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!

Staying on a farm in Snowdonia many years ago and watching bats and owls flying between barns in the evening
The family of foxes that come into our garden every night, so beautiful, and I love seeing the cubs
The lavender plants in the garden absolutely covered in bees
A thunderstorm while walking home from a nightclub as a teenager, it was the early hours of the morning and really warm. Every time the lightning struck, the sky lit up and looked bright purple and there were really clear forks of lightning on the horizon

I had a very unusual encounter whilst walking my dogs some years ago which I've never forgotten or been able to satisfactorily label. It was just after 6am and we were walking along a disused former railway path, woods to the left, fields to the right. Out of a clearing in the woods appeared what I initially took to be a cat. My dogs lived with cats and never bothered them so I carried on walking. After a few feet, I realised this was no ordinary cat. It was much taller, broader, had large paws, a beautiful, very dense coat and yellow eyes. I instinctively stopped walking and was turned to tell my dogs to stop but found they had already done this. This wasn't a surprise where my sensible Border Collie was concerned but my Black Labrador amazed me because ordinarily she would try to befriend anyone or anything, regardless. She also looked very uncomfortable as did my BC. I quietly said "stay." I turned my attention back to the cat-like creature which was now looking at me and it had the eye expression of a wild animal, it definitely wasn't domesticated. It then looked at my two dogs and stared at them in a menacing way for the time it took for it to cross the path, leap over a tall wall and disappear from sight. Once it had done this, my Lab immediately ran over to the spot it had leapt from and started sniffing, her body language back to being relaxed again. I later googled wild cats and can only describe what I saw as similar to a Bobcat, though not as tall. Now, this makes no sense, ofcourse, because Bobcats aren't native to the UK and it's unlikely it was a pet cat, but that's the closest I've ever been able to get to labelling it. Whatever it was, it was a stunningly beautiful - though menacing - animal.
Disclaimer: I've never taken drugs and had not been drinking the previous evening!

I was driving in the desert on my way to Las Vegas, very early and still dark, and then the sun started coming up casting light across the flat desert in real time. It was the most glorious thing I’d ever seen. Human invention pales in comparison to Mother Nature.

Some 20 years ago now my partner and I were backpacking around the world and we stayed at a hostel in Akaroa, NZ. We went down to the beach for a walk before bed and as we approached the end of the shoreline realised that there was a large group of small penguins starting to come ashore right where we were. We didn't want to frighten or disturb them so we just stood perfectly still for about 20 mins as they all shuffled past us, nearly walking over our feet on several occasions. We watched as they went up through the rocks and out of sight in the dusk. It was amazing to be so close to them and they didn't even seem to realise we were there.

Swimming in the River Dart recently with a kingfisher hunting all around me. It came as close as about 10ft away at one point. I don't think it recognised me as human because only my head was out of the water.

This isn't exactly my story, but DS's and the community's. DS was on his way to catch the school bus a few weeks ago when he saw an interesting creature, and being a teenager he was quick enough on the draw to be able to film it. That footage has now done the rounds of all the local nature enthusiasts' social media groups, and it has been positively identified as a pine marten. This is not an area where pine martens are understood to be living at all! And it's funny, once you start talking about it, the amount of people locally who are like "Oh yeah, I've seen one of those!" Makes you wonder what else is out there that hasn't been formally recorded.

Having a cup of tea in bed on a Scottish island, heard a whooshing type of noise, looked out of the window and it was a school of dolphins blowing air out of their airholes. Incredible.
Hearing blackbirds sing, so beautiful.
I heard two tawny owls some distance part who seemed to be actually talking to each other, taking it in turns !

That's incredible.
My very straight-laced and elderly father swore that he once saw a big cat (as in a panther) on one of his walks somewhere very rural.

Watching a juvenile seagull trying to catch a really large fish and failing 3 times 🤣 from my balcony this morning

I'm a Londoner & like seeing animals in the city. I have seen a pheasant in my parents garden & a heron in my garden. Love hearing the geese fly over & the local parakeets are pretty.

Check out this website @BetteDavisChin for cool information 😁 Alexander's Dark Band is my favourite factoid https://www.atoptics.org.uk/rainbows/adband.htm

I also saw a spider having a fight with a wasp, which it won. I saw a field mouse eating dead nettle seeds in my garden and one on the street, doing something with pine needles.

One thing that terrified me was going for a very early swim (jet lag) in the Pacific Ocean. Just as I was climbing up my deck ladder a 6ft shark went past me. It was so close but so silent, if I hadn't seen it I would have been none the wiser. It was a reef shark so I was safe but still!

Agree about rainbows, they are like something from a fairytale.

Starling murmurations. I thought it was a black cloud of smoke, but it kept shifting about. Was amazing to see

The one year, it happened directly over my house. It sounded like it was raining outside from all the poo that was falling out the sky.

I think it is courtship. There's a beautiful children's book called "Winter Dance" a fox doesn't know what to do in winter but in the end he discovers a lady fox and that "of course, because that what we red foxes do in winter - Dance!"

I notice so much more of nature now that I have kids.

I've seen a bumble bee digging a burrow. I've seen a mama red squirrel with her babies scrambling about the garden, maybe their first outing, very sweet.

I find clouds and trees in the breeze incredibly beautiful.

Snorkeling on holiday and coming across a Loggerhead turtle. She wasn't fazed at all and came to have a look at me. I thought I would burst with joy. It was just thrilling.

