Animal Log of your native fauna

[Isidro]

Today first night-heron of the year. At last many swifts in the air.

I discovered that in the double glass of one of the viewing pannels of the doors of my workplace there is a hole by an impact. Insetcs enter the double glass attracted to light though the hole, and can't exit since still there is another glass. Inside there were dead insects, mainly chironomids and psychodids but also two moths: one Caradrina and one Actenia brunnealis, and... an small antlion!

[bmathison1972]

Birding Day!!!

First, went down to Decker Lake. This is what I saw; 9 lifers for me (marked with an asterisk), although I am researching a possible 10th:

Canada goose
cinnamon teal*
mallard
northern shoveler*
American coot
gadwall*
eared grebe
rock dove
Eurasian collared dove
American avocet*
killdeer
ring-billed gull
California gull
double-crested cormorant
American white pelican
western kingbird*
black-billed magpie
barn swallow
marsh wren* (audible only)
European starling
American robin
house sparrow
vesper sparrow*
Savannah sparrow*
song sparrow
yellow-headed blackbird*
red-winged blackbird
Brewer's blackbird
great-tailed grackle

Afterwards, I walked over to the next leg of the Jordan River Parkway (just south of where I was last weekend), since it was only about half a mile away. I documented these species. There are four additional lifers (*), not including lifers from the lake, above. There is a possible 5th lifer I am still researching.

Canada goose (with chicks)
cinnamon teal
gadwall
mallard
lesser scaup*
ruddy duck*
eared grebe
rock dove
Eurasian collared dove
mourning dove
American coot (chick present)
American avocet
killdeer
Caspian tern*
great blue heron
downy woodpecker
American kestrel
black-billed magpie
bank swallow*
barn swallow
European starling
American robin
house sparrow
white-crowned sparrow
red-winged blackbird

[Lanthanotus]

Nothing too special (at least for Germany), but full two months after the emerge of the first Podarcis muralis eventually the
sand lizards Lacerta agilis made it out of their wintering grounds... can you spot the female?

[Isidro]

I'm unable to find it in the first photo. Even looking at the second photo for translate the reference objects (dead leaves) to the exact point of the first photo where it should be located the lizard, even then I don't see it.

Today I passed few minutes by the side of my local river, I saw a splendid Little Egret flying enough close to seein the yellow feet and black legs. Also a flock of Tree Sparrows almost concealed in the grass.

[Lanthanotus]

Yeah, sorry, it is almost impossible to find, though I alread enlarged it a bit... here`s a bigger one

upload photo


This reminds me of a picture I made several years ago of a gras frog Rana temporaria in plain view on top of some oak leaves. Despite I made the shot myself and feel somewhat
trained in spotting these creatures each timr I took a look at the photo I had to search the frog. Shame I do not have that pic anymore.

No new birds here on my side... waiting for the arrival of wryneck and hoopoe, both would be lifers for me, though I am pretty sure I saw a hoopoe before few years ago, but just on the corner of an eye.

[bmathison1972]

I was lucky to see a hoopoe when I lived in the Czech Republic in the late 1990s

[JimoAi]

Spotted a dead Duttaphrynus melanostictus on my way home

[bmathison1972]

on my long run today, I documented a lifer, the chipping sparrow!

[bmathison1972]

Returned to my local stomping grounds of City Creek Canyon, but walked farther up (9-10 miles, round trip).

Here is what I saw:

BIRDS (four lifers, marked with an asterisk*)
mallard
California quail
wild turkey
mourning dove
Eurasian collared dove
downy woodpecker
Steller's jay*
Woodhouse's scrub jay
common raven
American dipper
black-capped chickadee
plumbeus vireo*
Townsend's solitaire
American robin
house sparrow
song sparrow
fox sparrow*
spotted towhee
Virginia's warbler*

MAMMALS:
mule deer
fox squirrel

BUTTERFLIES:
western tiger swallowtail

[bmathison1972]

Today I took PTO (because I have so much building up) and headed back to Decker Lake for birding. Documented 33 species, four of which (marked with *) are lifers for me:

