The longest I seem to be going these days without seeing a new lifer(s) is no more than a week
My favourite for this past week is this really pretty Tylopsis (Grass Katydid), found in Muden, KZN province of South Africa
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An interesting thing (not gall—edited) on an oak leaf:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/112212491
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That’s not a gall, catepillar holds its case and moves on the leaf.
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@fffffffff That is really interesting, that the larva carries it’s “house” with it. Thank you.
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I uploaded the Painted Turtle. See https://inaturalist.ca/observations/112632537.
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April 18th-24th
Two more rare species on iNat Chestnut Wrinkle Lichen and Myriococcum praecox.
And two I just liked: Greater Water-moss and currently unided Freshwater Isopods.
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Are those native to your area?
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I think so. I’ve seen a lot of these turtles at local ponds.
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Such an odd spider. I walked too close and it started vibrating it’s webline almost violently, then moved itself along another line to the leaf.
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It wasn’t this week but a few weeks ago i could finally spot my first Magnolia warbler. It’s supposed to commonly winter where I live but this was finally my first time seeing one. They are so cute.
And actually, yesterday I got some lifers. First, an ENORMOUS robber fly, way larger than the common Efferia flies that most of us are familiarized with. This was definitely the biggest fly I’ve ever seen in my life, almost like a cicada or something like that, and I still don’t know the exact species, not even at least the genus.That same day I also saw my first (as far as I can remember) Biolleyana pictifrons, a very beautiful species of leafhopper. And also yesterday, I found a very strange dead moth in my backyard, definitely never seen before by me but I don’t know if dead animals also count as lifers. I was astonished when I first saw it. It definitely belongs to the subfamily Calpinae, also known as fruit-piercing moths, but that is as far as I could get. It was really big, with dark brown forewings and bright orange hindwings. It could belong to the genus Eudocima, but I can only speculate.
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A missed lifer would have been a couple of Barn Swallows. They flew around a lot and never landed so I wasn’t able to get a picture. I did find their nest, however, so there’s a good chance I’ll be able to get some shots in the near future.
That same day, I saw a White-throated Sparrow, but like the swallows, I wasn’t able to get a photo.
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What? Really? Barn swallows are abundant literally everywhere in this planet.
Some kind of swallow, maybe not a Barn. I’ve seen them turn up a few times but haven’t been able to get a photo.
In Vaughn, you get robins, starlings, and House Sparrows, everything else feels considerably rarer in my area.
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I’ve seen plenty of dandelions in my life, yet this may be a first for me!
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Strange.
Why don’t you upload the nest?
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Getting halfway decent pictures on a smartphone is hard sometimes, but I think these tree swallows definitely quality for halfway decent
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I have, it’s viewable here: https://inaturalist.ca/observations/112911223. I didn’t ID as a species yet. I’ll do that once I get a photo of the birds themselves.
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