This little golden-headed mining bee(?) was peeking out of its burrow. Not sure if it can even be ID'd from this, but it was too adorable not to get a pic of.
circling and feeding
(first image is a gif; view on desktop)
This is Harold. Harold stalks the forests at the back of the farm waiting for me to come by so he can follow me around close enough that I trip over him. He defends his territory by running noisily through the brush beside me and ripping leaves off of bushes. When I sit on the ground he just stands several inches away growling at me and circling. I've caught him many times now and he continues his stalking after I let him go. It's been eight years now and Harold still comes to visit.
You don't find Harold, Harold finds you.
Update: It's been a year now with no visits from my little buddy. He would have been at least nine the last time I saw him. His memory will forever live in the forest.
The first time I had ever seen this, i videoed the entire event as well from entry to exit. It was as if this species swims all the time. I sent it to a frogmouth expert and she had never seen that before. The bird chose to swim and flew away very easily after its swim. There appeared to be no explanation for the bird swimming as it was not particularly hot or anything unusual.
Breached at least 8 times over the course of a few minutes