Diario de galactic_bug_man

As some of you may know I am a Texas Master Naturalist as of this year. In that short amount of time I have contributed 190 observations. It has been a real neat experience and this site I have to say has worked like a charm in getting quicker information from others as well getting feedback about spottings I have posted. I have really learned to love this site and I have to add I am an iNat addict. It is one of my favorite apps and probably the smartest thing I have ever downloaded. I have the app and love it but I love the website even more. I have been using several cameras to bring you all my observations from all over. I know I seem to have my usual and regular haunts. Lake Arlington, Molly Hollar Wildscape, Southwest Nature Preserve, Fort Worth Nature Center, Elmer W. Oliver, Gateway Park on Arbrook, and a few other places have been my areas of choice for observation. Weather it's birding, mammal watching, looking for interesting insects, or just looking at some fungus; there is never a dull moment in my adventures. I am always out and about after school or when ever I am volunteering or when I am just having some fun with the family. I post almost daily but I have hit a slow time in the posting the holidays have kind of been a hold up in the works. I just want to say I will be using this app more frequently. It has been very interesting to get incites on my observations from some of this sites heavy hitters. Sambiology who I know from going to the Crosstimebrs Master Naturalist meetings has said he really likes the feedback I have been getting and the stuff I posted. I remember fondly that I spotted a Red spotted Antmimic that was never before seen at the Fort Worth Nature Center. I have had some stuff more off a buzz than others. I just take it as it comes and I love all the feedback I get. I know I maybe all into the moment and I tell things as it happened and how it made me feel to see a particular animal. That is just my way. I will describe the animal, tell you about it's features, how it made me feel, and how the encounter happened. It seems to my friend Eangler that with my posts he finds them entertaining. That is not really my main intention but I am glad he finds joy in my posts and I am happy and humbled by both him and Sambiology. I may not have a lot of followers on this site but I think that the ones who are following me really love my stuff as much as I love theirs. I am still trying to learn the ropes of this site and I am always finding new ways to do my posts and how too get the best data. I enjoy doing citizen science and think that this is a very circuital time in our history that we need to get more people involved in citizen science because we do live in a time of uncertainty and we risk losing wildlife more at this time as it seems. Every single bit of data is vital to documenting the ecology and biodiversity of all areas that are still wild. We need to continue to look for all species that are both known to science and the ones that are just being uncovered. I think that the more we find the more we do learn and want to protect. It seems to me that sites like these are the best things that have come. It is like a social media science site for nature fanatics who care for animals and want to look for them and give their data on things they find. I for one use this site religiously and think it is a nifty tool. I am glad I made the switch; that last site that I will not mention is not as fast as this one and is more child based. This one is more for everybody and is good for all and it is more complex for getting better data. I really love this site and will continue to contribute to it and hope to continue to find things I have never thought even existed. It gets me outside and in nature and is for a good cause. I love making posts and looking for animals and interesting plants. I really love doing this and have made it my start to getting the foundation I need to get the feel of the field I want to get in which is a Generalist PH.D certified Naturalist with a special interest for Bird and Insects and Arachnids. I love how with this site I can do just that I can look for the things I am interested in but on the side look for things I don't have a strong bead on so that way I can learn the stuff I am not too familiar and get a stronger hold on what those things are. I am always finding something new and I enjoy getting out at My school or local park and getting data on whatever I find that is natural. I really love this site and I recommend this too anyone who wants to get out and look at wildlife. It is very fun to make observations and it is cool to read people's feedback and to get comments. I also love the BioBlitzes and the iNaturalist contests. There is one coming up for the DFW area that I am going to contribute to in April. I can wait for that it is going to be a good time for birds and insects and wildflowers. I will be collecting data on everything I find no matter if it is a plant, mammal, plant, insect, reptile, amphibian, fungus, I will document it. It is going to be very interesting. I just love this site and I am glad that I made the switch. I have so many good things to say about this site and think it is a great site to use so you can become closer to nature and gain the mind of a naturalist and a nature scientist. Anyone who contributes to this site is a scientist and it is super cool to be one. I love doing this and hope that many more people sign up.

