raymie's Favorites

Two monkey puzzle seedlings sprouting up near a cultivated tree. These are growing wild, They aren’t in a place where it would make sense to have planted them intentionally. There are two large established monkey puzzles Close together here so it’s possible they cross pollinated naturally.

Update: I talked to the homeowner and he confirmed this tree gets pollinated and goes to seed on it's own and he removes seedlings yearly.

Resting on an understorey plant. At a quick glance, I initially thought it was a bird dropping. The white hairs give it the appearance of being infected with an entomopathogenic fungi, maybe as a deterrent to predators...? Definitely the most amazing cerambycid I've ever seen!

Update: this species finally has a name! The paper naming and describing it can be freely downloaded from here: https://doi.org/10.54102/ajt.iv1x5

This observation is for the crab. The spider is logged in a separate observation. The crab was observed in the spider's web, still alive. Evidently it must have fallen into the web from a tree trunk above. It was unable to free itself and at first the spider kept its distance. Within a couple of hours, The crab was no longer moving, suggesting that the spider had successfully administered a venomous bite. The crab was subsequently trussed up in silk and carried higher up in the web by the spider.

First known wild observations and discovery of natural fluorescent in an old world mammal or any mammal outside of North and Central America, images of the Springhare taken in August 2019. Incredible to see it’s orange and pink glow firsthand, especially when it wasn’t expected! Accidental discovery whilst out photographing scorpions under UV light

Shot using a Nikon D850 Handheld with a Nitecore Chameleon C6 ( 365nm ) torch.

For anyone interested in February 2020 a Scientific journal was released by a American research group ( no relation to me ) about this UV trait and science behind it from research in museum & zoo specimens in the US.

There are a few more images, but you might be able to imagine photographing a rather skittish nocturnal creature on foot with a UV torch in one hand and a large DSLR in the other during a unexpected encounter whilst also trying to expose a camera correctly for UV light isn’t the easiest thing to do the split second.

Looking like a record of the first example of a UK mammal in with a biofluorescent trait? Shot using 365nm UV torch

It’s a odd one. UV blue and pink have been seen in mammals in other parts of the world. But never yellow as far as I can tell

This male mountain lion - a migrant from South Dakota - was infamously struck 41-miles east of Greenwich, CT. This was the first verifiable documentation of a cougar in Connecticut since the 1890s. The attributed location and time is from where it was struck by a car. There is no breeding population of cougars in New England, though they historically occupied every continental US state.

Photos supplied with permission from the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (CT DEEP), Wildlife Division, courtesy of Cyndy Chanaca.
Individual photo credentials: Paul J. Fusco/ CT DEEP-Wildlife

Further reading:

• Mountain Lions in Massachusetts: Distinguishing Fiction from the Facts by Tom French
• Confirmed Reports of Mountain Lions in Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife (archived from the original)
• Genetic Testing Reveals Mountain Lion Killed in Milford Originated in South Dakota by CT DEEP (archived from the original)

All I knew when I saw this grasshopper was that I'd never seen one like it before. Turned out I had, the tiny green one grandson Everett caught in June was a younger version of this one. This is a middle stage of the prairie boopie grasshopper. My 2nd of this species. I want to find an adult next, they are black.

Female
id confirmed on bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/2267328 @tfandre

Newt swimming in pristine White Rock Lake in the Santa Lucia mountains. Link to observation of Trout swimming above it for size comparison: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163748610.
Link to confirmed observation of California Newt nearby: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/163716460

California Newt (Taricha torosa) Endemic in California. Newts are amphibians. They are related to salamanders (in a subfamily called Pleurodelinae). Their skin tends to be rougher than the skin of salamanders. The California newt has warty, slate-gray skin on its back and bright orange-yellow skin underneath. It is very similar in appearance to the rough-skinned newt and they are often indistinguishable without dissection, but in general, the California newt has orange skin around the bottom of its eye while the Rough-skinned has gray skin at the bottom of its eye. The California newt also has eyes that protrude beyond the edge of the jaw line when viewed from above, while the eyes of the rough-skinned do not protrude, giving its head a more bullet-like appearance.

Distribution of the Four Species of Newts in California, Showing Overlapping Ranges: https://californiaherps.com/identification/salamandersid/newts.html

https://californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/t.torosa.html

Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of California: https://californiaherps.com

https://www.herpmapper.org/taxon/Taricha_torosa