I’ve returned with insects!
Madagascar Beetle (absurdly tiny, and played dead!)
and Fiery Skipper, which I have seen around the yard but did not know what they were.
7 Likes
Now you’ll have to look out for its predator beetle Novius cardinalis
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138036589
2 Likes
Not sure if it’s my favorite, but it’s certainly a sobering one.
Anopheles punctipennis, the Woodland Malaria mosquito.
9 Likes
I was walking around the neighbourhood and came across this beautiful Papaver, probably escaped from a garden and introduced here. But it has only been observed ten times in the whole of the Netherlands (and 158 times worldwide)! Even though introduced, I never thought I would observe something so rare right outside my doorstep. The city is full of lovely natural surprises.
8 Likes
Like always, I’m running through the ol’ backlong. Still finding observations from the summer. I actually made a goal for myself to document the small organisms I found near the water at a park I go to. The highlight so far were these aquatic snails. They slowly made their way onto the shore where I was able to pick one up and photograph it. Also, in the rightmost photo, there’s something on the shell, is it alive too?
Observation here: https://inaturalist.ca/observations/188791983
10 Likes
Red-breasted goose. Two of them hanging out in a group of perhaps as many as 3000 barnacle geese at a coastal site near my home Tuesday.
…& not this week, but a couple of weeks ago I went on a great little 5 day trip to New York & New Jersey. Main target was timber rattlesnake, and that went really well with 52 specimens found. Sadly, however, on the penultimate day, I lost my camera, including memory card. Hence, what would otherwise have been quite a long list of lifers is now limited to the ones I could ID on sight. Thankfully, however, in terms of my own listing I don’t need photos to count species + I do, after all, have at least phone pics of a few species and my travel companion has better pictures of at least most of the species that matter the most to me.
Anyway, what remains on the lifer list for the trip even without the photos from my “real” camera, is this:
Timber rattlesnake (top target)
Eastern kingsnake (my second favorite)
Eastern milksnake
Eastern worm snake
Ring-necked snake
Red-bellied snake
Eastern fence lizard
Northern red-bellied cooter
Northern cricket frog (I think I’ve seen those as a kid, but not sure, so I’ll have to count them as new)
Spring peeper
American toad
Fowler’s toad
Wood frog
Pickerel frog
Carpenter frog
Marbled salamander
Southern flying squirrel
Big brown bat (most likely I’ve seen those before, but this is the first time I could get a positive ID)
Atlantic blue crab
Yellow patches
Many-rooted earthball
Still plenty of really nice species in that list, of course, but with the pics from my camera it would have been sooo much longer - arthropods, flowers, funghi, etc.
A couple of pics. First is not my own, but my friend’s, second is the best I could do with my cheap phone.
10 Likes
This week hasn’t had much in the way of observing for me (mostly because i just got pikmin 4 lol). Though I did see this sphinx moth which even though it seems common it’s still awesome to me :}
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/188913435
15 Likes
It is definitely awesome!
3 Likes
We went for a short open space hike today. The property is more renown for its views than anything else.
So, I was quite happily astonished to se a native tarantula cross the path!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189165580
Although I saw maybe one or two wild tarantulas before, I’m not sure I ever got the picture!
Just few feet away, got another surprise and saw a young gopher snake slip across the trail.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189165777
…not a lifer, but still a big thrill!
But the big excitement was maybe a half mile along where Dave alerted me to a real lifer. It was far away up the trail and unfamiliar. No, not a coyote… a lost dog? Definitely not a bobcat… maybe a fox? I muttered that it looks a bit weasel-like, but not having seen a weasel (especially in open space), I just did not know.
Finally, an open space staffer agreed to look at “a really bad photo” to see if it was a fox. He could not tell either, but still came up with a - likely correct - answer: a badger.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189154443
Earlier, as I was on the iPhone, I could not show observation details. Edited to show iNat links. Will show photos later when the iCloud updates reach the computer.
12 Likes
This random insect observation on Thursday was a lifer for me, but it may have greater significance.
A Harlequin Bug (Murgantia histrionica), the first iNat observation of this species in New York state, north and west of the lower Hudson Valley. Together with a handful of other observations from Canada and New Hampshire, earlier this year, this may be evidence that this species, which is described as an agricultural pest, is extending its range further north. That may be bad news for farmers.
