Diario de galactic_bug_man

Well the City Nature Challenge is over and we didn't do too shabby taking second place was pretty good on this global scale BioBlitz. I for one am tired and exhausted and need a good rest period. I am still using iNaturalist and working on getting 5000 or so observations. I was able to get over 3000 observations during the city nature challenge. It took me four months to reach that number. This year I am going to try to double my efforts when I am on vacation this year. Anyway the City Nature Challenge was fun. I got a lot of cool insects and really cool plants. I really enjoyed hanging with the crew last weekend. It was good and I have to say I beat my old number of 266 from the previous iNaturalist City Nature Challenge. I was able to get a total of 576 on the life list but I do have to go back and separate some photos that didn't make the list. still we must remember that nature won and as I have said we are all victorious in some way or another. I sure have been enjoying the new photos I have collected. I have a pretty hefty species count of 954 which is not bad at all. I have to go now I have a plant sale to work tomorrow in a few days I will make a play by play of the adventure.

I must add that I did get my ranking totals and managed to get 9th place in the DFW stats and was able to get 52nd place over all. I was able to get 251 species and 576 observations. This year was really good and I am glad to have participated. I went to a lot of places and even with a few hitches in the plans I still managed to get so many wonderful and new observations. I am quite the BioBlitz fanatic and love to put my skills to the test. I need to try and use some new techniques next year. I need a shovel and a UV light. I was going to bring those with me for the contest but with the move and all I was unable to find them because we have not got totally settled in and things are packed away. Still I got to meet some of the crew @kimberlietx @sambiology @briangooding @brentano and some of the rest of you. I was running around like crazy. I stuck to my original travel plans from last year's CNC but I did switch it up a little bit after a while. I got a little bit of everything this year. I still was trying to get all the bugs I could since I am so into insects but still keeping my focus on the things I don't really get all the time. I am really happy I was able to do this again and hope next year is even better. I hope the challenge is even bigger. DFW winning second place is awesome but we must all remember that nature is the real winner in these contest and there are no real losers in these things. We all find things that are unique and that make us more excited to learn about the world we share with wildlife. I had a lot of fun and am sad that the contest is over but now I can start training for next year and I can focus on summer activities. I want to go and do some Dragonfly hunting, mothing, and other stuff. My brother will more than likely want to do some Video Game contests and I will have to find things that I want to do in the mix. We have a few talks that we might go on a long vacation so that will be fun. I hear talk we might go to Florida or somewhere if my aunt can get a class for her school training but I am keeping that on the down low since that is just talk right now it might not happen. I still want to get my shot at the Dragonhunter, Luna Moth, and other creatures that I am just dying to observe. I have so much I want to do and I need to prioritize my goals. I also want to volunteer more for things with the Master Naturalist crew and also go on a few hikes and things. Guess I am going to have to keep my ears open and read my emails and my Facebook. I am so ready for this semester to finish. I have done well this year and hope that next semester is even better. I can sure use a break from school and moving and just hang out in nature. Well I have to go now but I will see you on the trail.

The more I help ID stuff the more traveling I want to do. I was helping ID stuff for someone who went down to Hornsby Bend in Austin. I saw the man had dragonflies but as I scrolled through I saw that this guy had tons of Comet Darners and stuff that I had not yet seen before. I think I might need to take my own trek down there and explore. I have heard about it and had been wanting to go for the birds but now I see that it is a huge gathering spot for Dragons and Damsels. I have been wanting to go to Caddo Lake sometime this year and look for the Dragonhunter which is still on my list of things to do. I am now thinking about taking a separate trip to go to Austin for a couple of nights and look at some of the Metro Parks while I am down there and also to go look for that bridge with the bats. I have been wanting to go to the bridge where the Mexican Free-tailed Bats hang out but have not got to go there yet. The more I use iNaturalist the more places I want to go to and get observations. This iNaturalist bug that I have caught has totally taken me on one epic adventure after another and I now crave new adventures. Summer Vacations has started for me but my aunt and my brother don't get out until June. So I still have some time to plan but I have to get through my brother's graduation and stuff so I will have to wait a little bit longer but I still have those ideas on my list. This summer I am hunting more for more dragonflies and I think Hornsby Bend, and Caddo Lake will be perfect to get more observations. I hope we can do these trips this year. My mother never got to go to Caddo Lake so we have been planning on going back there. It will be a good summer and there is a lot of places to explore. Until then this is Zachary Chapman sighing off.

I have recently been told about an excursion out at Parr Park. @sambiology told me about it about a week or two ago at our last Texas Master Naturalist meeting. I looked up Parr Park and found that it was on a creek system that I had visited last year around Christmas time. My aunt, dad, mother, brother, and me went out to Eden Park which is the park that runs on the same creek system that is at Parr Park. When I went to Eden Park in Euless I wanted very much to go back in the summer to that same creek system. Since I have an interest in Dragonflies and things. It may not be the same park but it is on that same creek and @kimberlietx and @wildcarrot are going on that hike with several others. I am really excited; because one I don't get out to Grapevine to do anything besides shop with the family or go to the shrink or whatever. On occasion we do go on wildlife trips out at Bob Jones or other places around there. I hardly go to any of the parks out there; normally I just stay local and go to the parks close to my home. I love getting out when I can to go explore new parks and new territory. I wonder if I will find any firsts for that park? It seems to me that every park I go I find something that has not been documented in a certain area or in one case at all on the iNaturalist site. I love finding those hard to find creatures and those ones that just turn up in a new area. I am hoping to find some new dragonflies and new insects during this trek out there. I have been itching to go back on another field search for iNaturalist. I went to LLELA which was super fun and I got to add quite a few things to my life list. Every time I go some place new I try to get as much new stuff on my Life List as possible. I am looking forward to this. I have not met Wildcarrot in person and have been wanting to meet her for a while. She has helped me a great deal ID stuff that I just don't have the answer to. I find that I want to meet a lot of people from this site just to know their stories and their experiences and just to spend time with them and maybe make a new friend or two. With this site I have made dozens of new friends and I love ever moment of it. I love using this site because it does bring us closer together and to the wildlife we share with this planet. I am in love with this site just for those reasons. I can't wait to go on this excursion it is going to be a blast. Wonder what kind of other insects I might find out there. Still got a few days to scope it out on the species map and see what has been spotted in the surrounding areas and stuff. Might get lucky and find some of the species that I will look up. Anything is possible.