Observations in the Natural World

It took me a long time to find what this bug was in the garden. Couldn't find it because it's not a beneficial insect for the garden, and that is how I was searching for it at first.
from mdc.mo.gov
It sure looks like it wants to eat other bugs and would be beneficial. It's big enough, too, to give you pause; in fact this is a female and she can bite . My pics next, from a cell phone, note those lady jaws! [mandibles].




Turns out the adults like this do not eat, they only breed. The larvae are aquatic and can bite too, hellgrammites... voracious, I think.

https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/eastern-dobsonfly

The neighbor's yard-light went out and this is the first night I could check out the stars on a clear night. The light from other sources still made it less than ideal, too close to town I guess. I still couldn't make out the little dipper for instance

Venus is a horizon-hugger seemingly, the morning and evening 'star', joining the sun in disappearing soon after sunset ... and the sun drowns it out after sunrise. It has to hang around the sun, being closer. Yet I'm often surprised how high in the sky it seems, when you can see it. 

Tonight I realized the north star, Polaris, is fixed pretty high in the sky, as the image shows in time-lapse photography. It occurs to me that you might expect to be unable to see much below Polaris, but you see quite a bit. I don't think this is a seasonal thing, an effect of the earth's tilt on axis that changes this. There is a bit of wobble in the rotation of our planet, which sounds like an explanation, but I don't think it is, it's too slow of a process plus probably hard to detect.

If I don't post back here soon I didn't find the answer by searching

this comes up in Google "people also ask" ... so I guess it makes sense

Quote:

As you travel northward, Polaris climbs higher in the sky. If you go as far north as the North Pole, you'll see Polaris directly overhead. As you travel south, Polaris drops closer to the northern horizon. If you get as far as the equator, Polaris sinks to the horizon.

google sites https://earthsky.org

I guess we don't have a hunting thread ... so will use this one

a good illustration of how important it is not to run from a bear ... even a grizzly intent on eating you has to think twice if you don't. A female protecting cubs might not think twice , though. I have to think I would have held fire too, but at one point I might have given the bear a blast. No, the birdshot wouldn't kill the bear, but it would probably be excellent discouragement.

Details are missing ... how did he finally get safe? How was he in a position to record this? [it's odd to be prepared for that while bird hunting if you ask me]. Is he close to his vehicle? [the dog seems put away]

https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/video-brown-bear-charges-bird-hunter-who-holds-fire-at-close-range/?dicbo=v2-1362dcd568efb0914ed5f7179905152d

The downsides to loving mushrooms are well known, and I guess you can imagine cordyceps are potentially a downside that's coming, and add that to the list! I only heard about cordyceps due to the TV show 'the Last of Us' in which the fungus infects humans. Pretty silly but I have to admit the way they take over the nervous system and force the creature to go where spreading the spores is most effective is very creepy.

The reason this is not happening in the real world to people is because fungi have trouble existing in that much warmth [cordyceps do not infect any warm blooded creatures to my knowledge] It'll be the apocalypse if this ever changes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1emq6js/tarantula_infected_by_cordyceps/

Well before the Internet spreading rumors.

Quote:

Euell Gibbons

His books provide recipes for casseroles, muffins, salads, and more, all from ingredients found in the wild. He died in 1975 at the age of 64 because of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, but there was plenty of buzz saying that he had poisoned himself while living off of the land.

or maybe cordyceps got him!

warning signs: your toe fungus is getting worse, and you have this urge to climb a tower somewhere

I came across an artesian spring in the woods [a wilderness area]

It was a mound, not a depression. I think it brought up a certain tiny amount of sand, and this makes an accumulation over time, on net. It was pretty cool

https://www.advnture.com/news/hikers-enter-closed-trail-jasper-national-park
Hikers decide to hike on a closed trail
Eventually call in for a hilocopter rescue
Is the reason
A. Suffered a bear attack
B. Trapped by wildfire
C. They got tired

Quote: terapined

https://www.advnture.com/news/hikers-enter-closed-trail-jasper-national-park
Hikers decide to hike on a closed trail
Eventually call in for a hilocopter rescue
Is the reason
A. Suffered a bear attack
B. Trapped by wildfire
C. They got tired

C. ... and D. they got lost I'll bet