Favourite Accidental Observation?

General
1

Occasionally when I’m uploading my photos I find something that I hadn’t even realized was there when I took the photo. Usually it’s when I’ve photographed a flower and when I look closer I find a bug on it. During CNC I took a photo of a snail from a distance because it was in the middle of a wet area. I wasn’t even sure if the snail would be a good enough picture, but when I got it home it had a tiny mite on it.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/354945122

What’s your favourite ‘accidental’ observation?

2

A visitor showed up behind this northern flicker

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359518188

3

I was focusing on the Mint and didn’t notice the Chironomid until after looking through photos at home. One of the few times where I was genuinely shocked I missed an observation in situ.

4

I’ve gone to photograph native flowers on multiple occasions and unintentionally discovered a bunch of cool insects that way

5

I recently collected a dead mistletoe haustorium to dissect to understand the growth processes, but when I used a saw to trim it, I found an ant colony (Colobopsis gasseri) inside. Now I’m doing a crash course in ant-keeping.

6

I get this sort of thing happen to me often, as I usually only focus on the subject.

here is an example from last week, I photographed some aphids, but only later noticed there was this ant who was herding them: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359566426 and https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359566427

But I think my favourite was this bee: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/343493785 which had a parasite: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/359568515

7

My camera and I saw the flower. My laptop found shimmery mother-of-pearl pink

8

I created some time ago a project for this purpose called Photobombs.
My favorite observation of mine is this fungus infecting specifically ladybugs which I only noticed at home looking at the beetle pictures.

9

I never expected to see this in the observation photo which I briefly stopped to take for the guineafowl at one point in Kruger National Park.

Funnily enough, on this trip, this particular species always seemed to precede my big cat sightings of the trip.

10

This Brush-turkey and his unusual friend

11

This fly using another fly as a landing pad.

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Pseudoscorpion hitching a ride on a caddisfly leg (which I later learned is called phoresy). Didn’t notice it until after uploading the picture.

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This little springtail!

14

Just yesterday I photographed a mushroom, and found a tiny fly in post:

15

This Leaf Hopper Assassin Bug just happened to be on the flower of a San Miguelito vine that was beneath the Dutchman’s Pipe that I intended to be the subject of this photo. Aristolochia carterae is a host of the Gold-rimmed Swallowtail that I see frequently in the south end of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, México.

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16

I always like seeing mites on much larger arachnids (or other animals) when I’m looking at the photos later like these two examples:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74770904

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/290565872

17

I was taking pics of a peacock doing its dance and deer came and stood right in front of it

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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/347064832
too good not to post!