Part of a Unesco World Heritage site, Tilya Kori Madrasa, in the Registan complex in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It was a mosque and school after it was built in the 1600s. #MosaicMonday #uzbekistan #TravelPhotography #history #architecture

Henderson's Shooting Star, (formerly in the genus Dodecatheon, but has since I drew this changed to Primula hendersonii) is one of my favorite plants on South Puget Sound Prairies! #SciArt #NativePlants #ScratchArt #botany #BloomScrolling #pnw

Ak-Saray Palace, in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan, would have been absolutely massive when it was completed around 1400, for Amir Timur. This is just what is left of the entrance archway! #Uzbekistan #history #ruins #TravelPhotography #architecture #archeology #mosaic

Graham's nipple cactus (fun name), Arizona fishook cactus (boring name), or Cochemiea grahamii, I saw growing at the bottom of the Grand Canyon many years ago on a research trip. #FlowersOnFriday #BloomScrolling #succulent #cactus #desert

Khiva was probably my favorite town in Uzbekistan. It is over 2500 years old, and the old city is blocks and blocks of amazing museums and historical sites. #uzbekistan #travelphotography #HistoryThursday #architecture

Fairy Slipper Orchid, Calypso bulbosa, is a circumpolar species. This means it grows all across the northern hemisphere, where it can be found in shaded habitats. #SciArt #orchid #ScratchArt #BloomScrolling #WildflowerWednesday

Six months ago I visited Uzbekistan, and I have a lot of photos to share from that adventure. The Kalan Mosque, in Bukhara, was completed in the 1500s, while the Kalyan Minaret was built in the 1100s. #uzbekistan #TravelPhotography #CentralAsia #history

Male peacock spiders (Maratus species) are very bright to convince mates to give them a chance, while the females blend into their surroundings, as the ambush predators in the jumping spider family. #SciArt #entomology #spiders #GelPen #illustration

Farewell-to-spring (Clarkia amoena) and hello summer! Farewell-to-springs vary a lot in their coloration across their range from British Columbia to California. This, plus their good seeding ability, has made them a popular annual flower to grow in gardens. #BloomScrolling #GardenSky #WestCoastKin

Most forget-me-nots have very small flowers and even smaller seeds, called nutlets (the texture of which can help ID to species). Myosotis laxa are circumboreal, they are native across the entire Northern hemisphere! #botany #SciArt #nativeplants #etch #ScratchArt #GardenSky #BloomScrolling

Columbia tiger lilies, Lilium columbianum, are a native #wildflower across the northwestern US and British Columbia. Their bulbs were used by native peoples for food, and can be cultivated to spread in your garden. #macrophotography #BloomScrolling #GardenSky #OnlyBeautifulThings #ColorsOfNature

All species of Larkspur are toxic, just like most plants in their family, Ranunculaceae. A familiar poisonous relative is monkshood, Aconitum sp. #SciArt #botany #BloomScrolling #etching #ScratchArt

I saw #fireflies (that light up*, see footnote) for the first time last week! It was just as magical as seeing the aurora last year! *I have seen #beetles in the #firefly family, Lampyridae, in the PNW before. It is just that most Washington and Oregon species don't light up. #ColorsOfNature #DC

Puget balsamroot, Balsamorhiza deltoidea, is a sunflower native to the west coast from British Columbia to California. It's populations thrive with frequent burning, but can still grow in a well drained Western Pacific Northwest garden #SciArt #FlowerSky #GardenSky #NativePlants #pnw #WestCoastKin

The amount of moshing was exactly what you would expect at a historically-punk festival. At least A Day To Remember wasn't playing this one, otherwise there would have been surfing on the crowd surfers in addition to a general disrespect for your surroundings. #WarpedTour #DC #emo #PopPunk

I'm so excited that my #NativePlant baldhip #roses are finally old enough to bloom! They love the shady forests of the #PNW #ScratchArt #etching #PriDemonTh #SciArt #QueerArt #botany #GardeningFeed #FlowerSky

Aurora were maybe visible in the lower 48 of the Pacific Northwest last night. Here is the best shot I got of it, with varying amounts of editing. #vaporwave #JazzCup #aurora #NorthernLights #pnw #SkySky #PhotographyOfBluesky

There was drama this morning! See the following post for the entire saga of my amazingly observant guard dog/wolf who didn't even see the deer until she moved. #DogsOfBluesky #mutt #JackRussellTerrier #RescueDog #wildlife #pnw #deer

Common camas (Camassia quamash) is usually shades of purple, but periodically all white individuals grow! They are not albinos, as plants with albinism wouldn't be able to photosythesize. Prairie Appreciation Day at Wolf Haven International was great today! #LandscapePhotography #NaturePhotography

Pangolins are some of the most endangered mammal species in the world. They are popular in illegal wildlife trade, while being difficult to raise in captivity for conservation and re-release. #wildlifeWednesday #SciArt

Golden paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta) is a formerly endangered species. It is closely related to harsh paintbrush (C. hispida), and thus can hybridize, making a range of orange individials. Prairie Appreciation Day was great this morning! #pnw #botany #nativeplants #landscapephotography

Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) are not very popular for eating, partially because their meat usually isn't orange. But! One run in Washington, the Nisqually run, do have orange meat. They occur all around the northern Pacific, so there are probably other unique runs. #fishfriday #pnw #sushi 🐡

White-lined Sphinx moths (Hyles lineata) are known as hummingbird moths, since they are so big. Even their caterpillars are huge and showy! The caterpillars do vary a lot in coloration. These were in Death Valley National Park last April. #MothMonday #MacroMonday #entomology #DeathValley

Another person on here that I enjoy everything I see from them, to the point that I'm worried they will think I'm a weird stalker liking so much! @hayleyfern.bsky.social's church illustrations are SOOOO beautiful!!!

