There have been a few topics posted lately about observer wish fulfillment. ‘Dream’ species for your life lists.
Or when you talk to other observers who live where our dream-list species are pretty common. And vice versa.
It makes me wonder.
Whatever it is, some species make lifelong superfans out of us. And the beautiful thing about nature is that the more carefully you observe a living thing, the more beautiful it becomes.
Every living thing today is a design that has been field tested to the extreme. It’s impossible not to feel awed, when you really learn the stories.
And yet…
I suspect I’m not the only one with a photo drive load or two of shots of unquestionably common organisms that you see almost daily. Many, in fact, with the ‘common’ adjective literally part of their, well… common names!
There’s just something continually attractive about certain local and unmistakably common species.
Perhaps it’s a sentimental resonance? The warmth of familiarity?
Cute? Sometimes. Character? A behavioral change? A natural thrill that never wanes?
What’s on your commonly beautiful list?
What ‘common’ local species do you never tire of seeing, or can’t help but take another shot or two when you see them on your observing trips?
I’ll start off with one of mine.
Endlessly mesmerizing, and baffling in their mastery of a niche environment:
Aquarius remigis. Aka, The Common Water Strider.
I would say any species I see, though I often admire common species without taking photos of them, I spend too much time in one spot, so don’t want to clutter the map with 500 snails from 100x100 square.)
But I like these guys, they’re amazing, no “common” in a name, but as common as it gets.
Peacock Butterfly (here it’s a Day Peacock Eye) which in my home region is everywhere all summer, but can be rarer in other places
My son loves the NY plants. He’s grown up in CA and UT, but what got him into nature and the environment was NY, so when we go there (usually once a month), he loves a lot of the most common stuff. I think it’s mainly because it’s not what he grew up seeing, but I’m always shocked at how excited he gets about the most mundane, plentiful and average plants and animals. Gray squirrel? He gasps. Lawn weeds? He is frantic to get a picture.
I personally loves them all, crawling, flying, swimming, running, they are all beautiful to me, but I must admit that this one stole my hearth again and again and again……
That said, the prize genuinely goes to the blue tit. They’re sort of Proust’s madeleine, the day I stop smiling when I see one I’ll know I’ve become too cynical.
Finally, a somewhat hypocritical one since I actually don’t have an observation of one: the hummingbird hawkmoth. I don’t think I’ve seen any other common insect trigger curiosity and fascination so readily in people.
I have some trouble with the massive appeal of almost all white furry animals.
Is there an implicit bias against similiar species that are all furry but black?
I think it’s driven by physics. On an all-white animals we still see the eyes and mouth and nose quite clearly. We interpret that as expressive. Not so easy to do with an all black creature.
I have no trouble at all with the massive appeal of all white creature, you might be on to something with your theory but doesn’t matter to me, genuinely loaded with cuteness is an understatement for this hermine
Yes, white-favouritism is not a universal bias, just the most popular choice that I’ve observed. And it’s reinforced with marketing and popular creative media choices.
I can’t get enough of these two… both are VERY common “just outside the door” at my son’s house and my house, so I see them pretty much at will. But the paintbrush is endemic to only a small section of the California Coast.
