I’m just seeing the same plants I saw last spring so no lifers. However I think I saw something interesting today, even if it didn’t cooperate and I didn’t have the equipment to properly photograph it.
I believe (well the CV believes) that’s a Spermophilus citellus, the globally endangered European ground squirrel. It was early in the morning, and at first I was startled by a fox zooming past me (another would be lifer if it had waited for me to take a picture). I ran after the fox for a bit but lost sight when I saw the mouse/rat thing come out of its hole on the other side of the field. I took two pictures (better one is above) from far away before it disappeared back into it’s hole - I went to the hole and waited several minutes with camera focused on the entrance for it to reappear but it was gone for good.
The last lifer I posted here, the Eurasian blackcap, is now absolutely everywhere and I’m loving it, it has such an interesting varied song and it’s a really fun bird to observe. I’m hoping this new lifer turns out the same!
I’m guessing that it’s a green sandpiper, but since I have very little experience with that family or even order (I still get most of my gulls wrong), I wouldn’t be surprised to be wrong. I saw three of them this morning, the first two flying away from me before I even noticed them, then I met this lovely fellow.
I don’t know why, but I expected them to be bigger. Not that I mind, they’re adorable that way.
Is there any chance you could post a crop of the middle of this image from the original camera file here —before you added the extra processing that’s in there?
I’m not sure what software you used to get it to this point, but I would be happy to give it a shot with my stuff, only I would need a file as close to the original as possible.
Thanks, I wish, but it’s two cellphone pictures, with different levels of digital zoom. I wish I could turn off the processing - well, I actually could have by using open camera instead of the built-in camera but didn’t really have time to think about it.
The TL;DR is that its a colony of multiple things which include species of bacteria, yeasts, and other microorganisms that feed on flowing sap on damaged plants. Which this is, we had noticed some woodpecker damage on this tree on a hike previously, it had a massive amount of sap flowing out. I have it as Cystofilobasidium macerans but I’m likely going to move it back up to genus level because realistically there’s no way for me to tell what exact species of microorganisms are in there without microscopy or DNA testing.
Is that like this thing which they sometimes call ‘deer vomit’? It’s described as a ‘consortium’ of organisms. Common on wild grape vine? Hmm. Lots of that about here. I’ll keep an eye open for this one, for sure.
Last weekend I got to see a Northern Pygmy-Owl at a relative who lives in the countries house. My biggest regret is that I didn’t bring my camera or binoculars. I thought about bringing my camera but thought I wouldn’t see anything, worst luck ever (or best luck ever for seeing a pygmy owl?). My relatives neighbour also saw it, and was kind enough to lend me a pair of binoculars, which I managed to get some photos through the lens of.
This Garlic Snail was found on my terrace in my garden. The sixe of this Snail was huge, and when i went closer to take the picture, i could see it produce a lot of slime. It was still and amazing Observation.
These are two Lemon Pansy Butterflies sitting next to eachother on my room’s ceiling. I had to take two different pictures in different angels as i wanted the right depth of the pictures. I have never seen two Butterflies sitting togather in this manner.
One of the birders who saw it used the bands on the bird’s legs to track down some information:
This plover hatched in 2021 on North Manitou Island in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore. He nested in 2022 at Cathead Bay in Leelanau State Park and fledged two chicks. It was very exciting since plovers hadn’t nest at Leelanau State Park in over a decade.
76 “life firsts” on the calendar view in two days is pretty good for my home state. My favorite lifer is two Texas Horned Lizards living among the mesquite scrub near Logan, New Mexico.
