I think you’re right, about time those little suckers got the credit they deserve!
I don’t mind leeches funnily enough, though I have never been bitten by one.
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I think I may have seen some leeches in a tank once. Shudder. The little suckers are as loveable as lampries.
Shudder.
The boys and I spent a good 90mins watching funny animal videos on YouTube yesterday. This was one of our highlights:
By the time we finished, all three of us ached from laughing so hard!
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So hard wired! It’s so funny because everything about a cat bespeaks dignity and purposeful action. Loosing one’s s*** isn’t in their normal range.
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Who knew?! Cucumbers, the natural enemy of cats. I’ll have to try this with Alfred, a normally low-key, personable cat.
I had no idea cats were such phenomenal jumpers, either.
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Video or it didn’t happen. 
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How funny! And interesting. Did you think the sneaky green elongated fruits trigger an embedded behavioral reaction to snakes, alligators or other predators? Certainly, while feeding an animal is in a vulnerable situation, and might have an exaggerated response to a quiet attack.
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Curious–are leeches relatively rare in Britain? In most lakes in Michigan, if you walk in the weedy, dark water, you’ll be likely get some “hangers on”. My grandma used to accompany us to the lakeside with a salt shaker. Leeches, in our experience, would wriggle and fall off with salt, taking away the need to pull them off :).
We also used to use 5 inch long ones bought from the bait shop to catch bass and catfish, but most wild leeches were only 1/2 to 2 inches long.
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Yeah. This sentiment breaks my heart. Youngest Daughter and I saw a bald eagle Sunday on the way to church. It was eating some dead critter next to the road, and flew away, when we drove close. Then it went back. I turned around to try to allow YD to get a better look. I hadn’t mentioned it, in spite of my excitement, because I knew there’d be a demand for evidence. : ( While I was driving the car with no dashcam. : (
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Randy! Where did you guys swim???
Eeewwwuuuhhhgggg!
I’m sticking to Huron and Michigan. I think I’d be as likely to swim in Superior as I am the North Sea. I’ve had my foot in both. Felt about the same. Numb to the knee.
The lampries stick to the colder, deeper areas than where I swim.
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You’re right–not so much in the Great Lakes, except in sheltered coves. I’m thinking of the inland lakes 
I haven’t tried Lake Superior yet! We live about 1/2 h from Lake Michigan, and my parents grew up in Muskegon Heights and Grand Haven on Lake Michigan. Whenever I fish or swim in inland lakes, though, I have to watch out for the shady spots, as that’s where we get the bloodsuckers. I don’t like them, either!
I love seeing the bald eagles–they sure have been more plentiful in the last few years. Wish you had had a chance to photograph that.
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Nice and evenly trimmed bottom of the tree canopy:
One of the precision calibrated trimmers in action:
There is the occasional one standing on its hind legs pulling a branch down however.
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I’ve swum in Sherando Lake (a dammed spring-fed creek in the Virginia Blue Ridge). It’s 55 F all year, below the thermocline (surface waters from 6 in to 2.5 ft below the surface are closer to air temperature).
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Wow.
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A couple weeks ago a friend posted a photo of an African bulb with a color I’d never seen before on Facebook. At the last meeting of our horticultural society she surprised me by bringing me one in bud. Today two of the flowers opened.
I’m growing two other Nerines I like but nothing so unique as this one. A gopher forced me to dig them up and put them in pots. No sign of bloom yet but these are from October of last year.
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What a magical place!
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Don’t worry, leeches don’t hurt at all. (at least not Tiger Leeches)
Laying out on the back hill with Youngest Daughter tonight, we saw something like this:
But I had to “borrow” a photo, because it DID happen, but I don’t have a camera that can capture it.
The binoculars helped. But the Milky Way was clearly visible without them.
I bet @Randy could see it all, too.
It was an incredible evening.
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Neither do I. I for one do not I tend to challenge your claim. 
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