I’m all for the skink love in this thread! I’ll be waiting for your observations since my area, lovely as it is, is noticeably skinkless.
My top 3 for the season (and the year) would be:
Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), I don’t even know anyone that has ever actually seen it, but it’s supposed to be around and the photos on iNat have made me absolutely fall in love with it.
Black-necked grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), apparently the Etang d’Amaury in Vieux-Condé is a common spot for them, and a sign there mentions them nesting on water lilies. If it wasn’t such a pain to get there with public transports, I’d be there every day.
Green plover (Vannelus vanellus) or really just any Charadriidae. I desperately need to spend at least a long weekend in the Bay of the Somme.
My “longshot” species is not that uncommon globally, but it’s still very unlikely here:
The humble adder (Vipera berus), one of the few species of snakes we still have here, would really be a highlight for 2023.
Those all sound doable, so I’m sure you will get them! Bluethroats are common in bushes around waters of body, so look around in such places, especially when they will start sing (or maybe where you are they already are singing?).
Also, never heard about lapwing being called a green plover, it’s a cute name!
I mean I really want to see the Infant moth (A. infans), but that species is determined for me to never see it. It seems that every early spring day that I don’t have to work is rainy, cloudy, or cold. Birch is everywhere in CT but the moth apparently is not that common. Then I see people on Facebook who see dozens in one day.
Apparently I was too idealistic, as I didn’t see any of these species in Guatemala! My top three favorites that I did see/hear? That’s hard, but probably Brown-backed Solitaire (heard), White-throated Magpie-Jay (seen), and either Altamira Oriole or Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (seen).
Funny as the three Phigalia are pretty darn common in the eastern U.S… I saw my first flightless female one of the genus ever just a week ago. It was crawling up a tree naturally.
You get a bunch of those Archiearis look-alikes. From people’s descriptions and the general lack of anything flying this early in the year makes it unlikely I could miss such a moth.
One of the fringe benefits of still being in my first year on iNat is that even after 9 months the ratio of observed species in my region to un-observed ones means I’m still in the, “Woo-hoo! Never seen that before!” phase for nearly every one of my outings.
After reading all the veteran observers’ answers here, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to the time when that phase inevitably becomes much rarer.
I’ll try to enjoy my novice discovery level for all its worth then, while I still can!
You will need to get more creative, now I’m still getting lifers almost each day by doing new things (since the real spring has started), but I’m sure some years from now I’ll need to dig ground to get it, lol, so enjoy it and do your best, if you can travel to any new location, do it, cause some organism can be just abcent from a particular fitting habitat.
Thank you, your advice was invaluable! Armed with time spent on iNat and xenocanto, I went to a spot near the Belgian border where bluethroats had been sighted (a road in the middle of a marsh with lots of hedges surrounding private hunting ponds).
Well, I have yet to get to any of the big conservation areas I’ve never visited, yet, but now that the snow has indeed melted and the CNC is almost entirely over, you have reminded to get to those places this year. Thank you!
I found many of your goal species near builduings of different kinds, sometimes it grows right on outer stairs and often on the ground among flowers and weeds.
I’m living in the Finger Lakes region and at Watkins Glen there are these signs up about it being a habitat for the Gray Petaltail dragonfly and ooooh I want to see it so bad. Bumblebees and scarabs are my favorites and there’s still plenty of common species of both I haven’t seen yet, plus there’s a bunch of snakes and salamanders in the area that weren’t in places I’ve lived before, so lots to look for!
One species that did evade me when I had the chance was the squash bee… we had some zucchini plants and I was waking up early looking for them but never had any luck :( Now I’m moving frequently for my job so I don’t have any houseplants, therefore basically no shot at them. you may have evaded me this time, but mark my words ms. pruinosa, next time i have a squash of any kind, it’s over. i have a vendetta now. see if i don’t set up a motion activated camera. just you wait.
Just got back from my Cape May trip. Not one, but three Cape May Warblers. Apparently, nobody on the Audubon Society walk that day who had a suitable camera for bird photography is an iNat user, because there is no observation for that species on that date; however, I did hear discussion of eBird, so presumably the record is to be found there.
Not so far. The weather has been too unsettled to support Odonata emergances. We’ll have a few days where it’s warm and sunny enough, followed by heavy rain and chilly temperatures for a week. At higher altitude, it’s been even worse; one of our favorite hiking areas got nearly a half-meter of snow earlier this week.
That being said, I’ve added a few new species (and a couple of lifers) to my observations list, but they’ve all had either feathers or chlorophyll.
Made that trip to Georgia last week. Just 4 days, but lots of great finds. Sadly missed that frog, but then again, I hadn’t really done my homework and got so much else - including my top target for the season and the other of my two secondary trip targets :-)
