I don’t think there’s *quite* enough detail on the seagull here to identify the species!

I found this while looking for old pictures to submit to iNaturalist. I don’t think there’s *quite* enough detail on the seagull here to identify the species!

The ship, incidentally, is the Queen Mary, launched in the 1930s as a transatlantic liner. It’s been permanently docked in Long Beach, California for several decades and is now run as a hotel.

#FotoFails #Seagull #ship #QueenMary #California

Queen Mary (ship) and Blurry Seagull.

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Follow-up regarding the dome

Discarded seed pod. A dried-out fig, maybe? It was under an olive tree, but…

Discarded seed pod. A dried-out fig, maybe? It was under an olive tree, but it’s definitely not an olive!

Best guess: a squirrel or something grabbed it from another yard and didn’t finish it before scurrying off.

#photo #plants #nature #SeedPod #ground #shadow

Discarded seed pod. A dried-out fig, maybe? It was under an olive tree, but it's ...

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(@artsyhonker suggests it’s a pomegranate, and @raye agrees.)

Yeah, I think that’s it. Thanks!

Managed to identify the not-iceplant

Managed to identify the not-iceplant. It’s Blue Chalksticks, or Blue Chalk Stick. Either way, it’s remarkably descriptive.

Posted it to iNat even though it’s cultivated landscaping in hopes that the info will help both the AI and human identifiers.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28958782

#photo #plants #succulents #flowers #nature

Closeup of tight spindly flowers.

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Please use iNaturalist responsibly

WARNING: Use of #iNaturalist may lead you to do things like following wasps around with a camera instead of backing away slowly and looking for the nest.

Please use iNaturalist responsibly.

(That said, the wasps showed no signs of aggression and I got some decent photos!)

#nature #wasps #insects #photo

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28636143

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One photo on Flickr
On iNaturalist

Two crops of the same photo taken on a quick walk around the block…

Two crops of the same photo taken on a quick walk around the block. I really like the landscape crop showing the fiery skipper as it flies from one flower to the next…but after I cropped it, I noticed the bee also flying in the foreground of the original, and I just had to find a way to keep them both in the frame and still draw attention to them.

#nature #butterflies #bees #photo

An orange butterfly flying over iceplant flowers.

An orange butterfly and a bee flying over iceplant flowers.

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Skipper Close-Up (iNat)

Realized this isn’t iceplant. INat suggests it’s in the Kleinia genus, but I’m not sure beyond that.

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Follow-up: The plant is Blue Chalksticks.

I’ve been spotting monarchs lately, but haven’t caught any photos until today!

I’ve been spotting monarchs lately, but haven’t caught any photos until today!

The first #MonarchButterfly paused up in a tree. I was surprised I could get a clear shot.

The second monarch is injured. I couldn’t see that its wing was torn, but I could tell it was hurt by the way it was flapping its wings on the ground, trying and failing to fly. It did eventually take off, but it landed again soon after.

Bonus: a #MourningCloak from farther down the trail.

#butterflies #photography #nature

An orange and black butterfly perched on a twig.

An orange and black butterfly on the ground, with a torn wing.

A black or dark-brown butterfly with a white edge on its wings, perched on a leaf.

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Perching Monarch on iNaturalist
Injured Monarch on iNaturalist
Mourning Cloak on iNaturalist

Found that if you accidentally leave location data on when you don’t want to save …

Found that if you accidentally leave location data on when you don’t want to save it, you can’t remove it using Google Photos. You can hide it from GP, but the geotag is still in the file.

On a Mac, though, Preview will let you view image metadata and delete just the GPS, so you don’t need to mess with a full photo editor or ExifTool.

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Expanded on Tech Tips

Final Landing Approach! Another shot from the hike at the marsh preserve earlier this month….

Final Landing Approach!

Another shot from the hike at the marsh preserve earlier this month.

The flowers, apparently Matilija Poppies, had huge, flat white petals with these large yellow centers. They looked like fried eggs.

Flower observation.

More photos from the hike

#flowers #bees #nature #photography

A bee approaches the yellow puff-ball center of a large, white-petaled flower.

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Oops… I realized I’ve already posted this one here. Well, I added more info this time, so at least it’s not a completely duplicate post. 🤦‍♂️

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This squirrel bounded along a wall carrying a walnut in its mouth…

This squirrel bounded along a wall carrying a walnut in its mouth as I walked down the sidewalk. It stopped and looked at me as if it had been caught in the act of walnut burglary. I had enough time to snap a couple of pictures with my phone *and* pull out my camera for a better shot before it scampered away.

#nature #photography #squirrel

Squirrel with a walnut in its mouth.

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On K2R

On iNaturalist

Western Bluebirds spotted on a hike at the nearby marsh preserve over the weekend.

Western #Bluebirds spotted on a hike at the nearby marsh preserve over the weekend. This was before my camera battery ran out of power and I was stuck finishing out the hike with my phone. (I still can’t believe I forgot to bring the spare.)

#photography #nature #birds

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27116848

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27116015

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Uploaded a handful of bird photos ranging 2004-2015.

Uploaded a handful of #bird #photos ranging 2004-2015.

I imagine this #seagull reading the “No fishing” sign and being very disappointed.

An #egret wading in a marsh.

And another egret (I thought it was a crane at the time, but 3 people have IDed it as an egret) that I caught walking by the side of the road.

Funny thing is: I didn’t use the Flickr-to-#iNaturalist importer for these. On Flickr I posted the full, composed shots. For iNat, I wanted to crop them to show the birds more clearly.

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Confirmed that iNaturalist is totally fine with uploading older observations…

Confirmed that iNaturalist is totally fine with uploading older observations.

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/can-i-upload-older-photos-as-observations/3259/3

Tried out the Flickr importer. It’s a bit rough for selecting, but it imports the description, time & location along with the photo, and you can import batches at a time.

I don’t want to totally flood my profile, but I’ve got a lot of timestamped photos of animals & plants since I bought my first digital camera…

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@AskChip I can totally imagine that changes in atmospheric composition and temperature could impact the …

@AskChip I can totally imagine that changes in atmospheric composition and temperature could impact the frequency of the right types of ice crystals forming.

I also seem to recall reading that noctilucent clouds were either increasing in frequency or starting to appear at lower latitudes over the last decade or so.

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