Several different species of #Ibis were seen on our recent visit to the #Pantanal in #Brazil. Here's four of them distinguished by their large decurved bills, perfect for probing soft ground and mud for invertebrates and other small critters. ID in ALT. 🪶🌿🇧🇷 #brazilbirds #avesbrasil #birdinginbrazil

One of the prettiest finches we saw in the #Cerrado of #Brazil. But hang on a minute, after doing a little checking, it turns out this *red-crested finch* is currently classified as a #Tanager thanks to recent phylogenetic analyses. #redcrestedfinch #thraupidae #brazilbirds #avesbrasil 🇧🇷 🪶 🌿

Beautiful capture of the eastern version of the northern flicker.

Burrowing owls live in grasslands, deserts and other open habitats such as the Brazilian Cerrado, where this individual was found perched next to its burrow. They are daytime hunters, preying mainly on insects and small rodents. #owl #burrowingowl #brazilbirds #avesbrasil 🇧🇷 🪶 🌿

Northern Flicker on the west coast of Vancouver Island in September. My goal now, for comparison, is to get a similar shot of his eastern north American yellow-shafted cousin. 🪶 🌿 #northernflicker #woodpecker #birdinginbritishcolumbia #birdphotography #birdlove

❤️ these wildflowers. Nice shot, Connie!

Many song birds, such as this #SongSparrow, love nutritious Black-eyed Susan seeds through fall and winter. Good reason not to get too ambitious with garden fall cleanup! 👍🤗 #nodeadheading #birding #gardening #nature 🪶 🌱 🍁 🌿

Several #macaw species were seen on our recent trip to #Brazil, but they were a bit shy. Not surprising since they've been historically hunted for their feathers & illegal pet trade. The #Pantanal, in western Brazil, is the last stronghold of the endangered #HyacinthMacaw seen here. 🪶🌿 #avesbrasil

Although threatened by habitat loss and illegal trapping, Brazil is still home to around 35 named parakeet species. On our recent trip to the country, my DW and I were delighted to spot several of these lovely birds, four of which are seen here (named in ALT text). #avesbrasil #brazilbirds 🇧🇷 🪶

Brazil is home to ~20 species of #toucans, the highest number of any country. Catching images of 3 of these iconic tropical #birds on a recent trip was a thrill: the chestnut-eared aracari, toco toucan & channel-billed toucan. Each sport their own distinct bill colours. #avesbrasil #brazilbirds

Jabiru storks from a recent trip to central Brazil. It's a big bird with impressive wingspan, stretching up to 2.8 m. Looking ungainly on the ground, we saw it was a powerful and even graceful flier. The name, Jabiru, comes from the Tupi–Guaraní language and means "swollen neck." Good name for it! 🪶

The #northernlights were pretty amazing last night from my location in British Columbia. There may be another opportunity to see them tonight for some. It's raining here unfortunately 😮‍💨. Nov 12, 2025. Thanks to @connielavon.bsky.social for sharing my enthusiasm outside in the cold! 🔭🪐🌿 #astronomy

A pleasure!

Took advantage of the dry weekend to dig up our #dahlia tubers. With some melancholy, I felt compelled to grab some pictures of the few remaining #flowers saved to brighten the house. Thanks to @connielavon.bsky.social for help with the operation! #gardening #autumn 🌿🍁

This eccentric-looking guira cuckoo was spotted on our recent trip to Brazil. Despite their name, they build nests and don't lay eggs in other species' nests like old world cuckoos. They also don't have the archetypical call of the common cuckoos of Europe, but have a more shrill, hawk-like, call. 🪶

Looking for something Halloween-ish and came across this image taken from the kitchen window a couple of years ago. Missing is the witch flying on her broomstick! Title: Moon Over Qemqemó (a.k.a. Mt. Ogilvie in southern B.C., Canada). #risingmoon #moon #astronomy #nature 🌿

My DW’s nicely captured windows into miniature worlds of fungi, lichens and mosses. 🍄📸🌿

With a glare like that I'm glad I'm not a small bird or other critter! This ferruginous pygmy-owl is a small predator with a big appetite and like its northern cousin, can actually take down prey over twice its size. Central Brazil on a recent trip with @connielavon.bsky.social. #brazilbirding 🪶🌿🦉

Nice colours showing on the Fraser River yesterday morning. 🌿🍁 #HopeBC #Rivercolours #Fallcolours #Autumn #Dogwalk

It was a great fall day for watching bluebirds on the move yesterday. @connielavon.bsky.social and I even had a bright blue sky at a beautiful location surrounded by snow-dusted mountains. 🪶 🌿 #mountainbluebird #skagitvalleyprovincialpark #birding #bc #canada

🚨 Highway 5 Closure Update 🚨 The Coquihalla Highway (Highway 5) is closed in both directions between Hope and Merritt due to the Mine Creek wildfire near Britton Creek. ⚠️ Expect significant delays. Detours are available via Highway 1 and Highway 3. 📍 For updates, drivebc.ca

This here is a dragonfly called an Eight-spotted Skimmer. So, not being an Odonata-ologist and after a bit of research I found that you count the dark splotches on all four of the wings (not the white opaque spots) to make sense of the name. Hope this helps--it helped me anyway! 🤗 #bugsky 🌿

So many different kinds of wasps--all (and more) in the backyard herb garden! Tentative IDs: 1) Common Thread-waisted wasp, 2) European Paper Wasp, 3) Mexican Grass-carrying Wasp, 4) Great Golden Digger Wasp. Please let me know if I need to fix any IDs. #bugsky #wasps #hymenoptera #bcbugs 🌿 🐝

