nfafjafhfjfj's Favorites

While it wasn't the camo critter we were out there specifically to study, who could help but love the face of the Sargassumfish (Histrio histrio). Ok, granted I really dig all frogfish, they are remarkable creatures, but H. histrio is quite a marvel, and we found them in abundance, though all were quite small. This fellow is about 1.75 inches long at most (as that was the largest size we found on this trip!) They do get much larger, upwards of 8 inches.

This male Hawaiian green sea turtle was covered with fibropapilloma tumors, and was actually dying right before my very eyes. He didn't move or react at all to my presence, which he would've since we were in the middle of nowhere even if he was accustomed to people in the Main Hawaiian Islands... It broke my heart to see this in such a pristine place.

breeding activity of a pair of Least Terns. Male brings fish to female and copulation occurs. After copulation male gave the fish to the female and flew off.

Bolivar Flats,
Galveston Co., Texas
26 April 2018

Now this is kind of cool. finatic photographed a color banded Piping Plover at Bolivar Flats, Galveston Co., Texas, on April 24, 2015. The bird was in breeding plumage. See:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1454897
Note it is marked with a particular band combination and a yellow J10 flag. As finatic noted in his comments, the bird was banded as a 1-day-old chick on 5 July 2012 on the south side of Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota. It had been observed at Bolivar Flats the past 2 winters.

Well, looks like the bird is back to Bolivar Flats for its 3rd winter as I photographed it there September 24. So, BJ, we photographed the same bird 5 months apart and between those dates it had likely been to North Dakota to breed, and returned to the Texas coast. I think that is pretty cool.

Piping Plover J10
24 September 2015
Bolivar Flats,
Galveston Co., Texas
29.3684
-94.7316
Right leg above joint: yellow flag with black lettering “J10”
Right leg below joint: black over yellow
Left leg above joint: metal numbered band
Left leg below joint: white over green

I did the nest check and counted the eggs, checked for hatch, all the things, but this female was so protective she distracted me from actually getting a photo of the nest on this day... (nest successfully hatched later in the season)

Thanks to @gcwarbler for identifying this moth. He came up with Dirphia horcana (Saturniidae:Hemileucinae) but that is not a listed name on iNat, so I'll go with genus here for now.

After dinner each evening at Bosque de Paz I checked the outside of the dining room and was rewarded with a really good showing of moths. I apologize for not trying to ID any of them, but I don't know anything about them and my internet access is poor at the time.

Bosque de Paz,
Alajuela Province,
Costa Rica
2 February 2016
5015 feet elevation
10.2047
-84.3173

For more info on this trip see:
http://www.inaturalist.org/posts/5309-inatting-in-costa-rica
if interested