Some people, especially birders, have a “Spark Bird”, a bird that resonated with them, or was otherwise special to them, that got them into birding. I’m sure that this is true for a variety of naturalists and outdoor enthusiasts. I’m curious to know what your “Spark Organism” was, what organism got…

Not a particular species, but a whole range of them… anything I could find in the woods and fields and roadsides with flowers; in short, wildflowers. And, a beloved Biology teacher who shared and encouraged my interest. One of my most prized books is a gift from her, an autographed first edition P…

Evening Grosbeaks. I was young – five? six? My grandmother had a feeder that attached to the window. If I sat very, very still, these big yellow birds would land about a foot away from me and eat sunflower seeds. Fascinating! I’m not sure if it was before or after that – like before – that I sa…

My spark organism was this Megalodacne heros that I found behind a dog house on my patio. It’s also the organism that helped me find iNaturalist. I used to be afraid of bugs and not at all interested in the natural world. Now I’m the top identifier for Erotylidae, and am doing research into the Afri…

Mine is a weird one I guess, Allosaurus. I was always interested in nature (especially all the bugs running around where I grew up) but I distinctly remember watching the Ballad of Big Al as a child and being blown away by how the scientists knew the life story of an animal that died over 100 millio…

I originally got into plants by taking a summer job at a garden center in high school. I originally wanted to be an aerospace engineer, but found that I enjoyed being outdoors a lot more than indoors! With that creeping interest in plants building, x Heucherella ‘Tapestry’ is the one that pushed me …

Excellent question! My spark organism that specifically got me into “iNatting” was, without a doubt, the Groundhog. For much of my life so far, I have grown up with Groundhogs living under our shed, raising their young, sleeping in our patio chairs on our deck (literally!), and destroying the flow…

That’s still my favorite wildflower book after all these years. Well organized, the drawings really look like the plants, and it’s quite complete for a non-technical work. I have 3 copies, in increasing states of disrepair from being dragged around in the woods. When I was in high school back in …

I kinda don’t have a spark animal, I just love them all. My ‘spark bird’ is definitely the eurasian spoonbill (Which is fun, because it perfectly lines up with my reading of the third part of the twitch book series). But probably my overall spark animal is the common albatross butterfly, who’s migr…

My ‘spark’ was a hike, too. I was always interested in natural history; we had a bird feeder and I collected fossils and what not, but where I lived was outer suburbs in Ohio, mostly weedy second growth forest and overgrazed pastures. I had one older wildflower book that had the ‘classic’ wildflo…

For me it was feral pigeons! I find them so pretty, especially the large range of patterns I see, so I started taking pictures of them whenever I was out and about. Corvids were a later one, because there was a particularly large carrion crow with very ruffled feathers that would always land on the …

What Was Your "Spark Organism?"

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What Was Your "Spark Organism?"

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