Title is my problem. Didnt start happening until i made my 2 latest characters. I'm not an idiot so dont tell me to do the main quest. Ive been playing since Arena yet everytime I bring this issue up people are just like "GO DO THE QUEST IN WHITERUN". But yeah anyways they dont show up randomly and only sometimes at the perches they have placed around the world but thats very rare. I still find the named ones from the main quest though. Its making it impossible to get Dragon souls or bones. Anyone encounter this? Its happened on 2 of my characters now and im not sure if its a bug.

Doing lots of fast travelling tends to trigger the random attacks. In my current playthrough I stopped the MQ after killing the dragon in whiterun and I do find far fewer random attacks than in prior ones where I went further. In fact I see almost no random attacks unless I use fast travel. I am guessing that it may be that you get more the further along you play the MQ. If you have dawnguard there are other random attacks that may be replacing the dragon ones as well.

go to dawnstar

dragons love dawnstar

Sadly I know it well, being the town where I live...(my own house, not the DB sanctuary).

Two questions:

1) Are you on PC?

2) If so, do you have any mods installed and are they compatible with your patch version?

I also experienced this, on my most recent character. And I was still fast traveling.

I just progressed the main quest a bit further, journeying with Delphine to Kynesgrove to kill the dragon there. Shortly after that, my first random dragon attack finally occurred, right at the spot where you kill your first dragon, at that broken tower near Whiterun. I'm hoping they will occur with more frequency now.

you must not fast travel, random dragons attack me all the time this way

Aye, that they do. And Falkreath, I've found.

Anyway, to the OP, do you have any potentially conflicting mods installed if you are on PC? And, as somebody else suggested, fast travelling a few times to locations away from cities tends to make them spawn- I find that spawning at "Western Watchtower" or a location near to Windhelm makes them spawn quite frequently.

Don't fast travel so much