The world is full

Julia ♦ March 7, 2023 ♦ Leave a comment

I didn’t spot this spider at first, and I bet the wasp didn’t either.
Crab spider by Jeffrey C. Oliver, CC by SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” 
— W. B. Yeats

Awhile back we had an interesting discussion with Boomdee in the comments after she mentioned the rabbits in her world changing colors with the seasons. Until then, I didn’t know about the Snowshoe Hare, which turns white in winter as a form of camouflage in snowy areas. I was enchanted to think of a rabbit that changes color, because I’d never heard of one doing that before. My experience with color-changing animals is pretty much limited to small lizards.

Apparently, rabbits don’t need that flexible sort of camouflage to flourish in Virginia.  They are everywhere, and usually I notice them by the way that they move. Not always, though.

One gorgeous evening last spring I went out to make a quick film clip of the world as it looked from our little porch in Alexandria.  The birds were singing and the azaleas were blooming, and the little creek behind our home was making that lovely rushing sound that always comes after a nice rainfall.  With all this to distract me, I didn’t notice what was hiding in plain sight until I watched the clip nine months later.  See if you spot what I missed (the pause button helps):

Let’s take a cue from Sherlock Holmes and sharpen our senses to see what else we are missing.  What secrets might nature be hiding in your neighborhood?

This post was first published seven years ago today. Because that year (2016) was a leap year, and this one is not, there will be a shift in the days each post is re-published for the remainder of the year. Just in case anyone notices, you’ll now find that they will appear on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.