Neighbor: finds huge spider on the steps of our building, goes to get a broom to kill it from a distance, just to be on the safe side.
Me: Gets my phone up close so I can take a clear photo for #iNaturalist
Tag: iNaturalist
Crickets
This cricket hitched a ride inside on a jacket. I snapped a picture for #iNaturalist (yes, really), then started to pick up the jacket to take it back outside. It jumped onto my other hand. But it stayed there while I walked to the door and opened it with my other hand…and it jumped off as I was stepping outside.
I confused the iNaturalist identification AI with some random snapshots
I confused the #iNaturalist identification #ai with some random snapshots from a trip up into the mountains a few years back.
Normally it’s pretty good at narrowing things down to a family or genus. In this case, I was aiming for scenery and family snapshots at the time, so they weren’t exactly ideal for plant IDs even cropped.
It’s on the level of “A flock of sheep on a hill” for an empty landscape. I wanted to ask it how many giraffes were in the picture!
I haven’t been able to get out on solo walks the last couple of days, …
I haven’t been able to get out on solo walks the last couple of days, but managed to get out with the kid while he biked around the neighborhood so I was able to get a few shots for the Socially Distant BioBlitz on #iNaturalist
Unfortunately my bike needs a ton of work right now, so I was walking/running behind him while wearing a mask and trying to pause to take photos of birds and plants when he wasn’t looking disapprovingly at how slow I was moving on my feet compared to his wheels. 🤷♂️
Before iNaturalist: “Wow, that yard is completely overrun with weeds!” After iNaturalist…
Before #iNaturalist: “Wow, that yard is completely overrun with weeds!”
After iNaturalist: “Wow, that yard is completely overrun with stork’s-bills and mallows! And a bunch of barley over there by the edge…Ooh, what are those tiny yellow flowers…?”
#nature
A dove spotted this morning.
A dove spotted this morning. I just walked around the neighborhood and most of the birds I spotted were on cables like this.
Might be a mourning dove, turtle dove, or collared dove. If you happen to know, feel free to chime in at #iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/40535563
Fluffy birb. (A sparrow spotted on top of a light pole)
Fluffy #birb.
(A #sparrow spotted on top of a light pole. I could *hear* it easily enough, but it took a while to spot it – and once I did, I was glad I had the zoom camera with me.)
Hi, I’m Kelson (he/him), a hobbyist photographer in the Los Angeles area. I tend to …
Hi, I’m Kelson (he/him), a hobbyist photographer in the Los Angeles area. I tend to shoot #cityscapes, #landscapes & #nature, and occasionally cosplay. Lately I’ve been taking a lot of nature photos for #iNaturalist and posting some of the better ones here & on Flickr (https://flickr.com/kelsonv).
I also have a general account on Wandering Shop (@KelsonV) & more casual photos on Pixelfed (@KelsonV).
#introductions #photography
Anyone know what species of hummingbird this is?
Anyone know what species of #hummingbird this is? Please let me know here or directly on the iNaturalist entry
Thanks!
iNat users suggest it’s an Allen’s Hummingbird.
My 1000th observation posted to iNaturalist!
My 1000th observation posted to #iNaturalist!
Normally I have to take photos of doves with a zoom lens, but this one was just calmly sitting in a tree, making its “Ooh-Ooh” call. It didn’t even fly off when I walked around the tree to get a better angle with my phone.
Most likely a Eurasian Collared Dove, one of several types I’ve seen around the Los Angeles area.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32186561
…I’ve kind of slowed down a bit since I’ve identified all the weeds and butterflies and birds in this part of the city, so I have to go farther out to find something new. But I’m also still going through my backlog of old photos.
A few of the *real* animals that I spotted on my hike in the botanical gardens
A few of the *real* animals that I spotted on my hike in the botanical gardens today: a #MonarchButterfly, a #BlackPhoebe, a #hummingbird and a #rabbit.
#animals #birds #butterflies #nature #inaturalist
On PixelFed.Social
Monarch on iNaturalist and Flickr
Black Phoebe on iNaturalist and Flickr
Hummingbird on iNaturalist and Flickr
Desert Cottontail on iNaturalist and Flickr
Weird bug
Weird bug I saw today. Looked like a moth as it flew past me, looks like a pair of twigs on the wall.
#iNaturalist suggests it *is* a kind of moth, possibly a plume moth of some sort. I don’t think I’ve seen a moth whose wings roll up forward before.
I had to be somewhere near the coast this morning, so I figured I’d take …
I had to be somewhere near the coast this morning, so I figured I’d take 10 minutes to look for seagulls for #iNaturalist. I found a lot of them, but they were mostly hanging out on the beach, not flying around. Still, that’s plenty for observation purposes, and I did manage to catch this shot too!
#birds #seagull #photo #beach #ocean #wave
Literally confusing hawks and doves.
Usually #iNaturalist’s AI is pretty good at narrowing down to a genus, but sometimes it can get confused. Like this #pigeon sitting on a silk floss tree branch. It was “pretty sure” it was a *hawk*.
Um, nope!
I can sort of see that with the first image, but the second one makes it blindingly obvious!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30408488
@KelsonV I just realized it’s literally confusing hawks and doves.
Pin-Tailed Whydahs
I spotted the bird with the long tail flying around and thought at first that it was carrying something. Eventually it settled on this cable and I saw the other one which was clearly the same species, despite the shorter tail. Male/female pair? Older male/younger male?
They appear to be pin-tailed wydahs, which have been introduced to southern California. There’s a cluster of observations on iNaturalist in the LA area.
On PixelFed.Social
Female on iNaturalist
Male on iNaturalist
The squawking of the feral parakeets
Sometimes I’ll hear the squawking of the feral parakeets that live in town as they fly past. Usually I don’t have a camera with me, but one time I managed to catch four of them flying (not very detailed, as you can see), and once I managed to catch one that had stopped in a palm tree long enough for me to use the zoom lens.
#birds #parakeets #FeralParakeets #parrots #nature #FeralParrots
I heard the squawking and went for my camera, but this is the best I could get. Still, you can at least see the green color and a bit of the red on one of their heads.
After they flew on, I saw a few others diving out of palm trees and wheeling back up in the direction they’d come from.
I’ve seen and heard the feral parakeets before, and managed to get some decent pictures a few weeks ago. I can’t be certain these are the same parakeet species as that one, but it seems likely since they’re introduced.
Previous observation of mitred parakeet: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26590485
TODO: Combine with this post and others.
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
American Wigeon
Finding animals I didn’t know about in my old photos: This duck might be a wigeon, which is a type of bird I’d never heard of before, but appears to be relatively common.
#ducks #birds #iNaturalist #wigeon
Really starting to feel like #iNaturalist is Pokemon Go for plants and real animals…
Really starting to feel like #iNaturalist is Pokemon Go for plants and real animals…
I saw a lot of butterflies at Madrona Marsh over the weekend…
Photo taken at: Madrona Marsh Preserve and Nature Center
I saw a lot of #butterflies at #MadronaMarsh over the weekend, including some pale yellow ones and some black ones and even a few monarchs, plus a lot of these white and orange ones. #iNaturalist narrows them down to the Pontia & Hylephila genuses (geni?). #nature
According to biophilic1 on iNaturalist, these are a Checkered White and a Fiery Skipper.