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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Between hummingbirds, cuckoos, and warblers, it's hard to choose a #BestOfTheMonth for #BirdOfTheDay, but I do like this #NorthernParula from Murphey Candler Park on Monday. #FallMigration

Against a soft focus green background in dappled light, a Northern parula sits in the middle of crisscrossing twigs from which hang serrate-edged leaves, some speckled and some splattered with brown, some lit by the sun and glowing golden. The parula is a tiny bird with a blue-gray head, bright yellow throat and breast, a broken white eyering, short yellow bill, white belly, a large green-gold patch on an otherwise blue-gray back and black and white bars on otherwise blue-gray wings. The bird faces just to the left of the camera.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I didn't know about this until today! I'm so excited 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Stephen Boisvert 🇨🇦 🟦⭐⭐⭐⭐🟦 @srboisvert.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Black-throated Blue Warbler. One of my favorites to photograph because they are such a challenge to get the exposure correct. Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, Chicago. 9.24.2026 #Birds #Warblers #FallMigration

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A Sunday surprise in the back garden! Yellow-billed cuckoo painted with #LightAndShadow in a pecan tree. #BirdOfTheDay

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SaraG @hardlikearmour.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A native Gentian from Goat Rocks Wilderness 8/2026. #ColorADay #BlueTue #ECK #Wildflowers #NativePlants

A close-up photo of a somewhat tubular cobalt blue flower, looking down into its opening. It has 5 petals with stripes in the throat of the tube and speckles where the petals flare out. The anthers are white. The foliage is a bright medium green.

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Lyndy Lambert @lyndyphotos.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

For Rob’s clever #Mamas&Papas theme, a mated pair of great blue herons display their affection for each other at #Wakodahatchee Wetlands, #Florida. #BirdOfTheDay #EastCoastKin #birds

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Such policies are non-inclusive to disabled students. If I were a student in such an environment, I would find this dehumanizing, having to ask special permission to use basic tech like a laptop and automated captions.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

When I saw today's #BirdOfTheDay theme #Mamas&Papas, I immediately thought of this courtship display that I apparently already shared. I'm reposting it for now, though I'll try to do a new post with others from the series later today.

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Sandra Friend @sandrafriend.com · 14/09/2026

Today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #Mamas&Papas, male & female of the same species in the same photo. A pair of wood storks on their nest at Wakodahatchee Wetlands. #birds #birding #FloridaBirds #ECK

Two wood storks standing in a nest, one with a bill over the others torso

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Ruby-throated #hummingbird vs. bumblebee, the bird insisting on visiting *that* flower instead of an unoccupied one. #AngryBirds #MyBestSide #BirdOfTheDay #Bloomscrolling

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

For #BigButterflyDay, an Eastern tiger swallowtail visiting buttonbush at Murphey Candler Park after today's storm. #ColorADay #GreenSat #BugSky #Butterfly #Bloomscrolling

Against a dreamy soft focus background of multiple shades of green with a few sparkling white round spots of sunlight, greenish white balls of tiny flowers dangle from slender green stalks and, in a patch of sunlight, a yellow and black-striped butterfly hangs beneath one of the spheres of flowers, gathering nectar. The butterfly's wings are open, showing the ventral pattern.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

White-eyed vireo photographed on Friday at Murphey Candler Park, privet shadows painting his face. I made this #monochrome so the shadows might stand out more, only to learn that today's #BirdOfTheDay theme is #BirdsInAbstract — perfect! #GeorgiaBirds #BirdPhotography #FallMigration

Grayscale photo of a small bird hanging sideways from a slender stem of small, oval berries. The berries and twigs cast shadows that look like painted curving lines on the bird's body. The bird has a bright, pale eye, staring down and to the left at the berries with intense focus.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Another photo of the ruby-throated #hummingbird visiting verbena at Legacy Park on Tuesday. #BirdOfTheDay #Iridescence #GeorgiaBirds #Bloomscrolling

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Cute green tree frog hanging on some beans, with a squash beetle larva, at Legacy Park today. #Frog #Herps #MacroPhotography #Coleoptera #TreeFrog

