היומן של danomaha

I have not been on iNat for quite a while due to other stuff going on. Will try to improve "attendance" this fall.

You have won the 2017 December ID Challenge- with your Reptile And Bird Contributions.
This is all explained in a previous post. Please read up. You finished with a whopping 30,000 Points!
Thank you for your contributions to iNat!

This series is a list updated every day of my Nebraska 2018 Bird Big Year.

Added Today: 15
Total: 22

Targets For Tomorrow: Snowy Owl, Herring Gull, House Finch, Pine Siskin

You are mentioned because I would like you to take a look at an ID contest I am holding.

This seems to be the best way to get these ID's done. We need a community effort- so let's hold an Identifying contest. Starting December 1st, I'm holding a competition to Identify Animals. The ID Animals contest opens 12/1/2017. Your ID Total is that shown at Inaturalist.org/observations. In order to qualify, you must Identify the most observations ADDED in December 2017. We need to ID fast enough to avoid this active time being buried in the spring.

Scoring System:

8 Insect
6 Snails and slugs
4 Mammal
4 Reptile
4 Bird

No points are awarded for non-animals

@greglasley @aguilita @mikepatterson @kevinhintsa @kathawk @john8 @maractwin @sambiology @joshuagsmith @nlblock @borisb @ivanresendizcruz @kokhuitan @loarie @charlie @charley @johnnybirder @calebcam @psweet @silversea_starsong @vicfazio3 @susanhewitt @bridgetspencer @kueda @bouteloua @edanko

OK- Strange Passerine.
I will go through a complete breakdown of characteristics.
Location: Eastern Nebraska, United States
Color: Brown of light to medium darkness. Front maybe a bit paler. White to light brown eyestripe.
Shape: Like a slightly longer, stockier warbler. Not much stockier.
Size: 5-7 Inches. (Sorry, not so helpful)
Habitat: A marshy area in a park with trees and lots of cover
Call/Song: A mix of chattering and warbling, not a trill. Not OCWA.
Pattern: Dull brown on most of body. No streaks on breast or anywhere else on body or wings.
Tail: Brown, no bars, not sticking up like a wren

I have absolutely no idea whatsoever, unless this is something really rare like an Old World Warbler.
If you have any ideas @johnnybirder @john8 @psweet it would be really helpful. Sorry to bug you over a mystery bird.

Thanks!

BEFORE YOU READ- THE ATTACHED OBSERVATION IS NOT OF THE SUBJECT. IT WILL BE EXPLAINED IN THE POST.

You're mentioned in this post because I have an grasshopper ID and I don't have a photo. This is completely unlike anything I've ever seen before. I have seen a lot of grasshoppers. I saw a large, locust-like grasshopper fly up from the grass, and it was black with yellow edges to its wings. But when I found it on the ground, it was big, and it was RED. This is very unusual, it was 1)Not vibrant red, but super vibrant for a grasshopper! Red-orange and 2) looked just like a Carolina locust in flight.

The attached observation is a much different grasshopper. This is not what I mean by red. This was redder and larger, and the red was darker.

Is this an unusual color morph of Carolina locust, or just something common I've never seen?

@greglasley @brandonwoo @alice_abela @sambiology @silversea_starsong @edanko @thedlund @aguilita @kueda @loarie @glmory @maractwin @john8 @polkcountymike @d_kluza @tigerbb @arturo3 @lisa_bennett

This summer, iNaturalist has received a lot of observations! Although this is good, the backlog results in routine observations buried in the Needs ID column. I would like to see an organized effort to ID birds over the next month. This will improve iNaturalist's reputation with users. New users will be happy to see the community ID their obs., not be disappointed by lack of response.

I'm not suggesting trying to do the impossible of ID'ing everything, but there are a lot of routine obs. getting ignored.
@greglasley @kevinhintsa @aguilita @john8 @joshuagsmith @d_kluza @maractwin @mako252 @sambiology @wouterteunissen

iNaturalist.org/stats

Abbreviations used in this post:
CT: Couch's/Tropical
Tr: Tropical
Ck: Couch's

This afternoon I saw a CT kingbird in Nebraska. This post is my description of what I saw and how I eliminated other species.

Head Pattern: Black eyeline or "Mask" stretching bill to top of auriculars.
Bill: Heavier than Western, hard to estimate length
Body pattern: Yellow extended all the way from the belly to the bottom of the neck
Wing Pattern: Extensive yellow on underwing
Tail: Here's the problem. It has a deep notch in it- unlike a WEKI. But it was dark brown with faint white streaks on the outer tail- very faint.

Tr or Ck?

Well, this is really confusing. Definitely not a WEKI. It was perched on a wire, and had an evident notch in the tail. It had a black mask. The yellow reached the bottom of the neck.

A Tr would be a first state record- but a decent explanation of the dark tail.
A Ck would be a 4th state record.

@greglasley @psweet @gcwarbler @joshuagsmith @bridgetspencer
@kevinhintsa @john8

Asking for ideas on this bird I saw today at a local nature preserve.

My eBird Description:

"Grasshopper sparrow? Very dull-colored sparrow. In deciduous tree about 4 ft. above ground. Dark-ish crown- brown? Call was a few loud chatters. Gray-brown all over with pale streaks on side. Bill appeared heavy. No eyestripe, some dark auriculars."

@greglasley @psweet @john8 @joshuagsmith

No. 1- Female
Pale Cassiar Junco, patches of brown tinge on back but generally gray, dark hood.
No. 2-
Dark, Bold male Cassiar Junco, very light brown tinge, barely noticeable. Like normal slate-colored, but with dark gray hood.

Hooray for migration season!