Mentzelia laevicaulis, our Giant Blazingstar, blooming at Browns Park #nativeplants #FallBackFlowers #FallBack to June 25 🌿 🎄 Merry Christmas!🎄

2025 top ten: #8 Female Dark-veined longhorn bee (Melissodes trinodis) on homegrown sunflower 8-21-25 in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood. #xmas #eastcoastkin #insectThursday #macro #photography #native #bees #pollen #flowers #nature #art #gardens #gardening #bugSky #pollinators #sunflower

Merry Christmas from me, @dragonbyte.ca and MoMo (the neighbour's cat).

#MacroMonday #Inverts🐝 Half-black Bumble I think .

Pink Ghost Pipe plant at my hometown, Logy Bay, #Newfoundland Canada. Ghost Pipes are most commonly white, but some have pink or even red colouration. Pic from a couple of years ago, in August. #wildflower #flower #botany #plants #fungifriends

Mother in the nest with her chicks. Cladonia #lichen with a little nearby Juniper Haircap Moss. Northwest Territories, Canada. #fungi #fungifriends #moss #bryophyte #botany

New study: backyard mosquito sprays lead to insecticide levels high enough to kill pollinators, and sprays travel easily into neighboring yards. stacksjournal.org/article/ande...

Elephant's Trunk Nebula Pedicularis groenlandica (Elephant's Head, Little Pink Elephant, Elephantella) #FallBackFlowers

Wonderful to hear this project has been completed—I remember talking about it almost 20 years ago at NCC board meetings. Sometimes good things take time! Thanks to all the groups and individuals who stepped up to get it done.

The local garbage gobbler has been maintained in excellent condition! #rockcreekbc www.tranbc.ca/2014/04/08/w...

#BirdOfTheDay #WinterBirds Going with "Classic Winter Bird + Surprise! Winter Bird" (well, not a surprise in my yard, but often surprising to folks) #becurious #birds🪶

Some exciting news! I have been working on writing a collection of meditations and I've just started to record them. I've found meditation a life-changing practise and I've put my heart and soul into creating these. Have you tried different forms of meditation? #sublimebeelines #bees

Best of 2025 count down: #18 Male Two-spotted longhorn bee (Melissodes bimaculatus) on butterfly milkweed 7-6-25 at the West Ridge Nature Park #stunday #ColorADay #OrangeSun #eastCoastKin #bugsky #macro #photography #native #bees #flowers #pollinators #bloomscrolling #insects #nature #chicago

Good morning! 🪶

A rare bright spot for whales: Decades of conservation pay off for endangered population in Canada news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-ra... 🧪🦑🌎

Made a batch of very rustic lefse. The local potatoes are so tasty--nice waxy yellow ones. Good served warm rolled with butter and I also made a salmon salad with furikake to roll inside. (Japanese Norwegian fusion!)

Another lovely walk on the KVR trail! #rockcreekbc

Green-tailed Towee with a little orange cap #songbird #birds #birdoftheday #PatagoniaAZ

The brainiest orange rock posy lichen (Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca) I ever saw. Northwest Territories, Canada. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

Here's a quick overview of #ArtAdventCalendar Full history & details >> earthskyart.ca/artadventcal...

#MacroMonday #Inverts 🐝🌿 Leaf Cutter on Wild Bee Balm

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVowels #InsectThursday #Inverts 🐝 Someone thought it was a good idea to bring European Hornets to North America. Here’s one going after a Bumble which got away.

Fifty shades of gray- female Phainopepla shows off her ‘do 🌵🪶⛅️

Bohemian Waxwing with all the bling🥰 #birds

I was thinking about the thin veil between this world and the next when I took this photo. I was alone in the Crowsnest Pass, just below the Frank Slide, on my legs in a very heavy rain. It was July; I was on holidays. I felt very alive. #photography #stunday #nature #eastcoastkin #alberta #alpine

#BirdOfTheDay #BeaksWithBerries 🪶 Evening Grosbeaks eating Sumach Berries One bird I dont see very often .

