A tiny dog (a reddish brown chiweenie) next to a giant squash (a yellow and green summer squash).

Giant squash pictured below (tiny dog for scale).

Gardening is such a fun and rewarding experience, perhaps "touch grass" is infact excellent advice after all.

F r e n c h F r i e s
🐦 🍟

A poster of female North American birds that includes a red-necked phalarope, painted bunting (she's green!), belted kingfisher (females have belts!), california quail, anna's hummingbird, blue grosbeak, northern harrier, black-throated blue warbler, northern cardinal, red-winged blackbird (not exactly a black bird), and common merganser.

I often get asked to help with bird ID problems when the answer is: it's a female of a common species! Here's a poster celebrating the often-overlooked intricacies of female bird plumage. During June, proceeds from my shop sales go to @instbirdpop.bsky.social topatoco.com/collections/...

On my HRT anniversary of all days I saw one of our (Chicago's) beautiful piping Plovers for the first time this year!

Female red winged Blackbird (a smallish brown/tan/white striped bird) perching on a woman's hand eating seeds.

Made a friend today at Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, look at that fancy lady!

Ribs and spine of a skeletonized deer surrounded by dry foliage.

Shattered deer skull with oddly white teeth surrounded by dried leaves.

Partially skeletonized leg of a deer, the bottom half has a small amount of fur and a hoof, the top is completely skeletal.

A deer as viewed through the lens of binoculars, it is hunched over a bit and surrounded by dried grass.

Didn't see any Woodcocks on my trip to the woods today, but I did find a cool deer skeleton scattered along the river bank. (I also saw deer that were not skeletons)

Documentary about Red Winged Blackbird mating in the style of a Cold War thriller.

How hard do I need to *peent* to summon the American Woodcocks to my bedroom?

Indeed, a White House official told The Free Press that the basis for targeting Khalil is being used as a blueprint for investigations against other students. Khalil is a "threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States," said the official, noting that this calculation was the driving force behind the arrest. "The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law," said the official.

NEW: White House says the arrest and deportation of student activist & legal US resident, Mahmoud Khalil, is a blueprint for more.

The final line here is chilling. The White House specifically says Khalil was not breaking the law.

No evidence, no due process, no crime. He was just disappeared.

Killdeer, I don't even know deer!
(I heard so many of them today, and yet somehow I only got a glimpse of like 2 in flight)

Went to the beautiful Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary today, the chorus of "conkalee" was a delight to hear!

Everyone needs to understand - every hospital withholding healthcare from trans children will do the same to trans adults as soon as the orders come down.

House Passes ‘Laken Riley Act’ to Deport Unauthorized Immigrants Charged With Minor Crimes Forty-eight Democrats joined Republicans in supporting legislation that aims to deport more migrants charged with nonviolent crimes, a first salvo in a broader crackdown.

This is evil, and the fact almost fifty Democrats voted for this is simply unconscionable. "Minor crimes" here means NONVIOLENT crimes. No one should be deported for drug possession.

No human is illegal on stolen land. Abolish deportations.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/u...

*peent*

Infuriating.
I try to remind myself that national politics aren’t the place to invest your focus.
But this entire administration has been the most feckless and complicit I can think of.
Catastrophically bad in so many ways.
Just infuriating.

Common goldeneye is a duck with fancy white and black plumage.

Red-breasted(?) merganser. Duck-like bird with a longer, thinner bill and a cool, punky tuft of feathers on its head.

American kestrel atop a tree. Very exotic looking bird for these parts. They have small, sharp beaks, war paint black and white markings on their faces, rusty brown and soft blue caps, and mottled reddish brown backs.

Red bird with a black mask and tall, spikey tuft on its head—although the tuft isn’t always deployed, this one is 100%.

Feathered folks hanging around at Montrose Point in Chicago. There’s always some critters around there. At least that’s been my experience.
Dec 15, 2018

Gold Banner on Red Background: Stop Forcing A.I. into Fucking EVERYTHING! Nobody Asked For It; Everyone Hates It

Stop Forcing A.I. into Fucking EVERYTHING!

Please bring out your best photos of birds looking straight into the camera! Sometimes they look goofy, sometimes they look intense.

Here's a Tree Swallow's glare that makes me glad I'm not a bug.

#birds 🌿

A brown bird with orange-red tail, wing, crest and beak stands on a wet branch looking like she's doing a photo shoot for a magazine cover

Northern Cardinal looking especially bright and fabulous on a rainy, gloomy day

#birds 🌿

Japanese tit a little white round orb bird, flying

LOOK AT THIS TIT

It's so cool that the guy who's going to be in charge of the entire US healthcare system thinks the water is turning the frogs gay and that's why trans kids exist

Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

On the 8th day of Christmas, Chicago gave to me, like 12 or so Juncos in my berry tree.

"Conka-lee!"

Petition to abolish the royal family, no bird has the divine right to be called king, nor shall they bear a crown. Looking at you Eastern "King"bird. (The belted kingfisher can keep its title though UIUC pride bby!)

I can hear the "skew skews" from this post (I feel for the mealworm, the constant calls during mating season are certainly something lol, they are loud enough that even the grave won't be enough to block out the noise).

A wet blue, white and black bird stands on a log piled with dried mealworms. The bird has a mealworm sticking up on the back of its head

You've heard of those orcas wearing salmon hats? Well this Blue Jay is wearing a mealworm. lol

#birds 🌿

As someone from Chicago, who spent several years in Urbana (a hybrid zone for Black Capped and Carolina Chickadees), I secretly hope that whenever I see a photo of one of those it is a Black Capped because I gotta root for my home team.

Petition to rename Ovenbirds to Airfryerbirds

Sometimes I look back on the summers of yore and think "damn I missed my partner getting dive-bombed by a RWBL".
I blame the bank swallows i was staring at through my binoculars.