One day this past summer while traversing through some thick forested areas of NW Ohio I swear I saw a large cat pause to look at me and then drop from a tree down into the brush disappearing. I could only imagine it being a bobcat? Happened so fast I couldn’t pull my phone all the way out.. I left the area pretty quick afterwards.
I should add I didn’t get a great view of it. I saw a shifting movement in the crotch of the tree which focused my attention.. it was large so I was locked. Whatever I saw seemed to vanish against the tree and it was only as I was going to fumble for my phone I looked back up. That’s when I saw the distinctive shoulder blade movement of a large cat as it dropped from the tree.
I was on a night safari… Our car went on, but our guide had noticed two eyes glimmering, so he asked us to reverse the car a bit. The moment our torch was flashed in that direction, a black panther (i know it’s a leopard but calling it a panther makes it sound thrilling) rose from the ground and disappeared into the shadows.
It was all too fast for my brain to process the fact that my phone was in my hand and i could’ve taken a picture! I still regret that :(
This is a general observation on missing a chance to get a great observation, but how many times have you seen a lifer land on your chest, or camera, or just about any place on your person which makes getting the shot impossible?
I finally saw my first pika this summer but it was too distant for a regular shot so I set up my scope to digiscope it with my cell phone. The pika dipped into the rocks before I could snap the picture.
Well, my 16-year-old told me this morning that they had a dream where there were loads of animals around - lions, giraffes etc. - and I spent the whole time in the dream complaining that I’d forgotten my camera! So I guess I missed out on some cool stuff!
it’s not epic and happened long before i used inat, but whenever i see this thread title i remember the time i wrote a little poem about an insect that i watched fly by but did not attempt to capture. i shoved the poem into a random book on my shelf and promptly forgot about it, until a couple years later when a friend was flipping through some books and read it aloud. the Glenurusthat got away.
i have since seen several (and observed a couple!), but for years that single sighting was my only glimpse.
when it flew past i knew what it was immediately - Glenurus gratus. unmistakable pink wing tips, a slow & clumsy flight, and the size. i didn’t chase after it - for some reason - and later felt compelled to write about it in such a way. probably the only thing i’ve written in the past 20 years i would consider a poem.
i don’t remember if the friend kept the sheet of paper or put it back into the book where she found it. i have a habit of putting papers away in a random book, sometimes it’s a fun surprise years later… and sometimes i lose an important document for a decade because i forgot i put it in a book.
Not really “epic” or “missed”, but for about three weeks now I’ve consistently been trying to find poduromorphs (allegedly very common) and consistently failing.
I have no clue why, but the moss I’m checking (on a rock wall, under a sycamore tree, in the middle of an old school in the city center) has zero Neanura/Monobella, only a bunch of isotomines. The leaf litter has barely any springtails either, and the bits of bark I’m looking under are merely inhabited by Dicyrtomina and Orchesella. I’m not sure whether I’m looking in the wrong places, I’ve just not seen them or they’re genuinely not there somehow.
I’ve only had one possible success, this tentative onychiurid I found under a rock by the aforementioned rock walls.
I love the way iNaturalist brings together people with similar, relatable passions, even when I know next to nothing about some of the specific taxonomic groups that excite other people. I’ve never heard of poduromorphs, but I am glad that you are looking for them!
This was years ago before I was using Inat, but I used to do lots of scuba diving in Hong Kong. Most dive sites here are shallow and the diving is more about spotting macro critters and less about the big stuff. I was on a night dive off some islands in the southern waters of the territory. My two buddies were a little ahead of me. I was pootling along at around 15 or 20m depth looking at the rocks below when I saw what looked like a length of black cable. I followed it with my torchlight and the “cable” turned out to be the tail end of the most enormous, dark grey, round ribbontail ray (Taeniurops meyeni). I swear it was the size of a six-person table at a dim sum restaurant. I was tremendously excited but moments later it flapped off into the night before I had a chance to snap a photo, so all I have is this memory. I’ve seen these when diving elsewhere in SE Asia but this was by far the largest individual I ever saw and also the largest underwater creature I ever spotted in Hong Kong.
I chased a rare Crested Caracara with fellow classmates in the MSU Birding Club earlier this month. (In MI, so this was a very special bird to see) I did end up seeing it! Unfortunately, by the time I got to where everyone else was watching it, it had flown from the tree where it was perched and where I would have been able to take a decent photo, and was flying in the air.
Fortunately, my peers, who have better cameras than I do, were able to get some photos, and the amount of photos/birdwatchers in the area meant that this rare sighting was confirmed. It would have been nice to get my own picture to document the memory, but I am very glad I got a chance to see it!
