IDs: Green frogs have ridgelines extending from eyes down their backs; bullfrogs have ridgelines around their obvious tympana (eardrums) #Herps #Frogs

reminding myself there is good in the world and it is right here

#wetwednesday Found a slightly better pic of this pregnant Carolina Salt Marsh Snake (EN) Nerodia sipedon williamengelsi (Conant and Lazell, 1973) & a ventral pic; very cool snek. Enjoy!🐍

I'm busy packing for Peru this week, and trying to keep the doom at bay...I need to chill like this turtle! For #TurtleTuesday, a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) floats in aqueous space without a care. South Texas. #herps #turtles #NaturePhotography 🌿

Just say no to cognitive amplifiers

I’m batman

Possibly my finest work. You might have to be from the UK or Ireland to get it though...

Rabbit-Rabbit-Rabbit! A look back at the 2025 garden add-on. Mid-March I tilled the ground & built a frame for a 6 inch raised bed, 12ft x 30ft. Added 5 tons of soil and planted pots and seeds I started, mostly natives. Made a few mistakes, learned some things, it was so much fun! #garden #flowers

I am excited to share my new book, California Amphibians and How To Find Them, hot off the press from Heyday Books and ready to help guide your wet winter frog and salamander adventures! It is available now from my website or Feb 3 at bookstores. www.centralcoastsnakeservices.com/shop.html

Music for wrapping up some 2025 to-do lists (and pushing away the darkness)

Thanks to the clearsky app, I found out I was on someone's block list for being "a birder". I'm kind of a birder, but more birder-adjacent, but I will wear that banned-birder badge <struts around> The thread I'm quote-posting from is hilarious, btw.

Me saying bye to 2025

Here's a Nakon Si Thammarat Caecilian (Ichthyophis supachaii), observed in a shallow rivulet near a forest trail in peninsular Thailand, 2023. Caecilians are amphibians, & generally live underground, although there are some completely aquatic species. #herps #caecilians #NaturePhotography 🌿

Here are four of my most popular cartoons on 2025

Atmosphere looking ominous here in central Illinois.

Northern Forest Rain Frog in all its rotund, and grumpy-faced glory. #Herpetology #Amphibians #Herping 🐸

#FrogFriday 🐸: Netsuke: Group of #Frogs on a Temple Bell Sei Min, Japan, c.1850–1900 Marine ivory with metal inlay Worcester Art Museum 1976.228 worcester.emuseum.com/objects/1411... #JapaneseArt

I already have too many yet-to-be-used writing journals but holy cow, these were so cool. I had to avert my eyes, put my hands in my pockets, and walk away. #IMayHaveAProblem

"They have a Fucking cave troll"

✨✨Seasons Greetings!✨✨ Here’s a selection of my favourite ancient Egyptian blue hippos seen on my travels. Now where’s William? 🦛❤️ 📷 by me #Archaeology

Kids & grandkids left hours ago, and @nellanella.bsky.social and I are watching some of our favorite Christmas movies: Holiday Affair (Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum) Love Actually While You Were Sleeping up next: A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott) Wishing you all warmth, peace, and safe travels.

A final set of bookmarks from a few years ago, featuring the Ghost Bear of Hookland, the blue Owl of Hookland (also called the 'Holland Owl' by Hookland archeologist @kjsoar.bsky.social) a swan skull surrounded by fossilized sea urchins and a Hookland Crow #BookmarkoftheDay 🖤🐾🤍

The children were all tucked snug in their beds… #cats #OnlyBeautifulThings

TIL

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

Camofrog 🐸 #frog #herps #amphibians #love #nature #lake #pnw #seattle #animals #photography #goodmorning #eastcoastkin

Not now, haunted Victorian shoes

🐸

The pivot point, the axis line where grey days fade to black the light that slowly spun away will now start spinning back... Merry #Solstice

Teeny frog < 2cm but is the sound track of the rainforest 🐸 #amphibianresilience

A Sonoran Sidewinder that had just crossed a road west of Phoenix. These small specialist rattlesnakes are abundant in the right conditions. This is the reason that hikers will almost never come across one ... the flat sandy habitat they need is nobody's hiking destination.

But of course they found a whalefall right when I went to bed. That's a rare find! @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 883 #argentiniandeepseeps #MarineLife #CONICET

Pantone just updated their Color Of The Year

Your last saved meme is your philosophy on life.

Geese napping like snowy mountains and foothills in the winter sun. #ArtAdventCalendar Day 20. #birds 🌿

Reticulate Treefrog (Dendropsophus reticulatus) from the rainforests of NE Peru. This species frequents oxbows, ponds, and other slow-moving bodies of water. #FrogFriday #herps #frogs #NaturePhotography 🌿

I’m genuinely boggled that this isn’t obvious common knowledge for some people You don’t get to cite it unless you know what it says!

For #FrogFriday here's one from back in 2021, an Eastern Green Toad (Anaxyrus debilis debilis) from southern Texas. One of the smaller 'true toads' in the U.S. and toadally lovely. #herps #frogs #NaturePhotography 🌿

On our page, you may see us mention packrats nearly as much as we do rattlesnakes! There's a reason for that: they often share space, creating insulated, curated homes that rattlesnakes use for everything from hibernation to giving birth. phys.org/news/2025-12...

Morning feelings www.youtube.com/watch?v=q44m...

A south Texas Cardinal from vacation last week. He's having an easier time of it than the cardinals here in central Illinois, methinks. I get several pairs at my home feeder daily; they are slowly coming back from some kind of devastating virus some years ago. 🌿#birds

Right whales got the moniker not because they were good at trivia night. It was a way of saying "hunt this one right here" in whaler speak. They swam slowly, surfaced often, floated after death & had large fat deposits for oil. 80% of the global population were killed between 1835-1855.

#ArtAdventCalendar Dec. 17 Why use wings when you can just engage missile mode? This downy woodpecker male was foraging among the spruce trees, and decide that for this short journey, wings were not needed! #Birds #photography #wildlife 🪶

A young Arizona Black Rattlesnake resting outside its den, where several larger adults have yet to emerge for the day. In time, it will darken and its pattern will fade to be the familiar dark black with yellow bands common in the region.

The Frog 🐸 of the Week is the Maluti River Frog (Amietia vertebralis) aka the ICE FROG from South Africa and Lesotho. It gets its due to the frogs and tadpoles often being seen swimming under the ice in the winter months. 📸 Jaime Freeman learn more at buff.ly/CoIEEmH

This ❤️

Would you like some silly Christmas cads wot I drew!? Please do! And I shall spend your hard earned monies on GIN, KNICKERS AND FRAZZLES like a SENSIBLE WOMAN #bsnm #christmas #artforsale

May your holiday season be filled with peace, gratitude, and the wild beauty of the natural world. As the year winds down, enjoy this moment of calm with one of our favorite neighbors of the Appalachian Highlands, a magnificent Eastern Hellbender resting quietly along the streambed.