it was a very small black wasp, holding a brown grasshopper slightly bigger than it. And it was seen in Astana, Kazakhstan. I made a drawing after seeing it, but it’s not the most precise
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You’re so lucky! The last time I saw a (live) snake was around 5 years ago, when I wasn’t so into snakes.
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The time I saw an albino raccoon and I just stared at it like an idiot until it disappeared into the woods…
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Could it have been a binturong? That would be an exciting animal to spot!
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Three over the summer. Went on a volunteering trip to Costa Rica and took photos of most of the animals I saw, but ran into a coati on the final days of the trip with no camera. I also did a week-long camp in rural Maryland with no cameras or phones allowed… and while alone in the woods, spotted a yellow-billed cuckoo and scarlet tanager, which are both lifers for me and which I have never heard of in the suburbs where I live.
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I actually have a list of species I saw before or missed. Out of it two birds I didn’t photograph because I thought photos will be too bad and distant, it’s a red-necked grebe (saw 3 times) and a whimbrel, 11 years later I still haven’t seen them again.
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I missed photo of a gorgeous rainbow 
on landscape yesterday. I’d stepped out while my phone charged at home.
There was no stranger in the vicinity whose phone I could use to take a couple couple of shots and mail to myself. Highly regrettable!
Contemplating between returning a 300m to get my phone and waiting for a familiar person to come by, I stood transfixed for about 3 minutes, relishing the phenomenon.
Inasmuch as it is not always convenient, I’ll make it a priority to have a camera device on me ALWAYS.
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The other day on the trail I was on the prowl for new insects, camera and macro settings all set, when suddenly something flew out and landed on my shirt front!
I had about a half second of observation to (I think) confirm that it was not something I had on my list yet, and try to figure out how to shoot it when it realized that I wasn’t a strange grey tree (my shirt matched its colour pretty well) and took off again.
Urgh. And what about new bug discoveries in your car while driving? (Yes officer, I admit that I was driving erratically, but you see there was this very interesting new fly…)
Blockquote
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I had to inat this - and aah a marsupial, nice
On that note welcome to the forums @ethan241 - share more of your wonderful down under life.
What an amazing range this bird has , i think excepting Antartica this bird is found everywhere.
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Yep I too find skinks very skinky - they don’t like modelling at all. Found that being still and patient is good, and also found that cold mornings are even better to get pictures of them.
@bumblepuppy welcome to the forums - I like your user name as well :-)
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Ah yes it could be a binturong or a palm civet. It was just a glimpse and it got away in the tree top.
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Was at the stream at the base camp of a reserve, to freshen up. Hung my T on a branch hanging over the water. Less than 5 mins, after I’m done, I noticed an elaborate web 
on the shirt, with an anchor to a tree branch.
Had just returned from the most intense hike of my life, which damaged my camera at a waterfall crossing, thus was not in the mood to make observations with my phone which happened to be around. (Returned to get it after the hopeful thought of a chance spotting of a passing chimp or gorilla).
Disinterested, I shook off the spider into the water, removed the web, and went my way. Yet, I still wondered at the record speed of building that web, and regretted not capturing it on phone. It may be a rare, undiscovered species or occurrence I just ignored.
Then, I had a reason to revisit the stream, less than 12 hrs later. I placed same T on same branch, and there was a web again, by same spider species. It took less than 2 mins to build it. Less detailed than the first, but there’s the web.
I ate my cake and still had it.
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My wife and I encountered an absolutely beautiful Scarlet Kingsnake crossing the road one night in St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. We both got out of the truck to get a close look and watched as it disappeared in to the grass on the side of the road. We were actually there to photograph wildlife but were so excited about seeing such a beautiful example of that species that we literally forgot to take photographs.
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Welcome to the forum! It sucks that you missed the scarlet king snake, they really are gorgeous!
Softshell Turtle on the bank of a river. Used binoculars to determine if it was worth a photo. It was. But before we could even turn on the camera, it peaced into the river
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What a nice looking skink, thanks for sharing
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Mt first bobcat sighting was like that. The rest have been too quick for me to get a photo.
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All of the time! Most of the time the subject is too fast (snakes, lizards, mammals, birds, insects). My most recent and annoying miss was a Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) which has been on my “list” forever. At first I didn’t realize what I was seeing, then it turned off the trail and was gone. It was the first I’d seen. Hopefully not the last.
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For many of us who are older, we lived through the period when there were no smartphones and only film cameras. We were often rather frugal in our use of the camera because buying and developing film cost money and, speaking for myself, I couldn’t always afford that. And if your camera settings were wrong, you wouldn’t know that until your terrible photos or slides were printed. So some of my best images of really interesting organisms are only in my memory.
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