After a bit of research on the Japanese barberry, I’ve learned how destructive it is. I just thought it was a cool looking plant and photographed it. I guess I can consider myself lucky to not have encountered this species in my city, though it’s been replaced by Japanese knotweed here.
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Have you seen this project?
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/human-faces-and-masks-in-nature
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No, thank you! I joined. :-)
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As always when in a new place there’s suddenly lots of things to pick from - my favorite is still this Ponthieva racemosa I saw in South Carolina on the weekend. Its common name is “hairy shadow witch” - no idea why it’s called that but it must be one of the strangest common names.
Not really a favorite in that sense but something that will give me nightmares for a long time - I also saw a wild Alligator mississippiensis closeby while looking for orchids in the swamp. Was so scared I sprinted up to higher ground and then didn’t dare take close pictures of another orchid lifer I spotted from a distance at the water edge 
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Masked Trogan (female)
Chestnut-crowned Antpitta
Red-crested Cotinga
Peregrine Falcon, two actually, standing on fence posts in the middle of a pasture, we were driving and they were a bit too quick for the camera, unfortunately.
Green-tailed Trainbearer
sorry my photos are as always, 2-3 weeks delayed.
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Today is Tuesday October 11th.
On Sunday I went with my old iNat friend @mattparr to Governors Island, which is in the harbor just off of the tip of Manhattan.
I think the most impressive thing I found was some galls on a Rosa rugosa leaf which were caused by a lifer gall wasp, Diplolepis rosaefolii
So far there are only 84 iNat observations of this species in the whole of North America.
This is a new record for NYC, and there are no records yet of this species in all the areas surrounding NYC, except for one record in coastal Massachusetts, and one in central Pennsylvania.
Also on Governors Island, I finally learned how Matt finds cool insects by staring at tree trunks from just a few inches away.
This is a nice little Weevil called Mechinus pyraster. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/359228-Mecinus-pyraster. We found several of them on the trunks of London Plane trees, like this one, removed in order to get a better photo of it:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138206857
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Proud to get an ID confirmation of an observation of Prepops nigripilus, a distinctively patterned plant bug. Love the “arrow” pointing down its back. As far as I can tell, it had not been observed on iNaturalist yet, and is “transcontinental in the north” from Alaska across Canada. Woohoo for new things.
It was an observation from July, but just uploaded this week.
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So today is Saturday October 15th. I went to one of my favorite areas in Central Park, NYC, next to the Harlem Meer. I was looking in the water, and I managed to see a new lifer, a spotted fish, the Black Crappie. The fish was half hidden under a big leaf of Pickerel Weed, but quite recognizable anyway, at least to the Computer Vision!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138889283
This fish species has been iNat-recorded 12 times in a few of the various ponds in Central Park, but it does not seem to be super common in NYC overall.
Here is an observation of an Osprey catching one:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/114031966
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Week of Aug 28th to Sept 3rd
Barometer Earthstars
Week of Sept 4th to Sept 10th - so many lifers, hard to choose
Cypress Flower Gall Midge
Week of Sept 11th to Sept 17th - only one lifer
Slime mold
Week of Sept 18th to Sept 24th - only one lifer
Asphondylia lacinariae
Week of Sept 25th to Oct 1st - a ton of lifers this week
Orange-headed Epicallima Moth
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This week is mostly firstly-ided rather than first seen. Everything but Dasineura rosae are fungi or close to them, so starting with the close there’s a Tapioca Slime Mold – a weird and huge slime mold.
Vuilleminia coryli which I tried to find since I started being interested in fungi, around 2017. Nice Yellow Girdled Webcaps, Bulbous Honey Fungus, some old bodies of Bay Polypore, Sulphur Tuft, yellowing curtain crust and I’m pretty sure id is correct for this chestnut brittlestem.
Still in search of orange peel fungus.
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It’s so hard to pick a favorite for this week from my South Carolina trip, I saw so many cool things - the inat calendar says I have 176 lifers. Just realized that this calendar over-counts though, for example one single observation gave me 6 lifers: Sabal minor - Genus Sabal - Tribe Sabaleae - Subfamily Coryphoideae - Family Arecaceae - Order Arecales
I suppose it depends on the exact definition of “lifer”, so I may have 176 “lifers” but only 50 or so new species.
Anyway, I think I want to pick this one from Tuesday. It’s a Burmannia biflora - not an orchid but used to be in an order called “Orchidales” so I still like it a lot!
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My first flat wasp (an Aculeata family near cuckoo wasps) was this week https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138639154
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I just acquired a lifer just yesterday the 15th of October. So I went out exploring my favorite park in Anchorage and walking quite a bit. Was hoping to find a lifer on my walk. Thinking of minks, or a marmot but mostly a ptarmigan. My walk ended and was empty handed. While driving down the road I glimpsed a critter. Got out of my vehicle and low and behold it was aNorth American Porcupine. Anyway, seen them before but my first in the era of being part of iNaturlist. In other words I succeeded in getting another lifer. See included photo.
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Oh, porcupines are the BEST!
I prefer them at the neighbors property. I’ve had them chew my deck, steps and porch wall… with all the wood in the forest, why the house? 
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I’ve been lucky, they have never chewed anything of mine. But I do have friends who have had piocupines chew off branches on their peach trees!
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This ruby-crowned kinglet (Oct. 16) was a first for me; I didn’t even know that we had them in Maryland! Was really struck by the absolutely miniscule size of it.
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My four year old found this beautiful, tiny longhorn beetle, genus Zorion, at our local duck pond. Endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, they are thought to be important pollinators of many native plant species.
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The whimbrel
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