This, believe it or not, is a fly! Specifically, it is a representative of a genus (Spilomyia) of hoverflies that are experts in wasp mimicry. They look mean, but are actually harmless and beneficial pollinators. Found on parsley flowers in the backyard herb garden. 🌿 #bugsky #waspmimic

Nice #moonset tonight over the Olympic Mountains across the Puget Sound in Washington followed by some later amazing nighttime cloud effects.🌛🌠🌿 #moon #clouds

Pretty much at the northern terminus of its North American distribution, this beautiful California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica) was seen in a sub-alpine area of Manning Provincial Park in southwest British Columbia a couple of weeks ago. 🌿 #bugsky #butterfly

Check out this American dipper's long legs and feet! They are perfectly-adapted for their aquatic lifestyle, using their strong toes and claws to grip the bottom of streams while walking underwater or clinging to rocks in swift currents. From a hike to Flood Falls, just outside of #HopeBC today. 🪶 🌿

I think these barn swallow babies are ready to fly the coop after 3 weeks in tight quarters! July 14th at International Point, Skagit Valley Provincial Park, British Columbia. 🪶

In Canada, long-term trends based on North American Breeding Bird Surveys and Christmas Bird Counts indicate a serious decline in evening grosbeak numbers. In spite of the sobering data, we've had an irruptive year here, possibly due to a huge increase of spruce budworm in our forests. 🪶 🌿 #HopeBC

#fungifriends 🍄📸

I was happily surprised to find this small (no larger than a 25-cent coin) colony of slime mold on fencing in the back yard. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it belongs to the Stemonitis genus--chocolate tube slimes. Hope, BC, Canada. #slimemold 🌿 🍄

I just can't get enough of the exquisite wing venation of dragonflies. This four-spotted skimmer was photographed at Ross Lake just on the Canadian side of the Canada/US border in BC. It will be feeding mostly on mosquitoes, gnats and midges which are certainly plentiful at the location! #bugsky 🪲 🌿

Red-winged blackbird males typically have many female mates. In some populations 90% of territorial males have more than one female nesting in their area which they defend vigorously. But it's a two-way street. Many of the nestlings may have been sired by another interloping male. #bird #shenanigans

A very happy day!

It was a cold and drippy day yesterday at Manning Provincial Park, but this lovely warbling vireo decided to cooperate and give me and some fellow #birder friends the chance to grab a shot of this often shy species. 🪶 #bcbirding #birdblitz

Happy #SlimeMoldSunday! Walking my hound in the woods, I happened upon this fungus-like organism. BUT, It's not a #fungus. Rather, it is the fruiting body of a #slimemold called wolf's milk or Groening's slime. The slimy contents of each orb eventually become grey powdery spores. #fungifriends 🌿

Came across this beauty on the side of a dirt road near home with @connielavon.bsky.social. THIS is a native plant where I live. Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum) at the northern end of its range in BC, Canada. Crazy! 🌿

Happy #Twosday! Here's a beautiful cinnamon teal pair at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon, newly arrived from their migration possibly from Mexico where they would have spent the winter. April 2023. 🪶

#birdsonsigns Western kingbird astutely ignoring where your fee dollars are at work (but hopefully benefiting in the long run). 🪶

Sighting an American three-toed woodpecker is always an exciting event for me and yes, they do have 3 toes, unlike most woodpeckers having 4. What confuses me is that with the vast majority of its range in Canada, why it's not called Canada three-toed woodpecker. See where I'm going with this? 🪶 🍁

Dramatic scenery from central Washington State. Nice capture from @connielavon.bsky.social

Back home in Canada, the warblers are showing up from their long migrations. This beautiful new arrival has the perfect name—yellow warbler. Easy to remember! #bird #warbler #migratorybird

Still in Hawai'i, we're seeing an introduced #butterfly on an endemic species (if I have my IDs correct). The #butterfly being a Large Orange Sulphur and the plant, a Maiapilo, a threatened species in the #capparaceae family found only on islands of Hawai'i and a few other small Pacific islands.

The purple hue & form of false staghorn #ferns - uluhe in Hawai'ian - really grabbed attention on a hike in Hawai'i earlier this year. It's a pioneer species in ecological succession and can colonize bare sites such as lava flows and talus slopes. These ferns were around the rim of Kilauea volcano.

The Hawai'ian goose, or Nēnē, has an incredible conservation story of recovery. Only about 40 of these #birds remained in existence in the 1950s due to various negative colonial impacts. Now, largely thanks to captive breeding programs, this iconic bird numbers in the thousands across Hawai'i.

Key #bird study recently published. Glad to see our eBird data being put to good use!

Spiders, among other #arachnids, fascinate me and given the chance, I love to photograph the details that characterize these critters. This Hawaiian garden #spider was found on the Big Island. Its web has a zig-zag pattern called stabilimenta to warn #birds from inadvertently flying into the web.

A favourite hiking location near home. Beautiful shot by @connielavon.bsky.social

Native to islands of the Indian Ocean, the gold dust day gecko is aptly named for its eye-catching colours and diurnal nature. Visitors to the Hawaiian islands often become familiar with this stunning lizard where they were introduced and have since thrived. Kona Coast, Hawaii, Feb 2025 🦎 #addHerper

This stunning #bird is a yellow-billed cardinal and despite its name it's actually classified to the tanager family. Native to South America, it was introduced to the big island of Hawai'i in the 1960s where it has remained without spreading to other Hawai'ian islands. Kona Coast, February 2025.