I was driving over tower bridge one afternoon and there was the most vivid rainbow I’ve ever seen. The end was shining into butlers wharf. The traffic was slowing down and everyone was completely in awe.

I’m remember visiting Norfolk and every day I’d hope to see a seal. One morning, I walked to the beach and kept saying ‘today is the day’. And the biggest seal popped its head out of the water and had a good look around. It was a dream come true for me.

I used to live in the tropics, and though it was common to encounter monkeys or huge pythons, we had moved to the suburbs a good distance from any considerable bit of rainforest, and our house was in an area thick with houses and busy streets.
My bedroom had a balcony, and I kept the curtains to the sliding doors open. One night in bed while up extremely late listening to music (and probably secretly texting a boy) I saw the movement of something interrupt the streetlight that shone through my balcony doors. It was a wild marbled cat, with a marvelously long and thick tail, skulking along the wide ledge of the balcony before leaping off onto the roof of the veranda below. I’ve seen many amazing or beautiful things in nature, but that was truly thrilling.

I love nature, so it’s really hard to choose just a few!

Buzzards that appeared in my area last year. I’d never heard a birdcall like it before, I identified it with Merlin Bird ID which I’d downloaded because I read about it on here. There were two last year and definitely four this year (on the odd occasion I’ve seen six). They’re overhead most days, as soon as I hear them I’m transfixed at scanning the sky to find them and watching until they soar away.

I had a shrub in the garden which the butterflies loved. Looking out the window one day, it looked as though the shrub was breathing - it was the volume of butterflies all gently moving on there. The shrub has had to be removed for various reasons, but I’ll be planting another elsewhere as soon as I can next year.

Experiencing a sea fret, it just feels other-worldly. Especially the one I drove into a few years ago. At first, I saw something up ahead and thought someone was having a bonfire (behind me I’d driven from clear blue skies and a lovely temperature. Within about 45 seconds I hit the wall of the fret and I felt the temperature in the car drop noticeably and visibility reduced a lot.

Like a pp, I love rainbows. Haven’t got many buildings here to break up my view, so get to see some pretty great ones. Also, that certain “golden” light you get when you’ve had a downpour, part of the sky is still black, but the sun bursts through - makes the greenery in the garden look amazing.

Watching a cellar spider take out a huge house spider. I’d heard about them doing this, but never quite believed it was possible. I hate spiders, always have done, they petrify me. But since moving into my cottage (timber-framed), I’ve learnt to appreciate and leave alone cellar spiders - they are great at keeping to their lane and dealing with bugs you don’t want damaging your timbers. Still not over my fear, but it’s a big step for me that I’m ok with them hanging out in their corners.

Swimming with wild dolphins - hands down is the most amazing thing I’ve ever done. Was over 20 years ago now and I’m still so thankful that I got to do it.

Watching the jackdaws fly over my garden each evening, back to their nests in the village. Seeing the occasional kestrel just hovering in mid-air, amazing engineering. And spotting this in my garden last year, I thought it was a leaf at first and went to flick it off (was painting what it’s on). It reminds me of the old Vulcan aeroplane.

I used to walk my dogs at dawn before work, and hearing the tawny owls calling was just magical.

I love watching barn owls hunt - I've only seen it a few times, but they are so silent and graceful.

There is huge pleasure to be had in some totally predictable parts of nature - the fabulous flowers of horse chestnuts, a duck with ducklings on a pond, a rainstorm off in the distance. And bluebells - so completely predictable, there they are every spring, and so stunning to look at and to smell.

The sound of red kites. Not an uncommon bird, now, where I live, but I rarely hear them because they’re usually pretty high up and daytime noises mask them.

It’s a haunting, ethereal sound, entirely in keeping with their elegant whirling.

Lovely thread.

It’s the unexpected ones that get me. Coming out of the supermarket with adult DS after a downpour and the most spectacular double rainbow just down the road.

On a quay about to get on a glass bottomed boat in Australia and there were huge tropical fish everywhere. Then as we got underway in shallower waters, going over a giant clam just as it closed- DP and I were like kids seeing their first Disney film, it was such a wow moment!
Lots in Australia to be fair. The other worldly feel of Whitehaven beach in the Whitsunday Islands, my pictures look like they were photoshopped.
Treefuls of noisy flying fox bats on a nature walk and then seeing a duck billed platypus in the stream a few minutes later.

I love seeing landscapes lit up by the setting sun. I've seen the white cliffs of Beachy Head looking distinctly red.

As a child, I thought that rainbows were pretend, because they appear in stories so much. I was amazed when I first saw a real one!

Walking home one night, went round the outskirts of the local cemetery. It was dark and as I glanced through the fence I saw one of those massive red toadstools with the white spots on, near a tree and it was all lit up under the glow of a streetlamp. Like something from a fairy tale.

I love sitting in the garden in the twilight, despite us being in a residential area we have quite a lot of bats nearby, they come swooping overhead and it’s fabulous.

Last year I saw a patch of rainbow in the sky one winters day (no rain!) - apparently ice crystals can do that. It was really pretty!

Once I was driving down to visit a town my ancestors came from, and in the field alongside this dirt track road I saw two huge stags fighting. There were no other cars around so I slowed right down to watch - at one point they burst out from a gap in the hedgerows and continued their battle on the road (so thank goodness I had slowed down!) and then went back into their field. They were amazing, it was so impressive - I hadn’t realised how large stags were!