Our first home was in Hoopoe Avenue, but we had to move to Porterville to actually see the birds stabbing their way across (other people’s) lawns. None in this third lawn-free garden either.
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I’m lucky enough to live in what is probably the only place in the world where Eurasian Hamster could be considered “locally cringe”. The rest sum up my main interests pretty well: coleoptera and odonata.
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I prefer to add a token one for each species mostly.
So the embarassing Banksia was to report invasive aliens (mostly removed, but wait, there are more coming up!)
Monkey beetle was hoping to get ID past tribe, but it seems photo ID is too difficult. And there will be more of those coming.
Hadeda is our garden resident so doesn’t really count.
I am a planty person with bonus photos of the tiny life on flowers.
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I love the Hadedas and their calls… my South African friends always thought my obsession with those was weird. But I recall they were the very first Animal I heart and saw in southern Africa and they for sure stole my heart. Cherish them! :-)
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B pensylvanicus is #12 on the list, also past by Black-capped Chickadee at #11.
Usually when I relate my camera experience people remind me that most people are using phones, I seem to get corrected no matter what ;) I understand that 200m is plenty for a bird, I think we’ve had this discussion multiple times in the past on this forum, but what I’ve saying is that there will always be easier organisms than birds to photograph, so it’s strange to me that so many people spend their time on birds.
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What is “embarassing” usually depends on anyone’s valours and life experiences.
I could suggest that Chenopodium vulvaria with its so “pleasing” scent is quite embarassing as a possible favourite species (not mine).
I am rather attracted by Poaceae which are often overlooked by “average” naturalists. For me it is because they are complex, extremely numerous, apparently all-alike but actually so dishomogeneous and have colonized all the continents. And since they are many, they usually allow you to reach high numbers of species when you draw the floristic list of a given area. Are they embarassing?
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All I have to say to that is, iNat fosters a large bird community as it is one of the most popular nature hobbies out there. There is more room for research and publications in fields of entomology, botany and marine biology than ornithology because more people are birders than the other things. I think this also translates over to iNaturalist in the sense of how many observations people have on which species. That’s why iNat is so great. I don’t know the first thing about insects but I can post a picture of one on here and someone with a lot of experience can give me there I’d, and vice versa.
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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&user_id=raymie&verifiable=any&view=species
Common Buckthorn and House Sparrow nooooooooo
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I opened the topic marked as mostly-humor because I was looking at embarrassment as the internal feeling which comes from noticing a difference between the values one claims to have versus the actions one takes. For me, the Datura wrightii is embarrassing because it’s not one that I saw and thought “I like this, I’ll start observing more of these!” but that I guess I reluctantly do since it’s in my top 10. I didn’t intend for it to make people feel ashamed of what they enjoy, sorry about that!
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I like the topic and how you approached it. I think it’s fun to take a look at my own collection of observations with a different perspective… Embarrassed or surprised or whatever you want to call it.
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I understand and no apology is necessary. I knew you meant it from a humorous point of view but I also know how easy it is for people to either miss the humour or feel like they are the butt of the joke. I didn’t want someone who was just starting out to misunderstand and think that their observations of ‘just another mallard’ was not worthy. I’ve met a couple of people where I live (a very small island community) who, when I encouraged them to post their photos to iNat, clearly expressed that they didn’t think their observations were worth posting. I’m hoping I can win them over despite the limitations they have.
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It’s probably natural that the more mundane (i.e., boring) species would rise to the top for many of us as they will be most often encountered. The ones that excite me are the rarities and first-for-me species for which I have only a single record. If I photo’d and uploaded most every organism I saw, I suppose feral pigeon would be the numbers winner … and that would be somewhat embarrassing.
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I got that. For someone who fancies himself an adventurer, coconut palm (“stereotypical tropical beach”) feels rather touristy; and for someone drawn to exotic places with exotic taxa, bristly oxtongue is such a ubiquitous weed in my local area, it would ordinarily be beneath my interest.
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A little off topic but this reminded me of an occasion when I was rat-watching…
Near where I used to work there is a spot where there were eels living under a footbridge and people would throw bread for them. I went down to see the eels one day and there were rats eating the leftover bread. They were totally used to people so I spent my lunch hour photographing them as well as the eels. I enjoyed the chance to see them moving around and behaving naturally. While I was there someone from the management of the venue wandered over to see what I was so absorbed in and I, without thinking, just said that I was just photographing the rats.
I went back a couple of weeks alter and the whole drain had had a huge cleanup. Rats all gone.
Being reminded of the day, I’ve just uploaded some of the photos (eg https://inaturalist.nz/observations/133424974).
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I LOVE Datura wrightii! Don’t be embarrassed! There is just something about them. The embarrassing thing would be if someone found out you talk to them… Best I go out and make my observations solo - lol!
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My top 15:
I guess people would ask what is wrong with me…lol! And I SHOULD be embarrassed - But I’m not.
Because if yet another Paravaejovis puritanus volunteers, I just can’t help myself!
They are all relevant and deserve to be documented.
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Yup - Western Toad Anaxyrus boreas for me…"But this one looks “different!” lol
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My top two reveals that I have a thing for small orange flowers, clearly.
I like to photograph Modiola caroliniana because, at least where I live, it can be locally common but is neither (yet) widespread nor abundant like for example the birds-eye speedwell or white clover. I’ve been on a personal obsession quest to essentially map out its distribution across my town and the neighbouring one and see how it changes from year to year over the last several years. See for example this set of observations.
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I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m not embarrassed (yet?).
I just don’t have enough of a list, perhaps and I find that the two top ranked species (Monarch butterfly and a stink bug, both at 4 observations) is more an indication of backyard availability than anything else. The other factor is probably behaviour or something environmental (predation, weather adapting, interaction with other species). If I capture something I just don’t see captured elsewhere, or rarely seen, I will post that species again.
If an opportunity comes along to get a whole bunch of shots of something relatively rare over a certain development time frame, that goes in too. Or even for common things. I have a monarch egg, a chrysalis, and an adult, for example.
And like everyone, I have a lot of ‘pretty’ shots that I just add to my post card pile, not for observations.
Oh, and I mean literally—post cards. I have a nice photo quality printer (cost me $20, used) and good 4x6 card stock. (It’s a fun way to share the naturalist vibe.)
Mallards, eh? Great bird, and I’m surrounded by them at the lakeside park that I’m a 10 minutes walk from. To me, it’s the behaviour stuff. I was never very good at distinguishing ‘cute’ from interesting (I am always confusing the two), but yeah, their calls have a lot of variety.
Mind you, most people are unaware of their, in human terms, darker sexual aggressiveness that I have also observed with groups of younger drakes on isolated females. But even there, we have a fascinating portal into evolutionary adaption that is showcased by their fascinating sexual anatomy ‘war’.
But probably not a good post card subject.
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