What is your Favorite Lifer from this week?

I understand, especially with many photos, editing can become pretty time-consuming (which can be a deterrent). On the other hand, normally not much editing is needed – just crop to subject to make it easier for iNat’s CV, and adjust the shadows. Done.
Ok, granted, a high-ISO shot with a MFT may benefit from a run through DxO PureRaw. ;-)
(I noticed the macro lens you used, the Oly 60mm sure is a great lens!)

Have been traveling the past week and got quite a bunch of lifers… most are on my camera still and will be uploaded later… only phone pics up so far, but of those one of my very last from the trip is my favourite as it came as a surprise and with a lot of new ID info for me, which I always love.

The one in the middle is new… the other species in the picture I had already seen earlier this year and I initially thought those three are all the same species

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/246924950

17 Likes

Without the side-by-side comparison, you might never have known the difference. I looked and looked, but the only differences I see are that the one in the center is bigger and a slightly different shade of yellow.

4 Likes

My favorite this week is my second-ever observation of a virus – this time, a plant virus infecting a sugarberry tree.


This is currently known by the Gallformers code Ampelovirus hackberry-island-chlorosis, named after the disease it causes in which the chlorotic spots, in the early stages, look like yellow island in a sea of green.

6 Likes

This is kind of cheating because I didn’t observe it this week, but I’m finally catching up on my backlog from the big road trip I went on in April. I think my favorite lifer from the whole trip is the Western Meadowlark! I heard it singing and tracked it down, but not before recording the song to make sure I didn’t lose the observation. I was able to find it and get some fairly good photos too.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247408069

image

12 Likes

This is what I call a satisfying observation! Pictures of the head from all sides, including the bird singing, taking off and in flight, plus the audio file. :+1:
I forgot to mention the habitat! :100:

5 Likes

My favorite this week was this teeny Buffalo Treehopper. I have seen a few of these before, but this one is genus Stictolobus. I happened to be wearing a red dress (the bees love me in it), which I am very thankful for, because the hopper was on a tiny stem in a mass of growth, and the dress allowed me to sort of tuck the hem of it behind the stem and create a backdrop to take photos from angles which otherwise were impossible because my phone could not focus.


14 Likes

This morning I woke up at three am, which is unusual, so tried to sleep again. My eyes were closed, and my mind was already lost in who knows what neurological process, when a tremendously loud hoot entered the room. Guess what? It was a Great-Horned Owl! I immediately jumped to my window and saw him landed on another house. When hooting, it moved and posed quite strangely. Besides twisting his head like the whole way around and then the whole way around the other side, he moved to a horizontal position, rising his tail. He also opened and flapped its wings.

This is the first time I see a wild Great-Horned Owl in Mexico.

I now hope he can eat the rats I hate so much.

12 Likes

This odd dune plant https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247242464

12 Likes

My favorite lifer from the past week is this barklouse Peripsocus subfasciatus , barklice are small and I don’t see them a lot so I’m always happy when I can get a good quality photo of one.

4 Likes

What a cute face! Definitely belongs in the Arthropod Faces project.
I’m not brave enough to wear a dress out there, (I have a tendency to wander down a trail), but have used my over shirt as backdrop.

1 Like

Since almost all of my observations are in my own small garden I am usually wearing a dress, as I change into one as soon as I walk in and shower. It is also the first thing I pull on in the morning. (For our climate, I find them more commodious.)

What is the Arthropod Faces Project?

1 Like

My favorite lifer from this week was this Black-bellied Plover seen at Port Stanley (Ontario, Canada). https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247513451


I just find them such a cute little bird!!!

14 Likes


I lack a lot of tech savvy so here’s a screenshot of the project.

5 Likes

I would expect it is a common bird over there at this time of the year.

I saw three that weekend. You are right, they are common along the Great Lakes shoreline at this time of the year, but I live in Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) so I don’t see them very often, as I am in the middle of southern Ontario.

1 Like

Awhile ago I had the priviledge of making the first observation of Verbesina ekmanii since 1923. Today I found it in bloom.


Isn’t she beautiful?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/247817419

19 Likes

Wasn’t it 1927?

You’re right. I didn’t closely enough.

1 Like

They are a source of great ‘secret wonder’ when you can get in there and really see their details. But often that is a real challenge!

They also are quite tolerant of low temperatures. One of the first group of living tinies I notice first in late winter.

1 Like