Canada goose
mallard
gadwall
eared grebe
rock dove
Eurasian collared dove
mourning dove
American coot
black-necked stilt*
American avocet
killdeer
long-billed dowitcher*
ring-billed gull
California gull
Caspian tern
double-crested cormorant
American white pelican
great blue heron
western kingbird
black-billed magpie
common raven
northern rough-winged swallow
barn swallow
European starling
house sparrow
American pipit*
house finch
yellow-headed blackbird
Brewer's blackbird
red-winged blackbird
brown-headed cowbird*
song sparrow
great-tailed grackle

[Isidro]

Yesterday I saw a Cryptocephalus rugicollis. Being the most common of the Cryptocephalus in my zone, always neglected by me when I was young, but I realized that I didn't saw one since 2017!!! One more of the thousands of examples of insects that were common once and are becoming more and more scarce :-( Really the Sixth Extinction done by mankind is being worst than any of the 5 previous ones!

Also common stuff, the most noteworthy would be maybe a great tit in my garden, and I've heard a barn swallow (also very rarified in my city where it was very common before)

[Isidro]

Yesterday it appeared the flea beetle Podagrica fuscicornis in my workplace.
Also, I hear often a scops owl that everyday in summer comes to certain park near my home. This year I've heard it already some days. But yesterday the surprise was hearing TWO of them at the same park. I hope they will form a couple

Sadly it was also a bad day, my last pearl-spotted gourami died.

[Isidro]

Some noteworthy things:

-Heard vaguely a bee-eater. I was unable to spot it.
-Saw first house martins of the year. Swifts and barn swallows too. And a great tit.
-First Tenthredo vespa (sawfly) since 2008!!
-Ostracods (Cypridopsis vidua) are at last at full activity in my pond. For first time I also saw here some copepods!
-Newborn nymphs of Mesovelia vittigera inhabit the surface of the pond! I introduced them accidentally in it at last summer, when I caught some duckweed and foxtail from the nearer river.
-New FAMILY for me!!!! A fly Scenopinus fenestralis in the window of my own home!!!

[bmathison1972]

Normally I do my long run on Saturday and bird on Sunday, but today is Global Big Day on eBird, so I went birding today and will run tomorrow. Today I went up and down a 4-mile stretch of the Jordan River Parkway. Documented 24 species, 3 of which are lifers (marked with *):

Canada goose
mallard
eared grebe
rock dove
Eurasian collared dove
morning dove
black-chinned hummingbird*
killdeer
spotted sandpiper*
double-crested cormorant
belted kingfisher
western kingbird
black-billed magpie
northern rough-winged swallow
cliff swallow
barn swallow
ruby-crowned kinglet
American robin
European starling
house sparrow
house finch
lark sparrow*
song sparrow
red-winged blackbird

Only mammals were nutria, fox squirrel and feral cats (including two ADORABLE kittens!)

[Isidro]

First "trip" of the year, intended to be a field trip, but finally we didn't go out of the city. I go to met an old naturalist friend that I don't see since various years ago. It was a rainy day. We went to a park that is near his home. This park is very special because is not often mantained, so wildflowers grow everywhere and hence a fantastic variety of insects are seen often here, while all other parks of the city are almost empty of life (except the ubiquous and adaptable birds). While coming back to my home I also go some minutes by the river border and added more species. This is the list:

Acrocephalus scirpaceus (only heard, at the river)
Adalia bipunctata (two individuals, one melanic, the other red, in the city near the park)
Amblyteles armatorius, one female (at the park)
Anas platyrhynchos, many, including domestic mutants (at the river)
Aphis nerii, only a just arrived winged one with newborn descendants (just 1 cm away from the red-form Adalia bipunctata)
Apus apus
Armadillidium vulgare (both in the park and in the river)
Bombus terrestris (a very small worker "dormant" because the weather, at the park)
Bubulcus ibis (in a nesting colony at the river)
Cairina moschata f. domestica (at the river)
Calliphora vicina (at the park)
Capsus ater (at the river)
Chaitophorus populeti (colonizing new shoots of white poplar both at park and river)
Chloromyia formosa (a female at the park)
Coccinella septempunctata (various individuals at the park)
Columba livia
Columba palumbus
Cornu aspersum (in the city near the park)
Corvus monedula (at the river)
Cygnus olor (one individual at the river, I already saw it at the same exact place last year)
Delichon urbica
Egretta garzetta (at the river)
Eristalis tenax (one, at the park)
Ficedula hypoleuca (one female, at the river)
Gallinula chloropus (at the river, including and aggresive one pursuing a mallard in repeated occasions!)
Gambusia holbrooki (hundeds by m3, obviously at the river)
Hippodamia variegata (one, at the park)
Lachnaia pubescens (one female resting at an oleander bush, at the park)
Larus cachinnans (at the river)
Lixus angustatus (one, at the park)
Luscinia megarhynchos (only heard, at the river)
Malvaevora timida (several, at the park)
Motacilla alba (at the river, including one hovering in the same spot over the water for more than 10 sec)
Nycticorax nycticorax (at the river, at least two)
Oxycarenus lavaterae (abundant, at the park)
Passer domesticus
Pica pica
Podagrica fuscicornis (various at the park)
Porcellionides pruinosus (at the park)
Pyrrhocoris apterus (just one, at the park)
Serinus serinus (very tame ones at the park)
Spilostethus pandurus (one, on oleander leaf at the park)
Streptopelia decaocto
Sturnus unicolor
Turdus viscivorus (only heard, at the park)
XANTHOCHILUS QUADRATUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LIFER and a very wished one!!!!!! On a spike of Hordeum murinum at the park!!

