As a complement to this thread and not to hijack it, here’s a thread for some of your favorite nature observations that weren’t from today.
Here is a Great Golden ground wasp in my yard in 2007. A parasitic ground-nesting solitary wasp, she was endlessly and obsessively tending her patch of ground.
The 2001 model Sony DSC F707 prosumer camera I was using took beautiful photos but–not unusual for the time–video was limited to 320x240 15 second clips. Today I have been working with trying to squeeze the best from the clips that I have. The video quality is awful and I completely wish I had it in full HD, but the action and especially the hilarious surprise ending make it worth keeping anyway.
A couple of decades plus change ago, I went on an organised trip to a site in the Thames Valley to see Military Orchids. The draw was rarity, pure and simple - the site was one of only two in the UK where the military orchid grows. We were all very reverent and took photos - as you can imagine it was a somewhat geeky event. As we were being ushered away from the site, a man of about my (then) age sidled up to me and said, out of the corner of his mouth:
Psst - wanna see a red kite?
Me: What?
Him: Wanna see a red kite? - the perfect flying killing machine. Site’s not far.
Me: Er, that’s terribly kind of you, but I’m on a tight schedule…
I can be geeky, but I have my limits. Anyway, the point is this was shortly after the red kite, which had been extinct in England, had been re-introduced. It has been a spectacular success story - I see them pretty frequently, here south of London.
So: two years ago, around this time of year, I went out on the bike off-road, and in the middle of nowhere I happened across a farmer cutting hay in a field. You know that old trope about seagulls following a trawler? There were five read kites following the tractor, swooping to see what the hay-cutting was going to scare-up for them. Several times they flew within six feet of me as I watched. Astonishing. The perfect flying killing machine? Maybe they are - it was an unforgettable experience. Here’s a video I found of something vaguely similar.
We get moose in our yard a lot. This guy was a frequent visitor. He’s eating grass in front of our fire pit about 40 feet from our deck on the front of the house.
They look docile enough. But there’s a reason for that. They aren’t afraid of anything. I always take a quick look around when I go outside, don’t want to spook one.
Huh. Can’t attach picture. “Can’t embed media items in post” It’s gotta be a url? Not a picture from my machine?
