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in third grade on the swing with my friend i announced “i figured it out” and my friend said “figured what out” and i said “the meaning of life!” and being third graders this was very exciting so she leaned in and i whispered in her ear “it’s to have fun” and i don’t remember her reaction but i remember how i felt and how i knew so clearly that was the answer. how my small mind was beaming and shimmering with this answer that makes me scoff today but i know that they were right. i was right

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Britt Gow, Upwelling At Night

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Everyone should go read this paper. I’m not saying this idea isn’t worth looking into but this particular section on how different animal species have been documented to ignore human piss under increasingly specific conditions is just objectively hilarious

Aw, damn.

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For my fellow Sandhill craniacs interested in this phenomenon you’ll be delighted to know another cross-species adoption has been spotted in Madison WI this spring! Unknown how this happened but folks in my birder groups are saying the cranes took over an abandoned Canada goose nest with a single unhatched egg left behind. No way to know the backstory for sure but hopefully this chick is able to figure out life with his new eccentric parents

Hilariously, this baby is growing up to have the best posture I’ve ever seen on a Canada goose- look how tall he stands!

I recently watched a video of a pair of Sandhill Cranes raising a Canada Gosling, and it seems that it isn't the first example of it in the last few years. Are cranes like penguins where they will steal eggs/hatchlings if they had an unsuccessful breeding season, or is there some other reason that they 'adopt' baby geese?

If you follow enough birding groups in Sandhill crane territory, you’ll eventually see someone post a baby duckling or goose that is following around a pair of cranes. It’s not common, but it happens enough to be a thing!

Sandhill cranes don’t seem to steal babies, but they have an extremely strong parenting instinct. If they find a baby that needs taking care of, you can bet they’re going to take damn good care of it. There are documented cases of Sandhill cranes adopting unrelated crane chicks as well as geese and domestic ducks. They just love babies. There has even been some research into using Sandhill cranes as foster parents for endangered whooping cranes in order to re-establish a non migrating population of the latter. Sandhill cranes are super parents!

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Animals that are very Gender to me

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Pacific Viperfish Chauliodus macouni

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Hey, please don't use the term "cabal" to mean "powerful group lurking in the shadows" the way you have on your birdwatching post. It's a direct derivative of the Jewish Kabbalah and a perpetuation of centuries-old antisemitic harm. Please be more mindful of what words you choose to use and where they come from

Thank you for letting me know; I had absolutely no idea. I’ll certainly not be using that word in the future. I apologize for any discomfort caused!

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For this Moon Snail Mtuesday I would like to show you my bountiful harvest

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The summer is our busiest time and specifically fourth of July has to be the WORST night to work in veterinary medicine, worse than Christmas easily. So many corn cob or rib bone ingestions, heat strokes, and HBCs from dogs getting loose. Not to mention pretty much every patient is already panicking when they come through the door because they can’t understand why the sky is exploding. And while you’re frantically trying to triage the floor and keep your hospitalized patients calm all the owners are either terrified with/for their pet or mad at you because they want to get back to the block party and this is taking too long. Makes for a miserable night for staff, owners, and pets. Horrible holiday I am so glad I’m off for the first time in years

If anyone is working the fourth I love and appreciate you and I’m sending all the good vibes I can for a manageable shift 😭

I feel like a true indicator of when you’ve hit summer in a veterinary practice is when you start seeing multiple cases of these things in short succession:

Pancreatitis (from bbq food)

Grass seeds (in ears, in paws, in noses, even in a lung if you’re unlucky)

Foreign bodies (I’m looking at you skewers and corn cobs)

Heatstroke (when will people learn?)

Like once you start to notice one happening a lot, the others will soon follow.

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welcome to my farm where I keep my dark horse my black sheep my scapegoat and my underdog. my canary in the coal mine died ages ago

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Drew this Caribou at the Museum of Natural History. Then headed to the. museum’s bird section and added some feathered friends in order to make my illustration less boring.