Animal Log of your native fauna

[bmathison1972]

I think interesting plant records are fine!

[Advicot]

Oh and I forgot I saw the escaped Harris Hawk today, who has been in the area for a couple of days now, it was being mobbed by crows, no surprise 

Thanks Blaine, I agree

[Advicot]

I was doing the 3 mile cross country today in school, and I saw:

2 Grey herons (Ardea cinerea)  whom were building a nest
1st Eurasian nuthatch (Sitta europaea) of 2021
8 Eurasian blackbirds (Turdus merula)
Mr and Mrs Busybody, they are goosanders (Mergus merganser) 
17 Common woodpigeons (Columba palumbus)
6 European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) first rabbits of the year

And easily over 100 homo sapiens   

[bmathison1972]

Got my taxes done today and it was close to Liberty Park, so I strolled down to see what birdies I could find, in addition to the usual fox squirrels. I saw:

domestic/feral goose
Canada goose
mallard
ring-necked duck [new species for me]
hooded merganser
California gull
American coot
common raven
black-capped chickadee
red-breasted nuthatch [new species for me]
American robin
European starling
rock dove

[JimoAi]

Stuck at home with my red eared slider

[Isidro]

We all saw the butterfly flirts, when both sexes engage in an aerial ballet flying very close to each other during long time, and usually separating away without mating after various minutes.
Well, so, yesterday I saw a flirt of small cabbage whites or green-veined whites (Pieris rapae or P. napi, undistinguishable in flight) while I was on a bridge over train rails, so I spot them from very far distance. The noteworthy thing is that they was FOUR!!! Four white dots doing it's aerial ballet... I suppose one receptive female and three lustful males...

[Isidro]

Today insect life start to become more apparent. Really, more late this year than others. Saw the first red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) of the year, a honeybee (Apis mellifera), three carpenter bees (Xylocopa violacea) and a drone fly (Eristalis tenax), and being the calla lilies in full bloom now, I looked inside and found what one expect to find always inside a calla lily: some Oxythyrea funesta beetles (first of the year, and... I noticed I saw none during whole 2020!)

Edit: I forgot to mention that I heard a mistle thrush rattling (instead the usual singing). I followed the way of the sound until I saw the bird, resting in the branches of a plane tree near my street. Instantly I saw also why he was rattling. A magpie was resting about a meter of distance, looking at him.
And: Today I had a really heavy infestation of carpet beetles (Anthrenus verbasci) in my room :-( I kill everyone I see. These critters eat my unvaluable feather collection and any other preserved specimen of nature-thing I have.

Edit 2: I see now that this is my 1000 post in the forum!!! Yay!!!

[bmathison1972]

I went to the Salt Lake Cemetery today. Someone has been posting regular sightings of a great horned owl. I found it! An adult and chick in the nest!! I also found a tree where western screech owls are nesting, but the owls weren't visible. This is what I saw:

BIRDS:
1. turkey vulture
2. great-horned owl
3. American robin
4. European starling
5. Woodhouse's scrub jab
6. juniper titmouse [new species for me!]
7. black-capped chickadee
8. house finch
9. downy woodpecker
10. northern flicker
11. black-billed magpie
12. red-breasted nuthatch

MAMMALS:
1. coyote
2. fox squirrel

[Isidro]

Yesterday the first gecko of the year... Twice. Both are very young, first one without tail, the latter one found at night in the middle of the street, rescued and put safe in the inner terrace of my neighbourhod.
Also first mayfly of the year, a subimago of Ecdyonurus venosus.
And a white stork soaring in circles not very high above me while going to work.

[JimoAi]

  spotted this fella while buying the new spongebob happy meal toys from McDonald's. Anyone knows the species? Found in Singapore

[bmathison1972]

Today finishing up my run I documented a hairy woodpecker (new species for me). The ID is tentative, but it looks noticeably larger than the downy woodpeckers I have been seeing lately. It was banging on a telephone pole in my neighborhood.

[Isidro]

Today was a quite interesting day, I went to gardening in my parents garden and saw the spring insect activity at full. I saw:

