The butterfly Dryas julia fluttering by. Unidentified Salticid spider jumping at it and grabbing it in mid air, sinking its cheliceres into the butterfly. After they had crashlanded, the spider kept up the bite only for a few seconds, then suddenly let go, probably due to Dryas julia being poisonous. Both lying still, only slightly shivering. Then the butterfly lazily took off again and disappeared. The spider seemed to be paralized. After a few minutes it wandered off in a very slow pace, staggering heavily.
All this in front of my very nose. Incredible movie.
It’s never ignorant to ask about something you don’t know! Ignorance is NOT asking.
I was rather confused by it as well, as almost all the moments when I am outdoors I consider NatGeo time. Amazing things are always happening that I have never seen or read or heard about. The more I look, the more I see.
My NatGeo for the week had to be the American Stoat with chipmunk prey trying to get around me.
Actually forgot about another one, when I met a quite big bull moose, not too old, but already higher than me, limping on one leg it ran away as he stumbled upon me (I didn’t see it as I was looking at shrooms), then stopped and looked at me, then started eating leaves and leaned on some trees.
Had a moose experience, too, when I was in Alasca as a boy. Big moose stepped out of the forest, looked at me and said to me “nah-häh”. It was not a sound/ noise, he literally said it. I was so perplexed that I do not remember what he did next or when he took off.
When snorkeling I always fear that I miss the Great White approaching behind my back while focussing on tiny gobies. You seem to have a similar problem … ;)
Apparently, from this thread, a Nat Geo moment means some meeting of species, usually in a predatory manor?
This is not at all what I think of when someone asks what is your most Nat Geo moment?.. Nat Geo just means an amazing, unforgettable experience in nature to me…
I recently saw on iNat that someone saw the fuzzytongue penstemon (Penstemon eriantherus whitedii) blooming at Peshastin Pinnacles, and I knew of another population at Saddlerock/Two Bears that had never been observed on iNat. So I went there and made observations of every plant (or if there were many in one area, one obs w/ the # of plants in the area). I talked to so many ppl about them while hiking and let them know this is a rare plant in Washington state, and got so many good photos of this apparently locally abundant but globally super rare plant.
It’s one of the most exciting things that has happened to me in years. #NatGeo
I watched as a wasp dragged a paralyzed caterpillar into its nest hole. (Maybe someone could check my ID?) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/96957584
The photos are ordered more for IDing the wasp, not chronologically.
I had one this morning, although the pictures are not great. Two coyotes were playfully chasing each other and mating in the field across the street. After, one went in the yard next door while the other stayed in my yard resting for a few minutes. Then it got up and hunted until it caught and ate a small animal. After, it left to join it’s mate in the yard next door.