This year being the year that I made the switch to iNaturalist; I was able to really get a good look at many interesting bugs. Some being simple and some of my favorites but some where very weird and some got even stranger as I would look. this year I had the pleasure of finding over a hundred new insects to add to my insect life list. Many of the hours I spent in the field were dedicated to the pollinator group. There are so many pollinators besides the butterflies and multitude of bees. Many of my more interesting finds were Beeflies, Feather Footed Flies, Hover Flies, and some other wasps I had no idea that existed. I remember one account when I was on a pollinator hunt I encountered a Mantid that was apparently eating some of the smaller pollinators. It was the very first Mantid encounter that I had that the Mantid was actually eating something. It was quite a shock but it was very interesting to get on camera. It was one of the more gruesome encounters but it was pretty neat to observe. As a nerd and an insect fan I just couldn't get enough. On my hikes through Elmer W. Oliver which is one of the more routine areas I visit I encountered a multitude of insects like Orange Banded Black Scorpion flies, a Butterfly known as a Common Mestra, my dad help me find a Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillar which I was very interested by and took dozens of photos of it as it crawled about. I also remember finding both male and female Velvet Ants and several other bugs. At Lake Arlington again another place that has been under my watch for a good while has been the area of an interesting encounter with the White-Tipped Black Moth which is a type of moth that is normally concentrated down south and not so much seen in this area which was equally interesting to note. I did some further research about that insect and my hypothesis was the weather patterns may have had brought them up. As an FFA student in High School I was brought into the world of insects by my own choice. I joined the Entomology ID team in High School for an FFA Agriculture UIL contest. Both my teams from 2011 and 2012 won state champion twice. I do enjoy continuing my insect ID skills and I love making them sharper. Bugs weren't always a favorite I used to be very afraid of some but I now have a new found appreciation for them and they now have a special place in my heart. I have made several new insect encounters this year. One of the more unexpected ones was finding the Io Moth caterpillar at Molly Hollar Wildscape. One of the volunteer found it on a cedar elm tree. It was big, green, with little spiky protrusions on almost all of its body in small even rows in little bands. It was a very interesting critter and one of the most memorable of they year. I had fun looking at all the bugs especially on the Texas Master Naturalist field trips. During the Forest trip I recall seeing a ton of insects that day including the Wood Nymph Butterfly, the Admirable Grasshopper, the Plant Hopper, and several others. I was even able to find several Wolf Spiders, a Nursery Web Spider, a Tan Jumping spider, a Crab Spider, and a couple Rabid Wolf Spiders. I have been very afraid of spiders in the past but I have now become very interested in them. My favorite spider is the Wolf Spider. It is an active hunter that stalks the forest floor for prey. On the topic of spiders one of my classmates during the Urban Field trip found a female Lynx Spider sitting on what we think might be golden rod. It was very interesting what other people said about that spotting. I had fun looking at all the insects. There was not one insect I didn't like. I found a lot of my subjects at my TCC campus where I do a little bit of insect research every now and then. My eyes have been open to a whole new world of interesting characters. Next year you can surly bet that I am going to be looking for more insects and try to beat my number from this year. I haven't seen as many bugs as I have seen birds. In a moment I will tell you about the Bird encounters I have made in the last year as I look back at 2016.

This year I have to say was not so big of a year for birding for me. True before I made the switch to iNaturalist during the time I was taking the Texas Master Naturalist state course I found a few birds but didn't see as many as I would have liked to. True this year we did go to the hill country and I found a few birds but the ones that really stood out are not on this sight except for the Green Winged Teal and the Greater Yellowlegs. I did take several good photos of birds I have seen that are new to my life list but I don't have as many as you can think on this sight even though my name is Galactic Birder. It is just because for the last few months I have focused all my attention to the insects and have just got back to my birding. Summer is not the best time to go Birding but I did get to see a Baltimore Oriel during the Forest Field trip and got to hear the White-Eyed Vireo. Those were new to the list but I was unable to find a White-Eyed Vireo. I did post the Baltimore Oriel on this site. I really enjoyed birding this year and I did see enough birds to get a grand total of 145 birds this year. Last year I saw 75 birds in all that were new to the life list but this year I have only seen 20 birds. I really hit a slump and it seems that it is harder to bird as I knock out more birds and add them to the list. I had many bird encounters but it wasn't a very productive year as in terms of last year. This year was not the lowest year for birding. 2014 when I technically started but I wasn't that serious I found only a few new lifers. Early on through life- 2013 there was just a few casual observations and stuff. However from 2015-2016 my birding sights have really spiked. with a total of 104 birds total. It has been a very productive two years but looking at the projection I dipped down just a tad. It would have been better if I would have been looking up and down around the same amount of time in intervals. However it was a good time for birding at the start of the year. I got to add a super lifer to my life list which was the Mandarin that was spotted at Centennial Park in Irving Texas. It was a cool encounter and one I am not likely to forget anytime soon. I have made birding a passion as well as looking for insects and the two are actually what I want to study when I get out of college with my degree. Birds are one of my biggest obsessions. Forget Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Doctor Who, and all the pop culture garbage I am attracted too; Birds and Bugs and nature is what I hold most dear and enjoy. I have made a life out of loving Nature, Sci-fi, cartoons, video games all at the same time. To be full honest I really want to focus more on wildlife rather than my Sci-fi nerd life. I really love the super nerdy stuff but I have now felt a big rift and kind of frown upon some pop culture stuff that I have loved for so long. It is weird but it is true. I just really feel like I am growing up and I feel now that they don't play a major part of my life. Nature has taken over and I feel like the Master Naturalist stuff and my connection to my community and wildlife is now my biggest passion ever. Sure I will watch stuff but I really just want to deal with wildlife more. Anyway besides my rambling I really feel that next year maybe another slow year for birding but I will do my best to stay on top of things even though the weather pattern is about to change to La Nina. I think that it might be a harder year for birding since La Nina is a dryer time. I just hope I will be able to find something. Only time will tell.