Not a local anymore, but Morro Bay in California (the actual bay, not just the town) is always nice for nature. You are basically guaranteed to see sea otters every time you go.
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@tadamcochran, there are great trails at Bon Secour NWR just west of Gulf Shores, and up above Mobile Bay you would like Historic Blakely State Park.
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There are a couple areas near me that have quite some stuff. One of them is an abandoned field with a little shack. It’s apparently some dumping ground, as old tires and other trash was dumped there, but also garden plants which have started to establish themselves such as yucca. There’s also a shallow wetland there so it should have lots of wildlife there come spring (I only discovered it this fall).
I also found a couple locations that would slightly expand the range of the atlantic coast leopard frog on here. I already photographed one under a gazebo at a shopping center where nobody else has. I’m not going to say where they are until I am able to get photos in the spring, but they’re mostly overlooked places like roadside swamps and meadows
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McKinney Falls State Park in Texas, for me.
Close enough that I can walk to the Lower Falls and back over lunch and still have time left over.
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Yogyakarta is full of small canopied streams which contains lots of stuffs (fishes, odonates, spiders, gastropods etc.). Always found something new here, which is why im always excited when going to a small stream!
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The Sylamore National Park, adjoining the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. Never heard of it? In the early 1950s, (I was born at the time in 1952) we dammed the Norfork and White rivers in north central Arkansas. Plans were made to dam the Buffalo, but environmentalists intervened. The Sylamore NP is officially part of the Ozark National Forest, but with Blanchard Caverns, a huge cave operated by the Forest Service, and other recreational opportunities, it should become part of the National Park Service in the future.
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Just this past weekend I visited Big Lagoon State Park and Tarkiln Bayou State Park for the first time which are both quite close to Orange Beach and they were phenomenal. If you haven’t been to them yet I really recommend it!
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This is all good stuff, but my feeble mind can not remember it as much as I’d also like to visit these places. I don’t have time to read all these, but might consider them if they were near someplace I will be. I doubt I’d be making a special trip. Do I have a favorite place? Some places in Staten Island are very cool, as is Inwood Hill Park and Ridgwood Reservoir. All those places are in NYC.
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Awesome! Thank you so much. I’ve heard of Bon Secour NWR, but not had the chance to get out there. Appreciate the tips!
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Putting these on the list! I’ve not been to either spot. Thank you!
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Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It’s a short walk from Harrisburg Area Community College, and sandwiched between the campus, a highway, and a trucking company. Yet in the lake and woods there you can see herons, loads of other waterbirds, turtles, frogs, etc. The wildlife are so used to people and noise there that I got within 15 feet of a Green Heron there, whereas in more rural areas areas herons will take off if you even 100 feet away.
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Santa Cruz River Park, more specifically the southern portions where less people observe wildlife, so from Valencia to Silverlake. I’ve become quite a prominent observer in these parts, and I want people to be able to come to these parts with some data on what species of birds can be seen here, or what’s been seen in the past.
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My favorite local place to iNat is definitely Necedah NWR, particularly the Lupine Loop and Boghaunter trails, crazily biodiverse place (at least for the Midwest) with some cool stuff like Whooping Cranes, Karner Blue butterflies, Ringed Boghaunter dragonflies, and some cool mammals like NA Porcupines, Black Bears, and badgers. The trails and landscape is beautiful here as well, with tons of different habitats each hosting a completely different set of flora and fauna then the last. Oh but don’t come here in summer if you are squeamish about ticks haha.
INat obs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=119504&subview=grid
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I will echo the findings of other city dwellers. I live about 2km from the Red River (Churchill Park) in Winnipeg MB. There is a strip of ‘natural’ land along the river which have well established monkey trails. I literally go there every day to walk my dog. In the winter is is a little repetitive - the only visible things tend to be the same birds. How tiny things like chickadees survive the winter boggles my mind. In spring there are migratory birds, emerging insects etc. Unfortunately, that is when the river tends to flood, so access is limited (although there is still a path along the top of the bank). The fall sees migratory birds again. It is a very rich riverbottom bush - narrow, but long - and I’m always surprised by what I see. It’s also good for my soul to get out into ‘Nature’ at least once a day.
