First ever tiger beetle https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/153097439 and there was another species (or two?) that I saw and did not photograph
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This was a very productive week! Even taking out not so cool lifers, there’re many to list.
4 moths, 3 of them with good photos: Semioscopis oculella, Pale Brindled Beauty, Rannoch Sprawler.
A ton of cool and sometimes rare beetles: Anthobium atrocephalum, Olophrum fuscum, Lesser Silver Water Beetle, Coelostoma orbiculare, Hypera rumicis, Oxypselaphus obscurus, Acrulia inflata, Anthrenus picturatus, Tachyta nana and some others.
Also an introduced water pillbug, underobserved wetland groundbug, very unusual for the region Elm Seed Bug.
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I’ve been on the west coast of Te Wai Pounamu/South Island, New Zealand this weekend. We went to the Hokitika Gorge this morning (first photo, below), and found a bunch of this amazing blue pinkgill (Entoloma hochstetteri, second photo) and what is apparently its cousin E. canoconicum (third photo).
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We are going to be pummeled with yet another spring blizzard here in the North Central US. But last week’s blizzard brought an American Tree Sparrow to my feeder. A first! So I’m stocking up on bird food in hopes there will be another first-time species visitor.
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Yesterday was a rainy forecast but I decided to take a chance and ‘get in my steps’ and visit the little lakeside woods in the local park which for the last few months of winter has been my observation base.
At the mouth of the creek that leads into the woods there were lots of waterfowl, but nothing new, except perhaps a lot more mergansers anticipating treats from the high run-off that was flowing down.
I walked maybe two minutes down the trail and noticed on a trailside tree trunk a tiny speck of red. Yes! My first Sumo Mite!
While I was busy shooting this a couple of guys with cameras and binoculars approached me and asked me if I had spotted something. They nodded but did not exactly share my enthusiasm over my tiny discovery. “Ah, a bug guy, eh?” They smiled and trudged past.
I soon caught up to them about 20 minutes later at the place where the trail turns away from the creek and we exchanged some local bird spotting updates in a friendly conversation, but they said that they hadn’t spotted anything of note and were turning back. Which I was tempted to do as well. I had spotted a nice group of Common Water Striders in an eddy pool (the creek water was exceptionally high), but not much else-- new, at least. But I decided to press on an take the other half of the loop back even though it was much soggier. Then I spotted something hopping about in the underbush.
I’ve seen but never managed to photograph a Gold-Crowned Kinglet before. And this one was definitely not de-caffeinated. The shot above was the best I got BUT that was just before this last shot:
Hold the phone… what is that in the upper half? Is that… ??
Yes! My first Snapper! I don’t know why or how it had gotten so far away from the creek but it was pretty still and looked unharmed. Clickety-click. I started asking myself, ‘How close is safe with these guys?’ Hmm.
And then… down came the rain, so I headed home, camera under jacket.
A triple-play outing! I honestly never would have predicted that. Anyhow, it sure made the miserable walk home from the park a lot less miserable.
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OMG, what a gorgeous picture 
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Two beautiful endanger trumpeter swan stop by to say hello.
(Still trying to figure out how to get the link to work with the pics)
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I was looking (unsuccessfully) for nudibranches; but I found this lovey ostrich-plume hydroid being consumed by an anemone:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/152887353
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I recently got back from 28 days on the Caribbean island of Nevis in St. Kitts and Nevis. I found lots of lifers, including shells of numerous marine mollusks which I had seen many times before, but never yet made into iNat observations. However, the following are some of my favorites …
During my first whole day there, I saw this (dead) Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat, found on February 25th:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149721472
This Turtle Vine was found on March 4th:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150229463
I would like to mention this lovely bivalve Sanguinolaria sanguinolenta on March 7th:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150510688
On March 9th I saw this (warning – roadkill) small mongoose:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150692313
And also this lovely Melonworm Moth, also seen on March 9th:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150691560
And this nice Pantropical Jumping Spider seen on March 13th:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151076271
And this young Turk’s Cap Cactus seen on March 18th, which has not yet grown a red fez:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/151536034
And on March 20th, this lovely delicate Atys riiseanus shell:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/152168841
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After 3 years, I’ve I finally found my first ever salamanders! These ones are eastern red-backed salamanders.
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Definitely the long-eared owl at Big Morongo, taking us fifteen minutes of staring in the same spot to see!
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The best place to find them is at a small creek under moss that is submerged. At least that’s how I found my three salamanders.
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I’m in Mississippi on a temporary assignment for work so I’m getting to see a number of species I can’t find in California. Here’s a couple of highlights:
Eastern Giant Swallowtail. This is absolutely largest butterfly I’ve ever seen o_o.
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Nice. I’m just reading Ann Cleeves book, Blue Lightning. There, an observation of a Trumpeter Swan on Fair Isle (Shetland) plays a minor from the story distracting role.
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Yesterday (Sunday), I saw my first Cape Rockjumper - a new lifer! It’s endemic to certain boulder-strewn mountain slopes in the fynbos ecoregion of South Africa, and can be found nowhere else. I love the colour scheme of its plumage.
This individual was one of three I saw: a pair with a possible juvenile.
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Got this stunner of a fly:
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Whoa, that must be the prettiest fly I’ve ever seen a picture of.
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To be honest, I had to google it, it does sound like a pretty interesting book to read, thanks for sharing that with me.
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the blue mushroom, it sooo vibrant and beautiful
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