Pacific Madrone My Beloved @coyote-mints - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
Pacific Madrone My Beloved
@coyote-mints
Zack, She/they, 26, California, living on Miwok land/Zone 8 /Native plant enthusiast/Habitat Restoration/Sustainability/Learning about the ecosystems around me
Figeater beetles (Cotinis mutabilis) devouring ripening prickly pears, at the Sierra Vista Community Garden, Sierra Vista, Arizona. Figeaters are a western species, and slightly larger and more shiny and green than the summer Junebugs I grew up with in the southern U.S. (C. nitida). I can't recall ever seeing Junebugs massed together in such numbers.
Etymology note: Cotinis is a transliteration of an Ancient Greek word meaning wild olive tree, used for the beetle's resemblance in size and color to an olive.
Drone incursions are becoming more and more of an issue when it comes to wildfires, so last year I designed these graphics, but I never got around to sharing them anywhere.
If you send your drone up during a wildfire, even if you don't feel like you are that close, all planes and helicopters in the area may have to be grounded which can have a massive and detrimental effect on first responders' ability to manage that fire.
If you send your drone up and a plane or helicopter hits it, no matter how small your drone is, it could crash that aircraft injuring or killing those on board and potentially people on the ground as well. Even if the aircraft stays up, it will have damage that could ground it for an indeterminate and potentially extensive amount of time, meaning one less resource is available for that fire and other fires.
Just don't do it.
These graphics are free to use and distribute for any non-profit uses! You can check out my Payhip store to download (for free, or pay what you want) a package of files that include vertical versions of each design, print sizes, and social media sizes.
If you want to check out the other disaster and disaster education resources I have available, visit my website.
Hello! These look like domestic dog to me, they have a really wide palm pad that’s splayed out, toes that are also splayed out especially those side toes, and the claws are really blunt—with wild canids they’re sharp and usually register more as a pinprick (or like the point of a pen with wolves). Here’s some examples of coyote tracks for comparison:
Notice how the toes are almost stacked in two rows with the side toes tucked underneath the leading toes, and the palm pad is small and contained in the track/toes. The claws sometimes don’t even leave a mark, but when they do it’s pretty small. Most of the time wild canid tracks are more “neat” and domestic dogs are more “sloppy”, but it can depend on the substrate too, sometimes they slip in the mud and it looks messier!
Here’s a nice example from David Moskowitz’s tracking field guide:
Also here are some wolf tracks since I mentioned them!
Happy tracking, I hope you’re able to find some coyote tracks and lots of other fun things too!Knowing how to identify domestic dogs is a super helpful starting point because you’ll see them a lot :) Also I’m always happy to help ID tracks!
oh my goodness! thank you so much for all of this!!!! I really appreciate it, I can definitely see the difference now. I guess the sources I had looked at weren't so true. this'll definitely come in handy in the future as I'm otherhearted! have a nice night and thank you so so much!!
You’re very welcome! There’s unfortunately a lot of misinformation and mislabeled tracks online, it can be really tough to parse out what’s accurate unless you already know about tracks, which isn’t helpful for most people! It absolutely is possible to teach yourself tracking by spending time in the field with curiosity, but it’s helpful to have some resources to fall back on and to look up questions you have (and to find out things you didn’t even know to look for—I’m constantly discovering new things!)
Here are some resources I compiled recently for when I guest instruct at the natural history center:
And this post has even more with some links to make things easier!
I’m seriously always thrilled to get sent tracking photos/mysteries, it’s always cool to see what people are finding out in the world!
Do you have any advice for an apprentice tracker and bone collector?
Absolutely! If you have any specific questions, I always welcome folks reaching out. I’m also happy to identify mystery tracks, although I’m most familiar with species in North America, specifically the NW region, but I do have some SW desert species under my belt now too! A lot of the species are similar enough that I can at least narrow it down, I found that to be the case when I stumbled upon tracks in the UK as well :)
The resources listed below are mostly North America-specific, because I’m a naturalist in North America! I’ll mark ones that aren’t in bold.
Some resources for bone collecting:
Finding animal bones
Animal Skulls: A Guide to North American Species by Mark Elbroch
Skulls and Bones: A Guide to the Skeletal Structures and Behavior of North American Mammals by Glenn Searfoss
Mammalian Osteology by B. Miles Gilbert (very hard to find and expensive when you do, but this book is at the top of my wishlist)
And please research animal parts and collection laws for your area!
