Observaciones de cotinis

Two-lined Leather-wing, Two-lined Cantharid - Atalantycha bilineata (syn. Ancistronycha bilineata, length 7.5 mm)
Also posted at:
bugguide.net/node/view/3274
References

• BugGuide bugguide.net/node/view/3114
• Dillon and Dillon, A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America (Row, Peterson, and Company, 1961), p. 264, plate 26(12)

Photo taken with an early generation digital SLR, the Canon 10D (6MP sensor). If I was careful not to push the ISO, images from this camera were just fine! That Tamron macro lens was excellent--I only traded it in for a Canon later because it tended to get grit caught in the barrel as it extended. I believe this to be the first image of a living specimen of this species, at least the first one that was widely accessible. I identified it based on Dillon and Dillon's guide.

Clubtail - Phanogomphus species (male)
Also uploaded at:
bugguide.net/node/view/2341848
Update to caption based on ID here on iNaturalist:
Ashy Clubtail - Phanogomphus lividus (male)
References

• BugGuide https://bugguide.net/node/view/17841
• Beaton, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Georgia and the Southeast (University of Georgia Press, 2007) pp. 190-191
• Dunkle, Dragonflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America (Oxford Press, 2000) p. 69, plate 8
• Paulson, Dragonflies and damselflies of the East (Princeton University Press, 2012) pp. 230-231, figs. 136.1, 136.2

Southern Dwarf Blueberry, Small Cluster Blueberry - Vaccinium tenellum Aiton (syn. Cyanococcus tenellus)
A rather obscure blueberry, grows in rhizomatous clumps and is only 10-40 cm tall. Mostly restricted to xeric woodlands of the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas. Second/third images here shows another stem nearby.
Just a few were blooming on 21 March 2024. I had seen them in full bloom 6 April 2023:
www.inaturalist.org/observations/154083884
References

• Carolina Nature (Will Cook): www.carolinanature.com/trees/vate.html
• Porcher and Rayner (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2001), A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, p. 245 (photo)
• Radford et al., Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (UNC Press, 1968), pp. 814 (key), 815 (description)
• Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (UNC Herbarium, 2020), pp. 1183, 1187

Sandhills Heartleaf - Asarum (Hexastylis) sorriei)
Hard to see the pattern on the leaf for all the pine pollen!
For references, see observation of this same species, I think, at the same site.
www.inaturalist.org/observations/111488120

Dimpled Trout Lily - Erythronium umbilicatum Parks and Hardin
This is the common lower Piedmont species. Erythronium americanum is also present at this site, but less common, and mostly(?) blooms later, I think. Extracting a bit of Weakley's key, the two can be differentiated:

• Petals (inner tepals) lacking auricles at base; capsule and ovary distinctly indented (umbilicate) at apex-->E. umbilicatum
• Petals (inner tepals) with auricles at base; capsule and ovary truncate, rounded, apiculate, or beaked at apex --> E. americanum

References

• Porcher and Rayner, A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina, (Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2001) p. 175
• Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (UNC Herbarium, 2020), pp. 220-221

Update to caption:
Cut-leaved Toothwort - Cardamine concatenata
NOT Slender Toothwort - Cardamine angustata.
With pollinating bee, Andrena species (adjacent observation).
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/203852156

Putty Root - Aplectrum hyemale
Foliage present mostly in winter and early spring, like the much more common Cranefly Orchid, Tipularia discolor. I cannot recall seeing so many Aplectrum in a clump like this previously.

Maculated Scarab, Gnorimella maculosa, Durham County, NC. This beetle flew onto a Box Elder tree adjacent to a line of ants while I was standing in a parking lot, talking to a friend. I had time for just two shots before it flew off. This beetle is rather uncommonly photographed--a beetle expert friend (@sc_beetles) says he has never seen a published photo of a living specimen, see posting from 21 April, 2005:
bugguide.net/node/view/15371/
Comment on that posting:
"A first?
I have never seen a photo of this species in the wild - very good.
… Phillip Harpootlian, 22 April, 2005 - 6:48am"

Other BugGuide photos of living individuals date from 2008.
There is a photo of this species in Stephen Marshall's Book, Insects--their Natural History and Diversity (2006).
Though I do not know when that 2006 photo was taken, this would appear to be the first photo of a living individual published (online or otherwise)
I have not seen it again as of March 2024.

