Nymphs of the Mangrove Jewel Bug (Calliphara nobilis) spotted at the mangrove area of Admiralty Park, Singapore, on 2 June 2024. They look very different when in adult form, but both forms are equally shiny and pretty.
Round-leaf Sundew. It still astonishes me that we have wild carnivorous plants in Canada. I would have assumed they would be some weird isolated island.
Orchis pyramidalis. The first two pictures are from yesterday, in Germany, close to where I live. The other two pictures are from two months ago, in Crete. I find it interesting how different the same species can look. #wildorchids#inaturalist#wildflowers@wildorchids
A Bark Spider, Caerostris sumatrana, spotted on the railing at Lornie Nature Corridor, Singapore, on 12 May 2024. A tiny but 'cool' looking spider. From a distance, it looked like a piece of poop. 🙂
#MiteMonday: I think I got a "lifer" family! This flattened, rough-textured, skinny-legged mite seems to belong to the Smarididae, a family closely related to the Erythraeidae.
Here's a collage of 40 of the species of orchid we found on Crete during the first week of April, 2024. Almost all of them were new to me. It took me until now to sort through pictures - we found even more species, but some were not in bloom yet and for some our pictures are not good enough to determine species with certainty. But these are the 40 with at least one good enough picture 😀 #inaturalist#wildorchids#wildflowers@wildorchids
One of my more successful attempts at taking mid-air shots of a male White-cheeked Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa aestuans) at Bukit Gombak Park, Singapore, on 14 Oct 2023. It was patrolling its territory and would return to hover at the same area, so it was a matter of pre-focusing on a spot and hope for the best. These turned out okay.
A juvenile Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) spotted at Bukit Gombak Park, Singapore, on 7 Oct 2023. This one is just becoming an adult, judging from the initial dark blue band found on the feathers on its back.
Just moved here from mastodon.green, so I'll start with an #introduction
My name is pronounced like lee with an s.
I'm a hermit living in the Spanish countryside with fellow hermit and husband @jpoesen, 3 dogs, 3 cats, a number of solitary wasps (I don't have the heart to remove their constructions) and a few adventurous snails that spend the summer months attached to our ceilings.
I love all things nature and I'll drop anything (including conversations) to look at an plant or critter. My specific interests vary and I'm eager to learn about anything.
Other things I'm passionate about include
education, science, reading and photography.
When I'm not outside or working I like to binge watch tv series or play PS4 games.
Ophrys incubacea, on April 25th, 2024 in Premantura, Croatia. They look similar to sphegodes but are easily distinguished by the long scruffy hair. Which made me immediately fall in love with them, they looked like they just hatched to me! They also appear rather dark, giving them the German name "Schwarze Ragwurz" or "black bee orchid"!
Go out in a field and walk it and start to pay attention to the ground beneath your feet.
Pay attention to basically every plant until you learn to tell the plants apart.
Take pictures. Use #inaturalist. Be systematic. Don't say "that is grass": what kind of grass? Is it different from this other grass two feet away? How would you tell?
Then after you've done that… repeat the process over the same area. Looking again at what you missed.
Ophrys bertolinii on April 25th, 2024, on Cape Kamenjak. It's one of my instant favorite ophrys species - somehow these flowers manage to have a small metallic looking shield 😮
I've delayed long enough -- let's talk about the City Nature Challenge!
It's a global citizen science competition between cities, vying to observe the most species in one weekend. Observations are made via the #iNaturalist app or website.
It starts this weekend, April 26-29, 2024. You have until May 5th to upload all of your observations and try to get them identified.
If your city or region is participating, that's pretty much all you have to do!
I recommend on just getting outside this weekend and taking as many photos you can of all the wild organisms you can -- plants, birds, lizards, bugs, whatever -- as long as it's truly wild (not captive or cultivated by humans).
Then you've got a week to upload the photos to #iNaturalist, which should give you plenty of time.
A Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis vulgaris) spotted at Pasir Ris Park, Singapore, on 21 April 2024. It was quite relaxed and didn't move when I had to walk past it to get into position to take this shot.
Fantastic spidering today in High Park. Lots of jumping spiders!
The flea jumpers (Naphrys pulex) were out in force.
2 & 3. The other day down by the lake I saw a small, flattened jumper that I thought at the time was Tutelina harti but it turned out to be a totally new-to-me genus, Admestina! And today I found a pine tree stump that was just covered with them—mostly tiny spiderlings but also some slightly larger ones.
On the same stump I also saw two Attidops youngi (sadly, only got photos of one), a handsome species I've seen only once before and has only a handful of observations on #iNaturalist! https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/207442822 :inaturalist: