#northeastern us

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Blue-spotted salamander :)

Have you seen the blue-spotted salamander (Ambystoma laterale)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onDec 5, 2025

[flirts-with-dragons]

Going to do a series of northeast us bird appreciation posts so....

Chimney Swifts!

You'd usually find unique birds in a forest, but towns and cities are these guys' forests! They dart around the tops of buildings so high in the sky and chittering so energetically!! They fly like little boomerangs! You hear their noise and look up and they are there!!

Swooping and gliding and flapping and chirping.... the life of a tiny little arrow in the sky....

[deathandmushrooms]

Destroying Angel - Amanita Bisporigera

Eastern Newt - Notophthalmus viridescens

The path was riddled with newts. But this one found a stump and (being a stumpocratic species) the other newts instantly recognized them as leader, imbued with stumpy ruling mandate.

[rjzimmerman]

It's not just a U.S. West problem

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

At first glance, Upstate New York might not look like it has a problem with precipitation. After all, when Americans think of the term “drought,” chances are they think of the Western U.S. — dead lawns, disappearing reservoirs, and shrinking snowpack. But low rainfall is also an issue for other parts of the country, including the Northeast, that many people don’t necessarily associate with dryness.

This summer, rainfall has been relatively absent from many parts of the Northeast. New England has been particularly affected: For the first time in seven years, all of Massachusetts is currently experiencing some level of drought – a “flash” development based on conditions over the last few weeks. All of New York City is also experiencing drought conditions, with some areas considered to be in severe drought, as rainfall totals remain well below typical levels for the summer months. 

“Different parts of the country have different ‘normal’ amounts of rainfall,” said Nick Bassill, Director of Research and Development at the Center for Excellence in Weather and Climate Analytics at State University of New York at Albany. “If you’re down like 10 inches on the year in Las Vegas that is almost all the rainfall that you would get, versus here in Albany normally we get 50 inches of rain.”

The sheer difference in normal rainfall from region to region exposes one of the key differences between dryness and drought. What shifts an area from a period of pronounced dryness into a period of drought is not dependent solely on one metric, like rainfall. Besides the lack of precipitation, drought is determined based on relative severity, duration, and even the accompanying temperature. These factors are viewed together to create tools like the U.S. Drought Monitor, which can alert both average citizens and emergency managers as to when an area is considered dry versus experiencing full-blown drought. 

[curiouscalembour]

hey anybody know of some northeast u.s. cryptids? i keep trying to find stuff but I keep getting ones i already know or ones that aren't cryptids but are instead native american legends/history. I'd love if anyone could add onto this list!!! Mothman (west virgina, giant moth man w/ glowing red eyes) loveland frogman (ohio, frog man) champ (new york, vermont, lake champlain's nessie) little boston's big snake (pennsylvania, 20 foot snake) ogua (pennsylvania, big snapping turtle alligator)

[deathandmushrooms]

Brittlestems - destroying angel - violet cort - rooting shank(?)

It has been raining for a week but there was a break this morning where it was just muggy and buggy as all hell, and the forest floor was soaked to the bone and making mosquitos very happy. So naturally, I went to the deep woods to hike for three miles in search of mushrooms because I have a problem.

[xipe-slayground]

It may be May but it feels like late October right now with this wind and 40-50°F weather.

[gwydionmisha]

The Blizzard of 1978: Frozen Snapshots from the Historic Storm That Slammed the Northeastern US

The Northeastern United States Blizzard of 1978 stands out as a catastrophic nor’easter that swept through New England, New Jersey, Pennsylv