Solderpunk's Lo-Fi Nature Log

A list of bugs, birds, flowers, fungus, mammals, trees and other natural things identified in the parks and forests nearby my home. Includes 640x480 pixel photographs of things which hold still long enough, saved as 50% quality jpegs. These lo-fi images are not even half a megapixel in resolution, but they are far from useless or ugly. If you were sitting in front of the one of the flowers or ducks I've encountered, you could compare it to my photo and say with confidence "yep, that's it!". And while they are no match for the real thing, more than enough of the beauty of nature comes through to make these shots worth taking and sharing.

Photos are taken on a Ricoh GR Digital, circa 2005 (thanks, leeb!), in "soft color" mode. They are saved to the SD card at 640x480, I don't resize them on my computer. I do run them through the following ImageMagick command, which typically reduces the filesize three or four fold without making the quality anywhere near three to four times worse:

> convert -strip -interlace Plane -sampling-factor 4:2:0 -define jpeg:dct-method=float -quality 50% input.jpg output.jpg

Identification of species usually starts with some kind of smartphone app installed by non-Luddite wife. I do my best to confirm these via web image searches and consulting Wikipedia. Mistakes are very possible - I'm completely new to this! I'd be happy to receive corrections if any nature sages can provide them.

Last updated: 2024-02-11

Bugs

European peacock butterfly? (Aglais io?)

Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus)

Lesser purple emperor (Apatura ilia)

Orange tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines)

Birds

Carrion crow (Corvus corone)

Common blackbird (Turdus merula)

Common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Eurasian jay (Garrulus glandarius)

European robin (Erithacus rubecula)

Goose, unidentified (Greylag goose?)

Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Great tit (Parus major)

Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)

Pied wagtail (Motacilla yarrellii)

Pigeons, probably many kinds, need to study...

Song thrush (Turdus philomelos)

Flowers

Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

Common daisy (Bellis perennis)

Common knapweed (Centaurea nigra)

Common vetch (Vicia sativa)

Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)

Some kind of speedwell...Creeping or Germander? (Veronica filiformis or chamaedrys?)

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale)

Elephant garlic (Allium ampeloprasum)

European barberry (Berberis vulgaris)

Forked catchfly (Silene dichotoma)

Garden star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

Grape hyacinth (Muscari botryoides)

Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus)

Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

Goldilocks buttercup (Ranunculus auricomus)

Hedgerow cranesbill (Geranium pyrenaicum)

Lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis)

Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna)

Largeleaf avens (Geum macrophyllum)

Marsh stitchwort (Stellaria palustris)

Meadow vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis)

Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium)

Purple deadnettle (Lamium purpureum)

Red clover (Trifolium pratense)

Shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris)

Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis)

Spanish bluebell (Hyacinthoides hispanica)

Tatarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica)

Weigela (Weigela florida)

Woodland forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica)

Yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus)

Mammals

Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber)

Hedgehog - probably European (Erinaceus europaeus) but can't rule out northern white-breasted (Erinaceus roumanicus)

Nutria (Myocastor coypus)

Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris)

Raccoon (Procyon lotor)

Mushrooms

Artist's Conk (Ganoderma applanatum)

Beefsteak Fungus (Fistulina hepatica)

Giant polypore (Meripilus giganteus)

Some kind of Oyster mushroom, unsure which...

The Prince (Agaricus augustus)

Sulfur tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare)