What are the highlights of this year for everyone? So far this Chrysobothris chrysoela, this lone star tick , this striped mud turtle , and lastly this Florida Softshell Turtle have been some of my favorite highlights
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I’d say it would be seeing a woodpecker clearly for the first time. The Bronx Zoo is an amazing bird-watching place.
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WOW! Seeing a woodpecker for the first time is certainly an accomplishment. I never knew that they were rare up there.
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A species I see all the time, but this observation of some Cedar Waxwings is my favorite because I’ve never seen this behavior before, drinking from sapsucker wells.
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I had a few highlights:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/198658101
A fungus that is epiparasitic on another fungus (a plant pathogen)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150335767
The Grooved-blade Sea Whip
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195510877
Poison Hemlock
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Definitely this long-tailed duck or this pacific golden plover I spotted on the Monterey Peninsula.
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Ferocactus cylindraceus (California Barrel Cactus) from Ridgeline Trail, Phoenix, AZ, US on February 23, 2024 at 04:45 PM by Robert Levy. Nature is amazing but crazy. · iNaturalist
Might be this cactus!
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So far my highlight is finding honeydew eater, which was a new species to me I learned from a random iNaturalist observation! I didn’t have any exact coordinates, just went to the general area of some observations and was lucky enough to find some.
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This year, I’ve been a bit obsessed with mushrooms and slime molds. I’ll try to add pics later when I’m on a better interface.
I understood this one was maybe rare:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196564450
I really like the little bitty ones:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196565191
How cute can it get? Bird’s Nest Fungi
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/198175333
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My top highlights this year are this beautiful sharp-tailed snake at my parents’ place and this flock of Sandhill Cranes over my neighborhood.
I’m heading to Panama at the end of this month so I should have a whole list of highlights when I get back in April.
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i just got back from a weeklong trip to Great Britain and while it was off-season for most plants, i’m sure i won’t top that this year as i am unlikely to do any more international travel. Apparently the UK is one of the less biodiverse countries, but most of it was still all new to me and furthermore the interactions between nature, culture, politics, etc are very different from where i live, and the very extensive disturbance history is actually really ecologically interesting in its own way. And the upside of being less diverse is i feel like i actuallly learned a large portion of the trees and shrubs while i was there, as opposed to going to Costa Rica where i didn’t have a clue :D (The latter location is definitely better for life list building, i won’t deny that)
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My year’s off to a great start. I began with something I had overlooked before; bonnets. I just decided to stair at some tree bark one day and there they were. The more trees I looked at, the more bonnets I found. For the next week, I just visited parks in search of these tiny mushrooms. They were everywhere!
As the sun set, I took this photo:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/198015130
It’s pretty nice. Oh, and I also saw a Merlin tear a cardinal apart right in front of me. Take a look:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/200945727
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Me too! Is 2024 the year of the tiny mushroom?
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It must be!
Definitely not rare, but hoopoes are really nice looking birds. I observed one for quite a while and then - just for a moment - it put up its hood. :-)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201173620
On the same day a still unidentified Chelotrupes beetle, probably rarer as it doesn’t seem to be the most observed species.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201173551
It has inspired me to start a traditional project about [beetles with horns].(https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/beetles-with-horns)
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my fav obs has to be this weird dandelion https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201227872 , apparently belonging to a group native to the Americas.
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A bog grass (Dichanthelium) at the summit of Kaua’i is mine: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/201453719
Been wanting to see this grass for years and finally made it to the habitat. No flowers, but the leaves are super distinctive with their eyelashes
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Not rare in their rage but I was very pleased to see my first Pied Heron on a recent work trip to the Northern Territory Australia https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/200805539
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Whoa‼️
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