Memorable things in nature

[MysticChevron]

It’s Friday evening, the kids are away for the night…please share your nature anecdotes!

I once saw a swarm of bees migrating - actually heard them first! I stood at my front door and witnessed them come round the street corner, follow my street, then turn another corner at the end of said street. It was nothing short of entrancing!

I’ve just been watching a spider killing and eating a fly, in close up. She built her web on my balcony railings & it was all going on while I was out there with my coffee.

My cat, typically, ignored the whole thing.

Oh, lots:
A puzzled young muntjac staring at a cat
Starling mumurations
Standing on a cliff watching the sand martins flying below me
Coming across an enormous herd of fallow deer in a wood
And so on.

But then I am easily pleased by the natural world. I'm sitting in my garden watching the bees and butterflies and listening to the birds...

Every time I see a rainbow, I just marvel at it.
I know and kind of understand the science behind it but the perfect shape and the stunning colours makes it other-worldly!

My friend had a beach which was very dear to her heart and where her ashes were scattered. Before she died she asked that when she was gone I go there and open a bottle of her favourite wine as we had done many times and have 'one last drink with her'. So I went, poured two glasses of wine and sat quietly drinking mine and thinking of all the amazing times with my lovely friend. All quiet, nobody around, quiet waves breaking on a calm sea.

When I'd finished my glass I took hers down to the water's edge, paddled in and poured her wine into the sea. At that exact moment a pod of dolphins rose up from the water just metres from the shore. Leaping, racing up and down the beach almost dancing with each other. The joy and sadness was overwhelming. I've told people this story and sometimes think they don't believe me but it was true and so very moving.

A few years ago I was in Devon and just where we were staying was a large tree (I think a Holm Oak) covered with enormous, colourful butterflies. It was stunning.
Also a time when I was walking past a local park in central London about 10pm in January or February and I saw two foxes leaping in the air together, they seemed to be pretty much looping the loop in a most balletic way. I have always wondered what that was all about; Some sort of courtship ritual or rivalry over a vixen (given the time of year)? Just jumping for joy?

As a young teenager, seeing the rings of Saturn and the moons of Jupiter through my first amateur stargazing telescope. It fundamentally changed my understanding of our place in the universe.

I have several memorable incidents that all involve deer.
First is many years ago walking in the New Forest with my mum and her dog and one of my friends. We were walking along a path amongst the trees and got to a gate. On the other side of the gate was a more open space. We started to go through the gate but then a large deer appeared and started to sort of pace in a semi circle in front of us blocking our way. If we tried to go one way it turned around and blocked us. We thought perhaps it was protecting young nearby. Anyway we all felt quite intimidated by this deer and decided to go back the way we came.
When walking back along the path we came on, some kind of snake (definitely not just a slow worm) slithered across our path which gave us a second scare!

The second deer thing was more magical feeling. Travelling to the hospital in the same city we live in, in labour, at around 4am. We drove past the large park and saw a deer crossing the road in front of us to get into the park. It just felt quite special to see it.

And then when my daughter was nearly 3yrs we were walking in another park on the edge of the city. We turned a corner with my daughter in front of me and she said "oh an animal!"
It was a deer. She had never seen one before and her surprise and wonder was lovely to witness.

Being about 5 when a large bee landed on my chest and sat there.

A butterfly landing on my finger.

Bat-watching in lockdown. I loved those dusk walks when the world wasn't out walking.

Open water swimming with electric blue dragonflies skimming past.
Swimming at swan and duckling level.

Watching birds of prey soaring and swooping. Usually buzzards.

Seeing a hare on an early morning trail run.

The first time I saw a hedgehog in my garden.

When the sparrow-hawk comes for an all-you-can-eat pigeon buffet in the garden.

DS's would be when he was 9 and using the toilet on a wild-life boat trip, and a dolphin swam past the window. That was the highlight of his summer

I love watching nature, even coming across fairly common creatures unexpectedly feels like something special.

Starlings murmerations are sadly a rarer occurrence these days, but the almost liquid way they flow through the sky is truly a sight.

I love watching bats at dusk

I randomly came across a deer in a field once, we both surveyed each other for a few moments in surprise, before the deer cautiously moved off.

When I find a frog in my garden.

Also, taking the bins out one evening a came across a hedgehog, I was surprised how fast they could move when they want to!

