Do you have any tips for finding certain animals? I’ll go first, if you check the walls of your home outside, you’re likely to see many arthropods such as jumping spiders (or spiders in general), bugs, isopods, and various other insects. In early morning and early night, isopods may also be found wandering around, outside of pots and stones where they may be found during the day.
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Early morning is the best time to look for birds too, residents will be singing actively and in time of migration more birds fly by in those hours, insects are still sleeping, so you may find many coopertive ones.
If you have a project for your wall finds you can join the umbrella project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/walls-inhabitants
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Walking or driving (often called “road cruising”) backroads on a warm night will give you a good chance to spot reptiles and amphibians (especially on rainy nights). In the U.S. Southeast, there’s almost something active year-round as long as it’s above freezing. Also, you get a chance to move them safely across the road and away from traffic.
Also, sign tracking is an increasingly overlooked skill in the modern world. Using signs of wildlife (from insects to megafauna), you can pretty much locate any species you’re after. There are lots of tracking guides, all with unique approaches. Even if you don’t see your target, especially in the case of very elusive and alert species, you can know how and where they’re moving, and use that information to improve future efforts to find them. There’s a great database on iNat for the very purpose of recognizing such signs: North American Animal Tracks Database · iNaturalist
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If you are looking for reptiles in Europe (ideally in summer) you should look under rocks and bricks, crumbling walls are excellent. Well vegetated area and area with lots of rocks are good because reptiles need to sunbathe to regulate their body temperature, so they need rocks or walls with lots of sunlight, but they also need areas to hide and to catch food. If you have a garden then let it overgrow a bit in the summer and put some rocks to attract reptiles and insects. Insects are generally speaking easier to find compared to other animals. So if you have a garden you will eventually find some type of interesting insect.
You can also attract birds to your garden by putting bird nest boxes and leaving a large bowl of water for them to bathe and drink. Bird feeders are also good but keep in mind bird feeders can attract rats.
An excellent way to attract amphibians is to build a garden pond it doesn’t have to be complicated you can literally just get a bucket without holes, dig a hole in the ground and put the bucket in the hole and fill it up with rain water and that will turn into a proper pond naturally over some time. This type of simple pond will attract frogs and newts. If you want to attract toads or larger animals you will need a deeper and larger pond with aquatic plants and small fish.
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I find that if one surrounds themselves with vegetation, with some concentration, it usually is not hard to spot some insects and other arthropods hanging around on leaves, flowers etc both during the day and night. Sometimes it would be worth it to stop at a particular spot and stare for a while - you might spot something hiding under a leaf, or resting on a stem closer to the ground.
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One thing I’ve noticed is that the ditches/drainage around fields and roads, provided they’re deep enough and filled with water, make for fantastic hiding spots for herons and egrets. I was walking along the Scheldt in Belgian Hainaut, in a spot where the banks are very sterile and open and the most I could find were two or three coots. I turned onto a somewhat busy road and to my surprise all the wildlife was hiding in the ditches.
Also, if you’re near water in a city, look up. If you live within the range of cormorants, there’s a 60% chance you’ll find one perched somewhere. I must have hundreds of photos of Phalacrocorax carbo that I hesitate to upload, because the sheer number would dwarf all my other observations.
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If it is underwater critters, going out when darkness has fallen tend to yield the best results for me. Most animals are also much less prone to being skittish then, so you get better opportunities to photograph them as well.
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Yes! Roadside ditches can be surprisingly productive for waterbirds - I’ve seen Intermediate Egrets, Black-necked Storks, Magpie Geese, Pacific Black Ducks, and even a Royal Spoonbill in ditches along a major highway
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Slow down. If you come across a patch of wildflowers, stop for a minute and watch for movement. You’ll often find pollinators visiting the flowers, spiders waiting for visitors, and other insects hiding among the leaves and flowers.
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Mine are very location specific, so I think they will not be of much interest to anyone.
