Well, Since I am curious what’s the weirdest observation you’ve ever had,
I want the weirdest most wack observations and maybe the story <3 ![]()
mine is probably the ear i found on a trail.
Slime molds. I’ve a dozen kinds (hard to get ids) and they are all weird! I cannot resist touching them, smushing a part… wondering things like how do they get there and how smart is it? I’ve seen it take over a large area quickly and disappear overnight… or look like insect eggs…or a mess of bubble gum…
One weird one I managed to get a picture of was this Bush Stone Curlew checking out a meditating hippie in central Brisbane. https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/141503706
The mallard jet-skiing a goose:
Lots of plant-mutants in the Fascinating Fasciation project if that counts as weird, one of which is this California Buckwheat, which I found that had so many mutated stems. For animals, WeirdWildWonders has lots of strange things!
Finding this deer who was killed by lightning was weird:
@dendroleon very interesting and random… here’s a deer leg I found on the side of the road but nothing compares to your ear!
This apple, when I was going apple picking I found an apple with about 6 somewhat evenly spaced (and equally sized) holes in it. I don’t know what made these holes.
In terms of weird as in strange, this sacrum I found on Woodlawn Beach still is unidentified and it’s confusing to me. I believe it’s definitely a deer sacrum, but not a white tailed deer sacrum as white tailed deer sacra only have 3 pairs of foramina whereas this specimen had four pairs (I am not an osteologist or anything but picture comparisons online show clear differences). Mule deer sacra look the most similar to my image but mule deer are a western species and the only other explanation is that a.) it is a different species? or b.) it washed up in the lake somehow. I’ve been curious about this ever since I found the bone because it was such a cool find and I just don’t get it! I wish I took more pictures.
I don’t know what this is.. I hope its a slime mold…
I almost forgot about a strange pupa I saw attached to a tree branch that had two small tail like appendages squirming around. I have it tentatively ID’d as a Rat-tail Maggot Fly
I didn’t even need to check the link to know which observation you were talking about! It’s an all-timer!
I think my weirdest was four wings of an insect, apparently some kind of tiger moth, with no body attached. The theory is that a bat ate the moth and dropped the wings.
Turtle leg found on someone’s lawn, IDed to species
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/314198232
This strange creature was found under the bark of a log that I accidentally semi-ripped up (I was very excited by the arthropods on it!!).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/330020005
It was right next to a common pill woodlouse, which was coincidentally a great size comparison! I still have no idea what it is, and that in itself is weird, since I generally have a pretty good understanding of insects, arachnids, and even a bit of springtails. Weirder still is the fact that I spent over half an hour tearing up that log while at a place 2+ hours from my house instead of photographing all of the more uncommon/more unusual birds and reptiles. I probably could have found some cool specimens in my yard too, but hey! I think it was worth it!
A weed growing out of someone’s astroturf lawn in suburbia. Life finds a way lol https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195950989
And then there’s this…thing. Vaguely resembles something Nostoc-ish, in that it is gelatinous and mysterious, but I just don’t know…https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195950989
I was fascinated by these ??? that I found while hiking along the Minnesota River on a warm day last January. Would love to know what they were.
Omg that reminds me of the bird leg I found on the sidewalk a few years ago! Interesting.
I found a juvenile skunk’s head below a tree on a field edge. As I walked up to see it clearly I noticed fur raining down from the tree branches and out to the field. I had to assume I had just missed a bird of prey, though I saw no one flying.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/267305741
these things, which I’d tentatively id as fish gills. They were found like this just floating in a rockpool
G E R A L D is the sole winner of this thread.