finatic's Journal

I will be traveling up to the Bay Area for the upcoming weekend with @biohexx1 to do some iNatting. We will be meeting @leslie_flint late Saturday afternoon (7/2), @dpom on Sunday, and both at the crack of dawn for some tidepooling Monday morning before we have to head south and get through LA before the traffic (hopefully) becomes overly bad at the end of a holiday weekend.

I hope to set-up a bug light Saturday night. @kueda care to join us? Do you have any recommendations on where we should do this. Both Donna and Leslie plan joining in on the fun.

@robberfly Will you be around during this time? Especially on Sunday when we don't have any solid plans.

@loarie @kestrel @tiwane Let me know if you want to join us somewhere. It would be nice to meet you in person.

Sorry for the short notice on the trip but I really hadn't thought about heading up that way until earlier this week and just finalized plans to this point last night.

It won't be the same without @gyrrlfalcon but I'm in good hands.

Plans so far
Saturday afternoon target San Francisco Forktail
Saturday night run blacklight for insects

Sunday
Wide open day without solid plans so far. I do want to walk a beach at some point and look for mollusks and kelp that we don't have in SoCal.

Monday
Tidepooling (tentatively) at Seal Cove. Low tide is about the same time as sunrise.

If you would like to have a BioBlitz added to this calendar please message me through iNaturalist and make sure to include:
Location
Date(s)
Sponsoring organization
Contact information or URL to same (even better is a URL to the project page here on iNat)
Specimen collecting allowed?

I am not affiliated with any BioBlitz that appears on the calendar but would like to share the word of these events to other iNaturalist users.

Bio Quip has what is considered the top of the line blacklight for insects.
https://www.bioquip.com/Search/WebCatalog.asp?category=2900&prodtype=1
The cost was a bit higher than I wanted to spend in order to see just how interested I would be in this type of activity.

I wanted to create an inexpensive blacklight to use in my yard to see what kind of insects I could attract so I went for a stroll through WalMart and Home Depot. What I put together costs less than $20 total and gives me a workable solution. It is by no means as good as the one produced by Bio Quip, but is something that I can easily use for a fraction of the cost.

Bayco 8.5'' Clamp Light
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayco-8.5-Clamp-Light/14003467

with a 60W Equivalent Black Spiral CFL Light Bulb
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-Electric-60W-Equivalent-Black-Spiral-CFL-Light-Bulb-BPESL15T-BLB/100553168?cm_sp=BazVoice--RLP--100553168-_-x

Total cost was about $15.

Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.

So far I've attracted multiple species of moths, wasps and beetles plus other bugs. With a portable battery I took it out to the desert for the first time and it worked well there too. Some of the linked observations actually have the insect sitting on the inner rim of the light reflector.

There are some fantastic online resources for identifying the many life forms that I encounter. Here are some that are more targeted in scope and useful for a novice. My choices are slanted towards, but not limited to, California. There are others (BugGuide, Moth Photographers Group are examples) that are better suited to someone with more than a beginning knowledge of a topic. Some of the links have been provided by other iNat users so please leave a comment if you know of other fine online resources.

Guides

Herps

California Reptiles and Amphibians
http://www.californiaherps.com/info/identification.html

Shasta Co. Field Herpetological Resource Site
Look for links to specific keys on the left.
http://www.shastaherps.org/

Tadpoles of Coastal Southern California - USGC guide
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProjectSubWebPage.aspx?SubWebPageID=4&ProjectID=75

A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Coastal Southern California
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/ProjectSubWebPage.aspx?SubWebPageID=1&ProjectID=75

Reptiles and Amphibians of Arizona
http://www.reptilesofaz.org/

Spiders

Frequently Encountered Spiders in California
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~callobius/cbcstuff/common_spiders/big_spi_quilt.html

Plants

CalFlora
http://www.calflora.org/entry/wgh.html

San Diego County Plant Atlas
http://www.sdplantatlas.org/

Simplified Key to Conifer Genera of the US
American Museum of Natural History
http://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/ident_help/Text_Keys/conifer_key.htm

Leaf Key to Common Trees in Louisiana
https://www.lsuagcenter.com/NR/rdonlyres/BA8FFA18-B7CD-4D98-88FF-AF234D5F9ACD/18437/pub1669LeafKey.pdf

