First observations--trying out iNaturalist

I like the idea of a nature journal--I've done it before in a non-systematic fashion, which is to say, mingled with journal entries on other topics. I joined iNaturalist yesterday afternoon, made 3 observations and 4 IDs (not including my own observations). I included a note with each of my observations, so that each observation with text stands as a mini-journal entry, in a way. Because this Journal is only available on the website, not on the app, most of what I write about what I see will be attached to each picture entry, rather than "journaled" here in the Journal on the website. Fortunately I can attach observations to a journal entry and that, at least will ensure that some observations end up in this Journal, though I suspect I may fall behind in keeping up with this.

Some interesting notes that I ferreted out after I had posted my observations: the wasp is most likely female, a lone female founder of the colony. I found some stats online that indicated her success rate, being solo in early spring (unusually cool weather lately, so it feels more like "early spring") was less than colonies with multiple female founders or later getting established. I also found out that Carolina Wrens are among the birds that predate on this wasp and larvae. Ironically, we have these wrens in the yard and they're the reason I decided to see about getting seed into the old feeder again--not realizing that they primarily eat insects! (Until now I've rarely seen them here, so I hadn't looked further than IDing them.) They are much more conspicuous than previous years, so I think there many be more of them than the usual infrequent sighting. And of course, there are the vast colony of squirrels who live in the trees, mostly in the tree with the feeder, though it's been empty for a couple of years now. It will be interesting to see how things shake out with the wasp colony, the wrens, and the squirrels. Smart money is probably still on the squirrels. :D

Posted on April 19, 2018 08:02 PM by gulfcoasttoad