Tsuro is always our go-to short game for when folks are getting to game night and getting into the mood. We also like to play Uno at the end of the night when our brains are fried or Jackbox.
Neverwinter Nights and Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was a little kid. I watched my dad play Neverwinter and had to indulge in my own tiny fantasy to play as a "dragon." Still at it.
I always go for a druid-type in games (I have a druid of the coast in a 5e game and now a moon druid in BG3) and I too am frustrated that I can't really do spells while Bear. But it's okay, because I am Bear.
Since roadside hawk is an actual species in Latin America, I might stick with calling our red-shouldered hawks by their own common name, even if they do tend to be on the roadside a lot! I was excited for a moment since I hadn't heard of a rare raptor in Florida.
It was a battle between my queer identity and my biologist identity. For regular browsing and posting, science won out. But I have an account with blajah.zone too to discuss the queer agenda.
I consider myself a people, and I prefer my body jewelry to be gold if I can afford it. A few pieces are gold-colored anodized titanium (which are fading), but very prominent pieces are solid gold. I like yellow gold, not rose gold. I actually think titanium/"silver" looks more tacky than gold.
But that's just for pieces of jewelry that go into my body. For bracelets and such, I prefer brass, leather, and shades of brown. I don't wear necklaces.
Gold cars are disgusting though.
Wow, that's impressive! I'm a hiker too, but I don't have the time to do that much hiking. Besides, I'm also looking for birds and other wildlife, so my 5 miles can take nearly 4 to 5 hours, hah.
I too use peanut oil for cooking nearly everything. So cheap.
I've only just started weighing again. My "big loss" was in 2019, and while I couldn't maintain my lowest weight, I've largely maintained and even built muscle to stay within my healthy range. I've tipped up in the last year after some medical changes and muscle building. There are still bits of me that I'd prefer looked different. CICO worked for a time, but I hate it, so I'm falling back to fasting when possible (which I've basically always done anyway). Just gotta be conscious of the snacks, especially those my new work keeps trying to feed me!
I wonder if this would work for my feeders, how clever! They're such a menace.
Same with me and Catan. I generally do not like resource-hoarding "competitive" games anyway, and Catan did not help that.
Many of my friends are biologists themselves, but not all are as well-verse in birds, so I'm definitely the bird guy there. Or wildlife guy, as in the case of my family. Kinda why I started bird ID and snake ID communities here when I didn't see them (not sure how to link to them on mobile).
I like to post pictures to get the community more active, but I'm also down for discussion.
Laat year, I was a teaching assistant for a study abroad course to Honduras. One of our stops was PANACAM, one of the best national parks in the country (I spent about ten days there this year, such a beautiful location). We only had half a day there. The class happened to contain only women, and the day we visited, we learned of the US Supreme Court's decision regarding abortion access. Demoralized, I led a group to a bird tower in the forest in our remaining time. They were largely uninterested in birding, but they were into the more charismatic species. In the span of an hour on that tower, we only recorded ten species, but the experience was quite exceptional. I located three king vultures far in the sky and was able to show them to the students. A dozen or so swallow-tailed kites swooped around the tower. I photographed a dark morph short-tailed hawk with a lizard in its bill across two passes (a publication I'm working on). The students located a keel-billed toucan before I did. And best (for them) of all, a white-nosed coati decided to pop up in the leaves just 20 feet from us.
I love birding, but I really love getting others into it and making cool observations with them. It was a memerable day for sure.
Accipiter ID - Sharp-shinned vs Cooper's
As hawk watch locations across North America start hiring and counting migrating raptors, the raptors themselves are gearing up to head wherever. I've had the opportunity to see and photograph a lot of raptors in the past two years. The two common accipiter hawks, the sharp-shinned hawk (or "sharpie") and Cooper's hawk are often mistaken for one another. While the sharpie is usually considerably smaller than the Cooper's, size can be difficult to judge in the field. Sharp-shinned hawks often travel in pairs during migration.
I hope this graphic helps you to visualize some of the differences between these two species.
The gain and then subsequent slashing of human rights based on fascist beliefs and lack of representation (and possibly over representation by fringe groups that capture the news cycle). Across the world, populism and fascism is gaining in popularity - again. It felt like we'd gotten past this point for a minute.
There are many things you want to consider when identifying snakes, and it can become intuitive with practice
Some people seem to think that identifying snakes is a supernatural skill that only experts have, but it is not that difficult to learn. There are a few very important factors that go into identifying a snake.
A link to the African Snakebite Institute, a great organization dedicated to snake identification and education in South Africa.
Creeper creeping
I love finding brown creepers. I often find them just scanning tree trunks, though there's one singing at one of my birding spots now.
Pennsylvania, USA, March 2022
Migrating Merlin
Merlins kinda breed in my area, but you're more likely to find them during migration. I believe we found three on this day.