Unidentified:
Altica sp. (either Altica ampelophaga or Altica lythri. Both species feed on Lythrum salicaria (big colony found in this plant), have same appareance and both are recorded and common in my province. Please @bmathison1972 some tip for distinguish both??)
Amara sp. (at the park, one under a stone)
Apionidae (all-female Pseudapion sp or all-male Rhopalapion longirostre, in the mallows of the park)
Camponotus sp. (either aethiops or foreli, I'm unable to distinguish. Tending poplar aphids at the park)
Heliophanus sp. (one male and one female at the park)
Lonchaeidae (two individuals at the park)
Megachile sp. (a dormant one under an oleander leaf at the park. Coloured like Megachile pyrenaica)
Nephrotoma sp. (mating pair at the river)
Sepsis sp. (abundant at the park)
Simulium sp. (trying to bite my friend)
Tephritis sp. (pending to ask to tephritid expert Valery Korneiev)
Urophora sp. (same than above)

[bmathison1972]

I have zero experience with European alticines, and if they are anything like the species here, dissection may be required (?)

[Isidro]

Thanks, maybe indeed the only difference is in edaeagus

[bmathison1972]

Today I walked home from work via the Red Butte Arboretum.

I saw two mammals, the usual fox squirrels and mink, the latter of which is new for me!

And of course, the birds (three lifers, marked with *):
Canada goose
mallard (pair with ducklings)
Cooper's hawk (on nest)
warbling vireo*
black-billed magpie
black-capped chickadee
barn swallow
cliff swallow
northern rough-winged swallow
ruby-crowned kinglet
blue-grey gnatcatcher*
Virginia's warbler
yellow warbler*
yellow-rumped warbler
European starling
American robin
rock dove
house finch
song sparrow

[bmathison1972]

Yesterday after work, I walked up the lower part of City Creek Canyon, documenting 14 species with three lifers (*see comments below)

mallard
rock dove
western wood-pewee (* - tentative ID; lots of flycatchers here now, and they are tough)
Woodhouse's scrub jay
black-billed magpie
common raven
black-capped chickadee
northern rough-winged swallow
European starling
American robin
house finch
house sparrow
black-headed grosbeak (* - identified by call, using BirdNET app.; did not see the bird)
Lazuli bunting*

Tomorrow I am planning a ~10-mile walk that will hit up three birding hotspots: 1) Wasatch Hollow Park, 2) Miller Bird Refuge, and 3) Liberty Park

[Isidro]

Today some notable things, besides the usual species like common geckos, house martins, common swifts, wood pigeons, the usual species of snails and spiders etc.
-Most extremely noteworthy is the discovery of an ant-cricket, Myrmecophilus acervorum, in the nest of the ant Tapinoma nigerrimum (the ant that invades fully my garden). I don't see one since 2007.
-Also nice to see a pair of Chrysolina bankii that already started estivation.
-I didn't saw it but I heard the unmistakable buzz of the introduced wasp Sceliphron curvatum when collect mud for the nest. These are usual critters in my garden each year, but still this year I didn't saw one.

In contrast, the smallest of my two Pterophyllum scalare died today