First species of the year

wow that’s a traumatic experience, I’m glad you are safe.

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Glad you are safe. The silver lining is you have your camera. I hope that doesn’t happen to you again.

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I was traveling all of 1st, woke up at the airport hotel and arrived home about 20 hours later, did not see a single life form all day (except humans). Felt sick (pressure difference, or dehydration, or something else always does that to me with long flights) and jetlagged on 2nd and did not feel like going outside all day. But then yesterday I had about an hour after work before it got dark and decided I need to get some observations in, even though it was raining. I got wet but observed 25 things in my hour in the forest. Some highlights:

  • a small Racodium rupestre I had not noticed before on that cliff, I love those
  • a Surprise lichen (Bacidia schweinitzii) which was a lifer for me
  • I’m strictly a plants-only person and rarely ever manage to get pictures of animals, but maybe because of the rain there was a Plethodon cinereus crawling between the lichen and mosses and so I got a salamander lifer!
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I got called into work on the 1st even though I was supposed to be off until the 3rd and I have yet to go home. I get off work tomorrow morning and will hopefully get out to actually look for things. But at work I’ve seen the cottontails that live under the sheds, signs of the barn owl who lives in the back vehicle bay and a raven who stopped by for a little while. Not long enough for me to get my camera from my truck though.

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You don’t have a free week after New Year? I hope seeing all those animals brought you enough joy to work those days!

I wish! A friend of mine is off from before Christmas until Jan 3rd and I’m jealous. I do enjoy seeing the critters around work. I will try to get photos of at least the cottontails today. They are pretty reliably around the vehicles. The barn owl I only see leaving in the mornings if I’m up early enough. Sometimes a herd of mule deer or pronghorn show up. The pronghorn especially bring me joy

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Nice thread, thanks for starting it.

My first observation is an algae

With this observation I also started a small personal and private project - Project 365. I will attempt to post something everyday for 365 days, and try and find something different.

So far
Day 1 - Algae
Day 2 - House Gecko - Reptile
Day 3 - Dragonfly - Odonate
Day 4 - Cricket - Tribe Gryllini

So far I have not created an inaturalist project. I am adding a tag (Project 365 2023) to the chosen entries for each day.

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oh no, terrible.

Glad to know you are safe, and seemingly in good spirits. When you get around to it do share images from your not stolen camera.

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Isn;t that area being battered by Atmospheric RIver Storms , my close family have been badly affected by it. And more intense wet weather is expected today (Wednesday Jan. 4th)

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Oh, I hope your family is safe now! We are in the midst of another big storm. We’ve had a few dry days, but the recent rains are pretty extreme for here. We got as much rain in December as we might normally get in a whole year. January looks to be just as wet. There will likely be more road closures expected in the hills and flooding in low areas. It could get dicey. It’s bad that people are in peril, but the silver lining is that there is some relief from the decade long drought.

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First auditory: Carolina Wren (who needs an alarm clock when you have these guys?)
First Visual: Northern Cardinal
First photographed for iNat: Ruddy Duck

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Perfect, right?
I want my phone ring to be that song.
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/191224
or
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/86588

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They are safe, their home got flooded so they are waiting for this present storm to get over before getting the repairs done.

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Done :-)

My very first observation this year was a fern.
But that first iNatting-Trip got me 101 observations and so far 55 species. Some lifers :-)

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Good luck! I did something similar in 2021: My daily beast. It was really fun but also a bit of stress in the end ;-)
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/susanne-kasimir/61364-my-daily-beast-2021

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This is awesome, and very inspiring.

I agree with you about finding it tough to find new species. I have notionally kept a different agenda. Try and find something different from the taxonomic groups. I am not sure how many there are but hopefully during the process of the 365 will be able to generate a Taxonomic Chart of things seen.

I was on a weekend trip to Cape Disappointment over New Year’s Eve, so my first species of 2023 was a small group of Sanderlings on the beach. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145990781

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It was a hooded vulture sitting on the roof of my cabin in the Gambia. Unfortunately lack of decent internet won’t allow me to upload the record and image until I get home next week,
Happy INatting to every one :slightly_smiling_face:
Bart
Update: After a brief spike in my connection I managed to upload the record: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146228234

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Well i was at home that day:

First auditory species: rofous hornero
First visual species: Glittering-bellied emerald
First species photographed for iNat: Gulf fritillary

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