For example Warty Leaf Beetles like to sort of snuggle into the folds of leaves, so I check my Solanum for lizard poops and if they have the white on the end, I know they are actual lizard poops, and if they do not, I tag the fellow who appreciates the local Warty Leaf Beetles (they are extremely rare).
See me for more extremely specific tips, hahaha.
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Oh, good suggestion! There is an iNatter, @beartracker ( Kim Cabera ); she is a certified animal tracker and has a website for Learning to track animal signs..
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Dress appropriately, I usually wear camo prints,and black or brown. Walk quietly, 2-4 steps and stop. Sit and wait. Watch. The slower I go, the more I see. When I sit, it takes a couple minutes to settle and look. Really look. Everything from slugs or ladybugs having lunch, to slowly turning to see a doe and fawn. Quiet, patient watching.
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I think I got this advice from someone on iNat. I apologize for not remembering who made the helpful contribution to a discussion. If you approach a perching butterfly, and it flies off, wait a few minutes to see if it returns. Many are territorial and will return. Others, not so much, but I’ve had a lot of luck just being patient. :) My thanks to the person who first posted this info.
PS I just return often to places where I’ve had success in the past–especially if there’s an area that has yielded some odd/rare finds. For example, there’s a school playground bordering a field where I’m from that just seems teeming with wildlife. :)
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How does this apply to arthropods - do you have guides for that?
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Start early, dress appropriately and be observant. I implore many techniques I learned as a fisherman, and also a lot of stuff picked up from folks with hunting experience.
Train your eyes and ears to pick up on visual and audible cues, if you’re looking for birds- watch and listen for the movement of leaves in trees and in brush, if you’re looking for smaller critters on the ground- focus your eyes ahead of where you’re walking on trails and watch the edges of roads, around lakes, streams or estuaries- train your eyes to see through the glare on the waters surface around streams-this can help you spot fish, various amphibians and crustaceans.
Predict where things might be, I was out the other morning and the water and air were so clear I said “I bet I could see a trout through this water” I walked to the end of the dock and within 20 seconds I trout swam clear in front of us.
Slow down, seriously, be mindful of how and where you step. If you just quietly walk around places, birds will often actually follow you out of curiosity, at the very least will land in an adjacent tree to inspect you.
My partner and I constantly find tiny scat samples from fishing mice or weasels, to the point where I joke that we stare at poop too much :D
in all seriousness, not even being arrogant, most folks including guides miss about half of the nifty stuff we find on some of the trails we go visit regularly, not because we’re professional trackers, but because we keep our eyes and ears open and our mouths shut.
Most the tourists around us can’t stop talking for long enough to notice a duck sitting in the water, let alone huge birds feeding in the canopy right above their heads.
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Learn via study or direct observation about what populates the habitat you are visiting. We started generally: prairie vs wetland vs forest, etc., and then refined: mesic prairie, bog, maple-basswood forest. Time of day, season, weather all seem to affect what we observed.
Targeting species to find gives us some goals and being observant and open to everything allows surprises.
We might be looking for this:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89270008
And we might surprisingly see this:
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There are many resources! Some of the most interesting (to me) are related to leafminers, galls, etc., like those studied by iNaturalist/BugGuide user Charley Eiseman (@ceiseman) here: BugTracks | Bringing glory to Earth’s small and neglected creatures. (wordpress.com)
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This is why I took up solo hiking. I almost never see anything when I am with someone.
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I’ve found that my pets are often (though not always) much better than I am at finding animals, indoors and outdoors. If I’m not finding anything, I’ll look to my dog and see if something has her attention. She found these honeybees earlier this year.
When I was a kid I learned that our dog could hear pocket gophers moving and chewing underground, and if I stayed still, I could hear them too --and even feel them under my feet! Of course, now that I wear shoes with better arch support, I don’t pick up on subterranean activity like I used to lol.
Also, outdoor water bowls and birdbaths are good spots to find bugs. I check ours a few times throughout the day to scoop out any would-be drowning victims, and snap a few pictures if I’m able.
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Same goes for dragon and damselflies.
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