Did you know Eastern Skunk Cabbages have a super power more powerful than the stink. These beautiful plants are thermogenic and can 27 to 63 degrees F above the surrounding temperature to grow through the frozen ground. Caleb Smith State Park Preserve, Maryland 2024
Turns out I unwittingly reported, one year ago almost to the day, the only observation in the UK, and one of the 4 observations in the whole of Europe, the other 3 being in Belarus. Thanks to the anonymous iNaturalist identifier for the ID – I had only narrowed it down to subgenus Microandrena.
Mute Swans are not native to New York, but they were popular on estates of the wealthy. Some escaped, while others were intentionally released. Today Mute Swans have made their home in parts of New York. Mute Swans out compete other birds including the native Trumpet Swans because of Mute Swan’s larger size, taller necks and aggressive / territorial nature. They also tend to uproot vegetation that they feed on causing further damage to the ecosystem.
Having said that it’s still awe inspiring to see these majestic birds in the wild. They’re not here for any fault of their own. I get excited like a child every time I spotted one at a distance.
This picture is from Blydenburgh County Park, Smithtown (near Hauppauge), NY, Mar 2024
... competing with wing loss in flies (flightlessness), at 25 events counted to date. Can't find an up to date citation; a neat phylogenetic tree of #Diptera marking all the apomorphic events was shown to me by Darren Williams. There's Wagner & Liebherr 1992 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/016953479290047F listing 22 insect orders with flightless species: almost all of them have species with secondary wing loss.
My favorite wingless insect is not a fly but a whole family of wasps: the velvet ants. Here, an American one. Note only females are wingless. The power of their sting is also the stuff of legend.
First honeybee of the season on today’s beautiful morning, foraging on nearby crocus and other flowers emerging from long dormant bulbs. This ‘flower’ though wasn’t tasty, only colourful and warmed by the sun.
A question to gardeners. Have you noticed any changes in your garden because of climate change. Are you planning or planting or doing anything differently in you garden because of climate change. (Examples in the UK: grass mowing later in year and aphids appearing earlier). (I just asked this on Bluesky also). #Gardening#vegetables#Climate
"Using iNaturalist to learn names in other languages" – what a great initiative, very fitting for the many of us who live in multiple languages simultaneously.
And more: #iNaturalist's new initiative to offer multiple vernacular names simultaneously for a species is a force against #EcosystemCollapse, bringing attention to the existence of creatures that are diminishing and disappearing in front of our very eyes. And what is known and is present in our thoughts is much harder to forget, for it is cherished and demanded to remain in existence as an integral part of our lives.
@twizzt@cptofmysoul@J12t I am not sure they are still as active on the fowl site, if at all. The former version of the site was a fun place to interact with scientists and spider enthusiasts every October. 2023 felt very different. There are so many alternatives and there is no dominant site. That is good in a way, but makes it harder to find a bunch of experts. My favorite social media now is #iNaturalist.
Nearing a couple of big iNaturalist milestones. What will be the next new-to-me species that I will observe this year, to make it 1000? Also coming up to 3,000 observations.
Great to see – and it's rather surprising, at least to me, how flat the distribution is. As in, few observations of many species, instead of many observations of just a handful of species.
My own looks not too different, at a ratio of ~1:5 (too many honeybees, bumblebees, ladybugs and hover flies – there're irresistible).
I wondered how my ratio looked back when I was at 1000 species observed, and I saw I had ~3500 observations – very similar to your ratio of 1:3. So the saturation point came about after that.
How it feels to go for a walk if you are into invertebrate photography and are a fan of #iNaturalist. As experienced by nature photographer Julya Hajnoczky.
From National Geographic magazine, paper edition, January 2024. #NatGeo