Where is the most unusual place you've found an organism?

That makes me chuckle, every time. They seem to do pretty well there. Lots of space, plenty of food, no predators. Now iNat just needs somebody to get a picture of a nest or fledged young ones.

1 Like

A Huhu beetle in the public toilet room of a campground in New Zealand. I went in for obvious reasons and saw something big on the ground - maybe a cockroach? When I had finished I had a closer look (cockroaches are the only critters that really make me shiver), but it might be a new species for my list - and it was!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9421376

Moorish geckos mating(!) in the town centre on a building at a busy crossing with traffic lights. I was a pedestrian standing opposite waiting for the green light when I saw one gecko running upt to the next. When the lights changed I stood in the middle of the street to take this photo and find out what was going on.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51292203

5 Likes

Oh, geckos! I was walking in Desenzano del Garda
and saw something fall out of the corner of my eye, followed by a soft sound of something hitting the ground. I thought I’d narrowly avoided being pooped on by a bird.

Nope, it turned out to be a rather large gecko with a mostly missing tail falling off the ceiling to land on the ground behind me:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13618525

4 Likes

Last year when my family stayed at a relative’s house, they left me the worst room, the windows didn’t even have glass, it wasn’t a big problem because it’s not cold there, well the next day when I woke up I found several insects on me and in between the bed sheets, I took some photos of this beetle that seems to be a rare species since it is still the only observation of that genus in Colombia, and there are only five in the whole world.

Also, last month I was in the comfort of my home attending a virtual class and suddenly I found a small beetle on the back of my neck. A strange place to find these insects I think.

5 Likes

I’m really good at finding things in places people wouldn’t think to check.

The most surprising to me was a couple times when there were frogs in toilets/around toilets.

Otherwise, I have found quite a few weird bugs around lights at night, though lots of bug people put out lights to hunt for bugs as some species are attracted to lights, though some are just incidental.

There are also whole worlds in drops of water, which always is a surprise.

Also, if the students are younger, have you already checked out SEEK instead of iNat?

6 Likes

iNat does not currently support videos, but this is what I have seen in a long-disused Jacuzzi.

https://www.facebook.com/jason.hernandez.33234/videos/10216543522564726

this spider jumped onto my computer monitor and tried to catch the mouse cursor!

7 Likes

Big Brown Bat between my window and screen at work. Released to the great outdoors. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30511464

Big Brown Bat (deceased) found on the basement stairs at work. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10244701

I also found a bat (think it was the same species), but no observation, because it was a bit of a crisis, swimming in the toilet at work. Released outdoors.

Another non-iNat observation was one just swooping around my office. Caught and released outdoors.

Just your friendly bat lawyer, I guess.

I’ve since moved to new premises. Looking forward to what I may find crawling out of the walls.

3 Likes

Fish in a storm drain: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21486846

Worms in my new cat’s poop: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16820723

Didn’t get a picture obviously but there was a dead bat in the AC vent in my elementary school once

5 Likes
  1. Eurasian Tree Sparrows are ubiquitous birds but its not often they visit you for science homework: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8125290

  2. The only time a butterfly has landed on my shoe: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/29978888

  3. And here’s a butterfly in the metro station:
    https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51779623

  4. Another butterfly in a different metro station, and on my hand:
    https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8926944

  5. A bit macabre, but it seems they were attracted to the light but never managed to get out: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9930951

  6. Not really sure how to describe this, but its basically in a tube that is embedded in the middle of a thick stone wall: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/50975636

  7. Found in a crack at the bottom of a ledge, on a small island (not the first place I would expect to see gecko eggs): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51681882

  8. Made its home on a drinks vending machine: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30103959

  9. I don’t think this hummingbird should be visiting campus; probably dazed from hitting a window (it flew away soon after): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/33779717

  10. Took a break on my dad’s car door: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/7569623

3 Likes

I recently added an observation of woolgrass growing in a gutter: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58177777

2 Likes

Also, there was the time a fish hit the window of my house: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/29421487

6 Likes

Most of my strange observations come from in and around my house.

