I don’t know about that. Personally, I’ve always felt that my observations were somehow not as valid without photographic evidence - even before I used the internet at all! The most important part of an interesting encounter for me has always been sharing it with others by showing them my photos. I imagine I wouldn’t feel this way if cameras didn’t exist, but I don’t think “selfie culture” has anything to do with it, particularly since iNat is the only social media (if you can even call it that) I use. Perhaps others feel differently, however.
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I haven’t missed any super epic ones recently, but I really regret I didn’t photograph wild Capricornis crispus when I was in Japan. On Inat, any observation without photo is casual, therefore I sometimes put photo of the habitat where I saw the organism when didn’t have time to photograph it, although I do it only when I am sure with what I saw.
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You can also add sketches!
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Driving into Long Point Provincial Park in southern Ontario last summer I saw what I believe to be a beautiful adult female Eastern Hognose Snake dead on the road. Just gorgeous patterning on her, it was very tragic. It was actually my lifer experience, too. Unfortunately, heavy traffic behind us on a relatively narrow road meant I couldn’t really stop to document. Such a shame.
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The check boxes in my Peterson Field Guide to the Birds, the dates and locations annotating the margins of my wildflower field guides, are a far more comprehensive record for me than I could ever have assembled by photographs.
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Yes, countless times, mostly due do not having my camera on me. Examples include:
American Crows dive-bombing a Red-tailed Hawk
American Crows chasing a Common Raven
Terns hunting fish
Hawk hunting a Ring-billed Gull
Hawk hunting a flock of House Sparrows
Being around a foot away from a Coyote (ON ACCIDENT!)
Mallard pooping and fish then eating the poop (great stuff)
Interaction between a Red-Tailed Hawk and American Red Squirrel
Squirrels laying on the fence
A couple of Wild Turkeys
An American Bittern perched in a tree
Bufflehead, Wood Duck, Redhead, A species of Swan, Sanderling, Green Heron, Virginia Opossum, Red Fox, and American Mink sightings (haven’t seen them since)
Large murder of crows
White Striped Skunk family under the neighbor’s porch
Turkey Vultures flying up above
European Praying Mantis nymph (my first sighting of a mantis but the camera wouldn’t focus!)
European Starling with parent with a sub-adult individual
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You reminded me that each time I took a day speed train between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow there was somthing I couldn’t capture even if I wanted: buzzard catching a grass snake right in front of me, migrating cranes, hawks and ravens flying in spring pairs, bunch of moose in winter eating young trees, females black grouse sitting on tops of young birches.
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Those would have made for great observations, it was a similar situation for the previously mentioned Wild Turkeys and hawk hunting a gull.
That’s why it pays to be a passenger!
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Estelline Salt Springs in Texas was populated by what was rather hopefully described as a new species of crab and a probable Pleistocene relic, until it was wiped out by increased salinity due to the Corps of Engineers building a levee around the springs.
Well, someone finally extracted DNA from the specimens, and they turned out to be a common Pacific coast crab; their progenitors may have escaped from a railway cargo. https://www.reabic.net/journals/bir/2020/2/BIR_2020_Felder_Windsor.pdf
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Sounds like a skink.
I had a chance to see a mountain lion in broad daylight and potentially get a photo. Was on a wildlife refuge and the employees knew where it often hung out in a dry culvert. I was setting some live traps for turtles when they drove up and said they were going to look for the cat – less than 200 yards from where I was standing – but I declined to jump in as I was busy at the moment. A few minutes later they came driving back by me and said, yeah, it was there and it bolted from the culvert when they got out of the truck. Never did see that cat. That one still bugs me.
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While driving back from the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preseve, we pulled over to the side of Kelbaker Road after seeing a huge Mohave Rattlesnake on it. Before we could get to it, a commercial truck (which are not allowed on that road) crushed it. An awful end to a great day.
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Yes, now you mention it the shape was skink-like, but no stripes or blue tail that I recall. Oh my, what if it was an albino?!? Even more epic fail!
It could be a western skink, though they are typically darker than “an even pale tan color”. My guess would be a baby alligator lizard, which look pretty different from adults.
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My epic observation fail is slightly different. I had my camera, I was taking photographs of the animals. I was watching a monitor lizard going after a barking deer in Thailand. The deer would look up and then go back to munching grass. The lizard would walk closer and freeze when the deer looked up. I have photos of the lizard getting closer and closer…
Then a van full of tourists pulled up and everyone rushed out of the van loudly so the deer took off. The lizard looked back and then also took off. That would have been amazing to see that battle or battle attempt as the lizard was trying to get dinner. Sigh. At least I have some photos prior to the scare off.
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A few weeks ago, I was going to pick up a van, but the van arrived late, so in the meanwhile I explored tat area a little bit, when I suddenly saw an amazing sight: a white tailed deer with a Yucatan jay cleaning its back, just like an ox-pecker would clean the back of a hippo in Africa. I had my camera, but when trying to position it to get the most epic hot ever, the van arrived and the birds got scared away, that was such a crazy moment! And I couldn’t try again because I had to leave immediately.
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Oof! My case was similar! That’s so frustrating!
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Very frustrating! It will be some time before I can even hope to attempt to see that again. Maybe in the future years I will get a second chance. Who knows? But man, the photo that got away!
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Oh, stop making things even more frustrating hahaahahahahaahaha!
No, just kidding, but anyway I think the shot of the jay and the deer was going to be EPIC! I’ll try to search for more information about that behavior, maybe it’s not even recorded fro Yucatan jays, who know?
Hope you get a second chance some day.
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As a very young child I managed to chase down and catch a flying fish with just a little handheld dipnet- I can’t remember where this was other than somewhere on a beach in Florida, and unfortunately I have never seen a flying fish since- tragically, no photographs were ever taken!
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