Exemplary - good photos, ID notes, interesting ‘extras’. Joy!
This one is a mystery and the possible explanation is in the linked observation of the Black Ant (comments)
Sometimes the old ones are the best! https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/491167/tiny-inverts-not-collembola
and, https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/261713/unidentified-
Plenty to please here (and i’m not suggesting this one just because i feature - honest!
As with many a dancefloor filling, s***-kicker tune, Steve provides a rock solid bassline (or rather, baseline) to begin with - it’s an informative yet concise post with good quality photos and delivered with an entertaining splash of humour.
A ‘backing band’ of reasoned text then supports his proposed id (which as Amadan points out, seems to be virtually essential for the troublesome ‘long-faced’ social wasp clan).
So already a post well qualified for inclusion here then. Yet it gets better still.
It’s also a great illustration, in my view, of the great value/benefit to be had from using the ‘comments box’.
In doing so here, some further very useful, ‘finer point’ id tips were teased out from a clearly knowledgeable source (ie Steve). These added extra value to the observation which potentially helps future users, and of course, had that bit of back and forth banter never taken place, then Steve’s additional insights would have remained hidden under a bushell (hopefully never Garry Bushell!).
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Good choice. Can be appreciated by those without any useful knowledge of hymenoptera (example: me) for its humour and skill.
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Possible competition: post from Steve today
Outstanding.
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I am not for a real Competition - not always the best photo of course
but an Observation of the Week, (chosen by Admin?) on the Home Page would be a good incentive.
For us users specially but also for Admin to get rid of last year’s faded information (chus sayin’).
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Yes, competition used loosely there, I’m not a fan of looking for ‘the best’, that’s why ‘favourite’ is good here I think. Not that that takes anything away from Steve’s inspiring posts. You are right, something that changes regularly grabs attention, lovely idea for the home page.
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For the rarity of the subject (not only here) and diligence: a simple delight!
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Lovely story and VERY well photographed
Sorry, I’ve not been here for 13 hours - unusual for me
To hell with Testing…(last day for me)
THIS is a real favourite. Excellence in observing, story telling and photography.
Can the community award a gold rosette 
to sit forever by the title of such Observations?
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Elegant snake, beautifully framed (bribery with the promise of frogs?) and photographed. One of those magical moments, of which life holds far too few.
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Yes, feeling guilty, I tried to find this thread in the forum yesterday to do exactly this in praise of a wonderful observation, but failed to find it. Oh dear!
It’s still there, all snug. You didn’t find it because the whole site was offline.
Wonderful images, great ID skills, fascinating subject. A work of rare craftsmanship.
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very artistic water though!
Yes, a lovely moment.
not everyone will remember a previous one from Steve https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/817267/
Note the way the Dictionary has been updated - highlight the Rollover icon
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On another note altogether, I do hope everyone has seen this (please note the date, which escaped me at first): Gresetadus maximus, spawn | Observation | UK and Ireland | iSpot Nature
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I was toadally taken in…
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