Some resources for tracking:
Programs:
(All of these I know some/all of the trackers and can vouch for them)
Tracker Certification North America / CyberTracker
Wilderness Awareness School + Queer Nature (WA state)
Swan Valley Connections (MT state)
Nighthawk Naturalist School (OR state)
San Diego Tracking Team (CA state)
Four Corners Wildlife (various SW states)
Original Wisdom (online, around North America and Southern Africa)
Tracking Connection (online and around the NE USA)
Online:
Facebook: Animals Don’t Cover Their Tracks, Tracks and Signs of European Animals, European Wildlife Tracking, Tracks and Sign of Reptiles and Amphibians, Original Wisdom’s Tracking Community, CyberTracker Bird Tracks and Sign, CyberTracker Specialist Evaluation Study Buddies (for folks who are actively going towards a professional or specialist certification)
iNaturalist projects: Animal Tracks and Sign, Bird Tracks and Sign, Found Feathers, North American Animal Tracks Database, European Animal Tracks Database.
Websites: Bear Tracker (Kim Cabrera), Nature Tracking (Jonah Evans), Feather Atlas (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).
Books:
The field guides circled are the ones I use the most. If I could bring just one book with me into the field, it’d be Mammal Tracks & Sign second edition by Mark Elbroch.
You know what I know I'm usually pretty silent but I need you all to understand the horrible impact SpaceX and Starship has had on South Texas.
Yes, fuck those ugly ass cyber trucks but FUCK that Space Center.
Starship genuine danger to the people who live here. It's to the point many of the people here when they heard the explosion joked that it was probably another one of Elon's rockets.
This is a horrifying pattern we are becoming numb to, we hear about a planned test launch and brace ourselves for more debris.
Several of Musk's attempts at rockets, especially after the deregulation, have resulted in catastrophic explosions. Want the list? Here are a few!!
December 9th, 2020- Starship serial No. 8, or SN8. Exploded upon landing.
February 2, 2021- Starship SN9. Exploded upon landing.
March 3rd. 2021- Starship SN10. Landed in one piece. Fire at the skirt caused an explosion.
April 20, 2023- Starship. Exploded once more. Debris scattered in Port Isabell.
March 6, 2025- Flight 8. Spun out of control and exploded in a mass of fireballs. Planes had to be grounded due to the mass explosion and the debris are stills scattered in the ocean.
And now we have the most recent and the worse one yet.
June 18-19, 2025- Starship 36 during a GROUND test caused a mass explosion, the looming mushroom cloud causing locals in Cameron to believed they had been bombed.
The loser describes this it as a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" instead of what they are: fiery failures locals have to deal with as a result.
Pretty much everyone locally knows Elon Musk and his negative impact on our home, people who have had the unfortunate curse to have worked with him and the center call it Cultish, 8 members of his staff who spoke out against his behavior and sexual harassment were all fired.
Its a well known fact he hates the people here, and he goes out of his way to find employees who are not from this area and move them down here.
Musk has tried to encourage even more white people to come down to South Texas and live in his "Starship City". An attempt to gentrify and push out local citizens.
Rebekah Hinojosa, a local Activist with Another Gulf Is Possible, even had her home unlawfully entered by police after an alleged graffiti on a mural he commisioned (which didn't even obscure the mural).
This article is a good read on everything Musk has done to South Texas
One day last month, Juan Mancias, the chief of the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe of Texas, and two companions headed to Boca Chica village, a bays
I am TIRED of this going unnoticed and unheard of the People of The Valley. I need you to stop laughing and start taking this seriously.
If you want to read more on all the insane shit this man has done to South Texas here are a few more Articles I would Recommend
South Texas groups sue Texas for letting Elon Musk's SpaceX dump wastewater without permit, SpaceX's Starship explodes in space, which Musk calls a 'minor setback', What Is Starbase? Elon Musk Builds a SpaceX City With Shops, Worker Housing and Its Own Mayor — But Texas Locals Aren't Happy
Rivercane Storage Basket - Lottie Queen Stamper - Date unknown
This storage basket was made by Lottie Queen Stamper, one of Cherokee's best-known basket weavers. Using rivercane, the basket was woven upwards from a square base and tapers to a circular rim. Walnut hulls were used to dye the cane to achieve the dark brown color; bloodroot gave it an orange color. Its pattern is Man in a Coffin (or Man in a Casket), with "coffins" alternating along a diagonal.
Born in the Soco community to Levi and Mary Queen, Lottie first learned how to make white oak and pine needle baskets from her mother. She married into a family that taught her how to make baskets from rivercane. In 1935, at the age of 28, she started making cane baskets and, in 1937, she began teaching basketmaking at the Cherokee School. Over her teaching career, Stamper taught hundreds of girls to weave baskets.
I wanted to use what ‘reach’ I may have here to share the Carolina Wildlife Center’s urgent plea for donations. If they are unable to raise $75,000 to cover ongoing and future care of their wildlife patients, the center will have to close July 20th, 2026. The services provided by CWC to the community are incredibly valuable, and without them, many wild animals will suffer without the care they need.
This is one of the few rehabilitation centers that take songbirds in South Carolina. They're a huge part of my workplace's network, and if they close songbirds WILL take a huge hit in this state.
They're already declining at a terrible rate.
Please consider sharing & giving, if you can.
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