Went for a hike in the woods across the Sound last Wednesday hoping for the likes of a moose or a capercaillie. Lifers didn’t even cross my mind. Saw exceptionally little of any interest, but then, near the end of my hike came a very welcome, and highly unexpected, surprise, quite the rarity this far south. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera along so I only have a couple of bad light, long distance phone pics showing an at best nearly unidentifiable gray blob. Didn’t detract significantly from the experience, though.
A woman suddenly started screaming in the parking lot of a preserve. Then she ran away. An Oxybelis potosiensis (Brown Vine-snake) was about to climb a car. Not expecting to see it, a good lifer, and the most beautiful snake I had ever seen. Hopefully, it was put back into the forest with a large twig.
While walking up the stairway of the apartment building, I noticed two mosquitos, one of which appears to be a Trichocera, which was still a lifer for me!
Not much to observe here in the middle of winter - but earlier today two Cervus elaphus crossed the road right in front of me, and this never happens but today they were slowed down by the snow enough and I was quick enough to pull out my phone to snap a picture. Which makes it an inat lifer for me!
I think I found my first slime mold! But I am not sure at all… I only carried my smartphone, and I don’t know if these photos are good enough for a confident ID.
Thanks! It’s a year and a half now since I started macro shooting and I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of all the bits. Well, at least my bits
Biggest quantum leap for me is something nobody suggested, but I discovered almost by accident: 4K video clips. Almost instant setup, handheld. 15 second tour of the subject and cross my fingers for a well-focused shot and good composition lurking somewhere in all those frames when I get back to the computer.
Though for this one, it was pure luck because all I had was my TG-5 which alas, doesn’t have 4K vid in microscope mode, so it was just a few stills.
Almost everything I shoot now is with my two 16MP tiny-sensored bridge cameras the Olympus TG-5 and the Nikon P950 with a 250 Raynox.
Uploaded last week: Xizicus coreanus
I was really pleased to figure out the species on my own, and @taewoo (who works with Korean Orthoptera professionally) confirmed the identification.
A two-for-one for me today. This tiny (length c. 1 mm) as-yet-unidentified orbweaver lunching on a very pretty acacia psylloid Acizzia acaciae at a wildlife park in Christchurch, New Zealand.
So, wow, I certainly did not expect to find a new-to-me species of flying insect on Xmas Day in 2023, here in NYC, but luckily for me it was waiting for me right outside the front door of our building, sitting on a leaf of the Mophead Hydrangea which is in a big pot there.
I’ve just finished catching up on posting my observations from a three-week trip to Florida. I had a lot of lifers, so the competition for my favorite was intense. The runners-up were:
Column Stinkhorn (Clathrus columnatus) – I’ve identified some of these for others, even though I’d never observed one, myself, so this helps alleve some of my impostor syndrome. It’s also one of the rare instances where I was actively looking for a lifer, since I knew it was in season down south.
A larva of a Skiff Moth (Prolimacodes badia) – instead of going the traditional caterpillar route, this larva chose a look that’s more like a punk rock slug.
But the observation that was so amazing that it had to be my favorite was this Barred Owl (Strix varia). I came upon this owl sitting on the edge of the trail, while it was being totally inattentive. As I slowly approached to within five feet and circled around to its left, it slowly turned its head and then took off in a moment of panic when it finally noticed me.
For christmas this year I got several lifers. Which honestly shocked me because normally this part of the year is very slow. However my favorite one from today would have to be this cute little spider with an even cuter sounding name.
Only a cellphone picture I’ll not show (luckily bird identifiers have a lot of fantasy and it still was ided within 2 minutes of posting) - but I saw a three-toed woodpecker! We were joking about seeing one for several weeks when I read in a paper from 1995 that there was a glacial relict population of about 90 individuals left in a nearby mountain forest. But never expected them to still be there or to actually ever see one. Then on Christmas day we went for of a hike in those mountains and at the end of the hike looked at a lichen under some dead spruce trees. Suddenly a woodpecker started pecking the tree right above us (rather softly compared to usual woodpeckers) - and someone immediately recognized it as a three-toed woodpecker and, geared for lichen photography, we all took terrible pictures of it
New upload: Encountered this Ceratonema christophi (대륙쐐기나방 in Korean) slug caterpillar moth perched on the outer wall of a cafe. I wasn’t sure what it was at first because of its posture so had to get closer for a better look.
New identification: Cercospora hydrangeae (Cercospora Leaf Spot on Hydrangea), a kind of fungi that gave me life list additions for the subclass, order, family, genus, and species. This one came from a visit to the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, Nebraska (USA) over the summer and I wasn’t sure if it would ever get an identification. Quite happy to see that I was mistaken This also put me up to 96 life list firsts for a single day, which is amazing.