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Happy Gall Week! This week's Substack post highlights plant galls and a community science event happening right now! Cover photo is a red oak leaf covered in bumpy galls. #CNF #NatureWriting #iNaturalist #GallWeek #CommunityScience #CitizenScience #BugSky

sarahekelsey.substack.com

Leaf Spots and Muppet Fluff

An introduction to plant galls and a call to join a community science event

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Ruby-throated hummingbird visiting verbena at Legacy Park this morning, for today's #BirdOfTheDay alt theme #BirdsInGreen #AtlantaBirds

A hummingbird with wide open wings, long black bill lowered into a tiny purple flower in a columnar cluster of buds and flowers on a branche plant. The hummingbird has a shiny olive green head and wings, a white belly, and black and white tail.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

This week's post highlights the Great Southeast Pollinator Census and some of the Southeast’s great pollinators. Cover photo is a common Eastern bumblebee on a sunflower. Photos in post contain alt text. #NatureWriting #BugSky #CommunityScience #YellowThu #Pollinators

sarahekelsey.substack.com

A Phone, a Flower, and Fifteen Minutes

The Great Southeast Pollinator Census starts tomorrow!

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

New post, a collage of photos and stories and musings from the first half of summer and first two years of Falling in a Bog. Cover photo is a stinging rose caterpillar, multicolored with lots of yellow spines, perfect for #YellowThu #ColorADay #CNF #NatureWriting #BugSky

sarahekelsey.substack.com

Collage

The midpoint of summer, two years of Falling in a Bog, and a glimpse of what's to come

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

New essay and photos featuring the birds and bugs of #ConstitutionLakes in Atlanta, as well as the Doll's Head Trail. Cover photo is a great egret lifting off the ground. All photos in the post have alt text. #CNF #NatureWriting #NaturePhotography #BugSky

open.substack.com

Blue Tuesday and Golden Wednesday

Two visits to Constitution Lakes

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

This was new to me — a spider wasp dragging a spider at least twice her size over water. #FlyDay #SpiderWasp #Spider #Wasp #BugSky

A large black wasp dragging an even larger brown spider, both of them on the surface of shallow water, in the center of a ring of ripples. The water reflects pale sky above and shows brown sand beneath the surface.

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Matt Bertone @bertonemyia.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Be a dipterist. Be in Costa Rica for #FlySchool2026. See a muscoid #fly perching on a leaf. Tell student so they can collect it. Success!! Wait a minute 🤔 That's not a fly, but weevil mimicking one! This was so convincing, even rapidly moving & poking its wings out 🥰 #Curculionidae: cf. #Mnemynurus

A weevil with red around its neck, resembling the eyes of a fly. It has large brown eyes and a long yellow proboscis curving under the body. It's on a white background facing the viewer.

A weevil with red around its neck, resembling the eyes of a fly. It has large brown eyes and a long yellow proboscis curving under the body. The wing cover are mottled brown and white. It is on a white background facing left.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

After weeks of being indoors or focusing my camera on bugs, I went to Constitution Lakes with my birding lens yesterday. How perfect that today's #BirdOfTheDay is #YourChoice so I can share yesterday's great egret seeming to consume the golden evening light. #GreatEgret #Ardeidae #ArdeaAlba

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Bruce Stiftel @brucestiftel.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

"In joining the list, the Okefenokee gives Georgia its first World Heritage destination and the U.S. its 27th site to make the cut. It’s also the first natural site in the U.S. to be added to the list in more than 30 years." www.ajc.com/news/2026/07... #UNESCO #OkefenokeeSwamp

ajc.com

Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp is now a UNESCO World Heritage site

The Okefenokee is the first natural site in the U.S. to be added to the World Heritage List in more than 30 years.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

New photo essay celebrating the Okefenokee Swamp! Cover photo is a juvenile alligator mostly submerged in a pond that reflects blue sky and longleaf pine forest. Photos in post include alt text. #CNF #OkefenokeeSwamp #PublicLands #NatureWriting #NaturePhotography

open.substack.com

Celebrating the Swamp

Okefenokee Swamp is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I'm not the only one who loves ant mimic salticids 👀 That weird little thing hugging the back of the spider's head is a mantidfly baby - it will remain attached to this female Peckhamia until she lays her eggs, and then it'll borrow some eggs permanently. #PHORESY!

