swells's Journal
It's been cold and rainy (of course - this is Idaho in January) so there hasn't been much to see outside.
But I managed to find a some earthworms and pill woodlice under a garbage can in the yard. I've tentatively ID them to family, waiting for some help from iNat experts.
Earthworm (Lumbricidae) |
Pill woodlouse (Armadillidiidae) |
House Finch and House Finch
House Finch |
Black-capped Chickadee |
We have a woodpile that is several years old. We seldom burn wood anymore, so our wood (Western Larch mostly) is starting to rot.
This afternoon I spotted some small fungi growing on one of the split logs - a Common Bird's Nest Fugus (Crucibulum laevae), I believe.
Common Bird's Nest Fugus (Crucibulum laevae)
I found a small spider (6.5 mm) on the bedroom wall. It looks to me like it's a ground spider (Gnaphosidae) in the genus Sergiolus. Unfortunately, it lost a leg when I captured it.
Sergiolus sp.
I found this little guy on our kitchen counter. I often see them on our puzzle table, too. I wonder if they are living in the soil (maybe eating the roots) of our house plants.
Length ~ 3mm
Dark-winged Fungus Gnat (Sciardiae)
I've never been very successful IDing moss and lichen, but I thought I'd try to include them in the big year project. If anyone can help with these I'd appreciate it.
#6 Shield Lichen (Parmelia sp.
#7 Orthotrichaceae
I went out this morning to see what I could find. It was cold and foggy, and I didn't see or hear any birds. But I thought I'd at least see a squirrel that I could take a photo of for my first taxon of the year.
When I got to the backyard, I startled a hawk on the ground and it flew off to a nearby oak tree. I was only able to get one photo before it left the yard.
I wasn't sure whether it was a Cooper's or Sharp-shinned hawk, but it was quickly IDed on iNat as a sharp-shinned.
This was not only the first taxon on my big year yard list - it was also a lifer for the yard! #493
We have several of these squirrels in our yard. They are native to the eastern US, but are quite happy to live here in northern Idaho.
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Since joining iNaturalist in 2016, I've tried to document of all the wild organisms that I could find on our little quarter-acre lot. So far I've found 492 taxa with at least one iNaturalist observation.
This year I thought I'd try a big year. But instead of doing like the birders do, traveling all over the continent or world looking for birds, I will stay here - on our little lot and try to find as many wild living things as I can.
So that's what I plan to do tomorrow morning - January 1, 2023.
By the end of June, the mason bees and their predators and parasites on the old spruce stump were pretty much gone. But now it's an active place again. A crabronid wasp (Trypoxylon) is nesting in a drilled hole, as are two species of Megachilid bees. I also noticed a small black bee as it was leaving a tiny beetle(?) hole. And a cuckoo wasp was exploring the nesting sites of the new occupants. Since they were all moving a bit too fast to photograph, I captured them in vials, cooled them down, took some pictures, and released them. Hope they find their way back to the stump.
I spent a few minutes yesterday afternoon (July 4) watching Pemphredon wasps come and go to their nests in the rotting log. I suspect that by now all of the wasps have emerged from the nest where they spent the winter as prepupae. Females have mated with the waiting males, and the former are busy with their nests while the latter have gone off to die -- after the lucky ones have performed their only real function in life.
I noticed that the females seem to be returning with small prey, but they moved too fast to get a picture of them before they entered the nest. So I thought I'd try to capture one in a vial, then cool her down to take some pictures. I suspect the prey is an aphid, but I'm not sure -- so, as usual, I sent a photo into BugGuide for an ID.