Pennsylvania, USA, Oct. 2022
Little parula
Sometimes warblers don't care how close you are. This one was probably ten feet away. They are truly smol, and I like to crop my photos.
Honduras, April 2023
Melanistic eastern gartersnake from northern Ohio
I was hoping for Erie watersnakes, but this was a nice find anyway. This area is known for having melanistic garters.
May 2022
I love how tiny kinglets are and how well they handle the cold
Golden-crowned kinglet
Pennsylvania, January 2022
Almost time for fall warblers!
Study the finer details of migrating warblers with our handy photo guide.
Few warblers retain their breeding plumage into fall. Most warblers transition into a nonbreeding/winter plumage after their young have fledged. Some look kinda close to their breeding plumage, but others look radically different.
It's almost baby snake season
A lot of baby or small snakes can be confusing if you're not sure what you're looking for. Fortunately, in the US, they're all relatively easy to ID with photos of decent enough quality.
In the eastern US, Dekay's brownsnakes are super common, both juveniles and adults. Their range largely overlaps with the eastern copperhead and only slightly overlaps with the cottonmouth. Both the copperhead and cottonmouth will have yellow tail tips as juveniles, and even when young, they are considerably larger than juvenile (and some adult) Dekay's brownsnakes. This brownsnake also usually has a pale neckband as a juvenile in addition to a spotted or chain-link pattern on its backside.
There is not yet enough content for your sort selection to really matter. I sort by new because at least I'll see more content as stuff is posted throughout the day.
Wow, great image! I'm amazed at how similar the Brazilian tanager is to the scarlet tanager despite being in different families.
he do a flip
Sometimes I don't even know what I'm photographing. This is a male blue-black grassquit doing a "I'm sexy" dance as he calls.
I missed photographing male scarlet tanagers this year, so here's one from last year
Ohio, May 2022
Red-winged blackbird telling off a snail kite
Any large bird is a threat.
Florida, May 2020
Shorebird ID
Identifying birds is hard. No matter the species, no matter the time of year—it’s a challenge. The right bird but the wrong lighting conditions can fool even an expert birder, but us newbies? Oof, sometimes it feels like we don’t even have a chance. Every season, it seems like there are new arriv
Anyone else getting out and looking for shorebirds? I got a lifer yesterday after-the-fact--a stilt sandpiper. It blended in well with the short-billed dowitchers.
Here is a link that helps me with shorebird ID!
Western rattlesnake ID
A lot of rattlesnake species (Crotalus sp.) in the western US look quite similar, but there are a few characteristics you can look at to help you identify them. The body pattern, facial pattern, tail pattern, and head scalation can all help lead you to the correct ID. While identification is not critical for envenomation treatment, it's fun to know what you're looking at (kind of the point of this community).
Thanks! 90% luck, 10% skill!
Black-headed trogon in Honduras, June 2023
Trogons are incredibly fun to find and photograph. This is the only individual black-headed trogon I came across this year.
Rugged tiny blue-gray gnatcatcher
Pennsylvania, July 2023
Cliff swallow taking a sip
Cliff swallows aren't as ubiquitous in the northeastern US as other swallow species, like barn and tree swallows. However, where there is one, there are probably 100 in the same area!
Pennsylvania, July 2023
House finch VS purple finch
While we're not seeing a lot of purple finches around the US right now, it's always good to brush up on your bird ID knowledge. Here is a good comparison between these two commonly confused species. You should primarily focus on the lack of distinct stripes on the body, the raspberry tones in the purple finch wings, and the facial coloration and pattern. Male house finches usually have a gray ear patch that lacks any reddish color, whereas the purple finch usually has a really distinctive pattern covered in raspberry.
Cottonmouths VS Watersnakes
Harmless watersnakes (Nerodia sp.) are oden mistaken for venomous cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorous/conanti) in the eastern US, even outside of cottonmouth range (the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain). Here is a nice graphic depicting visual differences in their body shape, face, and pattern. Note: this doesn't include all North American watersnakes, but it includes the species more likely to be encountered in the same range.
Those are ADORABLE. Maybe my next post will be some baby tarantulas trying to figure out how to cross a road (I hear tarantula moms aren't into childcare like SOME arachnids...).
I looked and looked, and I didn't spot any Ross's geese nor overhear other birders gasping at the sight of one. I did scour my images. A few are spotted at Middle Creek (where this event occurs in Pennsylvania) every year, but obviously, they're hit or miss when you have to sort through tens of thousands of individuals that generally all look the same.
It loads fine for me on Jerboa and desktop.
Tiny dancers
It might not be obvious, but these sparkling-tailed hummingbirds are actually smaller than some big beetles. When they're flying past, it's hard to believe that they're actually birds.
Honduras, June 2022