Red and black ant-like jumping spider on a leaf - wrapped on her pedicel is a small orange 6-legged larvae

Closer shot of the spider, and the sneaky passenger

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Helen Bennett 🌿 @helenbennett.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

A quiet 5:00am discovery! 🌿 This beautiful male Green-eyed Flower Bee still sleeping... his jaws tightly clamped to a Verbena leaf. He chose his favourite feeding spot as a safe place for the night 💚 📷 🕊️ #Bees #Pollinators #BugSky #Invert #Insects #UKWildlife #Nature #MacroPhotography #ECK

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Two blue dayflowers photographed two Tuesdays ago at Constitution Lakes, pale blue Virginia dayflower (Commelina virginica) and vivid, darker blue Asiatic dayflower (C. communis). #BlueTue #ColorADay #Bloomscrolling #MacroPhotography #Commelinaceae

In the center of five long, wide, dark green linear leaves with parallel venation, the three-petaled pale blue flower of Virginia dayflower. The petals (or perhaps tepals) are wide semicircles that curve and sharply taper to very thin, linear bases that connect in the center of the flower, where there is a spray of bright yellow anthers. The petals of this flower are such a pale blue that they are almost white.

A vivid, brilliant cerulean dayflower blossom with two of its petals visible to either side of a spray of bright yellow anthers; they extend from both sides of the flower at an angle, like wide bunny ears. The flower has long, wide, linear, dark green leaves with parallel venation. Some of the leaves had pale yellow-green spots, perhaps caused by a gall or some kind of pathogen.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Newest Substack post includes more #PollinatorWeek finds around metro Atlanta. Bees, beetles, butterflies, and more. Cover photo is an iridescent flea beetle on leaves. All photos include alt text and post includes voiceover narration for accessibility. #CNF #NatureWriting #BugSky #MacroMonday

open.substack.com

More Life on Leaves

and other Pollinator Week highlights

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Reposted by Sarah E. Kelsey

Kristin Wyatt @kristinwyatt.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Look out for that yellowjacket..... wait that's not a yellowjacket, it's actually a Riley's Clearwing Moth! They are amazing mimics that host on the Horse-nettle plant. It's National Moth Week July 18 - July 26. #MothWeek #NationalMothWeek #moths #nature #photography

A black and yellow striped moth with lovely red markings on its clear wings.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Happy #FlyDay! First ever Orange Sulphur butterfly (Colias eurytheme) #butterfly in my Atlanta #garden! #BugSky #Bloomscrolling

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This week's essay is mostly photos, a few of the many cool things I've seen in Atlanta area parks in just the first few weeks of summer, like the #queensnake in the cover photo. World Snake Day is just two days away! #CNF #NatureWriting #NaturePhotography #Snake #Herps

open.substack.com

Notes from the Field

An early summer gallery of nature seen around Atlanta

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Happy #DragonflyWeek! Here's an ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), a favorite local #damselfly species, recently photographed at the Abbotts Bridge Unit of Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. #Odonata #BugSky #PublicLands

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Red-headed bush cricket (Phyllopalpus pulchellus) hanging out on a leaf at Constitution Lakes. #Orthoptera #RedWed #ColorADay #BugSky

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

My last #lifer was a heard-only, and my second most recent was all the way back in February: red-breasted mergansers at Lake Zwerner in North Georgia. #BirdOfTheDay

Six red-breasted mergansers crossing a darkly overcast sky. In this low light, the colors of the birds are muted. The mergansers have pale bellies and dark wings, a russet cast to their pale breasts, and dark heads. Their heads are so narrow they are barely distinguishable from the birds' pale necks, but for their darker color.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Georgia's passionflowers and the #insects that depend on them. Lots of #MacroPhotography and an essay. Cover photo is yellow passionflower, Passiflora lutea. Alt text for all photos and voiceover narration for accessibility. #CNF #NatureWriting #BugSky #MacroMonday #Bloomscrolling #Passiflora

