It is Semana Santa here so we are all on (or going on) vacation. The weather has been delightful, highs near 30 and breezy, so I have been walking quite a bit in my fraccionamiento though I haven’t made too many Observations. Two I made yesterday however are Lifers. One I have been meaning to document for some time, it being a scraggly flower in the parking area of a local pharmacy that I pass sometimes en route to other places. However I always am in a hurry and so think I will take photos returning, only the flowers have always closed before I return, so yesterday I pointedly left myself ample time to take photos on the way, at last. (Go, Lucy.)
That is this bloom that reminds me utterly of a pinwheel, genus Sida.
My second new-to-me was this lovely blooming tree behind barbed wire on the Maya ruins within our neighborhood. These are federally protected by INAH so nobody is permitted inside, however I walk directly past and always gaze at them (who wouldn’t?). I do not think I noticed this tree especially until in bloom.
It’s Semana Santa here, so everybody is participating in processions or at least watching. I didn’t today, beacause I met with some people who want to save a little lagoon in Málaga and we had a little entomological excursion. A moth lifer is always special for me and what a beauty: Cleta ramosaria https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/346459406
Got back from a week in Dunedin about a week ago. Got to find several of the known harvestmen from the area. Hard to chose a fave but even though Forsteropsalis marplesi is possibly the most common one I saw (Seeing it on several tracks in the wider area), it was one of the more “characteristic” ones.
No lifers last week, but the unidentified dead mammal I mentioned last week turned out to be a groundhog. It’s not my first squirrel, but it is my first marmot.
Surprised you had not seen Sidas before, they are very common. In fact, I think I have one right now in my backyard, it popped out by its own and is not in bloom yet.
Curiously enough, a few days after IDing that, I discovered a population of them near Nichupté lagoon, in the circus called Cancún, a find I was not expecting at all, since S. atomaria is a species mostly present in low-deciduous forest in very dry areas. The vegetation in that spot is very inusual, though, with several elements that are precisely those of dry areas.
I got my first Surfbirds and Rock Sandpipers last week at Ocean Shores in Washington! https://ebird.org/checklist/S315707080 It was awesome to see both species at the same location, especially since I’d been wanting to see both for a while!
While observing moss, I’ve seen with my eyes for the first time… springtails. The shots are horrible, but considering all I had was my phone’s macro mode, I’m very happy with them:
I had a number of Lifers this week but am still sussing them out so will only share this delicate beauty, which has been identified as Ctenodon fascicularis, one of only two Observations of this species in this city and the ninth Observation in the state. This was peeking through the fence as I walked past the protected ruins nearby.
This past Saturday evening, out for a stroll with my son and daughter-in-law I noticed pink blooms in the low weedy patch between the sidewalk and the avenue. My family offered to stop but I said no, I will come back tomorrow, I need a bit of time.
Yesterday morning fairly early I made my way back and was rewarded with not one but two different pink flowering plants! The first greeted me cheerfully full of lovely blooms.
This is Boerhavia coccinea, native to here, and my second spiderling species! I really love spiderlings. I see golandrinas (these are white flowered spiderlings) frequently roadside, and their buds can have a pink tint, but these are truly dark pink.
The second plant I had to work harder for. It was firmly shut at that hour in the morning and remained so when I returned at 10, noon, and 3 PM. Finally when I galumphed back at half five I was met by pretty open flowers. I realized it was a much lighter flower when open; my first impression of both flowers being the same hue was due to my having seen the previous day’s blooms, which had darkened as they closed and withered.
Going in for something basic here, since its my first time and most of what is not exceptionally rare.
Its a woodlouse! apparently its a swift woodlouse but it hasn’t been IDed enough yet. I am glad I had my Canon Rebel XS with me because my phone would have butchered the details on this image.
