This has got to be the laziest way to make observations. I just sat out in the yard under a shade with cool drink on the table, and all sorts of aphids and bugs and arachnids just walked past me on the table to be photographed. Kids were playing on the lawn and gulls were gliding on the light breeze overhead.
I rarely enjoy Summertime, but this was a really refreshing day, which I think I’ll remember. Since I love hearing stories and experiences, I’d really like to hear about some of your memorable moments making observations.
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I admit I like those photo opportunities where the subjects come to you and you don’t have to chase them. There is a small spring in the mountains near me where I’ve done bird photo’ing and that is known to other birders. You can sit in the shade, listen to bird song all around, and shoot pics of about 15 bird species or more in an hour or so as they come to water. I recall a couple other places like that with bird feeders and water sources where it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93167365
August 21 2021… hot, sweaty, sat on the wood border in the backyard, catching shade and breeze… looked beside me to see this slug eating a leaf. I have never seen a slug eat a leaf and that was amazing to see it travel through the slug.
Sitting and watching has always been a favorite activity… that’s how I saw caterpillars decorate themselves in flower petals.
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I recently found a trick where you just place any towel on grass, and wait 20-40 minutes before flipping it over. A huge amount of weevils, spiders, and more can easily be found. These arthropods were found using this technique:
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Earlier this year, I was essentially the photographer and in-house iNatter for a marine biology excursion by my uni to Spain.
All the subjects came to me in a nice petri-dish pre-anaesthetised. Gotta say, that was quite nice too.
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Sitting on my porch last month I had a Western Lynx Spider (Oxyopes scalaris) insist on sitting on my arm. At first I removed her to get my pictures and then later in the day I went back out and she came back quickly shooting a web onto my arm. She seemed as curious about me as I was about her.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/281316607
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Heh. That reminded me of a thing that happened back when I was in my early teens. Me and my bro were sitting on a rock at the shore one July evening. Sun was behind the trees, so at that time of day, the shoreline was a bit in shadow and there were some small swarming insects as those tiny clods you see.
Suddenly my bro stiffened momentarily, and turned his head to look at his shoulder. Aeshnidae dragonfly (probably Aeshna juncea ) was sitting there, eating something. My bro said he could hear the crunch. Then it made a fast round trip to the swarm and back to his shoulder, and kept on noming. Occasionally it just chilled there for a while, and then zoomed to pick up another snack.
Nowadays my bro carries on the habit, by allowing smaller spiders (like Salticus scenicus or Tegenaria domestica and others) to hang around at his home in peace. During Summers, they’re a common visitor as he has windows and doors open a lot of the time. He says after he started doing that, the amount of smaller annoying insects has decresed, though he has to clean dead snout moths and mosquitos and flies etc after the spiders are done with them. Says he prefers that to having to hunt the flying critters. 
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