Anyone else miss a chance to document a truly epic observation?

Nature Talk
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Last Friday, I visited Marita Payne Pond again. It had been a while and I was excited to see how the area had changed with the seasons. To my delight, a Wood Duck stood among the other ducks. Only my second time seeing one, first time at Marita! On this occasion, I had a camera in hand. But the Wood Duck’s not the missed opportunity.

Just a few minutes after meeting the Wood Duck, a falcon swoops in and attacks it! The Wood Duck made it out just in time, flying a few feet to the side into the water. Unsuccessful, the falcon continued into the trees, out of sight.

It had happened too fast for me to get a photo, though I did get shots of the Wood Duck right before and after the attack. It was crazy!

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I saw a treehopper with a horn (like this Philya californiensis - BugGuide.Net) fly away from me on an oak tree today :slightly_frowning_face:

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Yesterday, I was working on the far back side of my property when I paused for a moment and looked up to see a bobcat standing about 30 feet from me. I had done what I never do - go outside without my camera. He looked at me for a moment, then slowly sauntered away deeper into the woods.

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On my recent trip to Kruger National Park from which I’ve just returned, I TWICE missed an opportunity to photograph a snake which were new species for me.

The first was when i was relaxing on the stoep of my bungalow in Crocodile Bridge, when this little creature poked its head out. I ran to grab my camera but my movement caused the creature to flee. I should have stayed still and used my phone camera despite its inferior quality. At least I would then have got the observation …

The second missed opportunity was a few days later when i was driving on one of the many side dirt roads in Kruger, looking for wildlife. I happened to spot a long black thing almost right underneath my car, and I slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately the snake was too quick for me to bring my camera up in time, and it became invisible as soon as it went into the grass.

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I saw a 10-ish ft tiger shark on Sunday off Big Pine Key, FL! So annoyed I didn’t get a picture

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I’d love to see a tiger shark! From a safe area.

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Oh man so many through the years. I was stalked by a cougar one time on a backpacking trip in new Mexico. I’m… probably… not dumb enough to try and take a picture in that situation if it ever happened again. I only had a disposable camera at the time so I only have like 20 pictures from that trip.

I was always running off to the woods to look under rocks and such but didn’t get a camera/phone until my senior year so there’s tons of stuff on my “lifelist” that I don’t really count since I don’t have any evidence of seeing it.

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Sort of like the definition of “prehistoric” – history didn’t start happening until people started writing it down.

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I did not actually see the most amazing Alaska bird ever, but I was THIS close. You birders may have heard of the Steller’s Sea Eagle that was seen and photographed in late August 2020 on Aaska’s Denali Highway (not to be confused with the road into Denali National Park – this one is a state highway that runs east of there through the Alaska Range). My husband and I were coming home from a hunting trip on a foggy, rainy afternoon and I was casually scanning for birds. It’s a rough road so we were only going about 30 mph. At one point we stopped because we spotted a group of ravens flying around as if they were on a carcass, but that’s all we saw. When we got home, news of the Steller’s was all over my email and Facebook, and it was seen that SAME afternoon in the same general location. Sigh.
My latest fail – 2 summers ago I spotted a lynx by our deck stalking something right in the spot that I had focused my trail camera on for several weeks. But I had moved it a few days before! Then my dog woke up and scared the lynx, so I couldn’t sneak back in the house for the dslr.

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Just the day before yesterday.

I was out at a local wildlife refuge* for the first time in far too long, and got to watch a large hawk (either a lighter-morph Red-tailed or a Swainson’s) getting absolutely thrashed by an American Kestrel. If there had been a safe place for me to pull over, I would’ve had the camera out in a heartbeat.

*(Rocky Mountain Arsenal, for the Colorado folks.)

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The one day I went scuba diving without my camera was the one day an atlantic sturgeon swam past me and vanished into the muck.

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Animals are 1000000% aware when you don’t have your camera with you and act accordingly

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I’m halfway through my second year of iNat, but it’s the first full season that I’ve had decent macro gear.

When I read the answers posted so far, one thing stands out: just how many stories are about mammals, birds, and just about anything larger than a quarter.

Of course, with macro, even a quarter-sized organism seems ‘mega’.

But I’ve come to realize that I have missed, and continue to miss every single time I take a step or two out there, tons of new and interesting species that are beyond my vision and/or lens ability to observe.

I know that because once I began to make a point of checking out even barely visible specks, I was suddenly surprised just how many turned out to be ‘rarely observed’ species. I soon realized that what makes them rare isn’t their numbers, but the number of observers prepared and equipped to go real slow and look really close.

Yeah, I’ve missed some real big stuff too (often because I was too wrapped up with catching something real tiny), but compared to all the new discoveries I’ve made with macro, I can honestly say those ‘big’ ones that got away seem like a small disappointment compared to the thrills I’ve made with all my macro discoveries.

Hmm… now I’m thinking of how many times I’ve shot a larger insect and discovered much smaller species in the background of the shot, or mites crawling somewhere on their bodies.

I suspect it’s this kind of ‘D’oh!’ moment that sells a lot of high-macro gear.(sigh)

I’ve done a couple macro photo presentations for my local photo group and I often include something about how as a macro photographer, you will never, ever get bored – once you start to be able to actually read nature’s ‘fine print’, the fun never ends.

Amen!

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I was looking at a moss specimen yesterday under my dissecting scope and a tardigrade crawled by. Alas, I’m not even set up to take good photos of mosses through the scope, much less tardigrades, but I am seriously thinking about investing in a compound scope with camera-ready ability next year for just such occasions.

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If you haven’t already found it, you should enjoy this thread: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/observations-hiding-in-other-observations-share-your-examples/20956

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I seem to find the birds I want to photograph the most whenever I don’t have my camera. I especially have not had good luck with the Belted Kingfisher. It always flies away when I pull out my camera, even though it doesn’t see me. The most recent time I saw it, I didn’t even have my camera with me!

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I spent last weekend by the sea and one evening I went for a quick walk along the beach as I had a spare half hour. I didn’t have my usual camera bag with me and didn’t want to take my rucksack for a short walk so just grabbed my binoculars and headed out. I was walking head-down looking for shells when a bird call caught my attention. I couldn’t recognise the call and that’s always a good sign. A group of small birds passed through the trees along the beach and I was sure they were Firecrests. The area is a migration hotspot and it’s early in the season but not so early that it wasn’t possible. I followed them along the beach but they moved away too rapidly for me to get a good look. Luckily a few minutes later they came back in my direction and I could confirm my ID was correct. A lifer for me :grin: Then unbelievably one came so close that I couldn’t use my binoculars. It sat in the open for a few seconds looking right at me from only a few metres away. My camera and phone were both left behind so I missed a great photo opportunity and the chance to add to the 200 observations from the UK. A lifer bird is a lifer bird though and seeing a group of lifers together is extra special.

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