I think some of my favorite times are spent outside in nature.
It's great that there is a community that enjoys these times as much as I do -- this is the iNat community. iNaturalist is such an enjoyable tool. My appreciation for nature is amplified by using it.
On April 5 - 8, I joined up with around 20 other iNatters near Del Rio to explore and document stuff. It was fantastic! The original plan was modified a bit (https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/13715-del-rio-details-inat-gathering-and-bioblitz-at-amistad-and-devil-s-river), and I've found out how difficult it is to do this when there's very very little cell reception! Here's what I ended up doing:
April 5: explored Lake Amistad National Recreation Park. In the AM, met up with some folks at the visitor's center off of hwy 90 and walked the sunrise tour. After that, we went across the road from the Rock Quarry , south of hwy 90, across from the railroad tracks. In the evening, we set up several blacklights at the San Pedro group site -- which we had all to ourselves!
April 6: explored Seminole Canyon State Park most of the day. It was windy in the AM, but it was mighty hot in the late morning and afternoon! In the evening, we went to the Spur 406 camping site to blacklight. It was crazy successful with the mothing!
April 7: explored the Dan A Hughes unit of the Devil's River State Natural Area. This was fairly rugged terrain, and the roads were a little nerve-racking. This area is normally closed to the public, so it was pretty special that we got to check it out. In the afternoon, we went to a park close to the San Felipe creek, and then the group met up for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
April 8: explored Kickapoo Caverns State Park with a couple folks and headed back home.
I've been using a lot of the other ID's already created by others: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=405&view=species
And a neat new kind of project:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/southwest-texas-inat-a-thon
So many of these other iNatters are far more skilled at photography than I am -- I'll likely link out to their photos as I upload my observations.
Overall, it was such a great gathering -- I'm already thinking of locations for the next one in Texas! Maybe the Lower Rio Grande Valley? Some place in the panhandle? Guadalupe Mountains? Lots of places are possible!
Comments
Sounds like a great time was had by all, as well as some great observations! It's always great to get out of your "normal" outdoor surroundings!
Am still upset because I did not join the iNat community on this outing.
Any group photos of the attendees?
Don't ever take for granted the ability to travel, hike, and have the stamina to explore nature. Since I can no longer do those activities, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to observe through your photographs. I can almost feel as if I've been there, done that. Thanks to each of you for posting your photographs!
@suz I totally agree with you, understand, and love all the observations from the Del Rio gathering!
@connlindajo there is one group photo - if you follow the link to the project above.
Thank you, @alisonnorthup
I am still upset I missed the gathering....
Yes, I was looking forward to meeting you!
I sneakily took a couple shots of people poking around, have been posting them as human observations and linking them to this post (still in progress!): https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/nanofishology/15307-alysa-s-list-of-del-rio-bioblitz-highlights
Next stop: Caddo lake? :D
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