Wednesday January 10th. I went to the Reservoir in Central Park today. Just inside the park I found a new-to-me fungus species, Rosy Crust:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196298203
And I also want to add here one cool lifer plant from January 1st that I photographed during the NYMS outing, but did not ID correctly until now, Poison Hemlock. It is the species that killed Socrates:
Not a lifer, but the first time I’ve caught one on video (on top of a fence, with my $40 wifi microscope). I shared this in another post but I’m hoping other Collembola fans will forgive me.
Hypogastrura, still moving through the snowy days!
I saw a Pimoa spider! I love spiders, but unfortunately, I’m not very good at identifying them (I’m not really sure where to find a good spider resource). This one was huge and really beautiful, though! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196102522
If you search the forum you will find beautiful resources!
Yesterday I found a Forbes’s Sea Star, a Winter Skate, and a Atlantic Silverside. What washes up after storms can add a lot of lifers!
My favorite this week is also my first observation of the year. As I was getting dinner ready, I discovered that my block of cheddar had been colonized:
This makes sense, because the Wikipedia article on P. commune says that it is considered to be the wild ancestor of Penicillium camemberti, which is cultivated in the making of camembert and several other cheeses.
That same Wikipedia article also said that, although this species does not produce penicillin, it has shown antibacterial action against two particularly nasty hospital-dwelling germs, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. You can learn fascinating things when you get past our culturally ingrained squeamishness.
An elephant
And a hare
Until yesterday all I saw in rock pools were the same shells and crab body parts, I’m glad I was with people who showed me were to look.
Yesterday I finally saw a Lineated woodpecker! It’s like a tropical Pileated.
Also saw, very interestingly, my first Yellow-lored parrots this morning. They are an endemic and quite elusive species, restricted to preserved habitat and agricultural landscapes. Saw a couple in a small strip of wild vegetation next to an insanely busy road. In that same spot I heard more parrot screams, which I assume are from the same species because of their distinctiveness and also, they are not supposed to flock with different species. Having more than two individuals would mean less probability of them being pet escapes (they are sadly popular cage birds), so I wonder if deforestation is bringing them to the suburbs.
I haven’t found this to be the case, but thank you!
The second post I found when searching merely for ‘spiders’ is already filled with interesting comments, people and atleast one nice link:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/the-case-for-photographing-spiders/46342
But the seventh post is especially informative. It is not just about jumping spiders as the title might suggest:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-to-learn-to-identify-jumping-spiders-more-effectively/27785
I can still find new birds in Málaga province! (on my doorstep) :-)
Yesterday I saw this wigeon (what a strange name) Mareca penelope
Thank you for this inspiration, @jasonhernandez74 ! Today I found a lemon with mould in my storage and instead of being (too) embarrassed, I took a photo and uploaded it. It looks like mould is even easier to ID than other fungi. :-)
I invite you to include your observation as the second of my newly created traditional project: Mould/ mold on food.
And everybody else of course as well! :-)
Beautiful shot! Sorry to hear about the loss of your camera.
¿European Nutcracker?
I observed this sandmat almost a year ago but I got a very interesting identification of it just recently.
Correct
Cute!! I have plans to visit some lakes this spring and summer, hopefully I’ll find some frogs and other vertebrates to photograph!
This was in a grassy field with a few muddy puddles nearby and totally accidental 
Time of year isn’t the easiest for picking up lifers around here.
Weather hasn’t been the best lately for picking up lifers around here.
Weather hasn’t been the best lately for getting around around here.
In short I haven’t really tried this year which meant that by today I was jonesing for a fix, so I went birding, and bugging.
In addition to a nice surprise, but non lifer, herd of red deer, I found both of my targets, parrot crossbill (should have seen those before, but never made a dedicated try), and snow scorpionfly. I think probably the latter was actually my favourite, even if for no other reason than that it required more effort, since a flock of crossbills landed in a tree right next to the parking lot just as I arrived at my destination
