Thank you! What is the best way to distinguish between toyon and cotoneasters?

As pseudotsuga-menziesii mentioned, the edges of the leaves on Toyon are serrated, unlinke this cotoneaster. I find the arrangement of leaves on the stems of cotoneaster to be a bit more distinctive than that, usually fairly evenly alternate in a fairly flat arrangment on each stem, where Toyon usually have leaves coming off the stem at a greater variety of angles. Toyon leaves have more of a stem and are more oblong, where cotoneaster (at least the species pictured here and some others in the area - I'm not sure this is a totally reliable cue) start to broaden really near the base of the leaf at the stem. I also think cotoneaster leaf shape seems more symmetrical

In situ observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/138181167

@encrustingacro no, sorry. I do not. It was definitely a guess on my part, so you would know better than I.

@nan-cee

@w_martin , I don't really understand what you mean by "covered with diatoms ". Do you mean that the seagrass is covered with diatoms or do you mean that the epibiotic algae is covered with diatoms and thus impossible to identify?
Thanks Wayne in advance.
(And of course- as people will be tired of my often saying- I realise that the only way to confirm taxonomy with algae like Hincksia genus is the microscope, so I am not expecting you to agree with Hincksia even if it was statistically most likely here!)

A lot of fine filament red algae such as (ceramiums as an example amongst many others) get covered with debris because of their extremally fine threads. In just one drop of water there can be hundreds or even thousands of diatoms which some look like this because of the density of diatoms it changes the colour to a dirty brown as we see in the photo, but If we look closely at this observation we can actually see a pinkish tinge to some of the clusters of the seaweed, this indicates it's just dirty and in my opinion it's covered with diatoms because diatoms seem to always be caught in fine filament red algae.
Another photo here shows a dirty algae compared to a clean one, under the microscope (second image) we can see the diatoms stuck onto it.
Another excellent example that shows diatoms stuck onto some red algae. So from a distant photo this will give an appearance of brown fluffy due to the sheer volume of diatoms, the further we move away underwater then the less red become visible and the more our eyes perceive that the colour blend together

We can't see such small particles from a distance it's overall so red particle +green particle = Yellow from a distance but under a microscope we can see individual green and red particles so it's not yellow. The same principle can be applied to the diatoms being stuck and giving the illusion of discoloration of the algae.

Can you edit this observation and add or update the location? This will allow the observation to become Research Grade. Thanks!

Thanks for the information! I thought that bisporigera would have that same discolouration. Also I thought mappae had a texture on its cap as it aged. The older ones maintaind that smothe cap.

Análise em laboratório?

One's got lunch to go!

most likely... https://bugguide.net/node/view/736202

hmmm. not sure if this is Tortistilus or Spissistilus. reminds me of Tortistilus minutus, but the margin of the crest is more rounded, so leaning towards Spissistilus.

No image of the upperparts, unfortunately. I added one more photo and more more post of typical Larus-type gulls seen at this location.

Thanks. I did a bit more scouring of the records and no other species would occur here other than vagrants so I think it is very much likely LBB, especially considering your other sighting which clearly shows the back.

@mecopteron_bouillon This specimen clearly has bristles on the pronotum (see last picture), which reductus is supposed to lack.

see Penny 1977- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924017874912&view=1up&seq=1

There are 20 stout setae on the ventral margin of the rostrum, although if you look at the figure on page 16 (152) of Penny those setae seem much shorter in the members of the nivoriundus complex than what we see here. I'm fairly certain it is not elegans, given the coloration and size (this is about 4.5 mm) differences. Probably just something that is not covered by the female key in Penny 1977

I collected a few males from the same area, so perhaps this will shed some light

What is this in head???

I don't know. It was so strange I thought it was another specie 🤯

@greenari @that_bug_guy

The puff on the head is called a 'crest' and is a mutation most commonly seen in the aptly named Crested Duck (breed). The mutation creates a hole in the skull, resulting in a large puff of feathers to form on the top of the head. Mixtures between Crested and other duck breeds can result in offspring that share the mutation.

Thanks for information friend :)

Happy to help! My first encounter with a Crested Duck happened a back in 2017 and was my introduction to domestic ducks as a whole. Luckily, we were able to get a photo.
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/97078264

My family nicknamed the bird, "Princes Leia Duck".

Beautiful photo and record.

Thank you! My Mom took the photo, lol! I'll make sure to tell here :)

She is photographer?

Larger and bulkier than the wild type.

Arctornithini maybe though I don't see a match.

(Placeholder: bird)

@dshell, it's best to crop your photos to show only the plant of interest. This photo is deceptive because of the blooming lupines in the center of the photo. This throws off the iNaturalist Computer Vision (CV) algorithm that suggests a species.

@nomolosx @hopperdude215 I think I got the unidentified species! I have it as a specimen right now that I would be willing to ship if anyone is doing any research to identify this species

Wow, awesome! I forget, did we have any guesses on the genus from the prior individual? Maybe Solomon wants the specimen, or Chris Dietrich.

I would contact Chris Dietrich about this one

I sent him an email, thanks for the contact!

awesome! I'm gonna bet that this will turn out to be an Alconeura species. looking forward to finding out.

Dark legs, large body, black long bill, head pattern, why not Sandwich?

The bill and head pattern as well as the overall shape are wrong for Sandwich

Theoretically this could be one of several Euryopis species. They can only be told apart difinitavely by genitalia.

All the New Zealand records of Hygrocybe should remain Hygrocybe. They are not confused with the other genera.

Is this split ever going to take place? Looking like it's been sitting around for a while. I think atlasing will be needed too.

I'm not in favor of committing this swap. Nothing would be gained in my view.
Many of the segregate genera have been recognized for many years, although a few are more recent. The use of the genus Hygrocybe in the original broad sense went out of fashion in most regions at least a couple of decades ago. None of the segregate genera are geographically restricted and so atlasing wouldn't achieve anything. On iNat most current use of the genus is correct as far as I can see. So, committing this swap would knock the majority of correct observations of Hygrocybe back to Hygrophoraceae and I don't see the benefit of doing that.

I was going to ask the exact same thing as @arman_. I don't see any benefit to commit this swap. Re-identification would be better as the error rate is fairly low on Research Grade observations and even other ones.

Can you edit this observation and add or update the location? When you do, leave a note here so I can take another look. Thanks!

@delphax

Can you edit this observation and add or update the location? When you do, leave a note here so I can take another look. Thanks!

@hopperdude215

Can you edit this observation and add or update the location? When you do, leave a note here so I can take another look. Thanks!

I am not sure that this is Syntrichia. Rosulabryum would have been my first guess; however, it might be another Pottiaceae (i.e., Tortula). Do you have a compound microscope? Do you remember the habitat of this?

The leaflets do indeed look a lot like Rosulabryum, but this genera has only very short, thorn-like awns.

This example looks more like Syntrichia montana, which has wider, less concave leaflets than the more recognizable Syntrichia ruralis. I’m not as familiar with the terrestrial pottiaceæ. Has this species been vouchered for the eastern US?

I was thinking about R. capillare or Ptychostomum. I think S. montana grows in a few eastern states and Manitoba. The leaves look too translucent and ovate to be Syntrichia, in my opinion. I would suggest Tortula over Syntrichia if this is Pottiaceae, but I would need images from a compound microscope to verify this.

I'll be able to get a sample from this site to look at under the microscope within a week! so ill update this with more pictures then and we'll see what's up with it.

Awesome. Thank you.

@astorey_botany @iacomaner microscope pics are up

Shorter necks, blue speculums with white borders.