yes!

V has no idea how to help me with my pain so he keeps bringing me breakfast. It's very sweet, but I had to cut him off after croissants, bagels and fruit.

My body is being a treacherous cage of pain and blood. I would very much like a refund and a robot chassis.

This double-crested cormorant was very pleased to show me the bullhead it caught. #birds

Water anoles take a bubble of air down when they submerge, which they breathe like a tiny scuba tank, and now @lindseyswierk.bsky.social & co reveal that the reptiles may also be using the bubble like a gill, to breathe oxygen directly from the water journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Cream cheese packaging infuriates me.

Here are cropped raws of yesterday's Confusing Duck 1. Repeated diving behavior; I didn't witness any dabbling 2. About the same size as nearby Gadwalls I thought it was a Redhead, @sarahlovesbirds.bsky.social suggested Pintail, which seems like a good visual match, but the behavior seems weird

I had forgotten how utterly adorable Killdeer are.

There are, at my most generous estimate, eleven feathers on this heron whose color approaches anything that could reasonably be called "green."

I will sell my firstborn to cure my jetlag.

Pied Bushchat. Horton Plains, Sri Lanka. Pied Bushchats are found in open habitats like grasslands and wetlands and can be seen on various perches, including fence posts and tall reeds. Females have excellent camoflauge. #birds #birding #wildlife #nature #photography #birdphotography #Nikon

Australia journal for August 29. I exercised considerable self-restraint and did not put in six thousand Pacific Gull photos.

Please do not touch bats, Seattle

About a billion miles out and I can't get a good shot but Redhead?

Re-reading the Silm and I regret to inform my twentysomething-year-old self that fëanor sucks actually

While exploring a potential field site in Washington last week, I kept finding tidepools full of aggregating anemones that had lost their algal endosymbionts. I suspect that repeated exposure to high temperatures during summer’s midday low tides has caused bleaching. #MarineLife #Invertebrate 🌊🦑

Reptile breeder challenge level impossible: offer a captive-bred animal for sale with a coefficient of inbreeding less than 50%.

Elythranthera brunonis - Purple Enamel Orchid These orchids are just coming into flower in the Perth Hills. Not only do they have incredible glossy purple flowers, the back of this orchid’s sepals have beautiful markings #orchids #ozflora #wildoz #nativeplants #inaturalist #bloomscrolling

August 28 journal: Yanchep National Park, Nilgen Lookout, Jurien Bay, and my *incredible* gull identification skills 😅

Koalas are native to the East Coast of Australia, and don't live in the wild in WA, but Yanchep National Park, just north of Perth, has a captive colony, and I'm not heartless.

I'm not entirely sure this sign is accurate.

Australian Wood Ducks are, I think, genuine contenders for the title of World's Cutest Duck.

Engaging in a little self-reflection

I'm going to get a talking to for searching for "mapgpie lark sex" on my lunch break, sigh. Look, I *genuinely* didn't think the first result would be a pornhub link. Anyway, this is a girl.

Ok, here are a couple photos for those who asked to see heron vs chipmunk. This includes the moment the heron tossed it a bit to reposition for swallowing. It's not gory but it is a bit disturbing so I'm posting with a warning. #birds 🌿

Every time I see a tech company using a Tolkien name, I get unreasonably angry, but I would make an exception for any CEO brave enough to use Celeborn's Quenya name.

Praying Mantis

Birders, I regret to announce that we're going back to "jizz."

Journal entry for our first day in Perth - great urban birding in Kings Park and Herdsman Lake

Hey Seattle friends. We had a buffet crampon greenline composite clarinet stolen out of our car today around Aurora & 135th. Let us know if you see one anywhere? Thanks. 💖

When will people learn that Northern Cardinals don't have yellow bills?

One of the towns I visited in WA has a persistent tradition of thylacine sightings. There are thylacine statues & paraphernalia around town and I swear I almost became a cryptozoologist on the spot. (Sadly, every Nannup Tiger recording and photo does actually seem to be of a feral fox.)

I'm using iNat's journal function to try to organize and provide at least a sketchy narrative of my trip. Here's the first entry of, uh ... many.

Ellis Brook Falls & some of the wildflowers from the area

Worse than a friggin' kinglet to photograph.

Australian robins are just the cutest

Ceci n'est pas une shrikethrush

Going through my photos to verify and update my ebird checklists, and do we think I can add Grey Shrikethrush on the basis of this incomparable documentary evidence? #worstbirdpic

I also put this fancy patch on my backpack. The glue ws not playing super nice with the fancy nylon so fingers crossed that my stitching holds. (artist is Bridget Farmer)

My Weird Southern Shorebirds* are keeping each other company on my bag *Technically Terek sandpipers breed in the Northern Hemisphere but I saw them in Australia, so.

CHOTINER: And you didn’t know this person - what did you call him again? CELEBRIMBOR GREATEST OF THE ELVEN SMITHS: Right, his name was Annatar but CHOTINER: And you taught him to create a ring harnessing all his malice and cruelty? CELEBRIMBOR: Well I mean I was deceived CHOTINER: So you’ve said

Am I the only person who calls Pied-billed Grebes "peebee greebeys"?

Sometimes you get a nice shot in dreadful light. Unfortunately the water was reflecting the sun right back at me as this great blue heron picked up a baby American alligator. #birds

God, I love plants.

The cutest result of my trip to Australia: my very affectionate cat, River has discovered that my partner is actually a premium cuddling option. I had to get up for work at 6:30. Instead of her usual complaints, she just took off to V's bedroom for an extra three hours of premium snuggle time. 😊

Okay, I warned you yesterday but SPIDER POST SPIDER POST SPIDER POST. Look. Spiders are great! They're our friends. They do good work out there and in our houses. I love spiders and how can you not love THIS spider, who is both a work of art *and* wildly successful at this game of hide-and-seek?

Woke up from a dead sleep to my apartment maintenance guy knocking on my door. "Is your apartment flooding?" "What? No." "Do you mind if I check?" Friends, the apartment was indeed flooding.

the new prehistoric croc is so cute and only one apples tall so i drew it getting absolutely decimated by a raindrop

Crap, I have to remember how to identify North American birds. Can we maybe get a hundred species of brightly colored large parrots? New World sparrows are hard.

Shana tova 🍎🐝