  1. A click beetle that my dog was playing with in my house: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57978400

  2. A wasp that flew onto my face while I was sitting on my couch: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57351960

  3. Various spiders in my bathroom: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57978295
    https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/57351702
    https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48234817

  4. And in my dining room: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/49083615

  5. A moth found in a 100-ish degree (Fahrenheit) car: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/55661957

  6. A bug found under a carpet in my basement: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37171416

  7. A wren in my shed that I accidentally closed the door on (it was ok): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41184005

3 Likes

I wonder if it’s the purple color? I’ve never had a butterfly land on my shoe.

Beware of plummeting fish. Great story.

2 Likes

Wow. So many outstanding observations and great stories.

@graytreefrog, your dog looks little miffed that you took away the toy.

@robotpie A bird in the classroom? I didn’t even think about adding classroom to the bingo.

@clockwood, fish in the storm drain sounds like a Dr Seuss book. What an interesting result of the estuarine characteristics of the Hudson River.

@kitty12 Sounds like your old office was built on some sweet bat habitat. The toilet, though. Did not think to add that to bingo.

@libele, how did you get the animated photo? Was it a gif?

@jasonhernandez74 I think the permissions need to be set to public? I couldn’t see it.

@malisaspring Were the toilet frogs inside or out? The one sitting on the toilet paper branch, though…

@nicolasr Wow. A rare beetle! I bet the rest of the family were mad they didn’t get that room. (or maybe not…?)

@Star3 Another plummeting observation! For the bingo, that could check off a couple of boxes (sky, ceiling)

@susanne-kasimir Oh the things we do to get our iNat observations.

3 Likes

Continuing…

@kimberlietx Hunh. I wonder what it was about the trampoline that made the moth land there.

@jnstuart Interesting. I notice some birds really like the cars and trucks. I wonder if it’s all the hidey holes?

@mertensia Here in SD we have a lot of rogue corn. I have a rogue tomato growing in my barrel of petunias since I water them with the gray dishwater. Apparently, some tomato seeds landed. And I agree that clogmia is a great name for a drain fly.

@rebecaceae, I’d never seen the bike tree before. That makes a great phenomena for students to study to understand tree growth!

@teellbee I’m sure she thought the neighborhood wasn’t much but the size was right. Or maybe she liked looking at the activity? Birds are weird sometimes.

@susanhewitt You know you are a hard core iNatter when you let a fly bite you for the observation.

@hchrish200 I see a lot of them in big hardware stores. They like the birdfood aisles.

@fffffffff Oh wow! Natural moss. I didn’t think to add a flower pot to the bingo. Next time!

@emjtca Can you see someone trying to explain why they’re late for a meeting. "I’ll be there in a minute as soon as these turkeys get out of the way… "

@bug_girl To me, house sparrows are like pigeons. They just seem to appear full grown without really ever having seen a nest.

4 Likes

@intyrely_eco Too funny. Never knew that penguins would take up a life of crime. I always thought it would be the pelicans who’d go down that route.

1 Like

Well, there’s always the ever-present pigeons in the Stockholm metro (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54664740 - subterranean station) or the occasional weed on my balcony (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/51587700 - I ate it, it was yummy!), but my top contender would be the badger that hurried past me in the park next to my job in central Stockholm, sadly in my pre-iNat days.

I think it’s certainly safe to say “inside an unlikely container” would go great on a bingo sheet.

The most unlikely (and yet somehow most likely at the same time) place I’ve found an organism was inside the mouth/nearly stomach of another. I caught a HUGE bullfrog to show a friend and temporarily put it in a gallon glass jar full of water to keep him from hopping out. Then 5 minutes later he must have gotten seasick on the sloshing journey back to the house from the pond and spit up the largest fowler’s toad I’ve ever seen (about the size of a standard deck of playing cards). The toad started frantically swimming around the jar and, of course after documenting, I let them both go. Two-for-one!

Continuing on the unlikely container concept, I added several insects to my collection for an entomology project in university from the pantry of my university apartment. My cereal was constantly infested with these tiny beetles and pantry moths. We learned to live somewhat harmoniously.

Also recently, I had to help a relative deal with a yellow jacket nest in their porch storage box, found a tree frog in a patio umbrella, a wren’s nest in the greenhouse heater and later that season in a shoebox (she was persistent, and wiser in choosing the second time), bugs swimming in a beverage, and this summer I also had a small snapping turtle crawl into a tipped over trashcan! All that said, “in an unlikely container” is my vote for the bingo card. Good luck @anneclewis!

4 Likes