theresephillips's Journal

Hello everyone! I am Therese Phillips and I am a WWU student. I am passionate about being out in nature and birdwatching. Follow along to see all the amazing biodiversity of Bellingham! <3

Today, I was focused on finding insects and other animals. One of the many things that I had found on my hike was this caterpillar. It appeared to be decreeing waste products and to be dead. However, when I did ever so lightly tabbed it twice, the head moved towards the rest of soft body, away from the supposed waste. On second note, the black beads may be food and the caterpillar may be resting or have low energy levels. The low energy levels, if it is the case, I wonder if it can be the result of a disease that prevents the caterpillar from fully maturing into a butterfly or a moth. Does anyone know how to identify moths or butterflies in the open field based on the caterpillar?

Hey! I am very passionate about finding new findings every day on iNaturalist and eBird. I am in need in new places to explore, preferably in Washington and Oregon but also Canada (Vancouver and British Columbia). Let me know of any recommendations that I should check out in the summer and if you have any advice on identifying, please also add advice in the comments below or message me! Thank you!

Today was a long hiking day through Sehome Hill trails. I went through several trails that I have not been through yet. Turns out that they were truly amazing as equally as the rest! I found mostly mushrooms, more than I have ever find on a singular trip! Many were oyster mushrooms or basket mushrooms, my favorite new fungi lifer was Genus Calocera after Dycrymyces chrysospermus (Orange Jelly Spot) and Jackrogersella multiformis (Birch Woodwart). Planning on bring my macro extension lens on my next hike and looking forward to more observations on my next hikes this next week!

Here is my bird life list link:
https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/4459919-Birds-Lifelist?page=1&view=photo

I have complied all my birds listed from my bird life list from ebird and Merlin Bird ID. I update my list on a somewhat regular basis. Currently the list shows 67 species but on my Merlin Bird ID list, I have 68 species. I plan on correcting this mistake soon! (EDIT: The list is now corrected to the full 68 species! Was missing Wilson's Warbler.) The list currently has species primarily from Pacific Northwest Washington, but I do have some species from the Midwest from a trip from visiting family and I am also going on a trip to New Mexico this August.

I have included all my iNaturalist bird observations since 5/31/2024 of the date of this journal post was posted on this post as well to check out!

Here I am going to add my list of resources that I have found and as well as given to me by some very helpful people from iNaturalist for other people to use as well! If you have more resources that I need to check out as well, please add them to the comment section as well! I am still a beginner IDer so anything helps! Will keep this list updated

https://www.whaleresearch.com/idapp
https://oceana.org/marine-life/
https://nwwildflowers.com/compare/
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/
https://burkeherbarium.org/waflora/checklist.php
https://www.wnps.org/northeast-washington
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/
https://www.insectidentification.org/
https://bugguide.net/node/view/15740