still & astonished @asterwildalso - Tumblr Blog

Continuing my bird tarot deck, some of these are from asks so they might seem familiar haha.

Honestly though I’m kind of trying to make sure that the birds truly line up with the cards I put them on. I might change Strength… but for now here’s the Goose defending their babies.

jagalart

eagle owl

why-animals-do-the-thing

The World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise has a new white-faced owl chick… and he’s doing 1pm demos the next two days 5/28-5/29.

I cannot, sadly, teleport to Idaho this week. But if you’re in Idaho and have Thursdays or Fridays off, please go see this fluffball on my behalf.

onionowlwatchingu

I got to see the lil fella today!

So many people showed up they had to split the session into 2 groups so we didn't overwhelm the birb

This lil guy is Nox! They aren't 100% sure what sex it is, but they're pretty sure he's male.

He's a brancher, so he can't fly yet but is real good at jumping. In the wild he'd be jumping from branch to branch to build up his flight muscles, but he'll be flying soon

Nox is 5 weeks old, weighs 190g, and has reached his adult size, but his flight and tail feathers haven't grown in yet. He'll be a full adult next week!

The Northern White Faced Owl is from Africa, usually between the Sahara and the equator (according to Wikipedia, staff just said Africa). It used to be believed that this and another species, the southern white faced owl, were the same species but are now recognized as separate birds

His lil whiskers are called bristles, and they function like cat whiskers! He's just learned to tear meat, the trainer had big tweezers to give him lil bits of rabbit (some were placed on her glove and some were put right in front of his beak!)

He kept bobbing his head around, which is called triangulating and helps him figure out how far away things are.

*checks notes* these are also known as transformer owls! Like screech owls, they can stretch themselves real tall and thin to try and camouflage itself as a branch (search for transformer owl and you'll see what I mean)

After today he'll spend time with a foster parent to teach him how to Bird, then he'll join the legion of ambassador birds they have out here!

(PS his feathers are so fluffy my phone had a hard time taking clear pictures of them)

If you're near Boise this is absolutely worth a trip, they have so many other birds to see, and there's a walking trail just outside as well as a huge ampitheatre they use when it's not too hot out

Thanks so much for telling us about this!!!

why-animals-do-the-thing

Thank you for taking such wonderful photos and sharing!!

I also highly recommend checking out the Center if you’re in the area.

becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys

Bank of England are letting you vote for what animals you want on their new bank notes: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/help-us-design-our-next-series-of-banknotes

Pine martens are an option!

PINE MARTENS??!?

becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys

Oh my god, you can choose up to two from each category:

HOW CAN I NARROW THIS DOWN

v-spicata

I chose the fox as one of mine, it's an obvious choice but it'd be nice to celebrate an animal so commonly denigrated. Not that old 'foul mart' has had much of a fun time of it historically either.

Some interesting options here in general, they've not just gone with the obvious animals.

becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys

I ended up not choosing the fox, purely because I actually reckon it's going to romp home - for all the controversy, it's the most common wild mammal people see in urban centres, and it's charismatic

I went pine marten, as I've been involved in helping their reintroduction to Wales, and then I wrestled with myself for an Age before finally going hedgehog.

Birds: puffins were the easiest choice. The UK - and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park in west Wales specifically - has a significant portion of the global breeding population of puffins, thanks to Skomer and Grassholm islands. In a country with the biodiversity depletion we have (bottom 10% of countries globally for biodiversity), the islands of Pembrokeshire are almost obscene in how high their biodiversity is, and it's for breeding specifically. We can be justly proud of those. Plus, puffins are fun clowns.

And then I agonised about the others until I finally went for the Great Spotted Woodpecker, a bird I do periodically see and get excited about every time

The Lumped-Together-Others: the bumblebee, you have to. I adore bumblebees.

And then I went for the marsh fritillary, because it's super endangered and I'm an environmentalist with a specialism in habitat management and ecology, and therefore spend a non-trivial amount of my time explaining how to manage for the little assholes.

