Archivos de diario de mayo 2021

06 de mayo de 2021

City Nature Challenge 2021 overview Part 1.

So I am still putting in observations and I have to say this one could very well be the most important one we have ever done. Since snow storm Uri we have had a lot of bird deaths and other things freeze and now we are having some big time rain. This has been a very interesting one but it has not been a bad one at all. I mean where I am finding lacking things there are a ton of other things to be found. This year has been quite interesting indeed. I for one have added a bunch of neat species and have had some interesting experiences.
I did get mad at one point for I dropped my Nikon Coolpix L830 and it broke. However it was not a total loss since I still have my DSLR. I have a lot of different things under my belt and went to some new areas. I am not yet done uploading but I just wanted to add some thoughts so far on the uploading trail. I am done with day one and day two and now I am working on day three.

Publicado el mayo 6, 2021 09:38 TARDE por galactic_bug_man galactic_bug_man | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

18 de mayo de 2021

City Nature Challenge 2021: Post mission

Wow-wee wow wow! Man this year's City Nature Challenge was a very wet and wild one. I had a lot of fun tracking down those critters and plants and fungi. I wound up with a lot 1,300 + observations. I had to take it a bit easy since my feet got so wet and began to hurt and started to do some weird stuff after being waterlogged. I have to say it was worth it. I had not had waterlogged shoes for a long period of time since I worked at Six Flags when we had that bad flooding at Johnson's Creek. Still the observations were very good. I was able to find some very cool things this year. I did visit a lot of places but one thing I did that helped me boost my time was I took small steps and gave myself more time to look around. It was a very good one I am so glad I got to see @lulubelle @sambiology @brentano @wildcarrot and many of the others. Mothing the first night was not so great but it gave me an interesting idea that even in the rain you can still have some good stuff but you have to plan ahead and make sure the area you are in is in your favor.

I did some more mothing in my yard and checked the native plant garden and got all sorts of wild things. I have racked up a lot of hours for this year's City Nature Challenge for my volunteerism. We were able to get in our hours for the initial outings and even for our logging time when actively putting them on the iNaturalist. I have the log printed and ready to convert since I was starting to get more headaches and migraines in recent years. I have had to limit how many screens I look at so that is why it so hard for me to write these notes after an adventure.

So yeah I totally blew my old record out of the water like when you hit that B-4 and sink the battleship. Yep that is how it happened. I kind of sold myself short on some of my first notes as I went on. I had no idea I had as many species as I did. I was able to get so many cool things. I got that very cool Eyed-Click Beetle and was able to get two more warblers (Nashville and Black-throated Green) I was also able to get a Turkey and a Dickcissel. The Turkey is nothing new but I did see it at a place I was not expecting them to be. I was able to get so many new lifers and so many cool things. I was able to get out to Richardson which is a place I have been going out in the last two years. I am discovering some new parks and some have become normal haunts for me. If I have an nice weekend or an afternoon with my family we will take a trek to some of these areas. I am totally blown away at some of the totals some of us got.

Snowstorm Uri was a big whopper of a storm and doing this stuff during a big weather event for spring made it even more interesting. Normally I don't get out in the rain but there are times when I forget just how many rewards you can reap when you are out in the rain. I was able to get two slugs this time which I always have a hard time tracking down. Still rain didn't slow many of us down. I have heard that many of us were not as stoked for this one as in years past. That was kind of the same way for me at times. I was pumped but I had to get the gears grinding to fully answer the challenge. I guess it was the thought of still having to limit public events and not having everyone to full capacity was kind of the kicker. Too the weather could also bring some dents to the contest. Over all I would say this was one of the most important ones we have ever done. I mean we just had a big snow storm hit Texas over the course of February and we had lost a lot of wildlife and what not. Going out and doing this really helped me see this CNC in a total different light.

Still lots of good stuff to be found and lot of cool things to see and new places explored. I didn't have a big training time like I normally would take for the School finals were not exactly in my favor. I passed them with flying colors but they didn't work well with my training time since I had to schedule a couple of sessions in the Studio before and after but in the end it did pan out. I was very happy that I was able to do it again and you can bet I will be grinding the gears next year too. I will be doing these as long as they keep dishing them out (unless I am really sick) I hope that is never the case. I love this contest way too much. This is one of the times where I boost my lists and boost my knowledge and get to spend a lot of time soaking up the rays and just having a grand adventure. INaturalist has taught me a lot about myself and a lot about nature. I am very happy to have had an encouraging push to try this site. It has been a while since I had that push and began using it but I am very glad that I have stuck it out and kept going with it. The CNC has just become part of my yearly routine.

