kimberlietx's Journal

As part of my observations from Costa Rica, I've been keeping a list of firsts for any species that were not previously listed or photographed on iNat. Today I just hit 100 species!

The guest of honor is Eois fasciata.

The list is still growing daily as I keep adding observations and getting help from others with IDs. I could not have found these IDs on my own, so I want to extend a BIG thanks to @claudioflamigni for his ongoing help (not just with my observations, but so many others too!) Combining my "citizen" and his "science" is what iNaturalist is all about!

There are still 340+ unidentified and another 1500 pictures to upload, so the potential exists for so many more!

"The Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Southeastern North America" will drop March 13th! Amazon is taking pre-orders now!

This will be a great addition to my library until @gcwarbler publishes "The Peterson Field Guide to Moths of Texas"

Am I the only one waiting and waiting on my iNat calendar to load?!

I'm so used to seeing all those days marked that it took me a minute to figure out it was on 2018 now. Guess I better get cracking on some observations so I'll at least wonder why only one day is showing up. Haha!

On the last day of my trip to Corpus Christi for the Tx Master Naturalist conference, I decided I would stop by somewhere small on my way home that didn't have any observations on iNaturalist. I was barely out of town when I pulled over, googled "nature park" and came across Fred Jones Nature Sanctuary in Taft, TX. I drove past lots of farmland, and unexpectedly zipped right on by the hidden park entrance, which is little more than a wooden sign on a gate overgrown with vegetation.

I backtracked and took a quick peek, confirming boots would be required. The place was incredibly overgrown and looked uncared for. At the front was a structure with picnic tables underneath, but it was in bad disrepair. The flora was mostly new to me, so I spent as long as I wanted just wandering around, often trudging through grass growing chest high. I tried to follow what used to be walking paths, but I could only go so far with the overgrowth. I spent 20 minutes just watching the wind create waves in the grass and dragonflies chasing each other around. It was so peaceful.

I was excited to spot Allocyclosa bifurca, a spider (deep in the dark corner of the structure) that I'd never seen before. The plants I'm still trying to ID!

But the reason for the post is what I found out tonight while uploading the pics. It turns out this property was the original homestead of Fred B. Jones, amateur botanist and one of the founders of the Audubon Outdoor Club. He authored "Flora of the Texas Coastal Bend," 1977, and "Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Texas Coastal Bend Counties," 1961. He also contributed the majority of the 4600+ specimens at the Welder Wildlife Foundation herbarium.

I found a video by a young man named Tyler Neimeier. It looks ENTIRELY different in his visit from March, 2017, only 6 months earlier. I never came across the metal feeder (?) or any standing water. No boardwalks either. I probably accessed only 2 of the 9 acres it's reported to have. I suppose it's due to a combination of Hurricane Harvey and donations to the AOC. I sincerely hope it will be put back in order very soon. It's a great little place. Thank you Fred Jones!

PS. It's probably a good thing I didn't push on through the high grass. Alligators don't care whether you have boots on or not.

Today marks the end of the 2nd year of my daily addiction to iNaturalist. Last year I posted a Journal Entry (http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/kimberlietx/7073-happy-inat-iversary-to-me) and I just might do so every year to see how things have changed.

1st year:
1368 observations of 1293 different species and contributed 899 identifications.
2nd year:
2936 observations of 2802 different species and contributed 2116 identifications.

I have continued my pet project surveying the Lakewood Estates Open Space, although significantly less since we moved 45 minutes away last fall. This time last year I had posted 498 observations of 314 species, and this year I'm up to 750 observations of 426 species.

I've also started a new location closer to my home. I've nicknamed it the Clocktower Field for the large clocktower standing at the entrance. Since March I've posted 280 observations of 198 species.

That's enough of the statistics, but it's safe to say I love having my own locations to explore and document.