-Three species of jumping spiders (Evarcha arcuata, a fat female Icius hamatus, and a small Heliophanus that I don't dare to try to identify). A young Philodromus spider running quickly in the soil, and a Napoleon crab spider (Synema globosum) under a daisy.
-The two usual species of woodlice under a stone, Porcellionides pruinosus (many) and Armadillidium vulgare (only one).
-Two red admirals (Vanessa atalanta) very attached to territory. Most of time dedicated to sunbathing and resting, but also one sucking my lilac until a honeybee disturbed it. Once, the two individuals almost meet (one was resting on a calla lily leaf and the other was about land in the same leaf, but finally didn't).
-Two moths, Autographa gamma (first of the year) and the micromoth Plutella xylostella
-The hoverfly freenzy was the most notable thing of today. Drone flies (Eristalis tenax) resting at sunny spots (soil or leaves), a Myathropa florea sunbathing on calla lily leaves during no more than few seconds each time, at my peony just opened today a marmalade hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) and Eupeodes corollae at same time, while my Crassula multicava that is covered in bloom was visited by several Syritta pipiens.
-Out of hoverflies, the only other fly was the conspicuos bluebottle flies (Calliphora vicina), the dozens of Dilophus, and the first cranefly of the year, Tipula cf. paludosa.
-In the calla lilies the usual beetles Oxythyrea funesta and some carpet beetles Anthrenus verbasci. But a less common beetle appeared: Chrysolina bankii feeding of my mint. I thin that it was one of the individuals that I caught last autumn in my work place and released in my garden on this foodplant that I know they like.
-Hymenopterans was very busy too. Honeybees, red mason bees (Osmia rufa), a bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) (first of the year and by size and time, I think a queen), the usual carpenter bees (Xylocopa violacea), two German wasps (Vespula germanica) (worker and queen, the queen investigated exhaustively first my father, after me, and after the wall behind us), and the usual ants Crematogaster scutellaris, a solitary worked Aphaenogaster senilis, and the etern bad plague of Tapinoma nigerrimum.
-Besides arthropods, also found the usual mollusks, some Cornu aspersum, some Lehmannia valentiana slugs, one Xerotricha conspurcata and some Rumina decollata.
-Out of my garden, was noteworthy an Egyptian locust in the wall of a school.
-Also, the usual urban birds (strangely, no magpies today!!!!), and common bats (flying unusually high). First blackbirds of the year (two males) in two nearby parks.

[bmathison1972]

In Arizona this weekend for baseball on my birthday, and I birded this morning at Tempe Town Lake. These are what I documented; those with an asterisk (*) are new species for me (although being from Tempe, I may have seen these just never knew it or remembered):

1. mallard
2. ring-necked duck
3. pied-pilled grebe*
4. western grebe*
5. rock pigeon
6. Eurasian collared dove
7. mourning dove
8. Anna's hummingbird*
9. American coot
10. killdeer
11. double-crested cormorant
12. great blue heron
13. great egret
14. snowy egret*
15. green heron*
16. osprey
17. bald eagle
18. cliff swallow
19. northern mockingbird
20. house sparrow
21. house finch
22. white-crowned sparrow*
23. Abert's towhee
24. great-tailed grackle
25. yellow-rumped warbler*

[bmathison1972]

....and across from my hotel is the Hayden Butte Preserve. Just took a short walk and saw:

1. rock dove
2. Inca dove
3. Anna's hummingbird
4. Say's phoebe*
5. ash-throated flycatcher*
6. curve-billed thrasher
7. verdin*
8. cactus wren
9. northern mockingbird (chasing away a large ground squirrel, Spermophilus species)
10. great-tailed grackle
11. house finch

[bmathison1972]

Today, my last birding day in Arizona, went up to Sunflower/Bushnell Tanks. I documented these (asterisk, * new for me):

1. Gambel's quail
2. mourning dove
3. turkey vulture
4. zone-tailed hawk*
5. Gila woodpecker
6. American kestrel
7. ash-throated flycatcher
8. Bell's vireo* [tentative ID]
9. Woodhouse's scrub jay
10. common raven
11. violet-green swallow*
12. brown creeper
13. crissal thrasher*
14. yellow-rumped warbler

mammals included javelina (sound/smell only) and feral horses

[Gwangi]

You're really piling on those lifers, good going. Would love to see a wild javelina.

[Isidro]

Today two goldfinches! Always a pleasure to see! But most important: first bee-eater of the year!!! And not only heard, but also seen!! It flied enough low for very vaguely appreciate the colours instead a minuscle black dot in the sky.

[Isidro]

Three species were "first of the year", seen today in my garden:
-The introduced assasin bug Zelus renardii
-The fly Scathophaga stercoraria
-Hummingbird hawk moth, Macroglossum stellatarum

[Gwangi]

Visited my local beach the other day. I regrettably did not bring binoculars so I was not able to ID most of what I saw. That said, any day with a cetacean sighting is worth reporting, so here it is.

Double-crested cormorants
Herring gulls
Laughing gulls
Wild (feral) horses
Bottlenose dolphins

[bmathison1972]

Walked up City Creek Canyon today. The only mammal I saw was fox squirrel. Here are the birds:

Canada goose
mallard
red-tailed hawk
acorn woodpecker
downy woodpecker
Eurasian collared dove
mourning dove
black-billed magpie
common raven
ruby-crowned kinglet
Townsend's solitaire
European starling
American robin
cedar waxwing
house sparrow
house finch
lesser goldfinch
American goldfinch*
song sparrow
spotted towhee

*technically the American goldfinch is new for me, although I am sure I have unknowingly seen it mixed among lesser goldfinches. I don't definitively identify finches unless there is a male with distinctive features to confirm the ID.