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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 16/09/2026

We also saw one yesterday and one of the kids took this photo for me of this little muppet in its tiny cave in a cave

A photo of a cave wall illuminated by a flashlight. There is a hole on the cave wall which a salamander is sticking its head out of

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 16/09/2026

Coming out of my cave to post about some cool salamanders I found in a cave

Despite being found in a cave I think these might be long-tailed salamanders (Eurycea longicauda) and not cave salamanders (Eurycea lucifuga). A photo of two salamanders chillin' in a cave, illuminated by a flashlight. They are sort of an orangey-brown, with spots all over their bodies and long tails

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 09/08/2026

I also met a teeny tiny little moth

A tiny brown moth. It was hanging out on a door just below the latch plate. It was so small that it fit even when the door was closed!

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 09/08/2026

There was a very angry killdeer when I was checking on the mud pit one morning.

A killdeer standing on a giant pile of dirt next to a (not pictured) mud pit, which is a giant pit of muddy water for children to play in

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 11/07/2026

While I was looking at the photos of this friend I had already taken he stuck his head out of the water to give me a gander.

A picture of a juvenile common water snake. It is under the water in a shallow but fast-flowing stream, partially under some rocks. In the bottom of the frame you can see it poking its head out of the water to look at me

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 11/07/2026

Met a lot of interesting friends at camp today!

A spider, probably a common fishing spider given its proximity to the water. Very leggy. Not obvious from this photo but also huge - perhaps 3 inch leg span. Mottled brown with longish body.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 01/07/2026

I also found this next to a bush honeysuckle trying to grow in my front garden (boo! Hiss!!!!) and I'm not sure what it is. Plant app thinks it's Prunus glandulosa but even if that's true I can't figure out if that's considered invasive around here or not

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 01/07/2026

On a different note I've been wanting raspberries forever and one has maybe volunteered itself to my yard?

A photo of what is perhaps a young raspberry bush, growing in the shade of another plant

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 01/07/2026

Anyways I was out investigating the various volunteer plants in my front yard. Apps are great for this but not always totally accurate. For instance it can't decide if this is ragweed or mulberry (and I don't know enough to know, myself. If you know please tell me!)

A photo of a leaf. It is strongly lobed. My plant app id'd this photo as giant ragweed

A different photo of the leaves showing their growing habit. There is a long branch with leaves growing off alternate, except the last two are growing together/opposite.

A photo of the stem of this plant near the base, showing both young leaves and older ones

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 01/07/2026

Unfortunately I think it's a house sparrow - they used to nest in the Bradford pear I axed and I was pretty convinced they were still nesting in my front yard. I guess this confirms it but I can't figure out where!! :<

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 01/07/2026

Someone left me a gift on the front porch...

A small cream-colored bird's egg with brown speckles, post-hatching, laying on grey outdoor carpet. The shadow of a fence post crosses the egg aesthetically

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

(However, if both of you understand it in a way that produces the same result and you are both pleased with that result, you are definitely doing a very good job at communicating lol)

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

They are a means for developing a shared vocabulary (by giving an animal a method of producing a word in your language), but it's impossible to tell if the animal actually understands that word the same way you do, or just understands it in a way that produces the same result.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

But as I said, language isn't actually a necessary component for communication! You can definitely communicate with your dog, regardless of whether or not your dog understands language. So-called "talking boards" are also not necessarily or inherently language

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

Now maybe some dogs are totally capable of understanding human language. Unless they develop the ability to speak human, we can probably never know for sure. But knowing what happens when the human says "walkies" is not necessarily the same as understanding English.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

Anyways, I say all this because I see a lot of people saying things like, "people say dogs don't understand language but my dog sure knows what the word walk/vet/bath/etc. means!" But that is vocabulary, not language.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

That is to say, it is not enough to simply know words. In order to be capable of language, an animal must also be able to understand rules by which those words are combined to make specific meanings. That's a pretty abstract concept, but he at least was quite certain some animals are capable of it

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

(*grammar in this case being defined in very simplistic terms, not quite what you'd think of as grammar in most human languages. The main one he was interested in was "word order matters," which is of course not true of all languages. It's just a rule that is relatively easy to teach and test.)

