Exercise, Attention and Serendipity
Today, after yesterday's iNat immersion, I had other work to get to, and then I delayed exercise-walking to watch the end pf Tyler Gilbert's no-hitter for Arizona against San Diego. By the time I left the house for my neighborhood walk it was 7:45 pm, and most birds had gone to roost.
To meet my exercise goal, I did not want to stop too much, but to meet my iNat minimum of one entry/day, I had to stop somewhere - and soon, as it was getting dark. On Bucknell Drive, I spotted a cultivated neighborhood tree with Gold Dust Lichen (Chrysothrix candelaris) on the trunk. I got set to take the picture, when a fly came in.
I have a category of observations that I have playfully named "Random Diptera" sightings. Most of these are a few common Calyptera species that land in my way. But I've learned some things by concentrating on flies - patience, slow movement, and trying for multiple angles to get the shape of the body. This fly, though, defeated me. It would stand perfectly still, but I was literally having a difficult time telling the head from the tail. The posture and behavior were odd. The fly itself was about 60% the size of a Lucilla species. iNat has tentatively identified it as in the genus of Woodpecker Flies (Medetera).
It was only the combination of disciplines - Exercise, my eBird and iNat streaks, my ongoing attention to flies, and the serendipity of stopping when and where I did - that made this possible. Before I practiced such things, how much escaped my attention, both actually and metaphorically?
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