I just tracked down a copy of a handwritten flora of my home county from 1877 (Chautauqua County, NY), just 70 years into the area’s settlement. This has a lot of plants on it collected in my hometown that I would consider local dream taxa! Top of the list-
Unfortunately the single site it was recorded from back then was a boggy kettle pond that’s been turned into a drainage holding pond… some intact habitat nearby has some of the other species that were only recorded from that spot, though, so here’s hoping! A lot has changed in 150 years…
I’m pretty new at this so I am usually chasing after some common wildflower that people “nearby” have seen but I haven’t yet. Or things I remember from last year that I am eagerly excited to see bloom (and document!) again this year. Or things I’ve discovered are supposed to bloom beautifully but I have found them before/after they bloom. I spent part of the spring chasing “dutchman’s britches” (Dicentra cucullaria) and about lost my own in excitement when I finally found them hiding in the woods. I mostly chase plants because they sit still long enough to take their picture.
This just a comment about what happened to @tiwane’s post here…
There was a quote which consisted of the entire text of @prakrit’s post immediately prior, and because it contained the whole text, the discourse system edited it out. I had to go into the edit of the post to see what it was that Tony was referring to, which would have been clear if the system had left his quoting the way he had intended it!
To me, it is frustrating that the system either edits out the “whole quoted text” and/or doesn’t indicate that it is a reply to the immediately prior post even if it was created as a reply.
For sure Peregrine Falcons. I’ve loved them since I was a kid, but have never seen one in the wild! Glasgow is meant to have a solid population, and I’ve seen photos on Facebook, but no matter how often I search the skies I still haven’t seen one… one day!!
@blazeclaw I see you are on the Front Range, so I’ll tell you, when I worked at Roxborough State Park I saw tons of fungus beetles. Of course, I didn’t use iNat at the time so they aren’t on my list here either, but might be worth checking out sometime.
As for my dream taxa… a gila monster. Well, since I moved back to Colorado from Arizona, it’s no longer “local” but it was at one point in my life and about a week after I left, someone found one at the park I worked at down there. Typical…
Going on a county level, Sonoma County and the adjacent part of extreme southern Mendocino County are a pretty major biogeographical transition zone for herpetofauna, especially amphibians. So you’ve got several taxa that reach the southern extreme of their range right in my neck of the woods, but there are few to no iNat observations from this area. I’d absolutely love to fill in that gap.
Top of the list are the Wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans) and Northwestern salamander (Ambystoma gracile). Both can be found along the coast in northwest Sonoma County. The Northwestern salamander is especially tantalizing because there is a population in and around Salt Point State Park that’s only been observed a handful of times – most recently this past winter by @jeweliha (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19900334)
It’s an interesting habitat. The salamanders are almost certainly breeding in sag ponds on the San Andreas fault. I hope one day I’ll be lucky enough to encounter one.
Other local dream herps include the rubber boa and mountain kingsnake. A tailed frog would be pretty cool too.
I’m a huge cicada nerd, so I always have an ear out for songs when they are in season. I have probably encountered most if not all of the local species, but in many cases that simply means I’ve stood underneath a tree where one was singing, but had no way of capturing or even getting a look at the darn thing to identify it. Many of my daydreams involve finally getting my hands on a cicada that I’ve been hearing up in the canopy for years.
Somewhat related to both your interests, after going to an old temple to look for amphibians with @pintail we stopped so that I could check out a cicada I heard buzzing nearby.
As luck would have it not only was the cicada resting on a chest-high branch, it was also a species that @pintail had been trying to spot for several years (and one I had never heard of before) – Lyristes intermedius.
Having said that, I’ve been to Soyosan several times and am still waiting for my first view of Leptosemia takanonis, called 소요산매미 [Soyosan Cicada] in Korean.
I hope you’ll have similar luck with encountering some of the cicadas you’ve only been able to hear!
I know it’s rather mundane, but I would like to Photograph a Pileated Woodpecker. I’ve seen them, and seen their excavation work, but have not been able to photograph one. They are such wonderful birds!!