Diario de whateverwatcher

I get to see things sometimes in a way that makes me really wonder.

That 'little orange moth' I noticed from a distance

• It turned out to be a wheel bug nymph molting, and I got to watch the molt!

A flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye

• I was in just the right place and looked at just the right time to see my 1st marbled orbweaver.

Why was I there? It seems like something beyond mere luck. Everyone has their own belief system through which they process such events.
For me, I feel that I was granted a special grace to see and to bear witness to these wonders. And I am grateful.

Went for a walk with friends yesterday at a park which was new to me. Funny how the 1st time I go anywhere, I just don't see much wildlife. (Hear, yes - see, no!) I think it takes time for me to get acclimated to the place and really start to see.
One of my friends was fascinated with the fungi, so I ended up taking a lot of pictures. I also saw some neat mosses. With the tree leaves down, the sunlight is able to reach the ground. Life is exploding with urgency, no doubt well aware of the coming winter.
On posting the pictures, I found out how complicated fungi are, and how little I know about them!
There is so much to learn, and it's challenging because I am interested in everything. I can only hope that the community will be kind, and that I will be granted time on this side of the grass to learn.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2020-11-08&d2=2020-11-08&place_id=any&subview=table&user_id=whateverwatcher&iconic_taxa=Fungi,Plantae

The silence is deafening. The drone of insects, the wind blowing through the leaves... the sound track of summer, now so deeply diminished. The trees are quickly becoming bare, the flowers are gone and with them many of the insects, and many birds have headed south. Even the small birds picking at the remaining insects and berries are quieter than before.

The loss of greenery reveals the mess we humans leave behind. This is just not my favorite time of year. It's not winter yet, not for quite a while. But the change is startling, and I miss the abundance of summer.

There is life here still. The woodpeckers continue to call, and their antics are pure pleasure. Below the leaves and soil and under the bark, new little creatures are preparing for their premiere next year. Not so little ones are hunkering down against the chilly nights and the bitter cold to come. And then there are the less animated life forms - ground cover, mosses, and fungi. Even when winter comes, it's amazing how quickly small plants will spring up during any warm periods.

So I need to work on my attitude and try to learn about the things that I can see now. I'm glad that I have a big backlog of pictures, though, and I really appreciate inaturalist. I can visit summertime in my files and continue to post and learn.

We all need our observations identified or confirmed

All of us. So I try to spend some time on IDs. Hey - I'm asking y'all to spend time on mine.

When you explore - do you filter by Category?

I sure click on the bird, insect, etc. There are things I know more about. Or perhaps, things I know less about :)
Most people probably do.

Ever click that one with the question mark - the 'Unknown Species'?

So what happens to these entries, if we're all clicking on the bird/etc.? Not much most of the time, I suspect.

Making an Impact

I got thinking (dangerous!): How much am I contributing if I only identify the things that everyone knows about? Well, it needs to be done.
But - what if I can at least move some of the question marks into a category that people will actually look at? Or maybe - maybe - identify a thing or 2?

Discoveries

Those Unidentified?

• Some are from budding young naturalists! Helping them with IDs might encourage their interest. I can hope.
• Some seem to be from folks visiting nature centers, where they were probably invited to use inaturalist. A lot of them will never touch it again. But some could get hooked, especially if they get to learn more about what they saw.
• There are a lot of plants and fungi in this category! Things that can fly or walk are clearly the more familiar life forms.

I labelled a lot of fungi 'Fungi". (They are a mystery to me.) But, yes, I pushed some IDs forward a little. Hey, I could even be a little wrong. But now they may catch someone's attention :)