I saw movement ahead of me - it was a civilian with binoculars and a writing pad. He was looking above me head and scribbling notes.
I asked him what he was doing and he said he worked for some conservation agency and he was pretty angry and demanded to see who was in charge.
I called the CP on the radio and asked for the Captain to be sent up.
Well, I couldn't believe the conversation the 2 had! It turns out we set up camp right in the middle of a cluster of red cockaded woodpeckers and this guy was on his weekly rounds to track their progress. The gist of the story was that we had to pick up our camp and move everything 500 metres to the east!
And yes - I did get to see a couple of those ^#@$%^&#$@(% birds
although I did not appreciate them at the time.......