For CNC yesterday, I went to an area not far out of town, where I haven’t gone since starting iNaturalist. It is Weyerhaeuser land so I couldn’t explore it as much as I would have liked, but there is a public road through it. Along the right-of-way, I saw these curious plants with cross-shaped leaves:
That leaf arrangement says Rubiaceae to me, which is a plant family that I have a special interest in. The common name fooled me: Piedmont Bedstraw made me think that it is a native species, characteristic of the Piedmont (that is, the part of North Carolina above the Fall Line). The specific epithet, pedemontana, even means “of the Piedmont.” But according to the taxon page, it is introduced here. I suppose it is named after that other Piedmont across the Atlantic.
Only a lifer as far as iNaturalist goes as I did a study on these in graduate school. Sicydium cocoense, the endemic Cocos river goby. This remarkable little fish spawns in freshwater and its eggs or larvae are washed out to sea where they mature and then return to freshwater. The biggest encumbrance to this on Cocos Island is that every stream consists of numerous waterfalls that block the way. Cocos Island gets remarkable 24 FEET of rain a year so staying in place as a fresh hatchling is not a viable option. Evolution, ever the busy bee, has resulted in this species being able to climb waterfalls by using a sucker disk formed from its pectoral fins. In my research, I was able to find fish living above even the 100 meter tall Catarata Pittier. Truly a remarkable fish. Unfortunately, erosion from feral pigs and deer have reduced the population of the goby by at least 90% since I did my study in 1987. I really fear that the species will be extinct in the next 20 years if better efforts are not made to reduce sedimentation on the streams.
A Cocos river goby climbing a waterfall followed by a photo of the waterfall it was climbing. I saw at least 30 small juveniles also making the climb.
This last week saw a spike in temperature by me, so I was able to get a lot more observations than I had been able to get over the past few weeks. These new observations came with lifers. My favorite hands down would have to be this Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata) that I saw in a local preserve. I was super hyped to find this because this was only my third time being able to observe a turtle.
I also enjoy the rising temperatures and how life awakes every day a little bit more.. I for sure missed seasons and especially springtime the past few years.
I enjoy that this year basically everything is a iNat lifer for me, so I feel I can indeed photograph everything, no matter how common.
But for sure I do enjoy the real lifers the most. It is not too hard to get them at the moment, as I used to live in the very north-east of Germany and now I am in Austria, much more South. I alwayS check the maps when I find something new and often they are rarely or never observed in the north.
My favourite lifer this week is a mole cricket and has an especially interesting distribution on iNat.. seems to almost mostly exclude Germany while it is found regularly in all surrounding countries.
The one I found impressed me with it’s size, although it was actually only partly there.. rest has been eaten off. It was devoured by some ants and very much still alive -poor thing
Discothyrea bidens. A tiny ant from a subfamily that I’ve never seen before. Only the third observation for Australia in iNaturalist. I only have one more subfamily to find in Australia for the set
Red Knots! Cool! In my area, the Dowitchers (although I have seen not many) are fairly common, but Red Knots… I have never seen one and I think they are an awesome bird.
Wait a second, there is a slight possibility for me to have seen one at a tiny piece of open, secondary swamp in the middle of my city next to a bloody casino, where I have seen an astonishing diversity of aquatic birds.
I saw my very first salamander ever, a rough skinned newt! Turns out, it was my 1000th observation for City Nature Challenge, and the first time it was ever seen in Richmond! I also saw the rice root for the first time in my life, that one’s been on my wishlist for a while!
I managed to get two first reports: A Malabar Flash, who was only reported one before at that area, many years ago:https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/274761110
And a first ever sandpiper, never seen before there :https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/274788586v
Also a question to curators : It was mentioned before that since the Inat forum has a finite storage, it would be better not to add photos (which take up a lot of space). So would links be better?
I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that when I tip over the stone birdbath to dump out the dirty water, I can find interesting organisms hanging out underneath it!
Reminds me of the Wildlife Treasury cards I collected when I was a kid. Hmm, come to think of it, I might still have the case and most of my cards at my parents’ place.
It doesn’t happen very often anymore that I see a bee species that I know I definitely haven’t encountered before (as opposed to the ones that I might have seen and merely not succeeded in identifying), but I found two this week: Andrena florivaga (male and female) and Andrena ventralis (female)
It has been a rather discouraging spring for finding bees – lots of bee flies (Bombyliidae) everywhere but overall fewer bees than I would have expected, particularly Andrena, which suggests that the parasite/host balance seems to have gotten rather out of whack. So it is particularly exciting to find a couple of less common species going about their business, and two quite beautiful ones at that.
Andrena florivaga was also a new-to-me-species in that it is not one I was familiar with from IDing on iNat (and in fact, I had a bit of unexpected difficulty figuring out what it was even though the red legs are quite distinctive because the Andrena key I have is for a neighboring country where the species is not documented. But fortunately the legs are pretty distinctive…)
And a few days ago, I went to a settlement called Puerto Morelos. I’ve been there before, nothing new, but I had never snorkeled in its reefs before. Its reefs are a National Park very strict on taking care of the health of the reef. You can’t smear sunblock, you cant introduce any electronic device, and many other things, and its conditions have really improved. It is one of the best reefs I’ve swum in.
And yes, I saw some good lifers there!
My first Eagle Ray! On a shallow seagrass meadow.
A young Grouper, probably a Black Grouper, being my first time seeing a grouper underwater as far as I can remember. I have definitely seen (and fished and eaten) groupers out of the water, though.
Some weird wrasses (Labridae) I cannot identify. They were orange and strange.
My first of a fish called Harlequin Bass.
Also saw a grunt called Black Margate.