10 Likes
It is a very striking looking insect, even at that
1 Like
This week hasn’t been the greatest for getting out to observe and the weather forecast isn’t optimistic about the next two weeks either. I’m also testing new things on a technical level, so a lot of my photos aren’t iNat-worthy (mostly individual birds I’ve already observed without any noteworthy change or behaviour).
After a somewhat disappointing outing on Tuesday, I decided to just sit by the jetties and watch the geese as the sun came down.
I’m so used to birds being really wary that I didn’t notice this little guy (Calidris alpina) pretty much right at my feet.
It didn’t care one bit about me, the geese or even dogs running off their leash.
13 Likes
Have not had a lifer in a long time, but yesterday went to an old larch forest and found the most spectacular lichen, a wolf lichen!
17 Likes
Currently going through photos from my trip to the United States during the summer and, perhaps unsurprisingly for a visit to another continent, have come up with a few new life list firsts:
Rather hard to pick one favorite when I have so many choices!
Row one (Sunken Gardens; Lincoln, Nebraska):
- Pachydiplax longipennis for being extremely patient as I walked around and took multiple photos of it at the exit of the Sunken Gardens.
- Graphocephala coccinae for its vibrant colors.
- Diogmites neoternatus for being a very different-looking robber fly than the ones I typically encounter in South Korea.
- Sphex ichnemoneus for being the orange mystery amongst all the blue-and-black colored Sphex pensylvanicus cavorting around the quailgrass.
Row two (Mahoney State Park & Holmes Lake; Lincoln, Nebraska)
- Xorides albopictus because it turns out my observation is the first record of the species in Nebraska.
- Cincindela sexguttata because I saw a green blob fly across my view and into the woods that I thought I wouldn’t encounter again before leaving the park – and then we found one hanging out on the trail on our way back to the car.
- Photinus pyralis because it’s my first time (or first time I can remember) seeing a firefly.
- Invertebrate iridescent virus 31 because I never thought I’d actually see an example of it myself. I was also happy to be able to identify the two isopod species I saw in Lincoln – though I noticed that neither is a lifer for me because I’ve seen them both already in South Korea.
10 Likes
A week ago, I returned from a three-week trip to Australia, where I visited my youngest sister and went on a two-week birding tour. I’d never been to Australia before (I live in the US), so probably 95% of the species I saw there were lifers. I’ll just highlight three here.
Hogg’s Flatworm. My first flatworm on iNat.
A Koala, which we found by accident.
Two Short-beaked Echidnas, in different places.
We helped shoo the second echidna off the road, whereupon it decided to take shelter in the shade of one of the tour group participants, who had crouched down to take a photo of the animal. We told the guy not to crouch down any further.
And I’d like to thank the Australian iNatters for IDing many of my observations very quickly!
24 Likes
Cannabis sativa? Wild or cultivated?
Tuesday October 31st
I am in San Diego County in California. Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates it.
Yesterday I found a Black Webspinner, which was not only a new species for me but also a new ORDER of insects, Order Embioptera!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189578294
I also found a new-to-me species of plant bug, the Western Plant Bug:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189580863
And today also the Yellow V Moth:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189605866
And one empty shell of the Critically Endangered Trask Shoulderband Snail:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189599018
10 Likes
First time seeing a scorpion and it was in my house!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189625494
I was walking to the kitchen to turn off the light before heading to bed. In the dim light of the livingroom I saw it in the path I was walking. After photos I tried to pick it up with forceps/tweezers but it was holding fast to the carpet. I grabbed a cereal box and after removing the cereal bag I put it down next to the scorpion which decided that it wanted to go hide in the darkness of the box. I had to rush to get the backdoor unlocked and opened because it was climbing up the inside of the box as I was carrying it. I stuck my arm and box out the door just in time as it was teetering on the edge of the box. I shook it off the box before retreating inside to try to calm my excitement about finally seeing a scorpion and my anxiety thinking about what would have happened if I had stepped on it barefooted or if my pet rabbit had come across it before I did. We have been putting off replacing the rubber seals under the doors. I don’t mind the spiders that get in the house (free pest control), but this is dangerous.
15 Likes
I’m glad you are safe. Luckily Striped Bark Scorpions sting is like a bee, it is only fatal if you are allergic to it, I had a similar encounter of almost stepping on a scorpion, although that was in East Africa on a trip which wasn’t much of a surprise. It was a stridulating thicktail and was at least 20 cm long, the guide killed it saying it was tradition to kill a scorpion on a pathway, so another person doesn’t get stung and potentially die from the sting.
7 Likes