#native wildlife

[bethanythebogwitch]

I helped with a study of local freshwater mussels today. They're doing transect studies of the river and tagging and releasing the mussels they find. Later they come back and do it again to see where the mussels are moving to over the course of 10 years.

They glued stickers to a mussel and called it science

These are called heel splitters. That's not even the biggest one we found

I know the big oblong one in the middle is called a pistol grip and the green warty ones are pimplebacks, but I don't know how to ID the rest

They can live for decades and are parasites as juveniles. I should do a Wet Beast Wednesday post on mussels because there's some interesting stuff about them

[sunny-possum-pal]

Snakes of Oregon guide

Available as prints and shirts !

The individual snakes are all up on Redbubble if there’s one that is your favorite

[annamelia-art]

A fox lives in our garden.

About five or six times a year I'm lucky enough to see it going about its foxy business while I'm in the kitchen early in the morning, or while I'm working from home on a nice day.

Today it came out from where I think it lives, under next door's shed, and had a good scratch in the sunny patch under our apple trees. I'm lucky enough to have a phone with a decent camera so I got good pics from my home office window. (You can also see the lesser spotted washing line).

Our garden has been left to go pretty wild, mainly because the fox lives there and I love foxes. Also I'm chronically ill and my husband is autistic, so garden maintenance is low on the priority list 🤷‍♀️ I am happy to have a little patch of urban wilderness if it means I get to see British native wildlife from my house.

[troythecatfish]

Here’s my personal recommendation of a YouTube channel to check out:

[bumblebeeappletree]

In the face of extreme habitat loss, wildlife biologist Dr. Chris Jenkins puts an ambitious plan in motion to save two uniquely American reptiles, the eastern indigo snake and the gopher tortoise, and the forest they call home.

The two threatened species are as important to their ecosystems as they are interconnected themselves. The eastern indigo snake is a prolific hunter that manages predator populations in the southeastern United States. In the northern part of its range, the snakes – along with more than 350 other species – rely on the deep burrows that the gopher tortoise creates to survive freezing temperatures every winter.

Both the indigo snakes and gopher tortoises are in steep decline, as their native habitat has been deforested for centuries and then further fragmented by roads with fast-moving vehicles. Dr. Chris Jenkins is part of a massive conservation effort that takes the reptiles’ homes into account. The team surveys the most critical tortoise land, purchases it, and then restores the native forests. From there, Dr. James Bogan, who leads the only eastern indigo breeding program in the world, can reintroduce new snakes to areas where they have previously gone extinct – with plenty of tortoise burrows to protect them.

[tilbugs]

white-lined sphinx says hello

[rebel13lion39]

Just learned that the National Park Service shares free crochet patterns!

I think I need to learn how to crochet just for that walleye

[jenahsey-creates]

Aziraphale as a Pademelon is my close second if he wasn't a Quokka (crying in cute)

Little sub adult Paddy hanging out on my property, hiding where the duck can't bully it.

[pyjamacryptid]

me to every bird ever, but especially native australian birds: you’re doing amazing sweetie *10 new photos added to camera roll*

my mother: darling, you see them every day

me: yeah 😭 I’m so lucky 😭

[bethanythebogwitch]

Big ol' mantis

[honoringthor]

Toad

[sorryabout-theblood]

a monarch friend!

[troythecatfish]

Here’s my personal recommendation of a YouTube channel to check out:

[bumblebeeappletree]

The surprise return of beavers to the British countryside brings benefits and controversy for humans and wildlife alike. The work of these famously busy rodents increases local biodiversity, reduces storm-induced flooding, and restores wilderness to a highly manicured landscape. It also injects some chaos into the lives of the beavers’ human neighbors. Can the British beavers regain their former glory as powerful ecosystem engineers, or is their new home too domesticated to return to the wild?

[californiastatelibrary]

Celebrate Earth Week and explore nature’s hardest working micro environmentalists, the pollinators! Learn about the incredible diversity of California’s pollinators, the important work they do, and the threats to their populations. Find out how YOU can help protect these essential creatures with native plants and citizen science in this free webinar!

Join the California State Library for this fascinating webinar featuring one of California’s foremost experts on pollinators, Dr. Hillary Sardiñas, Senior Environmental Scientist Pollinator Coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pEUwvwf_TCqCcE7v9PVUGg#/registration

[hazeltail]

hazeltailxo on ig