I was able to get far more than I had expected making my species list jump quite a bit too. I am almost to 15,000 observations. I am trying to get more observations but will all this continuing rain and not just light rain but massive downpour I have had to look for breaks to go out and photograph which is kind of hard at times to predict. Still I am glad to have done this one. Next year I am going to push myself even harder to get more observations. Each year I try and do more and more and I have always climbed up the ladder. So we shall see what next year's brings and what else the year has in store for me.

Until next time I will see you on the trail.

Publicado el mayo 18, 2021 07:09 MAÑANA por galactic_bug_man galactic_bug_man | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

20 de mayo de 2021

Summer plans for 2021

Well with school work finally out of the way I will now be focusing on time with my family and even take time to do what I normally do. Every summer I take the summer off of school to spend time with my family and more important my community. When I am off of school I use this time to do volunteering and even spending time with those closest to me. This summer I am lined up to do some fun kids camps at River Legacy. I am going to be helping with two big ones one on insects and the other one on camping and outdoor safety along with other things. I am also going to take time like I always do and go one some roving adventures. Over the summers of the past me and the family take a few short day trips or a weekend trips some place before we take an extended four- five day travel. This year Georgia and Florida are both on the agenda. My main goals are to find insects but also track down other birds and things. We are eyeing the trip after my birthday so that will be pretty good. I have a few things I am wanting to acquire for my birthday that will help me with many more of my adventures. I have not been to Florida or Georgia in twenty years. I turned six when I was in Florida. That was way before I was into the wildlife stuff full force and I was at Walt Disney World when I turned six. Still that maybe on the agenda for a time but I am wanting to get out to a few of the nature areas even the coast. My brother and my aunt are wanting to go and I do kind of want to go to the new Star Wars Galaxy's Edge for obvious reasons being a Sci-fi geek and all. I am also going to try to squeeze in one day or so to try and go to the Universal Studios to got to the Jurassic World area. I have been wanting to do that for a while. However aside from that since my brother and my aunt love theme parks some of the things I am planning involve park hopping and what not. We do a lot in Florida when we go and we always seem to work a lot of nature stuff in when we go even when we are at the theme parks. Even then you can get lucky and find some very cool stuff at the parks.

I used to work at a theme park and would see a lot of neat wildlife before I became a Texas Master Naturalist. I am wanting to go to the swamp lands of Georgia and do some other things. Like most of these big trips out of state. I like to do them in phases. For there are a lot of things that we want to do that are not always nature based but still we do what we can and then make return trips. Colorado, Arizona and other states I have some next phase plans. So when I am traveling I always get travel guides and things to plot and plan for future trips. This is going to be a lot of fun. I am so looking forward to this. I am also wanting very much to continue my search for the Dragonhunter Dragonfly. I still have not seen one but I am hoping that this year will be the year. I am also told we might go to Austin and there is a very cool Metro Park I got to during the summer that has a lot of dragonflies. I have been to that area twice and I always find cool things around there.

Most of my summer does have a lot of trips that revolve around iNaturalist. I may not be like some people but I do use it a lot and I am very dedicated fan. I have not stopped using it for I am just that dedicated. I love traveling with it even if there are days when I am not able to really got to a park more than a few minutes. Every bit helps and I love running about and getting data any way I can. So this year has been a bit odd with some things but over all it is good. I am really enjoying the time I have off from school. I am planning for trips and making notes. I am also making notes for other day trips and looking at species lists right now and planning best possible routes. My aunt goes to Florida ever so often to do school training and get there pretty quickly. And she does good at telling me about places she goes and tries to get some images. I have used some of her data to plan for this trip. So this will be interesting. One thing about me is I am a list maker and love mapping out stuff. I love to plot and scheme for different trips and things. If there is a trip there is always a time to do photography.

I am going for a professional wildlife and nature photographer degree and each place I go is always a unique opportunity to get that next big as we say "Kodak Moment" Even though I hardly use Kodak I have Nikon and a Canon. I sent my Nikon away to get fixed so I am hoping it will not be too much. I broke it when I was on the City Nature Challenge trail that Sunday so I was not very happy about that. So I hope it gets back before the trip. That will be the camera I use for the theme parks just to be safe. I mean it is just a point and shoot and I so want to have a picture taken of me at Universal at the Raptor paddock. I know I am a complete sci-fi dork but I like being a nerd and a geek. It has helped me become a better naturalist in some cases. That is why I call myself Galactic_Bug_man. Well I will give updates as they come.

Live long and prosper and I will see you on the trail.

Publicado el mayo 20, 2021 04:39 MAÑANA por galactic_bug_man galactic_bug_man | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario