Trail Camera

After some debate on which trail camera to buy, I purchased a Primos 12MP Proof Cam 02 HD Trail Camera. This is a neat way to try and make iNaturalist submissions. It opens up a whole lot of species that I am just not going to find any other way.

So far it has only spent three days in the hills near me. It was pointing at a completely boring patch of earth which animals would have little reason to visit. Still, I managed to find a couple birds a rabbit and this skunk:

Rorabaw Quack Medicine

More impressive than the pictures of my fourth great grandfather, are some of his handbills:

Old Photos

Ran into a collection of old Rorabaugh family photos online. Most are only of minor interest. These pictures of my fourth great grandfather, John Mitchell Rorabaugh are pretty classic though:

According to the caption, he built whatever farm vehicle that is.

Natural History of Orange County Pictures

For a long time, I have used the Natural History of Orange County website for identifications. For most species, it is amazing. However, for fish it is somewhat disappointing. So, the other day I sent the person who organizes it a few of my iNaturalist submissions of common species not on the site.

Within a day, they were on the site.

Unfortunately, none of these were particularly great pictures. Still, photos I took are now posted for the Rock Wrasse, Kelp Perch, Black Surfperch, Halfmoon, Striped Kelpfish, Senorita,  and Blacksmith. 

Heisler Park with 40 Foot Visibility

Managed to get as close to ideal conditions as I am likely to see in Laguna. Didn't see much out of the ordinary but since I now have some experience with the GoPro I was able to get some of the best pictures yet.

Kelp Bass

Sand Bass

Green Abalone

Giant Kelp

Garibaldi

And a video:

Past 5,000 Creatures

This cliff aster was my 5,000th iNaturalist submission:

Surprisingly, even with that high number almost all of which were in 2015 I am not even going to make top ten for most submissions.

Everyone uses Google Maps.

I have never seen an art form where it is so easy to get an audience than google street view. So far I have submitted a total of 14 photo spheres. All have been submitted in the past five weeks and most are of hiking trails. From those 14 photospheres, I have got over 29,000 views!

It is surprisingly spotty, one has 15,000 views, another 5,000 views, while the rest are nowhere near those numbers. Google must advertise good ones in some form.