Diario de sparky_lurkdragon

Went down to Waird Park to read, and found that there was a company picnic of some kind being held. I was given some leftovers, which was nice.

But more importantly: These photos represent Progress for me. I used to be phobic of bees and wasps. Seeing so many of them in one place did make the old terror start to rise, but I took some deep breaths and just watched them for a little.

Superbly beautiful creatures. They just want space, which I was happy to give them. Really pleased with these portraits.

Happy Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice!

One of my jobs cut my hours... again... >_> But it left me some time to go to Veteran's Park. I needed to renew some library books anyway.

The highlights were the night-heron and what I think was a couple of leucistic mallards, and their cohorts the Mallard Loafs, fresh and toasty on the piers, along with some maybe-melaninistic mallards. And of course my first baby ducklings of the season!!

The little scrub jay with the quiet voice who let me get close was super cool, too. Hopefully they learn to be more wary as they get bigger! I also saw a killdeer who Very Definitely Had a Broken Wing Poor Thing, Please Come Eat Me And Ignore The Nest.

Ohhhh and seeing those grebes close enough to maybe ID species was delightful. Finally got a good picture of a pelican, too!

The drumstick and the dead robin were kind of bittersweet. Who knows what ate the whatever-it-was, but as for the robin, it was neat to see his markings up close, but, of course, it's always sad to come across a dead animal. He might well have been one of the little guys I see around, too. And it's concerning that he just seemed to drop dead with no obvious cause... though I suppose the cold snap might have done it.

Either way, I'm sure the pavement ant colony was happy.

Well, I didn't feel well enough to go out into nature today beyond the walk home from the bus stop... but nature was kind enough to come to me!

Little friend was caught in a jar, had their portrait taken, and was then released outside, safe from my cat.

Having some bad pain and fatigue days lately, so may or may not be up to a Saturday excursion. We'll see how I am in the morning...

But in happier news, I'm seeing plenty of little zebra jumpers around lately. I love these cute little guys so much.

Sadly, the cellar spider web at the mill job appears to have been vacated, at least for now. As if to make up for it, though, I met a bee fly and a California flattened jumping spider today, among others!

I've been ill this week and haven't had a chance to go out at all, partially for my own sake and partially to avoid infecting anyone else. Did take a picture of this lichen I'd been meaning to observe while turning in the rent, though.

I'm back to work tomorrow, followed by my weekend, so if I'm up to it I might go exploring. We'll see.

A nice visit to Moore Park today! I saw so many organisms, but the highlight was definitely a hapless little zebra jumper being Denied predation of a ticklebug.

I saw the jumper approach the ticklebugs (who I'd just observed mating), and went "oh, whoa, am I going to see a predation event?" and turned the video camera on. I instead captured yet another reason why it's hard to be a predator in this world!

Didn't have the spoons to go on a nature walk today (blame the retail job), but I did see this very cool little wolf spider on the way home!

Went out this evening armed with a jar, and behold! iNaturalist's first obsevation of one of my personal little favourites, what I call greenie midges (Chironomus utahensis).

...At least, I'm pretty sure they must be C. utahensis, based on this article about them: https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/klamath_midge/
I'm no midge expert, but I know my greenies when I see them, and this article describes them to a T.

Also got a very nice shot of a cute little jumping spider! And the deer were out, as usual, though it seems they were chilling in the shade, very understandably.

First goslings of the year! :D

I also got some really cool in-flight shots of a couple of red-winged blackbirds. RWBB are probably my favourite local bird; I love the males' songs and bold colours.