Cowbird… acrylic on paper from 10+ years ago. The brown-headed cowbirds, with their squeaky, bubbling call and silly dances are back! These birds get a lot of hate due to their nest parasitism, but they are native and part of the balance here. . . #birdart #painting #natureart

Finally getting the saturation I want on this indigo bunting! Watercolor and colored pencil and… tbd #natureillustration #watercolor #coloredpencil

Quick Blackburnian warbler sketch in watercolor and Prismacolor #birdart #natureillustration #coloredpencil #sketchbook

It’s almost heeeeeere! Reviewing the proof of The Bird Alphabet Coloring Book. #birdart #illustration #drawing #coloringbook

I truly mean this from the bottom of my heart: it is historic levels of astounding and remarkable the level of restraint as of this moment we have seen coming from the people of Minnesota Cannot imagine All the love

“Everyone should be allowed to carry a gun for their safety but the government can murder you in the street if you have a gun” is an incredible endpoint for the conservative moment

Kestrels are already abundant on local cherry farms, but a new study suggests their presence might lower the risk of food-borne illnesses caused by pathogens from other birds. From @insideclimatenews.org

Reposting this with a direct link. Looks like I’ll be getting about 100 printed; preorder if you want to make sure you get a copy! #birds #birdillustration #natureart www.melissawashburn.com/shop2

Finally finished up this knitting project: the eyelet cowl from Purl Soho knit with some leftover yarn from my stash. @purlsoho.bsky.social #knitting #knitcowl #cozycrafts #findingjoy

Good news! You can now shop coloring books on my website! I have copies of The Pollinators Coloring Book, and I’ve opened pre-orders for The Bird Alphabet Coloring Book - expected to ship in March. Check out the link in my profile for more info. #birdart #coloringbook #birdstocolor #illustration

Everything is awful, but stay tuned because I’m soon getting pre-orders open on my website for the Bird Alphabet Coloring Book! Working with a local printer rather than the A-word, despite more out-of-pocket cost. Only the best for my bird peeps! #birdart #coloringbooks #artandillustration #birds

Fyi - yes we need more reporters talking about this. Bobo Design Studio on IG is doing an excellent job gathering data and talking with media about the issue. Here is one article: www.businessinsider.com/amazon-anger...

Have been working on a colored pencil drawing of this little vintage ornament I found. Still getting the hang of colored pencils but enjoying just fiddling in the studio a bit. #birdart #holidayart #folkart #coloredpencil

Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago

Waiting for Waiting for Godot

Some holiday bird art from years past. Wishing everyone a safe and peaceful holiday season. Rest up and we’ll regroup in the new year! #birdart #happyholidays

Also this

While N@zis were the Nationalist Socialist party. Socialism & N@zism are completely different as are Socialism & Communism! Please help maintain the narrative & ensure the difference between socialism & communism are kept clear for our fellow Americans!

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

WHAT IF WE JUST INVESTED IN ARTISTS AND AUTHORS LIKE MANY OTHER COUNTRIES

What’s draining tax dollars isn’t SNAP, it’s corporate welfare and billionaire tax breaks. FACT: Even people working two jobs still need SNAP. Where’s the outrage about that?!

Take note of all these people turning out for protests in small towns in red states. Remember them the next time you’re inclined to write an area off because “they voted for this.”

Y is for yellowthroat. Working on the coloring book again after a long hiatus…

Great article, greatest description of LLMs I’ve ever seen- “a single-use plastic of the mind”

Work in progress. And big news, I’m drawing again. Have promised myself I’ll pick up the bird coloring book project with the goal of finishing it by the end of the year

We're hiring TWO (two!) tenure-track assistant professors in my Biology department: cellular/molecular biology and plant biology. Within those categories, we are very open to research focus. Come work with me! And please spread the word! fa-exer-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Busy friend in our native plant garden this morning. #spider #pollinatorgarden #naturalist

I’ve ordered mine! Can’t wait!

I am currently re-reading Slaughterhouse Five after visiting the Vonnegut Museum in Indianapolis and keep running into quotes and am more convinced than ever that he was really the kind of human we need more of in this world.

Trans rights are not the rights of a tiny minority, trans rights are everyone’s rights to self-determination, control of our bodies, and a society where opportunity and aesthetics are not restricted by sex assigned at birth You should support and defend trans people because trans people are people

Transgender people are owed a retraction and apology from @wsj.com. The lie has already become canon to millions and it seems the least they could do.

We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.

We know too well the devastating consequences of such action—families torn apart, livelihoods destroyed, and multigenerational trauma inflicted on a community for decades. #AlligatorAlcatraz #NeverAgainIsNow

Test print day! #nativeplants #prairie #printmaking #linocut

I DID NOT KNOW CLARK’S NUTCRACKERS WERE SO BIG! Lifer for me, seen along with some stunning magpies in Centennial, WY on Sunday

I love Rebecca Solnit. So sharp, so smart, and so readable. Great piece.

Not compromising on trans rights isn’t “ideological purity” because trans people are human beings not a fucking ideology and throwing them to the wolves is monstrous

The fact that the USA has banned visas for trans people but welcomed rapist Andrew Tate shows how all this "defending women" stuff is total bullshit

The feminine urge to burn it all down to the ground

i firmly believe one of the main messages we should be telling our students about this whole thing is that generative ‘AI’ by definition will *never* have an original idea, and if you use it, neither will *you*

Donald Trump replacing a black four-star general with a white three-star general as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is everything MAGA claims they hate about DEI: giving a less qualified person the job based on their race, not their resume.

And I am an ally. If you are too, let the world know.

As a reference, the $46B that Meta spent building this shit is about the same amount of money Spain used to built its WHOLE high speed rail network. All 2469 miles of it. Zuckerberg got that money selling shitty ads and destroying democracy, and gave the world this.

To be clear, AP said it would accede to Trump changing the name of Denali back to Mt. McKinley because it was within the US, whereas the Gulf of Mexico is an international body of water not subject to the US's exclusive control. This is what you get for meeting an authoritarian halfway.

I know we are all living in a dystopian nightmare right now, but I still have some pretty things for sale; I've rebooted my website and Etsy shop: www.melissawashburn.com and mwashburnart.etsy.com #art #artist #illustration #natureart

Around 35% of SpaceX’s revenue comes directly from the federal govt. Less than 1% of NPR’s budget comes from the federal govt.

Spent some time fiddling in the studio for the first time in probably 6 months on Monday… no idea where this is heading but that’s kind of the point #raven #birdart #studiotime

"If 10,000 people do a wrong thing, it's still a wrong thing." -Chinese Proverb