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Passiflora Fireworks

A highlight of Pollinator Week 2026

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Happy #FlyDay! This bright, ornate creature has the unfortunate common name Pepper Maggot, due to its larvae's penchant for solanaceous plants. Pest status aside, I think it's lovely. Here it's on some wild nightshade in a ditch in a Gwinnett County park. #BugSky #Diptera #MacroPhotography

Close-up macro photo of an adult pepper maggot fly (Zonosemata electa), shown from above on a fuzzy plant stem. The fly is many shades of yellow, with a golden abdomen, mustard gold striped with bright dandelion yellow on the thorax, and a yellow head. The wings are transparent but lined with black, the lines in different directions making art deco shapes.

Close-up macro photo of an adult pepper maggot fly (Zonosemata electa), shown facing the camera, resting on a small green tomato-like fruit with long, fuzzy sepals. The fly is many shades of yellow, with a golden abdomen, mustard gold striped with bright dandelion yellow on the thorax, and a yellow head with large, round eyes, yellow ringing reddish centers (at least in the lighting of this photo). The wings are transparent but lined with black, the lines in different directions making art deco shapes.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

A highlight of June was finally seeing a passionflower bee, Protandrena passiflorae. These pollen thieves collect pollen only from Passiflora lutea to feed to their larvae, without actually transferring much pollen between flowers. #MacroMonday #Bloomscrolling #BugSky #Bees #Hymenoptera #Passiflora

Close-up of a yellow passionflower, a small blossom that resembles a sci fi spaceship, at the end of a slender yellow-green vine. The flowers are mostly yellow-green with a fringe of yellow-green radiating from a center surrounded by upright, thin yellow and dark purple fringe-like floral structures, and protruding above these, a darker yellow-green structure with recurved greenish structures radiating from it. This flower is hard to describe.

Close-up of a tiny black bee with pale blackish-blue-ish eyes perched on the greenish yellow fringe of a passionflower, against a background of blue sky and pale greenish leaves

Close-up of a shiny black bee, eyes reflecting the green of the flowers, hanging down from the yellow-green fringe of a yellow passionflower

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

American lady butterfly (Virginia virginiensis) on coneflower in my garden. #PinkMon #ColorADay #BugSky #BloomScrolling #Butterfly

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I birded without taking many bird photos this June. I liked that this female mallard diving into the Chattahoochee River was close enough that I could see her head underwater and not just duck butt. Friday, 6/26/26, Cochran Shoals. #BestOfJune26 #BirdOfTheDay #Ducks #GeorgiaBirds #PublicLands

Diving brown female mallard duck in brown water, showing the graceful, curved neck of the duck stretched out, very long, as her head and yellow-brown bill poke around at the brown ground. The only thing that isn't brown in this photo are her orange feet.

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

New essay on #neurodivergence and nature, with detours to a Sandhills roadside paradise and my kitchen. Cover photo is a box turtle eating a white mushroom. All photos in the essay have alt text, and the post includes voiceover narration. #CNF #ActuallyAutistic #NatureWriting #NaturePhotography

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The Forest for the Trees

On life lists and bottom-up processing

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Sarah E. Kelsey @botanylicious.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Northern yellow warbler in the wafer ash tree, migrating through my garden in early May. #Birds&Buds #BirdsOfTheDay #GeorgiaBirds #Bloomscrolling

The bright green, trifoliate compound leaves and loose domes of small white flowers of a wafer ash tree fill most of the frame, with a bright yellow bird peeking out from behind flowers in the bottom left of the frame. The petite yellow bird has a black eye, dark gray small, pointed bill, and dark reddish-brown vertical stripes down his breast. The back half (or maybe more than half) of the bird are mostly hidden by the flowers and leaves, just a few small glimpses of bright yellow glowing in the gaps between the small white blossoms.

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