u/NordicAliensIreland

There's something magical about downloading your camera and finding pictures you forgot you'd taken. We’d taken the golf cart down a dirt road into a clearing when we startled a big bird. She flew up so fast that I didn’t get a good look at her but I said, “STOP! STOP! I want to try for a photo!” We stopped. I zeroed in on the dot up in the tree with little hope of a good photo but I just had to try. And much to my surprise, the photos turned out perfectly.

Meet the Turkey Vulture up close. She's quite handsome, isn't she? And she's a friend to mankind. She and her kind neutralize all sorts of germs and pathogens, even rabies. Send them good wishes the next time you see a vulture and say, "Thank You, good bird! For all of your hard work in keeping us safe.” — I took these photos on 5/20/2026 in Dade City, Florida, USA

And who knew that these Daddy Long-legs are not all spiders? They are in the same class of Arachnids but some are Opiliones which is not a spider, and some are spiders but even then there are many sub-species. Far be it for me to classify my Daddy Long-legs, but isn’t she a beauty with those long, graceful legs! So often do we just pass them by because it’s “just a Daddy Long-legs” and for many of us they are quite common. So who stops to actually look up close? But one day I did and here are some photos that I took on October 12, 2011 in Hiram, Georgia, USA.

Every year one of these orbweavers would build a giant web on our front porch from the railing to the porch ceiling and I looked forward to this fascinating fall visitor. My husband is a spiderphobe but knowing my fascination with spiders and other denizens of nature on our one acre, he left her be every year for me. One time I drew a cartoon and taped it to the inside of the front door so that he’d know what to expect when walking out the door and he could go out through the garage instead.

I tried mightily to identify the big hairy spider. Noting the reddish hue on her legs, I thought she might be a red-femured spotted orb-weaver spider aka Neoscona domiciliorum. However, her topside looked more like Hentz’s orb-weaver aka Neoscona crucifera. Alternately, she might belong to the Araneus family of orb-weavers.

I’m not a spider expert, just an enthusiast, so I’ll stick with Big Hairy Spider of the orbweaver family. — I took these photos on October 12, 2011 in Hiram, Georgia, USA

I've been going through old photos I've taken and this one surprised me from 2011 of the magnolia tree seed pods in our front yard. I'd completely forgotten that magnolias did this! I was so smitten with the uniqueness of these pods. And the pods did not all progress on the same timeline. All of these photos were taken on the same day. We moved out of that house and all of the memories faded away to be replaced by new wonders in other cities. -- I took these photos on September 17, 2011 in Hiram, Georgia, USA

I've been going through old photos I've taken and this one surprised me from 2011 of the magnolia tree seed pods in our front yard. I'd completely forgotten that magnolias did this! I was so smitten with the uniqueness of these pods. And the pods did not all progress on the same timeline. All of these photos were taken on the same day. We moved out of that house and all of the memories faded away to be replaced by new wonders in other cities. -- I took these photos on September 17, 2011 in Hiram, Georgia, USA

This little brown anole lizard was bobbing his head and puffing out his black-spotted bright red dewlap while perched on a dead cactus plant. They do this to attract mates and to warn off rivals. His dewlap makes me think of a strawberry or watermelon. — I took this photo on May 14, 2026 in Dade City, Florida, USA

I am blessed that she stayed still long enough for me to snap a few photos. She's a black vulture, friend of mankind, she keeps us safe from all sorts of pathogens. Think of her as the cleanup crew for germy waste. Her system is immune to the germs and they don't come back out of her once they go in. -- Dade City, Florida, USA -- May 2026

Saddleback caterpillar getting ready to poop. At the time I wasn't familiar with the Saddlebacks and he was moving rather strangely and I wondered what he was doing. I thought that the end with the eyespots was his head so I thought I was watching his mouth. But no........ that's the tail end! And out it popped. The turd. Fascinated eeeuuuwwww! And those bristles sting. I got stung once while gardening, I didn't see him and my pinky finger brushed up against him. It felt like scalding hot water shooting into my finger and up my arm. -- Hiram, Georgia, USA, September 2009

Talk about the perfect camouflage! These bald-faced hornets built their paper nest in our patio table umbrella and it blended in so well, we didn't notice it until we saw a hornet climbing out of the hole. And this was just a few feet from our back door, the door we went in and out of several times a day taking our dogs out. Once I found out what they were, I panicked. They aren't true hornets but rather yellowjacket wasps according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They are highly aggressive and can sting you over and over again if you get too close to their nest and there was no way to keep a distance as it was so close to our back door. Although I must admit that we must have walked past it a gazillion times without issue before we discovered it. The Missouri Department of Conservation posted that in the Ozark mountains in the early 1900s, empty hornets' nests were considered good luck, especially for childbirth and so "nearly every old-time mountain cabin" had one hanging in the loft. -- These photos were taken in May 2019 in Hiram, Georgia, USA.

Rat snake in our dwarf pear tree in May 2019. This was six years after the rat snake in the Old Man Birdhouse coming out of the nostrils in August 2013. I don't know if it's the same snake but I believe so. He got BIG! We must have kept him very well fed. We did have lots of moles, squirrels, chipmunks, frogs, toads, and birds. Our backyard was an excellent wildlife habitat, great hunting ground for the rat snake. -- Hiram, Georgia, USA, May 2019. Here's the link to the rat snake in the Old Man Birdhouse from 2013 for those of you who missed it: https://www.reddit.com/r/snakes/comments/1t62vq5/rat_snake_in_our_bird_house/

We were so incredibly blessed to find these Ghost Pipes (Monotropa uniflora) growing in the wooded area of our property and they came back every year. They were always pink. We had wooded areas on two sides of our backyard and these only grew on the one side. We lived in that house for 16 years and they were consistent. This was in Hiram, Georgia, in the United States.

So we hung this birdhouse thinking it would be cute for a bird to fly in and out through the nose, just like the song, "May the bird of paradise fly up your nose." But an unexpected rat snake moved in instead and we got the biggest kick out of watching him. -- Hiram, Georgia, August 2013

So we hung this birdhouse thinking it would be cute for a bird to fly in and out through the nose, just like the song, "May the bird of paradise fly up your nose." But an unexpected rat snake moved in instead and we got the biggest kick out of watching him. -- Hiram, Georgia, August 2013

So we hung this birdhouse thinking it would be cute for a bird to fly in and out through the nose, just like the song, "May the bird of paradise fly up your nose." But an unexpected rat snake moved in instead and we got the biggest kick out of watching him. -- Hiram, Georgia, August 2013

Two Snowberry Clearwing Moths mating in a lilac bush on April 20, 2011 in Hiram, Georgia. We had lilacs and azaleas and they loved them both. The first time I saw one it was if a hummingbird mated with a bumblebee, I had no idea what it was. They even sound like hummingbirds when they buzz past your ear. And they hover in flowers just like a hummingbird. I called them Bumblebee Hummingbirds. Then I began to research what these fascinating creatures were and found out that they were day-flying moths who prefer Snowberry bushes. But we didn't have any of those. I don't know if our neighbors did but it didn't really matter because they loved our lilac bush, and they loved our many azalea bushes. They were happy so I was happy. One of my all-time favorite insects!