Wildflower Search Engines
http://www.wildflowersearch.com/
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Wildflowers

Ocean Plants

Seaweed & Kelp
Fantastic sight by Emerald Diving
http://emeralddiving.com/id_seaweeds.html

Guide to Seaweeds and Seagrasses
is focused on Netarts Bay, Oregon but is very helpful for west coast species.
http://www.netartsbaytoday.org/html/guide_to_seasweeds.html

Lady Beetles

Discover Life guide
http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Ladybug

Galls

I have a whole journal entry on just Gall identification sites
http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/finatic/2183

Flies

Zurqui All-Diptera Biodiversity Inventory
Guide to identify the most common fly families
http://phorid.net/zadbi/education/how-to-identify-flies/

Mushrooms

Key to Major Groups of Mushrooms
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/major_groups.html

Terrestrial Mollusc

Nice interactive key by University of Florida
http://idtools.org/id/mollusc/key.php?key=tmt

Sea Turtles

NOAA
http://oilspill.fsu.edu/images/pdfs/turtle-id-placard.pdf

Bees

Bumble Bees of the Western United States
http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/Western_BB_guide.pdf

Bumble Bees of the Eastern United States
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/documents/BumbleBeeGuideEast2011.pdf

Moths

Santee - San Diego County Moth
http://www.pbase.com/m3ling/santee_moths

Moths of Orange County, California
http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/lepidopt/Moths.htm

Moth Photographers Group
http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/MainMenu.shtml

BugGuide Silhouette Key to Major Moth Families
http://bugguide.net/node/view/21675

Mammals

Coyote Subspecies
Various other places on the web have the same information but I find this map and key the easiest to use.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/2/27/20130204055227!Coyote_subspecies_distribution_map.svg

Multiple Guides

Multiple Identification Keys for Florida fauna
http://www.flbenthos.org/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?usr=51H16964&rnd=875666&rrc=N&affl&cip&act&aff&pg=cat&ref=links_online_taxonomic&catstr=HOME:links

Discover Life Identification Guides
Many different guides that are useful to varying degrees.
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q

Sonoran Desert Naturalist
Wide range of flora and fauna
http://www.arizonensis.org/sonoran/fieldguide/index.html

Jim's Place
Lassen County in Northeastern California
Mountain Meadows Invertebrates
https://sites.google.com/a/calneva.org/jim-s-place/mmbinvertebrates

I've recently started researching for some gall identification sites and wanted to post some links here.

Oak Galls

California Oak Galls
This is one of the best site that I have come across so far.
http://joycegross.com/galls_ca_oak.php

Wasp Galls on California Oaks
http://www.californiaoaks.org/ExtAssets/WaspGalls_RonRussoPoster.pdf

A Field Guide to Insects and Diseases of California Oaks
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr197/psw_gtr197.pdf
Not only galls, but some other insects too.

Willow Galls

Insects on Willows
http://wanda.uef.fi/biologia/nyman/IOWgallinducers.htm

Creosote

Though there are roughly 15 species of midges and/or flies that create galls on Creosote I can only find online identifiaction for one,
Creosote Gall Midges (Asphondylia auripila)
http://www.birdandhike.com/Wildlife/Invert/Ph_Arthropoda/SubP_Hexapoda/Cl_Insecta/Diptera/Midge/Cecidomyiidae/Asphon_aur/_Asp_aur.htm

Manzanita

BugGuide
Manzanita Leaf Gall Aphid
http://bugguide.net/node/view/214155

Ceanothus

University of California
Ceanothus stem gall moth
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/INVERT/ceanothusgallmth.html
CalPhotos
Ceanothus Bud Gall Midge
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=1111+1111+2222+2263

Coyote Brush

BugGuide - Coyote Brus Stem Gall moth
http://bugguide.net/node/view/168328/bgimage
BugGuide - Coyote Brush Bud Gall Midge
http://bugguide.net/node/view/225834/bgimage

Cottonwood

Poplar Petiolegall Aphid
BugGuide
http://bugguide.net/node/view/346741/bgimage
Video
http://naturebytesvideo.com/bytes_C/cottonwood_gall.html

Multiple Plant Hosts

Plant Gall Identification
http://adventuresofawildlife.com/category/plant-gall-identification/
Click on the link to the "New Easy Reference System fo Plant Gall Identification" post for directions if needed.

