Spring life you're most excited for?

Oh thanks for that info – very cool! Near the back bay?

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I love seeing people with passionate specialties on iNaturalist. Being an expert on some limited taxon is so achievable. You pick something with a number of local species, find someone who’s willing to mentor you a bit by critiquing your IDs, get some references and some literature on that taxon, and run with it. When my dad was a kid, stamp collecting was wildly popular. I picture the same people who would have been stamp collectors a hundred years ago are all discovering iNaturalist today. Every day an adventure.

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Spring wildflowers are exciting for me too, here in the Northeast there’s skunk cabbage to look for already, and soon enough we’ll get coltsfoot, hepatica, bloodroot, henbit, wood anemones, spring beauties, then the trilliums, wild ginger, and so many more. So don’t limit yourself to the daffodils and tulips. I am also still hoping to find Dutch man’s breeches one of these days.

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Welcome to the Forum. It’s always an interesting place!

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I’m basically waiting for anything besides brown trees with no leaves. I love winter, but it’s so drawn out here. Birds besides the ones I’ve seen for the past 6 months, and insects. I would like to get out of the city this year and explore some of the grasslands further west. I would also like to collect some aquatic insects.

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So many things, but off the top of my head I can’t wait to spot my first queen bumble bee scouting for a nest site. :honeybee:

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I’m probably most excited for all the baby animals (Mammals mostly) that are going to be coming into the world!
I live right next to a prairie (Which people are trying to make a wildlife reserve), and there are always deer, coyotes, and rabbits running around! (I’ve named most of them!)
It’ll also be nice when it warms up, I’m not very keen on cold weather ;)

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There is a glory of the snows which has become naturalized and a bit invasive in a few places in NYC, including in the woodland at Wave Hill Gardens in the Bronx. That is Chinonodoxa sardensis.

But bulbs which reproduce only by division, not by seed, I don’t really consider them capable of becoming wild.

I don’t think that any garden varieties of daffodils, tulips, and pansies have become invasive, unless they were wild species to start off with.

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The Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas started January 1st so I’m really looking forward to the birds coming back and will be trying to find breeding evidence for as many species as possible.

A friend is making a moth trap for me which I can’t wait to use. My life list for moths went from fewer than 20 in 2019 to over 500 in 2020. I’m hoping to get re-acquainted with some moths I learned last year and add a few more to the list.

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Great, thanks for the explanation, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind when searching for new blooms.

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I live in NE Ohio. Last summer I started looking for dragonflies/damselflies because there is a survey on iNat for Ohio species. The only problem was that, they were gone in the fall!

I have been a birder for a number of years; so, I am used to being able to look for things all year round. It was kind of a jolt when I couldn’t go out looking for insects last year in the fall.

I do enjoy birding very much. And, I am already seeing early migrants like red-winged blackbirds. And, I am looking forward to the others like the thrushes and warblers. But, my new interest in the dragonflies and damselflies is what I really want to get back to.

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Ooooh, everything! But especially birds, we haven’t had very many this past winter!

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The spring fungi… of course there’s many ones people like to forage (like morels), but I am just excited to get to observe them, including all the ones you can’t eat.

This last year, which is when I first joined iNaturalist, I would say my record of what comes up in my area is very uneven, sometimes I was observing a lot, but there were large gaps where I wasn’t at all.

And because I’d love to get a baseline sense of the pattern of fungi right in my immediate area for a typical year, I’d like to get out on a more regular observing ‘schedule’.

I would also like to see a slime mold for once (which are not fungi, despite the name).

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SNAKES! Hoping to start finding them semi regularly in late March/April

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Birds by and large however particularly the songbirds.as well as flowers

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Moths! I have been working all winter identifying all of the moths we attracted last year, and I’m still not done. I got impatient last week, and looked under a loose piece of bark. I found moths of a group new to me!

We are also always thrilled to see the birds return, and the spring ephemerals blooming. The first chipmunk of the year showed up at the bird feeder today.

I love winter, but I’ll be ready when spring actually arrives in Michigan.

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I’m excited to get back up into the mountains again. I’d love to get out into the higher elevations and see the pika stocking up their larders, but it will still be a while before the snow’s gone up that high (and I still hope we get some more snow before the melt or else we’re going to have another awful fire season this year. This year’s snowpack has been pretty mediocre).

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Welcome to the Forum. Always some interesting things here to comment on!

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The first new arrival I have seen - a Canada Goose. Bummer.

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I’m most excited to see a lot more arthropods again! It always feels a bit lonely outside without much of them around in the winter. I’m especially excited to find Salticidae (jumping spiders) again as they’re my absolute favorite animals.

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