Wonderful shot, with great info. I love these buzzy Hymenopteran pollinators.

Tiny brown, pleated mushrooms in a half circle

First mushrooms to emerge up here where I live, in the Allegheny foothills of Virginia. My guess is Golden-haired Inkcap (Parasola suricoma), but don't rely on that.😁

#fungi #spring #Virginia, #mushroom

Nice shot! Can't wait! So far, just Rue-anemone and Common Blue Violets are blooming up here in Virginia at 1300 feet in a dry oak-hickory forest, but other native plants are budding. Hope to get down to a park in the Shenandoah Valley soon to see spring advancing there.

How we came to be: Scientists get first look at the evolution of early complex animals Scientists have discovered fossils in China that reveal a crucial transition from simple to complex life on Earth.

More and more, scientists are finding evidence that organisms (including us) evolved earlier than we thought. Science itself is evolving through better technology and continuing studies. Change is the only constant in nature, which makes it all the more exciting.

apnews.com/article/foss...

👏👏👏👏👏

My mother and I went to the Kennedy Center often, when I was a kid and then an adult. My mother is no longer alive, but she would have been furious over this shit show of narcissism. I hope someone finds the most demeaning way to get rid of his name everywhere! Resist!👊

This is an excellent summary of current circumstances

Kyle Kulinski: “A sundowning president with Alzheimer’s who’s a malignant narcissist is dragging us into WWIII, committing war crimes on a daily basis and crashing the global economy, and nobody is actually grabbing the steering wheel.”

🔊🔊😂

Accountability brings consequences.

And consequences are the only language corruption understands.

Money and political power do not outrank the Constitution.

They just need a wake up call and it’s coming at the midterms.👇

Citing First Amendment, federal judge blocks Trump order to end funding for NPR and PBS A federal judge has agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service...

Hallelujah!👏

apnews.com/article/trum...

Humpback whales perform an incredible bubble feeding spectacle right in front of a lodge in Canada. Witnessing this behavior is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

An Eastern Screech Owl (red morph) taking a snooze in the sunshine.

Photo is heavily cropped and the owl has since moved on (a raccoon is now hanging out in the tree hollow.)

Opinion | Buckle Up, Women. Cars Still Aren’t Built for You.

I was unaware but not surprised that car safety, as in medicine, research has been aimed primarily at male models. While medicine has slowly started recognizing that we are physically not like men, the car companies are still trying to actively ignore women.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/o...

Humans Had Dogs Before They Had Farming, Ancient DNA Confirms

Seems like every day scientists are pushing back the dates of evolutionary and cultural progress in humans. No surprise that they're finding the relationship of humans with dogs goes back further than was supposed.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/s...

A lovely, tiny, pink, seven-petaled Rue-anemone wildflower blooming on the forest floor

With all the crap going on around us, and a particularly cold winter here in Virginia, I found great joy today in seeing the first spring wildflower blooming here at Redbud Glen, in the foothills of the Allegheny Mts: a tiny Rue-anemone. #wildflower #spring #nature #Virginia

A soft, vintage-looking black & white photo of a small bird perched on a thin branch of a tree with small white blossoms. It's looking up at an awkward angle and has one wing open and the other is slightly open.

Winging it

One of my first attempts at bird photography last week. I got all the settings wrong & the colors were weird, so b&w to the rescue. Apple says this is a ruby-crowned kinglet.

#BirdOfTheDay #WingsOpenNotFlying #EastCoastKin #birds #SensoryArt #animals #ArtYear #Photography #ClassicMono

An old, red Chevrolet pickup with a white cab is driving down a busy street with a life-sized figure of Homer Simpson sitting on a laundry basket strapped to the bed of the truck. The perspective of the shot is from above. I was standing on a balcony and saw this truck drive by. Pasadena, California

#WackyWednesdayArt #ColorADay #RedWed

Because who doesn't drive around with a life-size Homer Simpson in the back of your red, classic pickup truck?