But MY GOD it took me a while

kaijutegu

Happy National Alligator Day!

Sparkle on and be yourself!

vireosy

tempestuous flyer

// for Polar Lights: Dawn @polarlightszine // this piece is on Inprnt

lurelimeart

brown pelican!

devinellekurtz

Ocean Art From my yearly print sale, which closes for the year in 3 days!

stark1lling

Posting wasp propaganda because my ass is seething yo!

Update! Edited background to be lighter for better legibility, usually use grey backgrounds for artwork and forgor that it probably wouldn’t be great to read!

oh-he-grows

More than anything else, gardening has taught me how sweet and beautiful and unique and important wasps are

they are unapologetically my favorite bugs and I will coexist with them as long as I live

apocrital

Ladybirds – What's the Deal?

People have some very strange views on ladybirds, particularly invasive ones, and I do feel the need to clear some of them up

Ladybirds are in the family Coccinellidae. Every single species in that family can be referred to as a ladybird (or ladybug, lady beetle, whatever you use. Point being, they are all in the same group)

The reason I clarify that is because of these guys. These are Harmonia axyridis, commonly known as harlequin ladybirds, Asian ladybirds or Asian lady beetles. They are invasive in Europe and North America and, as you can see, are extremely variably in their patterning (some people seem to think they're generally more orange than other ladybirds when that really isn't the case). I have seen a significant number of people use that last name in the specific form of "these are not ladybirds, they're Asian lady beetles". They are, in fact, both. Common names are just like that sometimes

This statement also usually comes with the assumption that 7 spot ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata) are the 'real' ladybirds. In Europe, these are the most common native species but far from the only one. In North America, they are common but they are also invasive, just like harlequins. Invasive status is region specific and these species aren't harming the environment in their native ranges

7 spot ladybird

Harlequins are considered invasive due to their impact on populations of native insects. However, even their wikipedia page is spreading very strange ideas about this

These are not remotely related to them being invasive. These are minor inconveniences to humans which do not concern native species in the slightest. A species being annoying to you does not make it invasive. I have seen some of this same logic applied to mosquitoes when they are also a large family of insects with native species practically everywhere but Antarctica, and it is incredibly unhelpful. An invasive species is one that has been introduced to somewhere outside of its native range and is having a negative ecological impact, no more and no less. They are not there of their own accord (in the case of both of these ladybird species, they were intentionally introduced as biological control for aphids) and they are not 'evil' for being in the wrong place, even if they do have to be dealt with

Regarding dealing with them, I personally do not trust the general public to accurately discern an invasive species from a native one, especially with ones as variable as ladybirds. Individual people squishing insects have very little impact on overall populations, particularly when they are as well established as these. I would rather people leave all of them alone to be dealt with by actual experts than risk killing native species in the process

As for the actual claims about the grievances harlequins cause humans, they tend to be posed as unique to them when they really aren't. Many ladybirds are mildly toxic, which is why they have bright colouration to warn predators that they won't taste good. Many ladybirds will reflex bleed as a defence strategy (bleeding out of their joints to provide a taste of their toxic blood). Many ladybirds are capable of biting people and harlequins just seem to do so at a slightly higher rate. None of these cause any real harm unless you happen to be allergic

And now for a quick fire round of funny claims from the notes of this post that I'm not dignifying with a real debunk I just find them hilarious

I will end this with a recommendation that everyone check out their local ladybird species because I guarantee you there are more than you probably know about. Especially if you, as one of the people above, claim to have not seen a ladybird in a decade 💀. iNaturalist may be a good place to start and also gives you an indication of whether they're native. You might also be able to find identification guides for your area. Bugguide is useful for North American bugs

northerlyy

Thank you for this post!! Before I got into invertebrates, I was definitely victim of some of these common misconceptions/lies about asian lady beetles (Harmonia axyridis). I also used to think 7-spotted lady beetles were native and endangered, and that a common native species was invasive. There is so much misinformation about ladybugs it's insane. To add onto this, here are some species of ladybugs native to the Eastern US that I've found to show that native species do exist, and they're actually quite plentiful in some places!

