Naturalists ruin everything - what have you ruined for your friends?

Same with honeybees. People get upset when I tell them they’re just as invasive as any other escaped livestock and not threatened with extinction in any way. Had a guy come into our office years ago wanting to if we could save a feral hive in a local park. He was disappointed when I told him they’re the insect version of chickens and not a protected species.

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A very comforting thought :relieved:

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:rofl:I never thought of that! I’ll now use it to torture my homeopathy-believing friends.

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[quote=“lappelbaum, post:62, topic:35566”]

We had a barred owl move into the neighborhood. No more screech owls :(

Years ago I worked receiving in a retail store. Somehow, a salamander had gotten into a shipment of goods and actually survived. The manager saw it, screamed, ran to the office, locked the door and wouldn’t come out until I’d gotten into a container. He let me leave early to take it home and get it the hell away from him. Strangest phobia I’ve ever seen I think.

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The kookaburra laugh, people assume that it means the kookaburras are happy, but it is actually a territorial warning call/challenge.

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Lately I have been reading Eight Little Piggies by Steven J. Gould. In one of the essays, he points out that on any given day, we humans are less likely to experience intraspecies aggression than other animals.

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I guess you didn’t finish reading my comment :)
(clarification given below, I just misread the comment)

I have mostly ruined things for myself. What was once beautiful is invasive; what was once a 20-mie bike ride through a park system is a quarter mile walk to stop and inspect plants. I don’t regret it though!

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I did, I’m just bad a writing complete sentences. I should have started with “I have the same experience when talking to people about honeybees.”

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It is frustrating to want to go for a hike when hiking is enjoying nature, and the other people you are hiking with are one of THOSE hikers whose idea of a hike is getting to the top of the mountain as fast as possible. I mean what’s the point of that? LOL

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I ruined a good cup of tea today. Well not for me but for my wife. I was still sipping my tea while taking macro photos of the small spec of ‘glitter’ that was floating in the tea pot. Now I’m just curious how much nature gets processed along with the tea :speak_no_evil:

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There have been some papers on this recently. Want me to try to remember which ones and drop some links?

If you’re still eating food afterwards then yes please. :slightly_smiling_face:

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This was the main one I was thinking of. It’s about eDNA, so in principle, this is DNA that was left on the leaves by insects without them being in the actual tea. Although the methods don’t actually say anything about checking the tea samples for bug bits :slightly_smiling_face::
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0091

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Is it a tiger beetle’s head?

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When I was a child, I vividly recall finding a dead cockroach—probably the American cockroach—in a space under the flap of my Nanna’s electric kettle lid. I hate to think how long it had been there…

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I hate to be “that person” (though, what better thread for it?), but the “Shakespeare Starling introduction” story is a myth. See this link for more details.

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its like being on top in top of the naturalist chain and protector for them when any arthropod comes and encounters them :joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

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When someone refers to being drawn to something or someone they love “like a moth to a flame.” When the reality is that the moth is stumbling around blind and will be burned to death.

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Dang, my bird book was wrong! Thanks for the correction!

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