Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
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
Two of many monarch butterflies I saw today on a walk at nearby botanical gardens. Most of them were too busy flying around to stop anywhere I could catch them on camera, but there were a few that paused long enough.
#butterflies #nature #photo #MonarchButterfly
@aciccarello Fortunately seagulls also tend to be fearless compared to other birds. Sparrows will fly away before I get close. I’ve seen a seagull wait until the last minute to move out of the way of an SUV, then fly right back down behind it.
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
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
(@artsyhonker suggests it’s a pomegranate, and @raye agrees.)
Yeah, I think that’s it. Thanks!
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
Now that I’ve had more time to look through the photos from this hike, I like this wider crop of the first #MonarchButterfly shot.
#butterflies #nature #jacaranda #photo
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
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
On Photog.Social
Skipper Close-Up (iNat)
Realized this isn’t iceplant. INat suggests it’s in the Kleinia genus, but I’m not sure beyond that.
Follow-up: The plant is Blue Chalksticks.
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
On Photog.Social
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 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.
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.
#flowers #bees #nature #photography
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. 🤦♂️
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
Finally got a picture of one of the sparrows nesting in the parking structure!
Oh. Well. So much for that idea.
One of these days….
#Fotofails
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.)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27116848
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/27116015
“No, YOU listen!”
On Photog.Social
On iNaturalist
Two days later…
I decided to make this photo my new header image [on Twitter]. It seems representative of the Twitter experience.
Final landing approach….
(Same hike as the duck photo I posted earlier today.)
On Photog.Social
On Flickr
Matilija Poppy on iNaturalist
Bee on iNaturalist
