Diario de billhubick

Ash-throated Flycatcher is a common breeder in deciduous woodlands across most of Monterey County, especially around chaparral and at elevation. They can also be found in many riparian habitats. Interestingly, they are absent as breeders in the coastal pine forest of the Monterey Peninsula, where they are rarely detected as migrants.

I still need it for my 5-mile radius list!
(but I have Great Crested, a rare eastern vagrant in the same genus!)

📸: (c) Karen Krieger - 5/5/2024
https://ebird.org/checklist/S172448083

🔍 More at eBird:
https://ebird.org/species/astfly

Bill

Western Tanagers were migrating along the coast this morning and likely throughout Monterey County. This individual was one of several in a mixed flock dominated by Hooded Orioles at El Carmelo Cemetery.

Western Tanager is a fairly common migrant in the county, occasionally in large and conspicuous pulses, and with a long spring migration window continuing well into June. In Monterey County, the species nests at elevation in the Santa Lucia range and on Fremont Peak (Roberson, 2002).

Bill

Wayne Longbottom documented this momma Virginia Opossum carrying her growing babies on her back in Queen Anne's Co., Maryland yesterday. America's only marsupial starts with tiny honeybee-sized babies in her pouch, which move out and into piggyback / possum-back mode as they mature. These cuties should be between 2 1/2 to 4 months old. Not only is Virginia Opossum the only marsupial in the U.S. and Canada, it's the the marsupial with the northernmost range in the world.

📸: (c) Wayne Longbottom - Queen Anne's Co., Maryland (5/20/2024).

More at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/760

Bill

The well-named Big-eyed Toad Bug (Gelastocoris oculatus) is found throughout much of the U.S. and Canada on the muddy or sandy edges of ponds and streams. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, it is the only member of its family (Gelastocoridae). It is amphibious, capable of swift underwater motion and leaping many times its body length when on land. Its bulging eyes, bumpy pronotum and elytra, and specific habitat make for a pretty easy ID.

📸: (c) Benjamin Burgunder, some rights reserved (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - Prince George's Co., Maryland (5/11/2024).

More at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/11104

Bill