Greater prairie chickens can display a quite noticeable sexual dimorphism, the males have large, brightly colored air sacks. During mating season they inflate these sacks while coo-ing and moving their feathers alluringly. This is called booming! #SciArt #ornithology #birb #lekking #biology

Ooh yummy dinner! #invertefest #macrophotography #snail #dandelion #garden

Stoneflies (Plecoptera) are one of many ancient lineages of insects that have incomplete metamorphosis, meaning they don't (visually) change a lot between nymph and adult life stages. The nymphs are also often signals of good water quality in streams! #aquaticlife #entomology #flyfishing 🐡

A couple weeks ago I went to my first snowy Renaissance Faire. Almost a foot of snow in April in New Mexico was quite a surprise. #RenFaire #costume #NM

Western buttercups (Ranunculus occidentalis) are a North American native wildflower, which can be confused with the invasive creeping buttercups (R. repens). Illustration in #charcoal from a #PrescribedFire I worked on. Photo of buttercups in that prairie the next spring! #botany #pnw 🐡

Military bases around the world house surprising biodiversity, due to the lack of development! Prairies do especially well on Joint-Base Lewis McChord due to the bombing creating fires, which the flowers are adapted to. #FlowersOnFriday #WildflowerSky #pnw #WashingtonState

Caddisflies (Trichoptera) are a sister taxon to butterflies and moths. It is easy to see the similarities in their caterpillar-like (and fully aquatic!) larva that mostly live in cocoon-like bags they make. There are even aquatic moth species! #entomology #aquaticlife #artsky #bugsky #evolution 🐡

*volume up!* The weather in Western Washington lately: it's real froggy out there! #pnw #forest #frog #amphibian #herpetology #naturevideo

Last year in February I was traveling around #Alaska, chasing (and catching) auroras! The KP index of geomagnetic planetary weather goes up to 9. This was near #Fairbanks was only a KP 4 night. #aurora #TravelPhotography #landscape #NightPhotography #AuroraBorealis #snow

I'm not species-ist, but fly larvae are weird. Yeah, a lot of diptera larvae are maggots, but not all! Some are weird hairy, crawl-ey, aquatic buggos. #adobeillustrator #charcoal #larva #entomology #flies #aquaticlife #SciArt

There are some people here that I enjoy everything I see from them, to the point that I'm worried they will think I'm a weird stalker liking so much. @dirleton.bsky.social is one of those for me. His castle reconstruction mock-ups are SO cool! Everyone needs to see them!

Mayflies only live for a short time as adults, hence the scientific name Ephemeroptera. Most of their life is spent as nymphs underwater Mayfly nymph, one of the first pieces I did when I was learning Adobe Illustrator a long time ago. #entomology #fishing #aquaticlife #ecology 🐡

Took advantage of the weather to get out of my human skin for a bit. #fae #faun #fawn #costume #witch #changeling #cosplay #winterphotography #snowphoto Photo by @ghoul6.bsky.social

Chocolate lilies (Fritillaria affinis) are a native plant to the Pacific Northwest, which grow in open grassy areas and forests at a wide range of elevations. Illustration in #charcoal from a #PrescribedFire I worked on. Photo of a lily in that prairie the next spring! #botany #wildflower #pnw 🐡

Uluru is an ancient (500+myo) sandstone monolith, which is deeply sacred to the Anangu people of central Australia. Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park is also home to a huge biodiversity of endemic plants and animals! 🖤🟡♥️ #silentsunday #landscapephotography #travelphotography #geology

My favorite days on bluesky are: #StandingStoneSunday #MedievalMonday #TombTuesday #HillfortWednesday #RomanFortThursday #FindsFriday #CastleSaturday

Henderson's Shooting Star (Primula hendersonii) is one of the first prairie wildflowers to bloom in the spring on South Puget Sound prairies! Done in charcoal collected from a #PrescribedFire I worked on in the flower's prairie. #charcoalillustration #botany #pnw #spring 🐡

My agency's webinar training on cold weather safety was canceled by our Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, due to inclement weather...

I'm not good at identifying ferns. Maybe a licorice fern (Polypodium glycyrrhiza), lady fern (Athyrium felix-femina), or a wood fern (Dryopteridaceae)? #botany #ferns #pnw #WashingtonState #winter #frost #macrophotography #plantphotography

The felt hat I painted with harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) and a tiger beetle (Cicindela depressula) on the brim. #diy #crafts #witch #wildflowers #entomology #coleoptera #SciArt

Oh, hello! Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) #herps #frogs #wildlifephoto #pnw #WashingtonState #naturephotography #macrophotography

The final 2 of my #scicomm activity stamps for prairie education, one is an endangered Mazama Pocket Gopher, and the other is a Camas flower. #SciArt #printmaking #artsandcrafts #rodentia #wildflowers #stamps

You may have noticed me in the most recent season of What We Do In The Shadows! #wwdits #opossum #possum #nandor #changeling #vampires

Two more hand-carved rubber stamps from an old #scicomm activity I led about prairie ecosystems. One is of an endangered Taylor's Checkerspot #Butterfly #SciArt #printmaking #rubberstamps #diy #crafts #ecology

Oh golly! I have no idea where my beetles are! #beetle #entomology #oddpets #terrarium #petinsects #coleoptera #bluedeathfeigningbeetles

Hand-carved stamps I made for a prairie educational activity. Fires, like #PrescribedBurning, help many fire adapted plants grow, like helping Oregon White #Oak (Quercus garryana) #acorns crack open. #SciArt #PrintMaking #ControlledBurns #PrescribedFire #grassland #EnvironmentalEducation