Not particularly rare or interesting creatures, but i do enjoy sharing that brief moment with them before we both get on with our lives

Starling murmuration are beautiful. Watching the butterflies and bees in my garden. We have done a few rescues. Recently my son found a stag beetle hanging from a spider web. Managed to take the web off and we released it into the garden. There is a three legged mouse somewhere that we saved from the cats

Yesterday morning I turned my ponies out in their field. As I opened the gate we startled a deer, nothing unusual about that, we often see them down there. Then I saw her two babies (fawns). OMG I don't think I've ever seen anything so utterly beautiful in my life! I stood there with the ponies waiting for the babies to sort themselves out and move away from us in their own time. Off they went side by side like two little peas in a pod. Utterly beautiful, I just wish I'd had my phone with me to record that magical moment. I hope I will see them again. They weren't terrified which is a good thing.

There are so many.

I was at a pinguin visitor centre. People sat close to a beach where blue pinguins were supposed to come home in the eveing to their nests ( not far from the beach). After sometime a large group of pinguins came ashore and they went straight to their nests and disappeared from sight, but there was this little guy/girl stayed on the beach by him/herself. We all wondered why he/she was still there alone. 10 mins later another pinguin finally appeared from the water and went straight to the one on the beach. As soon as they were together they started "making love" on the beach right in front of us...and I heard kids asking parents "what are they doing?". It makes me smile each time I think about it.

Many years ago I worked as cabin crew and therefore worked very unsociable hours. I remember leaving for work one morning around 2am and as I opened the front door came face to face with a herd of deers who were quietly eating in my front garden. We stared at each other for about 3 seconds until they decided to run off! It was very unexpected and special.

My DD and I once witnessed a cow giving birth! There was no one else around at a local farm we were visiting when it happened.

Chilling with the local deer that use my garden as a safe area. DH feeds them in the winter and gives them vegetable scraps over the summer so we have got quite friendly over the years. Sadly most of the older ones got culled earlier this year but the smaller survivors in the group continued coming.

DP is into archery and when we practice the deer occasionally appear to watch us. On the odd occasion one of the deer will find a lost arrow and bring it to where we shoot from (when we are not around). They get a few parsnips or a cabbage as a treat when they do that. They've also left us a few antlers when they shed so we have quite a cool collection now.

Typing this out has made me realise how crazy that sounds 😂

In Brazil one time stood inches away from a hummingbird..

Like PPs I love a good murmaration.

Also a dark, clear night, no light pollution, just seeing the sheer number of stars.

Friends and I were hiking in the Lake District once, when a herd of deer came flouncing and prancing across the hills in front of us. It was like the Gallop of the Stags scene from Bambi, we still talk about it!

@Pubgarden that’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing such a deep & precious moment.

Lovely Post OP.

This is such a lovely, feel good thread!

On a coastal cliff walk with my mum on holiday in Greece one Spring. The ground was uneven and the grass was long and scattered with wild flowers. We stumbled across a small, fenced off olive grove containing some sheep. A low sea mist hung over the top of the trees. This magical sight stopped us in our tracks. My mum said that she thought it was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen. I have a photograph of her standing there. It's a lovely, magical memory.

I'm not a woo spiritualist person but this just resonated with me probably due to Guy Gavriel Kay's Sarantine Mosaic books which sort of alludes to dolphins and souls.

I've just had a google and apparently Greek mythology believed dolphins to have the power to bring souls to the afterlife.

What a beautiful thing to have seen, I've always wanted to see dolphins

I've driven through the end of a rainbow!!

I was so excited, and entranced and mystified, I thought I was really special! then I googled and it's happened to loads of people on YouTube who videoed it.

It was still a magical experience that will stay with me forever.

I’ve done a fair amount of travelling and seen some amazing things. However, one thing that sticks out in my mind is being on a train to go to a conference up north and wondering if/when I’d get the chance to go travelling on a long stint again. I then looked out of the window and saw the most beautiful sunset. The timing was perfect.

One September morning in 2020 at 7.10am I heard a load of noise, looked out of the open window and thousands of starling doing a spectacular murmaration. Never seen one before that or since, and I'm 40 this year.

Walked over a field at 4am one summers morning and seen the most beautiful biggest sunrise and a large stag deer under it, just fantastic felt like heaven.

Last October in my local cemetary a fox must of been disturbing a magpie nest, fox run as fast as he could into the forest next door to the cemetary the magpies chased fox swooping low and making a load of noise until fox was out of sight.

One Christmas time, collecting my sister from work at midnight. I seen a stag deer running down the avenue, there was frost glistening on the ground. It was magical. He run into the forest through a gap in the fence.

My girl cat giving birth to 7 beautiful kittens. I was 11 at the time. Was 30yrs ago in 2yrs.