What has changed significantly for me this year has been the number of iNatters I've met in person. @sambiology, @suz, and @brentano have been around since the beginning, but I've gotten to know so many more of you this past year! @annikaml, @bob777, @briang, @tfandre, @tadamcochran, @greglasley, @gcwarbler, @rehb (and Shannon), @galactic_bug_man, @dfwuw, @amzapp, and @nanofishology, to name just a few that have accepted me into their #tribe. (I'm giving a little stink eye to @pfau_tarleton for being so elusive, and hoping that one day I can meet @aguilita and @mokennon, too!) But I thank you ALL for being friends and nature cohorts. BioBlitzes, the City Nature Challenge, and mothing events have been incredibly rewarding to me!

I start my 3rd year off by finishing the Master Naturalist program with the Cross Timbers Chapter, which I expect will open up even more adventures!

Thank you iNat @kueda @loarie @tiwane for helping me to find my passion and share it with others!

I'm hearing stories about how the eclipse will cause animals to have unusual behaviors. I think it might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm curious, too. I don't think my dog is going to freak out and suddenly start speaking English, but I'm sure organisms that are sensitive to light (and subtle temp) changes will have a reaction. Someone suggested the birds will sing evening calls. I'm not a birder, so I wouldn't recognize a morning call from an evening call. I'm not really sure what to expect from the species around me, so I thought I'd look into it. Turns out, I'm in good company! There is an iNat project for this exact thing!! It's called Life Responds: Total Solar Eclipse 2017, found here: http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/life-responds-total-solar-eclipse-2017

Here's a blurb from the project info:

How does life respond to the dramatic event of a total solar eclipse?

There is some evidence that plant and animal life react to the environmental changes that occur during a total solar eclipse. As the sky darkens and the temperature drops, birds reportedly stop singing, spiders may tear down their webs, and gray squirrels retreat to their dens, among other observed behaviors. Much of these reports, however, are anecdotal or documented with captive animals.

On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will cross the continental United States, from coast to coast. The Academy invites citizen scientists like you to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record eclipse-related animal behavior.

There are detailed instructions on the project page if you are interested. Despite being in an area with only 75% totality, I'll be observing my yard. I have Ruellia simplex (Mexican Petunias) in my yard, which has flowers that last only one day. I expect they will fall off during the eclipse, but I'm more curious to see if new ones open in the afternoon. Maybe my Portulaca pilosa will also rebloom. I wonder if the moths and other night creatures will respond to a UV light? Hmmm... .maybe I'll put one out. Either way, I expect to experience the eclipse, not just watch it on TV. (I won't be using glasses to look at the eclipse -- I had severe loss of vision for 30 years and paid thousands of dollars for Lasik, so the risk is not even a question.)

Will any of you be watching for nature to react during the eclipse?

The variety of moths that look like "bird droppings" (and often are named as such) can be confusing to differentiate because they are in various genera, and sometimes different families. I thought a side-by-side comparison would help to distinguish the subtle differences, so I created a link to help me do that.

www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=57484&quality_grade=research&subview=grid&taxon_ids=228634,228632,179340,204088,52094,213740,208064,425058&view=species

Note that this is for the DFW area only. You can change the area to Texas but it will not include species outside of DFW. I'll try to get a new link to cover all of Texas when I can look more at the different species.

I'd appreciate help to identify any I might have missed. Comment below and I'll update the link.

I just junk-loaded the rest of the images from Day 1 of Costa Rica. Sorry, sorry, sorry. They were always there waiting on me to load them. (I will go back and ID them, one day.) So that means I've processed 1,050 images so far. Only 5,069 left to go. I wish I was kidding. Paying my dues for photographing so many amazing creatures!

http://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/kimberlietx/2017/4/25

I'm trying so hard to get caught up on posting observations, because I know Moth Week is going to put me in a VERY deep hole. If I can just finish what I saw at my Dad's a couple weeks ago, that would be thrilling! And let's not even talk about Costa Rica. (Still on Day 1. Shame. Shame.)

