Rebecca Lexa, Naturalist

Master Naturalist, Nature Educator & Writer, Author of "The Everyday Naturalist: How to Identify Animals, Plants and Fungi Wherever You Go" (Ten Speed Press, Summer 2025); PNW Nature Tour Guide, All-Around Nature Nerd. AuDHD. Reblogs, OC, Weekly Deep Dives Into Natural History Topics - Asks Open! http://www.rebeccalexa.com - http://ko-fi.com/rebeccathenaturalist 

[waspdaily]

Today's wasp of the day is Orasema occidentalis!

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

Many wasps that specialize in parasitizing ants are phoretic; that is, they hitch a ride on an ant without their notice so that they can infiltrate their colony. That still has it's risks of discovery though, and so wasps of the genus Orasema go an extra step sneakier. They hide in the ant's food. It's hypothesized that these wasps lay their eggs in close association with thrips in order to use them as intermediate hosts. The ants collect the thrips as prey, unknowingly bringing the stowaway wasps with them.

[waspdaily]

I like her back grooves and subtle colors :)

[mammalianmammals]

Cottontail Rabbits in combat!!! - TX, USA

photograph by Hector D. Astorga

[whalesharkcat]

they're in a two circle flow

[alphynix]

I keep forgetting I still have unposted PBS Eons work, so let's have a little bit more of that this week:

• The polydolopimorphian metatherian Wamradolops and the paucituberculatan marsupial Perulestes from "When the Amazon Flowed Backwards"

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

[brian4rmthe6]

[stamp-svc]

Preservation of Polar Regions and Glaciers, Hungary, 2009

[feather-bone]

grizzly and friends and food :) this will be the postcard for creature club in June!

[alookseeblog]

assemblyglassworks

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Do you think it's immoral to use chatgpt for college assignments? I think it's unfortunately unavoidable.

It is absolutely immoral, completely counterproductive to the goal of learning things, and turns out incredibly subpar work.

As for unavoidable….you understand that the vast majority of people who have ever graduated college throughout history did so without ever once using AI, right? You understand that?

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

You understand that the point of writing papers isn’t just to have a paper with words on it, right? You understand that the entire point is to do the mental work necessary to put your learning into organized words, such that you actually learn it? And that if you outsource that to AI you are not learning?

[rebeccathenaturalist]

We started a new project in the weekly metalworking class today! We're practicing metal piercing, and I'm liking it a lot better than I thought I would. These three pieces will be sweat soldered together like a sandwich, with the copper tree in the back, the brass tree in the middle, and then the copper stag on top. I think I want to refine the stag's muzzle a bit more, since he looks rather moose-ish.

I also dropped the trillium pendant from my weekend class into the pickle longer to get the rest of the carbonization off of it. It still obviously needs a lot of filing and polishing, but you can see some of the brass peeking through on the petals.

I will admit that at the end of my very first class weeks ago, I had my doubts as to whether I was going to actually enjoy all this. I kept breaking saw blades. Sawing corners was really difficult. I wasn't good at precise lines. But by the end of the second class, when I had successfully soldered those tiny, imperfect bits of metal together, I felt like I had accomplished something.

And now here we are, a month in, and I'm already working on my second sweat-soldered statement necklace, I have four little rings waiting for next week's class on polishing and refining, and I'm looking forward to moving someplace this fall that has an actual outdoor space where I could do my own soldering at home.

I am SO glad I enrolled in these classes.

[wildjunebugs]

a walk after the storm

[powerfulwizard]

I had a dream last night that I ran away from fascists and ended up at this farm that was full of this weird but very large prehistoric animal that was like a fluffy Tapir and I want to know if it actually exists. It was about the size of a Dairy Cow.

[powerfulwizard]

Like this but with big fluffy hair with white streaks

[powerfulwizard]

Oh my god

[bugtoucher420]

A plethora of leafhoppers at the porch light! Peep that funky looking striped yellow gentleman: a Japanese maple leafhopper!

[siaugao]

my pink snails

[rebeccathenaturalist]

So in addition to my weekly metalworking class, I also signed up for a one day nature-themed jewelry class this past weekend at the Multnomah Arts Center. In a space of about five hours I cut, filed, chased, shaped, and soldered these pieces of brass and copper into a Pacific trillium (Trillium ovatum) pendant about 2 1/2 inches across.

I think the part I'm proudest of is the fact that I managed to sweat solder the three sepals on the back at the same time, while also keeping the center (representing stamens and stigmas) which I'd already soldered attached. One of the sepals moved slightly during the soldering process, but you know what? I'll take it. Considering that before this class the most complicated thing I'd made were wire circles, I think I managed to pull off a pretty neat process here. (My chasing needs a LOT of practice, but that's okay.)

The piece still needs some filing and polishing to finish it off. The petals will return to their brass color, while the copper will be shinier. We're supposed to be learning how to make metal chain later in the weekly class, so I may make a bespoke chain for this statement piece.

[buried-in-stardust]

OP: "I've seen lion dancing and dragon dancing before, but this is the first time I've seen realistic lobsters fighting clams."

[squeakitties]

the prawn bomb exploded into shrimpnel

[squeakitties]

a lot of people were krilled

[seabeck]

Conifer chicken of the woods