#EastCoastKin #HomerSimpson #ChevyPickupTruck #ClassicCars

Macro photograph of blueberry blossoms

Blueberry blossoms are back!
#photography #art #bloomscoll #flowers

Mirrored Mountain Majesty - Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park, British Columbia 🇨🇦

#reflection #lake #blueskyartshow #calm #tranquility #mirror #pano #photography #landscapephotography #clouds #travel #britishcolumbia #panorama #nature #snow #sky #naturephotography #mountains #forest #hike #canada

The RBN is smaller, slimmer, quicker, and calls in a bit higher pitch. Both species are bold and often come to our feeders. The WBNs nest here and train their young in how to get food from feeders. Both species will often cache food (such as sunflower seeds, in the hull) in tree-bark fissures.

Perched on a branch: "Compact bird with a very short tail, almost no neck, and a sharp bill. Sharply marked with a black crown, white eyebrow, and black eyeline. Blue-gray above and rusty below," as described by AllAboutBirds.org

Adult male bird facing down and clinging to the trunk of a tree, with one of its chicks below him, begging for food. As described by AllAboutBirds.org, this male is compact, no-necked and short-tailed, with a long, sharply pointed bill, blue-gray above with white belly and rusty spots near its rear.

One of my favorite winter birds here in the mountains of Virginia is the Red-breasted Nuthatch (first photo). The second photo is of a male White-breasted Nuthatch being begged for food from one of his chicks. 🧵

#birds #Virginia #nature

Here is a picture of a baby otter for no good reason.

I never though I would enjoy the sounds of eating....

How Seuk Kim's tragic plane crash built a volunteer army of pet rescuers A group of volunteer pilots and animal lovers, known as Seuk’s Army, has been conducting weekly airlifts to rescue pets from overwhelmed Southern shelters.

Cheers to these valiant volunteers who transport rescued dogs and cats by air.👏🏆💓

A photo of a black, yellow, and orange moth resting on light blue painted wood. The moth has a yellow head with black round eyes. Black markings descend from the head to the top of the abdomen, with bright yellow scales trailing on either side of the center. The wings are a metallic orange marked with large yellow spots. The abdomen is bright orange with tiny iridescent scales along the edges of the segments.

A close up of the moth's abdomen and the bright orange and the iridescent blue scales.

One of the joys of #MacroPhotography is seeing the beauty in the tiny things that would normally be overlooked. Many of the moths I meet are very small, and some have tiny details like the iridescence of this Orange Spotted Flower #moth, Syngamia florella.

#invertefest
#Mothmas

A photo of a 2.5 cm long red weevil resting on a ruler. The weevil has black spots on its elytra and an impressive snoot.

Happy #SnooterDay from the Palmetto #Weevil, Rhynchophorus cruentatus, North America's largest weevil species. This handsome fellow is a native of Florida who has spread through the South East and as its name suggests, noms heavily on Palms.

#Insects
#Beetles
#MacroPhotography
#invertebrates

Why Some Doctors Say There Are Cancers That Shouldn’t Be Treated

Interesting article. More scientific studies almost always bring as more questions than answers. We live in an incredibly complex world, with all its glory and pain.

Opinion | Amy Klobuchar: State A.I. Laws Keep Us Safe. Trump’s Next Move Could Upend That.

Amen, sister!👏

A'ja Wilson wins AP Female Athlete of the Year following historic 4th WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson stood atop the WNBA again, winning an unprecedented fourth MVP as her Las Vegas Aces earned a third championship in four seasons.

🏆👏👏👏👏👏

A bright-red maple leaf among the leaf litter on the forest floor

The Appalachian Mts in Virginia are for their vibrant fall colors. This year, lack of rain meant the show wasn't as long and vibrant as usual. But this maple leaf brings a cheery spot of color to the forest floor.
#fall #nature #tree