I got this beautiful Virginia Rail today! Was hiding very well in the reeds, but came out for a nice quick view!
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That’s nice!
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My first Red-eyed Vireo today. I think I saw the bird vaguely jumping around but I only knew it was what it was because a local birder took this photo:
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Thanks, I plan my vacations specifically for inat lifer species - this year I picked the spot in Europe with the most new orchids 
I usually don’t have many lifers anymore the rest of the year. I’m always jealous of your garden btw., makes me wish I had one myself!
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This charming little Brownsnake was lounging in my laundry room.
Not rare or unusual, just unexpected.
Hey little snake, your camouflage would work a lot better if you were outside…
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Oh goodness what a beauty! That’s such an interesting shape, and lovely iridescence too! Congrats!
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First knowing of Brown Creeper.
iPhone doesn’t photograph small things at a distance well. (understatement!)
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Am I the only one who thinks that last photo looks like a painting?
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You’re the only one who’s said so! 
If it were a painting of mine, you’d see the thick texture of the tree… and a better representation of the soft feathered bird…
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I’ve noticed that some of my iPhone 13 Pro photos (many more than I would like) tend to come out looking a bit like oil / watercolor paintings, especially if I’ve zoomed in to take a picture. Photos from my iPhone 6, on the other hand, look more pixelated or grainy in the same situation.
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Yes, I noticed that the iPhone13 makes blobs. Hard to get used to. The adjustment to the three lens jump around was a steep curve, too.
Edit to add… this iPhone 13 effect reminds me more of crappy paint-by-number paintings.
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One of my favourite things is finding animals that are not only lifer species, but also my first observation of very broad taxa. Unfortunately, this is getting rarer and rarer the more observations I upload (especially because I don’t travel much).
And then, I’m just prodding around for some worms on a rocky shore and a pantopod, Nymphon gracile suddenly crawls across my hand…
Now, I don’t even know where to start with these creatures, also known as sea spiders. They’re just so strange.
Like spiders, they belong to the Subphylum Chelicerata. Their abdomen is only rudimentary, basically non-existent apart from a tiny little stump at the end, giving them an “all-leg-no-body” appearance:
(By Junnn11 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikipedia)
So where do all the organs go?
Well, the digestive tract and the gonads branch into the legs! (The gut is presumably what that red line inside the above Nymphon gracile is).
Respiratory organs? Not needed. Pantopods are so thin that diffusion works well enough. They have a thin heart, but circulation of hemolymph in the legs is driven by the contractions of the gut. The legs primarily move not through muscles, but through hydraulic pressure.
As you can see, the individual I have observed carries eggs, which means, of course that it’s… male! After fertilisation (which happens externally), the males glue the eggs to a special set of extremities called ovigers, which serve only this function.
So yay, pantopods, the most leggy organisms since my significantly etiolated Euphorbia died! :D
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Awesome find! What a bizarre critter.
And thanks for such detailed descriptions. Very much appreciated for those of us who don’t get a lot of chances to get familiar with marine environments.
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It really does!
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Not an actual lifer but an iNat lifer was this cute little Grasshopper Sparrow.
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I’ve found loads of new lifers yesterday, and I can’t pick a favorite out of these ones:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271158209
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271157943, not a new lifer but I love the picture :)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271157903
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271157815
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271157503
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/271157575
Which one is your favorite?
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The beetle - it reminds me of a Volkswagen, complete with windshield.
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Hard call… I’ve been enjoying the cute photos and here I can’t decide between the beetle ( Lucy’s reasons!) and the “put up your dukes” vibe of the spider…
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