A short course at JAX was one of the highlights of my (long ago) graduate student experience. The science was fantastic, and the coast of eastern Maine is one of the best places in the world.

Time to make ramen eggs

and now I have seen my first scarlet tanager in years because Merlin told me one was nearby when I walked down to the mailbox. Am I going to become a birder? I think I might become a birder.

“He has lizards, bats, frogs, weevils, flatworms, snails and spiders named after him.” Also one of the largest carnivorous pitchers plants, don’t forget that one.

Some of Dawkins’ early books were helpful when I was an evangelical teenager working through the whole creation-evolution issue,* so this is sad to see.** *Stephen Jay Gould was more helpful. **(Checks to see if any childhood heroes are left). If David Attenborough goes odd, please don’t tell me.

Starflight. The scope of the game was truly amazing in 1986. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfli...

Nepenthes veitchii ‘Phil Mann’ is more furry than a lot of mammals. 🌱 🌴

Nepenthes veitchii (‘Big Mama x ‘Pink Candy Cane’) still has some growing to do but is really starting to show its potential. 🌱 🌴

Finally downloaded the Merlin app and learned that there is a shocking variety of warblers singing in the canopy of our neighborhood. Also scarlet tanagers. I see one about every five years, but apparently they are up there.

That exposed-root azalea bonsai is one of the most amazing plants I have ever seen.

My clump of walking onions has decided to make a proper inflorescence instead of the usual bulbs-on-a-stalk. 🌱

While stopped at a traffic light this morning, I watched a glossy black roughly crow-sized bird hopping from branch to branch, rapidly spreading and closing its long tail feathers. I can only think that it was a boat-tailed grackle, but it is odd to see one so far inland. Southern Durham County, NC.

Got up early in hopes of catching this photo before work this morning. There's only a few days each year where it's cool enough in the morning to make this shot possible. Thankfully, today was one of those days! #wildlife #birds

Vaccinium macrocarpon, American cranberry. The garden’s soil is probably too dry, so I keep it in a large pot sitting in a saucer of water. It seems to be doing well, despite almost constant digging by squirrels. (cf. my previous post. Tree rats are one of the mammal species that totally suck) 🌱

How fungus gnats, and their names, can make science more inclusive. Believe it or not! scientistseessquirre... 🧪🌍🪲🪳

Reptiles and amphibians are awesome in the garden. Birds are pretty cool. Insects are a mixed bag, but more good than bad. Mammals suck.

One week in our neighborhood: One neighbor told me how the cat distribution system recently provided her with a small kitten that she rescued from the median of I-40. Her large dobermans are terrified of it.

Some pics from the Chapel Hill Garden Tour yesterday. A good mix of gardens: some old with history connected to the UNC Botany Department, some new, some plant collections, some focused on landscaping. 🌱 1/13 A massive, old white oak in Allison Garden (former home of William C Coker).

Grrr! The weather radar looks like Moses parting the Red Sea as the rain approaches our house. Rain all around and still bone dry here.

Ant ❤️ peony. 🌱

Neighborhood Zephyranthes atamasco. Our lot is gently sloped and too dry for atamasco lilies (advantage: no flooding during hurricanes), but a couple of neighboring lots have low squishy spots that they like. 🌱

A gift from the high canopy. 🌱 Usually the wind gives us a few tulip poplar flowers, but yesterday was still. I suspect squirrel shenanigans.

Earth Day flowers. Tag says Rhododendron viscosum, swamp azalea, but flowering seems a wee bit early for that species. Flowers look right, though. Despite common name, growing fine in regular garden soil. 🌱

“Move the Vireyas Outdoors Day” has been followed by “Haul the Vireyas Back Inside Evening” due to a late-season chance of frost that was just beyond the limit of the long-term forecast on “Move the Vireyas Outdoors Day.” Yay. Aren’t tropical plants fun?

Clematis ‘Ramona’ 🌱

Nice crane fly beside the driveway this morning. I guess Tipula abdominalis. It’s larger, with more intricate wing pattern, than the species that is/are common around porch lights in summer.

My neighbor (a great guy) texted because he was concerned something was dead in our yard. A vulture was circling low over the house and one had landed on our deer fence. My Amorphophallus konjac are flowering.

Unusually colored coral honeysuckle in my backyard. I think this might be a chance cross between a wild (and wild-type) red plant and the yellow-flowered cultivar ‘John Clayton’ that I grew for many years. 🌱

Peony time! 🌱

Penstemon ovatus. Pacific northwest native. Has survived one typically hot, humid North Carolina summer and one unusually cold winter so far. 🌱

Biology prof: “So you see, leucistic and albino snakes are rare, because they are more visible to predators.” Sphinx moth caterpillar: Imma imitate a leucistic snek! With blue eyes!!!!

My Kalmia carolina (southern sheep laurel a.k.a. southern sheepkill a.k.a. Carolina laurel) is blooming its heart out. So many more flowers than last year. Luckily, there are no sheep around here. 🌱

Grrr. Delivery driver backed into our driveway gate (part of the garden’s anti-deer security). Gate knocked off hinges and 8 foot metal post bent. The truck left behind a broken reflector, but the driver didn’t even have the decency to leave us a note.

Trizol and PFA!!! 😳 It is a truth rarely acknowledged that biologists work in an environment rich in substances suitable for a murder in a detective novel. And some people are just batshit crazy.

Almost certainly the best photo I will ever take from an Iron Age hillfort of the sun setting over an estuary as summer segues majestically into autumn. www.tom-cox.com/the-village-...

Just discovered that when seen in your peripheral vision, a carpenter bee dogfight looks exactly like a hummingbird dogfight. All the same movements on a (slightly) smaller scale.

I moved a sleeping cat off a chair I wanted to sit on, because I am the Devil who shall never be forgiven. But the cat is now purring on my lap, because she is a forgetful old lady and I give good skritches.

Latest blog post: a description of Nepenthes alata and why most cultivated specimens are mislabeled. 🌴🌱 sweetgumandpines.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/n...

“Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.”

Spring peeper cosplaying a bromeliad frog. #herps

Rhododendron verticillatum from Borneo. The big clusters of flowers get better every year. 🌴🌱

A gorgeous bicolored vireya hybrid with small flowers in big clusters. It is unlabeled but giving Rhododendron christianae x macgregoriae vibes. Perhaps the cultivar ‘Sunny’s Brother.’ Today is “Move the Vireyas Outdoors Day” in the progression of spring chores. 🌱🌴

Little and big: native dwarf woodland iris (Iris cristata) and a big floofy bearded iris (unlabeled garden passalong plant). 🌱

Latest blog post: a quick road trip to north Georgia. 🌱 sweetgumandpines.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/n...

Any geologists here? While visiting north Georgia last weekend, I came across a steep hillside of very soft, shiny rock. It flaked into fairly flat sheets, and I could break it up with my fingers. Plants on it were species associated with acidic soil (Kalmia, Epigaea). Any guess what it could be?

Costco azalea with gorgeous pink/red flowers. It was ridiculously inexpensive when purchased about a decade ago and is now almost 6 feet tall and wide. No ID, unfortunately. 🌱

Snail munching on what I guess* are oyster mushrooms sprouting beside a planter that is sitting on a hickory stump. Relative scale is roughly equivalent to a human with pizza the size of a large SUV. *Don’t worry, I would never collect wild mushrooms based on vibes and vague guesses.

Pay attention. This is important.

Woodland garden walkabout this morning. 🌱 1/7 Trillium luteum

Do you want flowers that smell like NyQuil? Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ 🌱