On the taxon page, it says “C. violaceus is found predominantly in conifer forests in North America and deciduous forests in Europe.” With that big an ecological difference, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before it is split, even without genetic work.
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Cortinarius is already a huge genus ripe for splitting (im pretty sure it’s going to be split into many genera here pretty soon). I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more species that have a similar case as C. violaceus. With big genera like Cortinarius and Inocybe, there are so many discoveries to be made, which is why I love them so much!
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Cephalanthera Austiniae.
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I was hoping to do the same thing on my grandparents property: I have no prior experience with trailcams so any tips/brand recommendations would be appreciated :)
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Yeah, I talked with a friend about this who put out cameras while doing volunteer research (it was for some mustelid, I can’t remember which. Marten? Fisher? idk.). Her advice was to put it 300 yards from a trail or road, NOT on a deer or elk trail, since hunters use those and you just can’t trust people to not get sticky fingers. Near water, a clearing, possibly over a fallen log bridge, plus with the direction/clearing advice you gave.
My camera’s one of the mobile ones with 8 GB onboard storage, so we’ll see what works best.
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I’m going to be going on an Alaskan cruise for my honeymoon next year and I’m definitely bringing my camera and binoculars. While a lot (but definitely not all) of what I typically look for are birds, I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of the mammals out there. I live in Ohio and have never seen moose, whales, grizzlies, seals, etc etc. before in the wild. So I am excited to document everything I find and add to the list!
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Cool! Alaska is definitely the place to see those things.
See my last post in this thread for my advice. I had a Moultrie camera, I don’t remember what model or how much it cost since my dad bought it for me back in 2015, but it worked pretty well for four and a half years of almost constant usage. It used 8 AA batteries. Just like regular cameras, there’s a wide range in cost and and quality of different models. For the amateur naturalist who’s not doing official scientific research, the lower cost cameras (usually designed for hunters rather than scientists) will probably work just fine. I know that some models come with Wifi compatibility or cellular data so that you can check them remotely, but 1) this feature eats up battery life much quicker and 2) they tend to be more expensive and might not work properly depending on how remote your camera location is. However this would allow you to check the camera without disturbing the animals by your scent/presence.
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I have the cellular model, but I’ve found that places where it is legal to walk off-trail generally don’t have cell service, so I need to go out and fetch the camera anyway.
That Monterey/SLO county area is home to several sweet Calchortuses (Calochorti?). I need to go down in the spring.
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Top 10 moths in Michigan I have yet to see.
|Hemaris thysbe|Hummingbird Clearwing|
|Hyles lineata|White-lined Sphinx|
|Pachysphinx modesta|Modest Sphinx|
|Hyles euphorbiae|Leafy Spurge Hawkmoth|
|Manduca sexta|Carolina Sphinx|
|Dryocampa rubicunda|Rosy Maple Moth|
|Lophocampa maculata|Spotted Tussock Moth|
|Eichlinia cucurbitae|Squash Vine Borer|
|Ceratomia undulosa|Waved Sphinx|
|Amphion floridensis|Nessus Sphinx|
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I’m hoping to find more of the American Erotylidae I have yet to see/see in the wild, and possibly get some more Missouri firsts in the process.
These include:
The common Megalodacne fasciata
Tritoma humeralis (have only found dead ones on my patio)
T. biguttata ssp. biguttata and ssp. affinis
T. tenebrosa (another one that was dead on my patio)
T. unicolor
T. erythrocephala
T. angulata
T. pulchra
Pseudischyrus extricatus
Any of the Triplax species
Microsternus ulkei
I also want to take a trip to Colorado for Cypherotylus californicus, and maybe go down to Arizona and find Haematochiton elateroides.
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It’s hard for me to think of a species I most want to see, because it will depend on where life takes me: staying local, domestic travel, international. My list would be different in each circumstance.
With that said, there are a few species that I would like to see.
- Araceae – any wild species.
- Filling in genera for which I already have more than one species – such as Erigeron, Ambrosia, Conus, and Burnsius.
- Of the numerous butterflies I have seen, none have been metalmarks (Riodinidae).
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Alaska’s so cool! Hope you are able to find what you’re looking for!
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My wishlist is:
- Anacamptis palustris - there’s closeby spots - it just keeps going extinct by the time I get to them
- Epipactis greuteri - Super rare and I don’t have a spot, I know of a person who has seen one, but not sure they will tell me the coordinates
- Ophrys speculum - one of the very few European orchids with blue color, supposedly not too uncommon around the Mediterranean, but I never managed to catch one in bloom yet
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Hmm. I’m in NZ and it’s guaranteed I’m visiting South Korea during its winter, so:
South Korea:
Steller’s Sea Eagle
Solitary Snipe
Mandarin Duck
Scaly-sided Merganser
Relict Gull
Snow Goose
Imperial Eagle
Steppe Eagle
New Zealand:
North Island Kokako
Auckland Green Gecko
Forest Gecko
New Zealand Falcon
Wetapunga
Various Seabirds
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William Least Heat-Moon once wrote that woodland people tend to assume (erroneously) that grassland people are lacking in culture. As someone who has done most of my naturalizing in woodland biomes, I find myself having the same type of bias regarding grassland biodiversity.
Thanks to YouTube references on the Forum, I found out about “Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t.” It isn’t quite to my taste because he seems to narrate in the kind of stream-of-consciousness style of field notes; which is fine for field notes but makes for a difficult video for me. Still, the episode I saw was the one about Havard oak, and I must say it was fascinating. A grassland oak that never overtops the grass, but forms centuries-old old-growth underground. I would travel to the grasslands to see Havard oak.
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It is a fascinating oak. Also called shinnery oak maybe because it gets about shin high. A whole oak forest you can easily look across, where the grass often gets taller than the trees.
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Huh??
I would love to see a Bluethroat, a beautiful little songbird that is Palearctic and winters in Africa and the Iberian Peninsula https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/13071-Luscinia-svecica. It shows up in a few places in Alaska, including on Alaska’s North Slope where it’s sometimes seen along the Dalton Highway. I’ve heard that it has a lovely song made up of snippets of other songs, and a very flashy courtship display. But it can also be maddeningly cryptic, hiding in the brush for hours at a time. I’ve been in several locations at the right place and right time, but seen nothing. It takes about 10 hours driving to get to the right area. Maybe this is the year!
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