2021 was a slow year for me but of course it still had it’s highs. I’m mainly a herpetologist and my favourite moment of the year was probably on my trip to NW Spain when, just as the weather was turning worryingly bad, I suddenly came upon this sight:
At the time I had already found several Seoane’s vipers but this specimen was exactly the colour and pattern I had dreamt of finding, my main motivation for the trip.
Another big moment was this: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98111639, because I had to work for it, found it at the last moment, and it is the only observation of the species on iNat.
A further herpetological highlight was my first loggerhead sea turtle swimming by right beneath my feet.
At home there are no new reptile and amphibian species for me to search for but there are of course always great experiences to be had nonetheless, not least during mating season, such as spending 45 minutes lying meditatively less than a meter from a pair of mating adders after following the male’s fights with other males over the course of the preceding week, standing barefoot in freezing water in the middle of a moor frog orgy with stunning electric blue males or in a pond with a mixed chorus of all the rarest Danish amphibian species. A late season favorite was my first Danish December snake, a grass snake incredibly out and about on the 14th…
In relation to other species groups it has been even more of a slow year but highlights include my first Danish non phocoenid cetacean in the form of a bottlenose dolphin, first Danish nightjar, a breeding pair of peregrine falcons on a chimney just a couple of km’s from my house, my first coralroot (far from my rarest orchid find this year but the one I worked the hardest for, and the one that’s been on my target list for the longest time), as well as surely a whole bunch of stuff I’ll only think about two minutes after posting this.
For next year, so far I have one trip abroad planned, an early spring trip to Cyprus with a bunch of targets, Levantine viper topping the list. I hope and expect to add a couple of other trips, though, and a lot more targets, already have several ideas, but nothing is set yet. At home I just have the simple ambition to get out as much as possible, visit new places, find new species and spend time enjoying and further learning about local populations I already know well. Species wise, not much on my Danish target list yet, but I would like to add bluefin tuna, mole cricket (only found abroad and heard at home so far), and Triops.
This was a favorite of mine; it’s an interesting one and very sweet, I think. This is a male timema perched on top of a female, which it seems they do through much of gestation. Perhaps a guarding behavior?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/77975398
Or, this Polychaete Worm that had so many of us on the beach exclaiming,‘what on earth is that thing!?!’
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/82769632
As for 2022, I am hoping to find more completely new-to-me species (it shouldn’t be hard) that make me feel amazement and wonderment.
My top observation for 2021 has to be this critter: a very-out-of-range Sage Thrasher in the Rainy River District. There are fewer than 20 accepted records for this species in Ontario, and so far as I’m aware one hasn’t been seen in Rainy River for over a decade. Of all the things I thought I might see on the backroads north of Pinewood that morning, Sage Thrasher was not on my list.
Runner-up: Dickcissels, and lots of them. These prairie-dwelling birds used to be very rare visitors to Northwestern Ontario…but the last two summers have seen a flood of Dickcissels in the Rainy River Valley. I posted 24 sightings to iNat this year, and that’s 23 more than I expected.
My goal for 2022 is to find at least one of the 12 remaining species I still need for my Rainy River District life butterfly list. The best prospects are probably Frigga Fritillary, which I am convinced has a flight season of about eight minutes in early June, and Gray Hairstreak, which was found here in the 1990s. Even if I don’t, 2022 should be a flight year here for the Macoun’s Arctic, a beautiful and very scarce butterfly with a two-year life cycle.
We also had the encounter of a lifetime: coming across a Black Bear on a hike with our iNat buddy in Yellowstone National Park in June. Here is our brief video of the encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u2RHqMciWA
My best of 2021 was being the second person in Texas to observe Sassacus cyaneus! Which is an uncommon jumping spider.
What I’m looking forward to is seeing what jumping spiders are in spring, as I only started observing in August 2021.
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