I remembered this post after seeing my first belted kingfisher ever today! I am a novice-ish birder, with around 3 years of (infrequent) birding experience and ~100 on the life list, but I was still surprised by how long it took me to see this seemingly common bird.
Big beautiful girl, huge chunky beak and regal crest, I even saw her eat some unfortunate little fish and dive for them, couldn’t have asked for a better lifer encounter!
Robber flies are always such a delight. This is an incredible shot!! Hoping to someday see a hanging-thief in person.
A beautiful new moth in the trap this morning: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130925616
What do you mean? Doesn’t sound like a real animal? It is real, scientific name Plagiotremus tapeinosoma. I have pics, just not uploaded to inat yet (took a bazillion photos on the trip, still uploading them!!)
Just saw a flock of swallow-tailed kites like two minutes ago!!! My favorite raptor!!! I think I saw one many years ago but not sure.
I saw my first confirmed Hamadryas julitta Hamadryas julitta butterfly today. It’s an endemic butterfly where I live!
Beautiful! I could get lost in it’s scales!
Hehe yeah, it’s such an intricate pattern!
Pileated Woodpecker: Well, I did not get a picture, but I got a sound recording:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130163127
I am excited because I never realized pileated woodpeckers even live here. Whoo HOOO!
We have plenty here in west central Michigan. Incredible birds. I will post my evidence of organism, as the tree a female was using for a nest has fallen. The whole getting into the nest in the evenings was quite a process!
How cool!!!
10 more new species this week, including a new yard bee. My favorite is a moth that was flying in circles and I thought it would never settle down for pictures https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131541578
Honorable mention: first time I’ve seen a jumping spider catch a bee https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131102480
Probably this Eastern Wood-Pewee that I saw on my walk the other day, I’ve heard them a handful of times but never seen one
Today is Sunday August 21st and yesterday I found a cool new lifer fly drowned in my nearby City Swimming Pool.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/131606251
It is family Therevidae, the Stiletto Flies, and I think it might be a species in the genus Ozodiceromyia.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/248086-Ozodiceromyia
Now it has been ID’ed by @hypagoga as Ozodiceromyia notata – great!
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/473789-Ozodiceromyia-notata
This is a new species record for Manhattan, and only the second record in NYC so far.
I’m getting lazy keeping up with lifers, so these would work for the last month!
Well, these were worth the wait! 
I remember the first time I saw a Belted Kingfisher, it was incredible. It flew over the water over and over again, so I had to keep chasing it to get a photo. I was out of breath when it was all said-and-done.
I got to hear its call, see it hunt, and while it was perched on a branch above me, see it drop something onto the ground. It was a female and it wouldn’t be until this month until I saw another, this time a male.
They are really beautiful birds!
Here an observation I got of one, the first time I saw a kingfisher:
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/103212183
Today I saw a belted kingfisher!
Wooooww, those moths are amazing!!!
