Tried something a bit different this weekend, science stand up comedy! It was definitely a challenge to re-write my normal spiel into a comedic script, but I loved the experience and it felt great to get some laughs

Snapshots of different shaped leaves and flowers from my native garden 😍

Always get the urge to post sky photos here for some reason

I appreciate all the nature I'm surrounded by where I live in the city. But heading into the bush this week made me realise that one thing I miss is big trees (and I mean really big, old trees). So we made sure to give this karri tree a hug ❤️🌳

The beaches in south west WA are paradise. And you never know who you might meet!

I wasn't really in the right headspace for social media at #ESAus2024 but seeing and sharing stories with so many old friends (and being in Melbourne!) really filled my cup. It was a good reminder that Ecologists are my people and that I'm so grateful to be able to work in this space!

Now #ESAus2024 @lizzylowe.bsky.social unpacks the social barriers to environmental problems... Namely insecticides! - People really hate bugs. - They love to spray them. This horrifies Lizzy (and me TBH) #ESAus2024 How do we stop people spraying insecticides? It's a social problem.

Roll up roll up!! Ahead of @ecolsocaus.bsky.social #ESAus2024, and at @euanritchie.bsky.social's excellent suggestion, I to have made a starter pack: go.bsky.app/2A8GiTX Please reply if you identify as a woman working in #ecology and #conservation in Australia/NZ so I can add you! 🌏🧪

Help us understand how conspicuous butterflies are by playing this game! mferickson.github.io/findbutterfly/

Weekends are for dog walks on the beach

Why don't ALL academics just decide to spend December submitting papers for review, and January reviewing them. Then we get the whole peer review mess over and done with and we all start the year with a few more publications under our belt #winwin 😆

Found a chunky weevil on my walk today 😁

Now's the perfect time to support Bush Heritage, I love buying their cards as Xmas presents each year. They're gorgeous AND they go towards protecting Australian ecosystems www.bushheritage.org.au/get-involved...

I love public art, there's nothing quite like it to connect people with place, especially when it portrays local species Found these in Preston Beach, WA this weekend

Saw so many cool spiders on my bushwalk today! Most exciting was an aggregation of Christmas spiders, with one black colour morph in the midst! (Normally they're black, yellow and white)

Check out these amazing shirts from Cicadarama😍 Emerge, Be heard. Perfect messaging. I need one cicadarama.square.site?fbclid=IwZXh... www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Ci...

There was a fantastic question on Triple J science hour this morning: If you were at a dinner party with Darwin, what would you ask him? 🤔 I've settled on: a) do you think the species concept is still valid? b) Why did you hate Albany?!? (a great explanation here: www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03...)

There are so many fascinating creatures that live right under our noses This wrap around spider has a "twig" structure on its abdomen that gives it the most amazing camoflauge (when sitting on a branch and not some meddling human 😆)

I always love seeing people's science tattoos!! How about a sub-tread for octopus tattoos 😆 here's mine! 🐙

Hmmm Bluesky seems to like posts about academic burnout... It IS just like the old twitter 😍🤣

After a week teetering on the edge of burnout I promised myself a weekend without work. I didn't quite keep it, but I did get in a lot of what I need to build me back up Beach, bushwalks and boardgames

I've reached the age/stage of life where I'm simply obsessed with trees. This silver princess caught my eye yesterday 😍

Nothing quite like finding a peacock spider on the walk to school

Amazing displays on "form and function" at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe. You could run a full 1st year biology unit with this content!

After 4+ years working remotely it's SO good to have an office again. Nothing like invertebrate posters and Lego to make sure that your work space is a happy place

Found a hairy pie dish beetle today! Apparently the "dish" helps protect against arthropod predators. I guess the hair does too?

@cataranea.bsky.social so good to find you on bluesky! Gives me hope of building up something like the community that used to exist on twitter... I just shamelessly scrolled through your follower list and followed all the familiar faces 😍

This is the BEST scicomm. It even has descriptions of the species, where they live and their behaviour 😍 I would pay very good money for this set... ideas.lego.com/s/p:24ee3527...

First day of work at Edith Cowan Uni today!! I was very happy to see they have one of my favourite spiders on campus!! ❤️🕷️

I'm a terrible entomologist 😶 I was today years old when I found out that Sawflies are Hymenoptera! I've been fascinated by the larvae for most of my life and only JUST thought to learn about the adults. They're like 🐝 but with 🐛 babies 🤯

Was excited to find one of my favourite little spiders today, the crabbiest of crab spiders! (Cymbacha sp.)

Where's the blue sky feed where we just post pictures of blue skies?

This awesome podcast reminded me how much I've always wanted to study scorpions!! 🦂🦂🦂🦂🦂 www.alieward.com/ologies/scor...

I've been noticing the tell tale signs of leaf cutter bees in my garden, and today I found one making her nest! Nothing gets me quite so excited as #backyardbiodiversity

If you followed me on twitter you'll know I post a lot of random bug pics. To keep on brand, here's a cool weevil I found

Celebrating my 100th iNaturalist observation! Now to go through my camera reel and add all the ones I've missed in the last year....

I can't wait to read this, I've always wondered why there isn't more written about Maria Sibylla Merian! 🦋👩🏻‍🔬

Peacock spider turned up in my kitchen today! They're everywhere! 😍

Entomologist on holiday 🪰🦋🕷️🪲

Christmas spiders!! 😍😍😍 This is my first summer in WA for 10 years, so excited to see more of these (people worry that there are less of them around these days, just like Christmas beetles!)

This is a very unpopular take, but I HATE Halloween. The sight of shops filling with flimsy plastic decorations and piles of lollies fills me with dread & it feels like it's getting worse I spent ages today picking up party string in my local bushland. How is selling things like this even allowed?

On tonight! Tanya Latty and I will be representing the little critters in our presentation for Birdlife Australia. I'm trying to resist the urge to post photos of 🕷️ eating 🐦... Come join us! events.teams.microsoft.com/event/f1505a...

Invertebrates Australia is a new NGO I'm involved with, and it's really exciting to be connected with others so passionate about invert conservation. If you'd like to join us, now's a great time! Our members only online event is this weekend invertebratesaustralia.org/membership

It was so exciting to attend the 1st Western Australian Colloquium of Arachnology this week. Catching up with MQ lab mates and old friends, + hearing about cool spider research took me back to the good ol' days! 🕷️

I've got to say, it's SO nice to see so many familiar faces here, I thought I had lost my online science people, but this gives me hope!

Another little peacock spider from my place. Happily sitting on my front door ready to welcome visitors 🥹

Testing this platform in the only way I know how... here's a cool spider I found! (It's a Spikey peacock spider 😍)