Someone please hide my camera so I can catch up!! But I'll need it back Saturday night. MOTH WEEK HERE I COME!!

I'm sure everyone has at least SEEN the very common long legged green flies, and probably you've photographed them, too. It has bugged me (pun intended) that so many sit at Genus, so I finally got around to digging into why. Some seem so obvious with particular wing patterns. Long story short, you can use the wing pattern to narrow it down to a group, but to get to species you need clear pics of the bristles on the legs and possibly the coxae (the segment connecting the leg to the abdomen.) So, I'm going to take a second to go through my observations and move them all back to Genus, unless I can get a good zoom on the legs. If I've ID'ed your obsv, tag me and I'll update it, too!

Here are some links to help you ID if you decide to tackle it!

Here's the basic key from BugGuide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/42317

Different species are commonly found together, even on adjacent leaves.

Key to species groups found north of Florida and Texas, possibly unreliable for females along the Gulf Coast.
Notes: In some species wing markings are optional. When markings are present they may be faint and not continuous, reduced to darkened areas along veins. The standard U shaped wing pattern is two bands across the wing joined by a band between C and R5. A few species without wing markings may have a faint cloud near the tip of R2+3.

C1. Legs and antennae of both sexes completely black. → C2
C1'. At least part of fore or mid legs beyond coxae yellow or brown. → C4

C2. Male: usually pure blue, costal cell expanded, costa with long cilia, R1 ending distinctly past midwing, second segment of fore tarsi very short. Wing unmarked. Southeast USA, Neotropics. → C. mundus
C2'. R1 not ending past midwing, usually shorter. Wing usually with U-shaped mark. Never completely blue; sometimes with blue reflections. → C3

C3. Face with long, pale hairs. Segments 2-4 of fore tarsi similar (female) or 2-3 similar and 4 longer (male). East of Great Plains → C. patibulatus
C3'. Face bare or with dark hairs. Great Plains to Pacific → C. melampus, C. coloradensis, C. pilicornis.

C4. Antennae longer than head and thorax combined. Fore and mid tibiae with about four very long hairs. Femora of both sexes dark. → C. comatus group (comatus, crinitus, villosus)
C4'. Antennae of normal length. Femora of female usually pale. → C5

C5. Wing with U shaped marking, sometimes very faint or only present along veins → C6
C5'. Wing unmarked, occasionally with cloud near tip of R2+3 → C7

C6. Femora and tibiae of both sexes yellow. East → C. sipho group (six species)
C6'. Femora of male dark. Georgia to Arizona → C. inornatus, C. leonardi, C. quadricolor (unrelated species)

C7. Fore and mid femora of both sexes yellow. Face bare → various rare species
C7'. All femora of male dark, of female yellow or dark. Face bare or with long, white hairs → C8

C8. Tibiae yellow, hind tibia usually darkened near tip. M1 gradually curved, making approximately right angle with base of M. Face usually with pale hair. Male mid basitarsus usually with conspicuous curved bristles. Mid tibia of female with strong bristle near one third length. → C. caudatus group (s.l.)
C8'. Mid basitarsus of male with row of fine hairs. Legs black except fore tibiae of male and fore and mid tibiae of female. Hind tibia of both sexes and mid tibia of male with row of about 12 bristles. Face bare. → C. longicornis

Since we see a LOT in the C. sipho group, the key for those species is here:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/479158

Six species:

--sipho has a row of bristles on the mid tibia and not on the mid basitarsus --scaber has a row of bristles on both tibia and basitarsus, and yellow fore coxae --viridicoxa has a row of bristles on both tibia and basitarsus, and non-yellow fore coxae --brimleyi has a plain mid tibia and mid basitarsus "with a series of short, rather blunt, erect bristles toward base and many minute, erect, scale-like hairs on anterior surface" --furcatus and longitalus do not have long rows of uniformly spaced bristles

And also a diagram and description of the parts of fly legs:
http://www.giand.it/diptera/morph/?id=7&lang=en