Platycerus quercus - Oak Stag Beetle (female, 9 mm)
I found a female and a male under the loose bark of a rotting log, likely an oak. They were quite near each other. Males, apparently, are sometimes found on spring flowers. The Dillons tell us "Mandibles of male as long as head and with about six teeth near apex, in female much smaller". It was nice to find a male and a female together for comparison. Also posted at (female):
bugguide.net/node/view/2339429
References

• BugGuide bugguide.net/node/view/17091
• Dillon and Dillon, A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America (Row, Peterson, and Company, 1961), p. 569, plate 56(1)--P. virescens, a synonym for P. quercus
• Evans, Beetles of Eastern North America (Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 144
• Ratcliffe and Paulsen, The Scarabaeoid Beetles of Nebraska (Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum, Vol 22, 2008), pp. 106-108, fig. 153

Platycerus quercus - Oak Stag Beetle (male, 8 mm)
I found a female and a male under the loose bark of a rotting log, likely an oak. They were quite near each other. Males, apparently, are sometimes found on spring flowers. The Dillons tell us "Mandibles of male as long as head and with about six teeth near apex, in female much smaller". It was nice to find a male and a female together for comparison.
Also posted at (male):
bugguide.net/node/view/2339558
References

• BugGuide bugguide.net/node/view/17091
• Dillon and Dillon, A Manual of Common Beetles of Eastern North America (Row, Peterson, and Company, 1961), p. 569, plate 56(1)--P. virescens, a synonym for P. quercus
• Evans, Beetles of Eastern North America (Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 144
• Ratcliffe and Paulsen, The Scarabaeoid Beetles of Nebraska (Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum, Vol 22, 2008), pp. 106-108, fig. 153

Bracket fungus - Polyporales, perhaps a Ganoderma?
Reference

• Dawson and Lucas, Nature Guide to the New Zealand Forest (Godwit/Random House, 2000), p. 244 (photo of Ganoderma applanatum)

(iNat uploads start here 3/4/24.)

I almost tossed this image of a distant bird, thinking it was the abundant White-fronted Tern (Sterna striata). The large dark eye was striking, as well as the long black beak. I thought it was the Grey Ternlet (Anous albivittus), but the tail seems too deeply forked, and the plumage too white. (That could be exposure, though, which was very difficult.) Beak also maybe too heavy?
Not sure--might be juvenile or non-breeding plumage of White-fronted? It does not seem to have the black cap typical of images I see of White-fronted.
The very rare New Zealand population of the Fairy Tern, Sternula nereis, is another possibility, I guess. That does not seem to match very well either.
Looking through my bird guide, I am running out of plausible terns.
Opinions welcome.
Digitally zoomed 2X post-exposure.

Orange Pore Fungus - Favolaschia claudopus (non-native)
This looks to be distinctive, and I see iNaturalist observations from this area, such as:
www.inaturalist.org/observations/180233653

Little Penguin, Korora - Eudyptula minor
At Tiritiri they set up artifical nest boxes with covered skylights. They appear to be popular with the penguins. The guides show you the penguin by lifting the cover. They need to train the penguins to clean the glass!
Update. Added image of a nearby (natural) penguin burrow.

New Zealand Ice Plant, Horokaka - Disphyma australe
The guide noted this endemic plant. I found the exact ID on the Facebook page for Tiritiri Matangi.
References

• Fitter, Wildlife of New Zealand: A Field Guide (Princeton Univ. Press, 2021), pp. 200-201
• NZ Flora www.nzflora.info/factsheet/Taxon/Disphyma-australe.html

New Zealand Christmas Tree, Pohutukawa - Metrosideros excelsa
References

• Fitter, Wildlife of New Zealand: A Field Guide (Princeton Univ. Press, 2021), pp. 166-7
• Metcalf, Know Your New Zealand Trees (New Holland, 2018), pp. 72-3