Ignacio Springs

On the plane to Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico, for the GSA Cordilleran section meeting.⚒️

A #FridayFold in Franciscan mélange on Perle's Beach, Angel Island, CA. ⚒️

I'm glad Logan International Airport is promoting subatomic particles, but their typography team really needs to improve this kerning.

Dragonfly this morning

Dr. Mitchell Byrd*, who worked intensely for years w/ the Center for Conservation Biology @ W&M (where I had a summer research fellowship in 1993), has died. RIP to an amazing scientist & conservationist. vacremationsociety.com/obituary/mit... * Yes, it's nominative determinism. #birds 🦉

Getting ready for some new lifers tomorrow... #birds 🦉

Fantastic sketches by one of my students yesterday during our Geology Club open lab session. ⚒️

OpenAI: We’re burning money like the Joker. A miracle needs to happen for us to turn a profit Microsoft: Please please use our AI systems, we’re teetering on the edge here Anthropic: I wonder what’ll kill us first: lawsuits, regulations or model collapse Media and universities: AI is here to stay

First hummingbird of the year!! 🦉 #birds

93°F this afternoon (5:30pm) in Crozet. Seems pretty hot for April 15.

Tax Day in the U.S. I've concurred w/Oliver Wendell Holmes to this point ('Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society') but in 2026 it feels ugly & regrettable to send money to be 'managed' (spent on killing "an entire civilization") &/or parasitically extracted by the Trὒmp Administration.

Heavy traffic on 95; less so on I-64.

Metal as ffff

You've heard the song a hundred times, but this is a pretty cool performance of it. youtu.be/Kn1vsMJk260?...

Species # 100 for my 2026 Albemarle list *AND* a lifer: The American Bittern! 🦉

Periodical reminder that adorable Sapygid Wasp is adorable! #inverts #becurious

Keep an eye on this: Trump is trying to seize the beautiful Presidio in San Francisco, a longtime goal of techbros who want it for a dreamed-of libertarian "Freedom City". The plot is nutty but real. Seems Silicon Valley tech-fascists are extracting their money's worth from Trump before he fades. 1/

Orban has lost. What a great day! (Unlike some sundowning clowns we know, he has admitted he lost, too.)

Rusty Blackbird, species # 99 for me in Albemarle County this year...🦉

Look into the eye of the bullfrog 🐸

I was lucky to catch this buzzing hyacinth visorbearer as he flashed his colors in Brazil. #birds #birdsseenin2026 #brazil #birdphotography #hummingbirds

This is a frightening map, especially given the fact that this is normally near the peak in snowpack across the West. There are many far-reaching consequences from this historic snow drought, ranging from increasing risk of summer wildfires to major water concerns. Map by nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov

I have about one week until I close registration for the @nagtgeo.bsky.social Eastern Section meeting. If you're in Virginia & love this planet, this is a great low-key meeting. Please join us! www.eventbrite.com/e/nagt-easte... ⚒️

A week until this sequence commences: ⚒️

Dorsal + ventral views of a pipevine swallowtail.

Owl preening scritch showing off the zygodactyl toe pattern. 🦉

An hour and a half walking with the dog on a gravel road near my house and I saw: three vehicles, one jogger, and 35 species of birds.

Level "207" tenpages.netlify.app/us-level/us....

Calling all geologists! 🥾⛏️ The Utah Geological Survey is hiring a Geologic Mapper. If you love fieldwork, creating detailed maps, and want to work in a geological wonderland, this is for you! Apply here: utdgohcm.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... 🧵 1/6

Happy #FoldFriday and have a nice weekend! ⚒️🧪 Photo from Kirkeporten, Norway. #photography

For today's #FridayFold, we journey into the depths of Butler Cave, where Lou provides a sense of scale above an Alleghanian antiform in Silurian aged Tonoloway limestone: ⚒️

The latest eruption at Kilauea appears to be starting! We should see large lava fountains soon. Tune in live here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXKu...

Some #birds from this morning: Pileated Woodpecker, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and White-breasted Nuthatch. 🦉

Hanging out in a swamp this morning - a ~2 year old beaver pond where Martins Branch feeds into the Rivanna Reservoir.

Luminous azaleas this morning on the dog walk:

This is driving me fucking crazy. The treating of it as just a thing rather than a fucking obscenity.

Barred Owl, this morning at Ivy Creek. 🦉

@EQHistory 16 years ago (yesterday) The M7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake occurred on Easter Sunday. It didn't occur on a single fault though, but across a network of different fault structures near the CA/Baja/Mexico borders. buff.ly/E1Ksmvs

It was a two-owl day for me. Barred Owl this morning at Ivy Creek, Great Horned Owl (babies) this afternoon at Secluded Farm. 🦉

🎶...Just another mylonitic Monday...🎶 ⚒️

Halite casts in Tonoloway dolostone. ⚒️

"What do you do for a living?" "I'm a driver. And a short order cook. I make a mean hash browns in a cast iron skillet. I book hotels a year out. I do first level triage first aid. I do search & rescue, & counseling. I'm an entertainer, I tell stories around the campfire. Also, I teach geology." ⚒️

I just saw that it’s Geologists Day today!!! To share my excitement about geology, here is one of my favourite types of rock: obsidian!! This is a thin polished slice showing flow banding. #GeologistsDay #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Has anyone studied the psychic toll of years spent waking up to the unhinged rantings of a vicious madman who could kill us all — and then going about one’s day per usual?

We encountered this fellow crossing the road on our way home this morning...

Multiple Spider-Man meme, Butler cave style:

I took the Geology Club caving this weekend. ⚒️

His lower face looks caramelized. To want to do this to one's own face seems strange to me, but it seems even weirder that his staff let him go out in front cameras looking as if he's been face-down in a bowl of walnut woodstain.