Johnson’s Shut Ins, Glade Trail?
Haha no, mine was a horse trail in St Joe State Park – must be a Missouri thing!
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WTF! I have to pad this with more characters or I can’t post, but WTF!!
I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to ‘borrow’ this. It’s brilliant!
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I had a similar experience in the backyard! I saw a lovely butterfly on the wall and returned inside to get my phone but as i was about to capture it, my dog tried to sniff it and it flew away. Now i will never get to know what species of butterfly that was.
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The pandemic has prevented me to go on a moth trapping expedition…I think that counts as a big bummer.
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Most of my bad experiences involve equipment problems. The worst is probably the time I was searching the beach right at the water line and my non-waterproof camera got hit by a wave and immediately died
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Missing your Moth expedition was a bummer, to be sure. While investigating close to home can be worthwhile, it’s not the same as going somewhere on a mission. I tried a Moth Cloth in my small back yard recently. I got 1 tiny Mayfly, a beetle, and a tiny, little insect. Not one moth!
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I tried attracting moths to a white sheet for the CNC because it was advertised as something you could do from an apartment patio… not one moth came. For that matter I didn’t get any bugs large enough to actually photograph.
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How disappointing! Perhaps in the morning before lunch when they move more slowly you could lay out thin slices of some fruit: an orange, or an apple on a plate and see if you get any pollinators that way.
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Sorry that happened to you, Mertensia. I am pretty sure you have IDed some of my observations, so here is my chance to give you my appreciation. Keep on doing what you are doing!
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Actually just early yesterday morning a red fox was chilling in the yard across the road, silhouetted creepily against the streetlight, and in the five seconds it took to grab my camera, it had vanished entirely. FML
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I had my best-ever sighting of a kingfisher yesterday, and my camera was in its case around my neck…
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I had something similar yesterday as well a kingfisher sitting on a power line, never had one this close to me before but by the time it took me to run back inside to get my camera it had vanished. I was so annoyed because even though I see them often enough it always happens to be when I am without a camera.
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My worst experience with nature that I can think of was probably when I first discovered Stinging Nettle. Believe me, I’ll always remember what it looks like…ouch!
Another one was when I went camping recently and got 8 mosquito bites on one ankle, I counted. That night whenever I rolled over they would all start to itch. One or two is bad, but 8 is nearly unbearable! Needless to say, I barely got any sleep that first night.
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This was before I joined iNat, but because it was “wildlife encounter” based, I’ll include it.
We would go camping as family, along with a couple other families, every year, and this particular year was to Mahia. It coincided with the first appearance of Moko the dolphin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moko_(dolphin), and when we first arrived the kids were so excited to see an actual wild (not at Marineland) dolphin. Not being aware of the law and the “keep 20m distance to marine mammals” rule I never thought twice about ferrying our kids (from all three families) one by one out to near the dolphin, where he would come right up to the kayak and sit his rostrum over the edge. I myself was so excited that I never thought to put sunscreen on, and my ankles got so badly sunburnt that by the next day the swelling meant I couldn’t even move my eyebrows without excruciating pain.Spent most of the week in the tent doped up with pain meds and aloevera gel soaked tissues draped painfully over them. By the end of that week I could manage a walk along the beach as long as I had my feet and ankles in the cool water… by which time Moko was a rockstar and constantly swarmed by people wanting him to play, and you could tell he was “over it”.
Ankles… I can fully relate!
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I see kingfishers all the time! Never able to get an identifiable photo. They never stop moving!
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Once, a bright blue mosquito landed on my arm. I thought it was a wasp and took pics. It flew to another spot and I could see blood in its belly. I freaked out.
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So update, I did manage to go but strict social distancing measures were upheld, so it wasnt as fun as when it was a group of people and then someone yelling out “wow look at that!”
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Omg. This made my day! 
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