Cedar waxwings are considered uncommon where I live (according to eBird) but I have had a flock of them (I assume they are the same individuals) hanging out for months. They went nuts in my birdbath recently. I’ve had about 45ish species of birds I’ve identified now in my yard/neighborhood. Last summer, I saw quite a few interesting stinkbugs including a juniper stinkbug and a florida predatory stinkbug. Not sure if they are rare, but they were very beautiful.
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Not mine, but my husband’s, he saw a Raven checking bags on his balcony on 9th floor.
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I have some land that is unused at my back fence, it is adjacent to farm land. There are a couple of angophora trees that are flowering and they are attracting European honey bees and a large variety of wasps, beetles and flies.
I find that looking closely into matted grass I am able to see insects I wouldn’t normally observe. I recently found a Purple winged Praying Mantis. I sent a photo to my grand children saying that I think she will be laying some eggs soon. I have now found the egg sack/bubble in the same location. Normally I travel around doing observations. I am now confined to a small area to do my observations. I seem to know what to expect to observe in certain sections of the land.
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I had been trying to get a good photo of a Eurasian wren for years. They’re not especially rare or anything, but they’re shy. Until one day I stepped out of my house to go to work, and this little guy was sitting on the ground about a metre from my doorstep. He must have been newly fledged, I think, and not quite sure what to do with himself.
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Having moved from good ©old Germany to the ecuadorian Andes almost everything I find in my backyard amazes me, so it is difficult to pic.
One of coolest things is surely the colony of bird spiders … one night I counted at least 9 different individuals
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37624987
and the Pepsid spiders, the big ones almost the lenght of my fingers, that hunt them
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37767089
The most eye-opening find i had was from a slug-caterpillar I didn´t even know excisted until I then (and the ID here)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38681756
But surely the ones that fill my heart with joy everytime I see them (at the moment daily) are the marsupial frogs
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38571215
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This!
I hope that–if nothing else–this enforced break makes everyone take a deep breath and stop thinking that you have to go to the latest, greatest place to make discoveries.
You are a very observant person, gldearman and an excellent model :)
As for me, I just found a Mosquito fern in the local canal. Never noticed it before. WHAT a story this little plant has!
I also discovered an undescribed plant behavior in a dandelion near the house years ago.
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Hmm. All sorts of things I’ve gotten excited about:
Bird’s-nest fungus in mulch (mulch harvested the year before from the municipal chipper pile)
Eastern Screech-Owl, calling when we got home one night
Mating and provisioning cicada killers, which quickly went from “Oh, this is the coolest thing ever!” to “When are these pests going to stop killing the grass?”
Taper-tailed darner resting on porch screen – uncommon ode (only the 8th record on BugGuide), and totally out of habitat – 1/4 mile from the Raritan Estuary, no wooded swamps anywhere in sight.
A striking spotted longhorn on the car
And lots of great stuff at the buglight.
But the topper would have to be the Dekay’s brownsnake, in a well-sealed basement, wrapped around the doorknob I was about to grab.
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hmm Probably the most exciting was the morning we looked out a window and saw that our border collie had treed a bear just over 100 feet from our house in a small woods. (I didn’t iNat it then, but did when we found one hibernating just a 10-20 minute walk away.
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Wow. What a cool find. Black bears occasionally saunter through the garden here, but mostly at night, so we’ve never gotten a photo. You have a brave border collie. 
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Thanks! He usually is, unless he is being chased by a skunk…
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Lol, our dogs are just the opposite, they are the ones chasing the skunks.
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If we’re talking since I started iNatting, I’m really partial to some of the small spiders I’ve seen, plus the carolina wrens–I just love listening to them sing. And watching the anoles display and argue over territory is fun.
If we’re talking ever, I grew up in the mountains and had deer, elk, coyote, skunk, raccoons, raptors I didn’t recognize (back then everything was a red tail hawk to me)…
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Probably the most unique thing I’ve spotted is a Rio Grande Chirping Frog. Totally unexpected as the only amphibians I’m used to seeing in a yard are Gulf Coast Toads. Mind you, I live in the city. I theorize the frogs are using the moist soil under my house for their habitat.
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Since I’ve been back home due to the coronavirus, I’ve made quite a few discoveries in my yard. My goal is to make it to at least 200 species, and I’ve been working on it whenever I can.
It’s not on iNat yet, but I heard and recorded what might be my lifer Cassin’s Vireo in my yard last week.
Not that it’s uncommon, but as a former UC Santa Cruz student myself and the offspring of two alumni, this banana slug was an awesome find.
A ton of springtails, which are quickly becoming some of my favorite arthropods.
Some kind of mysterious, translucent [worm-looking thing].(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/41939241)
A rhabduran bristletail (non-insect hexapods are becoming a theme with me, I guess).
I love seeing all these posts from around the world! It makes me want to travel all over the place—once this whole thing is past us, of course.
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Some of my best finds at my residence are:
Dunning’s Mining Bee
Various potter wasps
Wild Indigo Duskywing
Dogwood Borer
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Thanks to my gamecamera, and the fact that I live in a rural area, I have photos of mostof the species of mammals that live in Pennsylvania and pass through or live in my yard. Bobcats, bears, foxes, coyotes, skunks, etc. But probably the most impressive sight I’ve seen in my yard is five black bears all at once (a mother and four yearling cubs)
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Recently this has to be my favorite. however i also was absolutely astonished by how colorful this spider was.
Also I was thrilled and surprised that a rabbit or possibly two - actually definitely at least two because this one ran away from me or three ( I don’t know if this is the same one or different one) because normally the only mammals around my house other than humans are eastern gray squirrels, whom I love but some biodiversity is nice
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That spider is colorful.
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I know I love it
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The most interesting find in my yard was a toad with cosmic eyes. According to literary data, they live 100 km to the south, in mountain forests. But suddenly they adapted to live with us in the steppe town,settling in the old factory collector. And in my garden, the toad lives in a pit with a water inlet valve.
There were several observations of the species first on iNat:
- cute bug accidentally shot on a flower bed
- unfortunate mole strangled by a dog
- unremarkable rust on the plant
A recent undisguised find was the identification of a thief who ate my favorite saffron and some other plants. The mounds in the ravine behind the garden turned out to be not molehills of the mole, but traces of the life activity of mole rats. Unfortunately, his photograph is not yet available, I do not know how to get rid of this beast.
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