Well it looks more like a deader
(sorry I had to)
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South Korea’s first record of a Red-Tailed Shrike! (No I was not the first person to see it) I first thought it was a female Daurian Redstart but zooming with my new camera and lens proved otherwise.
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A cute new beetle from a rainy day in Cádiz yesterday: Cassida vittata
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/263757276 (needs confirmation)
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My new favorite from this week is this belted kingfisher. There were quite a few shorebirds hunting along the edge of the marina that day, and this little lady picked a perch where she could watch. I wonder if she was planning to steal a catch that one of the other birds fumbled.
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Nice Pic!
I like the shapes and colorations.
I know…not a very scientific reflection.
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That’s actually a female. You can tell by the rufous breast band, which the males lack.
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A couple days ago I saw the weirdest organism I can ever imagine seeing. It was in this place where the lagoon meets the sea. A short, stick like item that swam and swam in a zig-zag fashion. But it was totally straight! No wave-like movement or anything. It’s head was slightly club-like.
After swimming unexplainably a fish caught it, proving that it was a living being.
A worm?
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Thanks for the catch! I have corrected it.
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I’m not sure if this counts as a lifer since I have seen signs of these before, but never a live one. I’ll have to try to find more of them in the future.
Lugworm
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/263920461
An amphipod (genus Atylus)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/263920463
A tiny polychaete worm (family Syllidae)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/263920421
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I’m not sure of the identity, but based on checking several “visually similar” taxa, I believe this is rusty woodwart.
One reason why it is my favorite is because hardly anyone observes it. Look at this map and see how far you have to go to find the next observation:
The shortest road distance from Greenville to Rocky Mount is 37 miles; from Greenville to Wake Forest, 77 miles. The entire state of North Carolina has only 16 obvservations. I do not think that this is a rare species; rather, it is more likely a species that people do not notice.
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I went to one of my usual spring wildflower spots - and then on a rock saw this Sempervivum pittonii, just the 8th person on inat posting one.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/264296466
And, not really a new species, but I was surprised to have this random violet I saw yesterday identified as Viola alba, so apparently I found the purple version of the White Violet 
(no idea how to ID it or how common that coloration is)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/264690147
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https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/264784851
Actually the only lifer found this week so far, but it’s a new flower to me, and a new favorite!
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While spotting snowflies and some spiders amongst the ice and snow was a great sign, my only lifer was a new lichen on a grave stone at the local cemetery.
(At least, I think it’s new) Rusavskia elegans, Elegant Sunburst Lichen. Looking at the close-up my first thought was it looked like some colorful collection of rejects from a claymation studio.
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This week I found a first in the pond behind my house: a fingernail clam. More specifically, Herrington fingernail clam (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/264850276)
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My first photo of a Swamp Rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus). I saw my lifer in Louisiana in April 2024. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t get a photo then, but it turns out, I did get a photo of one in July 2024, practically in my backyard. I didn’t realize it until an identifier corrected my misidentification. I didn’t even know I was living within their range! Thanks to the identifiers that review and correct RG observations!
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Opisthoxia projecta from Mistrató, Colombia. The first record on iNat and there is only a single example provided in BoldSystems.
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Hands down for me was the Rainbow Bee-eater; I’ve been trying to see one for a few years now and finally lucked out with a small group of about 8.
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It’s been raining for more than a week now - yes, I know it’s important, but I’ve had enough now - so I only do short walks in rain-free times (and I still got wet each time). Today in a local park a gall of a gall midge - Dryomyia lichtensteinii
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