Congrats to John Ascher for surpassing 2 million ID’s on #iNaturalist. Without his immense expertise and efforts (>1000 ID’s daily of bees and apoid wasps, worldwide) I wouldn’t be a #bee watcher. Aside from all the ID’s, this 2020 interview inspired me… extension.oregonstate.edu/podcast/poll...

I had a lovely time at the Greenwood Christmas market with many thanks to @dragonbyte.ca for his help and support.

#GoodMorningFromSaskatoon Winter Wonderland Edition. First appearance of ice in the river this season

Astragalus lusitanicus, injustamente renombrada a Erophaca baetica (Fabaceae)😉, es un recurso importante al final del invierno para especies grandes como Eucera rufa (Apidae). Este macho roba néctar sin esfuerzo para seguir buscando hembras. Laguna del Ojillo (RBD) 12/03/25 @ebdonana.bsky.social

Went for a walk in a winter wonderland! #rockcreekbc

@dragonbyte.ca made some very good dumplings!

The #BlueSkyArtShow theme of this week, #Small, is making me really happy. #Macrophotography is my favorite photography genre! To start really small, here is a Lacewing egg on its stalk. It is barely bigger than a hair. #Insects #Arthropods #Invertebrates #BugSky #SciArt

So excited that I have an article in the current issue of Harrowsmith magazine! We used to subscribe to this mag when I was growing up in Saskatchewan, so it really means a lot to me! It's a very sweet issue, so it's worth picking up a copy or subscribing online. #bees

@loriweidenhammer.ca www.atlasobscura.com/articles/swa... Medieval charms to lure swarms.

Opuntia polyacantha var. hystricina, our Porcupine Pricklypear, blooming at Bridgeport in the Dominguez Canyon area #nativeplants #FallBackFlowers #FallBack to May 11 🌿

Snow Buntings do not need to wait for the white stuff to time their southern journey. The first few have arrived to blend in nicely with our autumn brown landscapes. #birds #Ab

Can you ID the taxidermy from the Kettle Valley?

Too warm to buzz? Check out our newest paper on how warming temperatures affect bee buzzes in the Arctic. Well done to Charlie and Guadalupe and other coauthors for this nice study in the Swedish Arctic! @hfspo.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans), N Carolina. These spiders are ambush predators that don't catch prey in a web - but look closely and you'll see that she's spun a silk scaffold to help her cling to the leaf (an especially good idea given that she's on a carnivorous pitcher plant). 🐙🌿 #bugsky

In late fall, male dark-winged sweat #bees (Lasioglossum fuscipenne) emerge in large numbers to loiter on the asters and hope to get lucky like this one did. (Females can be found in low numbers through spring and summer; anyone know about their life cycle?) #insects #bugsky #macrophotography

Having fun hanging with the Wednesday art club at The Rock Creek Riverside Centre. #rockcreekbc

Reskeeting for #BirdOfTheDay pairs

Let's start Monday with some whimsy. These delightful grasshoppers (possibly also katydids?) are from a water jar created by Makuzu Kōzan in 1870. To see full size images: www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

Absolutely gobsmacked to witness massive raptor migration near Panama City this morning. Probably the most birds I've ever seen in my life! The video doesn't do it justice, there were clouds of them moving through. Nature is amazing. #birds #flyways

Today I was invited at the last minute to do a 15 min presentation to the Bridesville Women's Institute during their lunch. I did a talk pitching that doing 10 minutes of citizen science a day is good for your mind, body and soul. Lovely group of women!

A friendly reminder to hug a tree today. If it's Ponderosa pine, you must inhale its gorgeous butterscotch scent!

Just a reminder: Don't cut your stems to the ground! Bees need them! I do cut stems back a bit, but I leave them standing around 1' to 2' tall. In spring, bees will lay eggs in them. I took these photos a few years back on a warm spring day. #nativeplants #bees #nativegarden #pollinators