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My favorite place near home is White Clay Creek Park, which connects to White Clay Creek in Pennsylvania. The park is large with several trails and surprisingly still growing in a very developed area. It’s ten minutes from home, and I love walking along the creek and listening to water rush by. Plus, in the spring the whole park is filled with toad and frog song. I enjoy looking for spring flowers. I also love Coverdale Park, a small city park where the ponds offer the chance to see dragonflies and Garden Valley Park, a former DuPont estate with a small stream with snakes and dragonflies. I just find all these places restful and relaxing. I’m also fond of my parents’ garden, where I’ve found forcepflies, harvesters, and yellow-banded bumble bees—not bad for 3/4 of an acre, I think 
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I’ve lived on and off in Newark, DE for a large portion of my life, and when I haven’t lived here I’ve tended to live pretty close by and been able to visit. My favorite spot is this little park, Phillips Park, which is at the southwest end of the James F. Hall trail. Here’s a Google maps link.
Back before I knew of iNaturalist, I started surveying birds in this park and I recorded over 100 species of birds myself, and other birders have made the list even longer. Here’s eBird’s page on this park: it’s now up to 119 species. I’ve now recorded 110. And I know there are more in there than listed; the other day I met a birder who had seen American woodcocks in there, but hadn’t entered them in yet. The park is important for endangered species: Rusty blackbirds use it as a staging ground in migration, sometimes for a fairly long period of time and in good numbers. A lot of birds breed in the park, including barred owl, hummingbirds, various woodpeckers, and many smaller songbirds.
I have also seen unusual mammals in the park, once seeing a lone beaver in winter, and a red squirrel, which is more unusual (mostly just gray squirrels here.)
What I like about this park is how it really drives in how relatively small municipal parks can make a big difference in biodiversity. The plant biodiversity in this park is very high, the highest of pretty much anywhere in the surroundings other than white clay creek. The park has a mix of a few southern species (Loblolly pine, southern red oak, willow oak, downy lobelia) and mostly more northerly species. It has a diversity of soil types, as it exists right on the border of two soil types and thus has some patches of dry, sandy soil and areas of richer soil.
I’ve used the park as a source for seeds of various plant species to do ecological restoration projects farther northeast along the James Hall trail. I gather seeds as they come ripe and spread them into areas of suitable habitat, especially areas where I have been removing invasive plants.
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I’m going to have to check out this little park. Sounds like a gem. Last spring, I made a list of city parks that I wanted to see, but I missed this one. It’s going on my spring '20 list for sure. Thanks for posting about it! Oh, and always nice to see someone else representing Delaware on the site.
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I am not allowed to drive for medical reasons. Use to live up in Shasta County (CA) where there was wild everywhere, but recently moved back to Contra Costa County.
There’s a lot of wild here too, but hard for to get to without a car.
However Marsh Creek Trail - it’s walking distance, I can get there in about 20 minutes or so. It does not have a lot in the way of herps (reptiles and amphibians) but it does have some good bird diversity and that diversity changes every month, making it far less boring because there is always the chance of spotting something I rarely see or have never seen.
Marsh Creek Trail has really breathed new life into me.
The segment of the trail I like to hike is between Sunset Rd and Delta Rd. The adjacent segments, too many houses close to the trail, cats everywhere and less birds.
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Back when I was living in Hong Kong there was a nice and relatively strenuous hiking trail right behind where I lived. I would walk uphill maybe for around 20 mins to the start of the trail, and then continue climbing up to the summit. On the way I would be on the look out for any critters that show themselves. That’s how I would spend a lot of my afternoons, tired, sweaty and smelly, but more and more appreciative of nature.
There is also a nature reserve in Hong Kong called the Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve. It is a great place to herping, bird-watching, insect observing etc. I have had many lifers in that area. The place I would go to follows a hiking path all the way to the top of a hill. If conditions are right then the reward would be a plethora of butterflies hill-topping and flying about.
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I don’t have a particular place where I live now, but before I moved here, I lived in Houston for graduate school, and Manhattan, KS during undergrad. there wasn’t a lot to see in Manhattan, but Kansas State does have a garden with its own insect zoo. I loved watching the bugs, especially their bee colony. I never bought any, but they also sold tarantulas as pets. One of my room-mates did, though: a Chilean Rose Tarantula named Rosie. In Texas, I went to the Houston zoo all the time. In addition to taking nature pictures, I also collect rocks and minerals, and the zoo has a little nature shop where you can trade in items for points to buy items that other people have donated. I used to bring in rocks I collected in the field to trade (usually for other rocks, but they had all kinds of shells and bones, too). Brazos Bend State Park was close enough for a day trip on the weekends, too. The big attraction there is the alligators that can crawl right out on the trails, but they also have an observatory. I went to one of their big events and got to see a lunar eclipse through their big telescope. That was definitely a special place.
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