I use a number of resources to ensure that I am doing the best possible job of identifying the creatures I find. Some of the animals and insects I know from prior experience. In cases where there are subspecies, I still look them up to be as precise as I can be. For others I need to head straight to a reference book or online source.
For insects, the single best site I have found online to help with bug identification is bugguide.net, hosted by the University of Iowa Entomology. It has photos, ID keys that walk you down the trail of identifying an unknown bug, searchable databases, lots of photos, and even an active community of experts who may answer ID questions.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Wildlife web pages also has a lot of good information about the animals that live in the area, as do similar agencies in most other states.
I expect I'll be using quite a few university and college online resources over the course of this project as well as visiting a few libraries for taxonomy texts as well. As I find good references, I'll add them to this page.
I also use the following field guides and books:
For birds:
The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds
Hawks at a Distance: Identification of Migrant Raptors
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds--E: Eastern Region - Revised Edition
Birds of Eastern North America: A Photographic Guide (Princeton Field Guides)
The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America: A Guide to Listening [With Sound Board]
(NOTE: This one has electronic bird calls built into the book that you can play with a button push - very cool!)For Insects and Spiders:
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders (National Audubon Society Field Guides)
For other animals:
The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians
How do I get photographs of the species I find?
The short answer is that I take them myself. Some things I am struggling with. For example, there are some bugs that never seem to stop zipping around at high speed. Catching these in flight, in focus, is just about impossible for me at present. Bats are another example that is going to be difficult to get.
I try to take as many photos of each creature as I can to make sure I can identify it accurately from the photos later. I put together my best ones into slideshows and link them from the main entry on this blog. I include one or two on blog entries directly, but there are storage space limitations, so most of them go elsewhere.
I am currently using the Kodak EasyShare Z710 which is a bit outdated by now, but still serviceable. It has a 7.1 mega pixel resolution and a 10X optical zoom. It has an autofocus with a manual focus lock feature that I use extensively. The built-in general purpose lens is a Schneider- Kreuznach. I often use the macro setting for small things and the rapid shot feature for animals prone to rapid movement. It also has a movie capture feature which I occasionally use as well.
I also have a Moultrie D50IR trail cam. It uses a motion detector to catch anything that crosses its field of view. It catches daytime photos using available ambient light, and night time photos using a built-in infrared flash. The biggest issue with it so far is that it has a significant delay between when the motion sensor is triggered and when the photo is captured. If I were to run past the front of the camera, for instance, it would likely miss me entirely and take a picture of the background without me in it. It also has an infrared video option that I haven't really tried yet. I'll be using this camera to capture larger animals that pass through the yard in the lonelier parts of the woods as well as the nocturnal visitors to our yard.
I am in the market for a new camera, looking at upgrading to a DSLR with a digi-scope adapter. Equipment manufacturers who'd like me to review your camera gear, please contact me by email.
I am trying to get the software for my Intel Play QX3 USB photographing microscope to run on Windows 7 so that I can add photo captures of smaller creatures as well. Unfortunately it has been discontinued by the Intel and software updates are no longer supported. I almost have it working in compatibility mode, but it's still got a few bugs to work out.
Handling Live Animals:
How to Catch and Hold a Dragonfly
How do I locate species that live in my yard?
Most days, I just go outside and something flies, runs or hops past me. I also spend time sitting and waiting for animals to come out. I make tours of the property with my eyes, and especially my ears, open for movement. I check the pond. I look under rocks. Later on, I'll be designing and using simple bug traps or bug collectors. I look for bugs in the garden and on trees. I stalk birds when I hear a bird song at the forest edge.
At some point, I'll also be digging in the dirt, fallen leaves and pine needles in the woods, taking mud and water samples for the microscope, tearing into fallen logs, and using whatever other methods I can think of to find every last animal species that lives in my yard.
Some "traps" are pretty simple. For example, if I put a dozen one foot long pieces of 1x12 pine board out in the woods propped a quarter inch off the forest floor at one end, I would expect to find all sorts of things taking up residence beneath them over time. It's not a trap in the usual sense, but it gathers specimens that can then be examined in greater detail. By spreading the traps out over different areas of the woods and trying them in different seasons, I can get an idea of what types of habitat each prefers -a little wetter, with a base of bare dirt, decaying leaves or pine needles, in the shadiest part of the woods, in a clearing, near the stream, and so on as well as when they are around.
Using Animal Signs
Animal tracks found in the snow, mud or soft soil can be a reliable method for positive identification as well. As long as there is enough detail in the track, most can be definitively tied to a specific species. Scat or the droppings of an animal can also be used to identify the species animal that left it. This is less effective than tracks, but several species can be positively identified through scat. Others may be narrowed down, sometimes fox scat can be indistinguishable from coyote scat, for example, but it eliminates everything else.
Some animals, like male deer, leave marks on tree trunks as they rub the itchy velvet off their antlers each year. Animal fur may be left behind as they pass through thickets or brush against a tree. Partially eaten undergrowth (or garden plants) can provide evidence of an animals presence as well. Animals may create dens or nests for raising young that can be found in the forest. Some leave signs of their feeding in the woods, such as the holes hammered into dead trees by woodpeckers, as they search for insects. Sometimes, animals arekilled by predators or die of other natural causes, leaving evidence that they inhabited the area. Porcupine quills, for instance, may persist at the sight of the animal's demise for several years after its death.
By identifying preferred habitats, animal tracks, scat and other animal signs, I can pin point areas for placing a variety of different "traps" (such as trailcams, insect pit traps, and so forth) that I can use to find things that walk, crawl, fly and swim in my yard once I have all the easy ones covered.
Trap reference pages:
The Seasons and Bio-Survey
Additionally, there are seasonal concerns. Obviously things I find in July might not be found in January or might be in a different physical form, like dragonflies. That means that if I don't find a certain resident while it's in season, I have to wait most of a year for another try. So far, I have been cataloguing one species each day, but to cover the seasonal variability, I should aim for as many as I can, as fast as I can each month, then try to fill in gaps with harder to find things in the following years.
What equipment do I use?
I use this live trap for small animals and vermin on a strictly catch and release basis: Havahart 0745 16-by-6-by-6-3/8-Inch Professional Style One-Door Cage Trap for Chipmunks and Rodents
Other than what's listed above, cameras and books, everything is pretty much make-shift. I use a cheap kid's butterfly net for catching insects on occasion, and piece together whatever else I need. When I make some small bug traps or other devices, I'll include a page for detailed instructions on its manufacture and use.
Other web references that I have used:
Kathleen Tait's page on Butterflies and Dragonflies at the University of Pennsylvania
The ICUN Redlist of Threatened Species
Bumblebee Identification chart from Bumblebee.org
NHPTV's Natureworks Chipmunk Page
The USDA Grasshopper web site
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