A photographic guide by Michael Mitchell & Rod M Yeager, MD
Not many species, but some are on plants other than oaks.
http://www.montereywildflowers.com/Galls.php

Gall Making Insects and Mites
http://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/bspm/Gall%20Making%20Insects%20and%20Mites%20-%20Montana.pdf

Books

Ron Russo's Field Guide to Plant Galls of California and other Western States .

If you have any other sites please share them with me.

Sand Wasp

Mantid on my back patio

I was able to take a trip to St Louis and had the time to do plenty of wildlife observing while my wife worked away at a business conference. I only had one specific target for the trip, my lifer Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Other than that I decided that I would get around to different states and counties as much as possible.

One of my desires has been to list 100 bird species for each of the lower 48 states. Somewhere along the line I decided that i wanted at least one bird for each county in each state. Now my goal is one iNat observation per county per state.

The iNat gurus put out some data that showed the number of observations for each county in the US. iNat user bouteloua made some great maps that showed where I was headed had plenty of areas devoid of data in iNat.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/inaturalist/CeFQAumJAm4

Using this data I made an effort to add observations to previously untouched counties along with adding to many other counties. I was able to visit four previously "un-iNatted" counties and I also added my first observations for four states (Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee) though I must return as I am no where nowhere my goal of counties or 100 birds.

Below is a breakdown of my observations by county. I had a fantastic time and look forward to my next trip back to that area and those other counties that I have yet to visit.

I spent the day with iNat user microm who was kind enough to take me out for some plant study. I'm a real novice with plants and she was very patient with me not learning some of them the first time around. I took lots of photos and will be able to refer back to them in the future for more help. Along the way I managed to find a few birds, butterflies and even an awesome looking Ladybird Beetle larva (which sea-kangaroo identified for me as I had no clue what it was).

Thanks for a fun day microm!

Feb 28 through March 4, 2013 was the San Diego Bird Festival and I was honored to lead trips on all five days. Three of the trips were on land and two were out to sea in search of pelagic birds. While at it I managed to find a few non-bird species too.

Over the duration of the festival I led people to 173 ABA countable species plus a few more non-countable exotics.

This past weekend was dreary, drizzly and wet but didn't stop me from heading out to see what I could find. Because of the overcast and damp conditions it wasn't ideal for photography but many species were still around. I had a plan in mind but things changed as rare birds were reported from around San Diego County.

My wife and I started Saturday morning on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton at Lake O'Neill. Real fun came in watching a group of 44 American White Pelicans working together to herd fish into a mass for easy dining.

A Pectoral Sandpiper was a nice find along the shoreline first spotted my wife. It is either a continuing bird (of originally four) or a new one a bit later in migration. We ended up with 37 species of bird in less than ideal conditions.

I received both a call and text about some rare birds in the opposite direction of our next planned stop. We decided to change plans and head south to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. We were not able to find the Eastern Phoebe but did get to see (but not photograph) a Pacific Wren. Sorting through all the birds that we could find at midday let us end up with 24 species of birds. I found some mushrooms that I haven't yet been able to identify but hopefully someone here on iNaturalist will be able to help me out.

Next was back up northward to Escondido where I needed to do a bit of shopping. Canon has come out with a gps unit for my camera and I wanted it. can't wait to use it offshore and be able to exactly match photos to site! The parking lot actually had some new plants for my iNaturalist account so I snapped some quick photos and wrote up an eBird checklist since Brewer's Blackbirds were new for the day.

Sunday started out with the same dreary weather but with the promise of clearing skies later in the day. I waited until the afternoon before heading over to Lindo Lake to play with my gps attachment. 38 bird species, one mammal and some new logged plants later I was at home downloading my photos and finding out how much I like the gps information plugged into my photos.

eBird Checklist - Camp Pendleton
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11848190

eBird Checklist - Fort Rosecrans
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11848208

eBird Checklist - Escondido
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11848219

eBird Checklist - Lindo Lake
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11848233