From a different topic:
Well, it finally happened!
Observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147644866
Some other cool lifers from today:
Another lifer species of wintergreen, the Pipsissewa.
A new family of isopods, Trichoniscidae.
Observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147644866
Another lifer species of wintergreen, the Pipsissewa.
A new family of isopods, Trichoniscidae.
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Lucky you!
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I paused taking lichen pictures for a moment yesterday and took a picture of a moss because it looked slightly unusual to me. When uploading my pictures at home none of the CV suggestions looked even remotely similar and I put it as just “mosses”. To my surprise someone immediately identified it as an inat-state-first moss. I’m really lucky here to have 3 or 4 identifiers looking at all moss pictures in Ohio because otherwise I would have never known what it is. This more than makes up for not finding any of the three lichen species I wanted to see this weekend 
Cryphaea glomerata
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I went to Redwood National Park this weekend for my birthday and added quite a few new lifers. Here’s a few of my new favorites:
All in all, a wonderful trip ^^
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This lichen mimicking moth, a Feralia ferbualis. In the observation, there’s a zoomed out view showing nearby lichen, in which it would have totally blended.
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Yeah I’ve never even seen tracks to a bobcat and I live where they are listed as common. :)
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A trip to Big Sur finally netted me photos of the California Condor, and a juvenile at that!! After an unsuccessful first day, I decided to go back the next, and was greeted by this absolutely adorable juvenile female (1095, wing tag 8, nicknamed “Jabba”) landing no more than 20 feet away from me. Absolutely stunning animals, it is a privilege to get to see one in person.
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Gorgeous moth and shot!
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Wow, great shot and please send some of that luck my way!
I’ve seen maybe 4 or 5 in my time, with never a camera around (in the epoch before smartphones). In two of these sightings the cat was just sitting calmly in tall grass beside a road. Those ear and chin tufts are pretty unmistakable.
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They come through this relatively less developed corner of the county fairly often, but usually at night.
This cat was just awesome; it sat there washing itself and making some desultory hunting investigations. The hillside where it was resting is home to many moles, gophers, bunnies, squirrels (probably rodents, too, though I don’t see them).
I’m just lucky* to be in a place that has lots of small prey animals. If you can find a fallow field with lots of soil lumps due to gopher/mole action, or know places with brush that harbor rabbits, that might be a place to spot bobcats and coyotes.
*tbh, it is unlucky in terms of my gardening efforts. What plantings the deer and rabbits don’t eat, get’s killed by moles and gophers destroying the roots. 
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When I saw my first inat state first observation last week I didn’t know that it actually was my second, I just hadn’t uploaded the real first one yet, an inat state first lichen: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147736496
That certainly makes it my favorite lifer of this week!
Even though admittedly I had no idea what it is and almost didn’t upload the picture since it just looked like the tree bark was covered in some white dust 
(Without the iders 90% of my lichen would just sit at Lecanomycetes forever.)
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Good grief, it looks as though he’s smiling for the camera! What a fantastic shot, @teellbee.
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Wow! This topic is still open!!!
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Two weeks again already and here’s my two favorite lifers! Neither of them is very eye catching but Ohio’s division of natural resources has a list of endangered plants and they also have a handful of lichens on there - and I now have seen these two out of those.
This one is Canoparmelia caroliniana (Carolina shield lichen) which is really common further south but I guess Ohio’s state botanists do not find them often. There is a very common almost-look-alike and so I mostly ignore those big green lichens but somehow this one caught my eye while walking through the forest and then a very nice inat identifier identified it for me
This one is Placidium squamulosum (jellytot earthscale lichen). It is very small and looks like dirt on the ground and I don’t really know what made me examine it (I thought at first it’s some animal’s droppings) but I was really happy when I realized it’s probably a lichen I had never seen
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I’m a bit late in posting this, but I finally got a good look at (and pic of) the yellow-bellied sapsucker that’s been evading me! Look at this handsome fella:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148408738
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Ring-necked duck for me this week. I’d missed out on another bird I was hoping to see but it’s always a good day when you can add a bird to the lifer list.
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Whatever the heck this is
(Yet to be ID’d - it’s like a puffball mushroom on a stem…wth?)
Yes it puffed spores. Neatest friggin thing I’ve seen in a while!
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46 lifers since my last post, so how do I choose? I’ll go with a large creosote gall from today, because it’s a stunning piece of insect biology. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149696258
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46 lifers?!? I am completely jealous.
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