Saffron Lady Beetle (Mulsantina luteodorsa)

This tiny orange ladybug is endemic to the Southeastern US, and, based on observation records on iNaturalist, of which there are quite few, seems to either be pretty rare or easy to miss. Despite being noticeably way smaller than even the smallest adult asian ladybug, they possess an orange coloration that may make them a target of squishing for the average person. They have no spots, but neither do asian ladybugs sometimes!

Sigil Lady Beetle (Genus Hyperaspis)

A beautiful, but small, black and red ladybug that looks very similar to some of the black and red morphs of the asian lady beetle. This species is native across the Eastern US, and is again much smaller than their invasive look-alikes.

Polished Lady Beetle (Cycloneda munda)

Another spotless ladybug, native across the entire Eastern half of the US. They're slightly larger than the saffron lady beetle, closer in size to the asian lady beetle, but this makes them even easier to mistake for an invasive species. They're very widespread, so anyone in the Eastern US has a chance of finding one—it's just a matter of luck!

Spotted Pink Lady Beetle (Coleomegilla maculata)

A beautiful, common, and hard to mis-ID ladybug that is very commonly found across the entire Eastern US and occasionally in the southwest and throughout Central/South America. These guys are roughly the size of asian ladybugs, but they're very differently shaped and are always a bright, unmistakable pink or red color. From my experience, they're much, much more common in the Northeastern US than the Southeast, but I've still found a few in Georgia, so they do exist here!

Squash Lady Beetle (Epilachna borealis)

A very common native ladybug for anyone who has a garden with squash, gourds, cucumbers, or melons! These guys are minor agricultural pests, eating the leaves of plants in the family Cucurbitaceae as both larvae and adults. They're larger than asian ladybugs are very distinctly yellow, but they are still sometimes mistook for them or another common agricultural pest, the spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata).

Twenty-spotted Lady Beetle (Psyllobora vigintimaculata)

Last but not least, this absolutely tiny ladybug that is native across the entire US! I find them quite often, though they're extremely easy to miss due to their small size. I can't see anyone mistaking one of these for the asian ladybug as their patterns are not very variable and they are, again, very small, but it's good to know what they look like in the case you come across them in the wild.

These are all of the native ladybug species I've personally found and photographed, though in the US there are far more than just these! They're extremely variable and come in all different colors and sizes, some looking very similar to many non-native species. That's why it's important to leave invasive species population control to professional conservationists. The asian lady beetle population is already too established and too large to counteract, and killing a few here and there has no chance of hurting your target species and every chance of hurting the native species you could mis-ID for an asian lady beetle. Please treat all of them with respect, and, if you want to help native species, research them and create an environment where they will want to live and propagate!

apocrital

I can also contribute my own as I've been somewhat inadvertently working my way down the list of UK ladybirds

To my dismay this is the only photo I have of an eyed ladybird (Anatis ocellata) as I was running for a bus when I saw it, but I thought that it was a harlequin ladybird until I uploaded it to iNat. They typically have lighter spots around the darker ones, hence 'eyed', but nevertheless it would be very easy to confuse the two

With more pronounced 'eyes'

We also have the native cream streaked ladybird (Harmonia quadripunctata) in the same genus as harlequins and so relatively similar as well

I tend to see the M mark on the pronotum posed as an identifier for harlequins but as you can see both of the above could be said to have the same mark, as does the 2 spot ladybird (Adalia bipunctata) and 10 spot (Adalia decempunctata), both of which are also extremely variable with many morphs resembling those of harlequins, although they are a bit smaller

A. bipunctata, A. decempunctata x2, A. bipunctata

But we have plenty which don't closely resemble harlequins too

Henosepilachna argus, Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata adult and larva, Calvia quatuordecimguttata, Halyzia sedecimguttata, Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata x2, Tytthaspis sedecimpunctata, Exochomus quadripustulatus and Anisosticta novemdecimpunctata

And a couple outside of the UK