Only while processing this photo of a Monarch on milkweed did I notice two other insects on the same flower.
Spotted Thyris Moth
Brown Stink Bug
Spotted Thyris Moth
Brown Stink Bug
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Curious about Taraxacum Section Mexicana, I went back to the same location to observe another individual, and this time make a proper herbarium specimen. My first picture was of the whole plant, as usual:
Then, I moved on to do the back of the capitulum, so as to get the traits of the bracts, color of the ligule stripes, and so on. Only after taking the picture did I notice a bonus observation:
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I almost fell off my chair!!!
In the course of this year’s City Nature Challenge, I also photographed some commonly encountered plants (like, who wouldn’t 
).
Upon deciding whether to keep this specific photo for uploading later today…
… I zoomed in - and couldn’t believe my eyes!
A Saga pedo nymph. Wow! 
Now, this is not just a serendipitous encounter of a rare and well camouflaged species - what makes it so very special is that since 7 years now I record orthoptera in Vienna, contributed >1000 observations for a book about grasshoppers in Vienna and have been specifically searching for this species for years in that area.
Last year, I spent 3 hrs looking for Saga pedo on a meadow within an area of a few m2 without success (I know a population still exists there).
And others have done so as well - this indicates how difficult it is to find even when the spot is known and the area not that large.
It has been one of my most-wanted species to find and will definitely be ranked as one of the all-time favourite finds not only of this CNC but all four I so far participated in.
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Sweat bee?
Think so. Haven’t got any species ID confirmation, if such a thing is even possible from the pic.
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It’s hard to tell for certain, but based on the coloration, I think that the damselfly is a Florida Bluet.
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Yesterday took some pictures of a flowering tree, without knowing there was a leaf-footed bug hiding in there.
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Yesterday I took a photo of scat piles and found a slug.
These piles struck me odd by placement (in a row). I took the photo, wondered who and why, moved on. A few minutes later I took a rest break and looked through my shots…
Luckily it was a slug, so I turned back and recorded it, still and video. Cool!
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Only noticed at home during uploading - there are two insects in this observation
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163181339
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I’m still a bit of a nincompoop when it comes to plants so when I saw this I had no idea what it was looking at. Turns out it’s just a very conveniently placed bearded begonia.
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Hah, plants will do that sometimes, often confusing the observer and CV. I’ve come across a similar case though I pretty much knew right away what was going on and just took the picture because I thought it was funny they would grow together like that.
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I photograph those arrangements every time I see them. I will also loosely gather roadside flower stalks in my hand to photograph the bouquet. I keep them off iNat though. :D
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I found a beautiful Ichneumoid wasp, took several photos, and prepared them for upload.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165469212
On the 4th photo, I saw a small animal clinging to the wasp.
Do you see it?
It’s on the left hind leg.
I still could not find out what kind of arthropod it is…
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165469213
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Nice! Pseudoscorpions often get around by phoresis, or holding on to larger animals.
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Sorting through my photos from my trip to the Bay of the Somme in May (there’s still a fair few to upload and refining the location is hard). Apparently, while taking photos of Linaria cannabina as we got closer, I managed to intercept a yellow missile (the shot is wider, I just cropped out the right side).
Knowing my luck, it’s probably my first sighting of Motacilla flava and I feel very conflicted about that.
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So, I was looking through some old observations because teellbee reported seeing a softshell turtle in another forum thread. And, I found a couple of dragonflies in one of my old photos! Geez! I wish I had seen this two years ago! I think I have to go back to that park and try to find them now since that photo was taken in July.
I think the one on the left is a baskettail. Probably a common baskettail because it is along a river. The other one on the right is a clubtail of some sort.
The turtle is no more than 6 inches across.
Note: I took a screenshot of the observation and submitted two new ones for iNaturalist.
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Look at this camera shy beetle that I missed while taking photos of the bee. To make it worse the camera focused on the beetle rather than my actual target.
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