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

Some years ago I got to listen to a talk about research into language learning in animals by someone who used to do work with dolphins. He said that they defined language as, basically, a combination of vocabulary and grammar*

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

The first thing we need to get is a few definitions. People often use "language" and "communication" somewhat interchangeably but they are not actually synonymous. It is entirely possible to communicate - to exchange information or create mutual understanding, etc. - without language

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/06/2026

I don't wish to get involved in the thread in question lmao but I saw a discussion of animals and language and hey did you know I know some things about this!!!

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Eldritch Millennial @sundaycreature.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Oh also! A little gift from my black-eyed susans and the evening sun to you!

A photo of a large patch of black-eyed susans (dark yellow flowers with radial petals and a black center) surrounding a bird bath. The sun is casting a shadow of some of the flowers into the water basin

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Eldritch Millennial @sundaycreature.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

I was talking a while back about how many people seem to think ecological restoration occurs passively by removing human influence, when actually a. that's basically impossible and b. good ecology is an active effort of careful and intentional management. It doesn't "just happen"!

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 10/06/2026

Maybe I should do a zine about that too... After the mantis zine tho!!!

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 10/06/2026

So there you go! Opossums don't eat ticks but I love them anyways and so should you!

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 10/06/2026

But personally I think that opossums are likeable regardless of how "useful" they are to humans (and they are plenty important to the environment without having to benefit you directly!). And I think too that it's important to spread facts and not misinformation.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 10/06/2026

that the animals had eaten the ticks. No one else has ever really found any evidence of opossums eating ticks. Now, whenever I bring this up, I tend to be told, basically, "you shouldn't debunk this myth because it makes opossums seem useful and therefore likeable"

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 10/06/2026

You can read more about it here: outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org/articles/deb... But basically, they put ticks on opossums (and other animals) and kept them kenneled for 4 days. At the end, they found very few ticks had fallen off the opossums, and for some reason decided (without checking)

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 10/06/2026

I've been hearing/seeing this a lot lately so I kinda want to address it. Contrary to popular belief, opossums don't actually eat all that many ticks! This little bit of misinformation came from a study about black-legged ticks, which cause Lyme disease

A photo of a Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) out and about on a snowy day. It has its head down sniffing for food under some (not pictured) bird feeders

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 09/06/2026

I finally finished getting the nature friends zine prepped for printing and then realized I forgot to buy ink lol. So as soon as that arrives I'll get to printing!

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

But there is one exception to this! Some members of the family Musophagidae are green due to a pigment called turacoverdin - named for turacos like this white crested turaco (Menelikornis leucotis) I got to meet at a zoo one time

A young turaco, I'm pretty sure a white crested (Menelikornis leucotis) sitting on the edge of a planter at a zoo. He has a green chest and white head with black above his eyes and over his forehead, and a bright yellow beak.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

Just as birds with carotenoid pigments need carotenoids in their diets to maintain their vibrant colors, turacos need copper to maintain their greens and reds, although it seems we know a lot less about that process than we do about carotenoid pigments in birds.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

Interestingly, some Musophagids also produce a red pigment called turacin, also basically unique to them. Both turacoverdin and turacin pigments are copper based, whereas other pigment colors found in birds are carotenoids.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

But while yellow is a pigment color, blue in birds is a structural color, where the molecular structure of the feathers reflects light so that we see it as blue. This is why preserved specimens of blue birds aren't as vibrant as living birds - as the structure deteriorates, so does the color.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

Most green birds are actually just yellow and blue at the same time. That's why you also see yellow and blue budgies - turn off the blue gene expression and you get a yellow bird, turn off the yellow and you get a blue bird.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 27/05/2026

I think I've talked about it before, but I've been seeing that cute little green broadbill taking a bath so it seems worth talking about it again! Did you know that technically, very few birds are actually green?

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Lotus Winnie Lee @lotuswinnielee.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Green Broadbill (aka lesser green broadbill) one of the birds I really love; came from the montane forest for a long bath on an extremely hot & humid day. #greenbroadbill #broadbills #birds #birdwatching #wildlife

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Gale Galligan @galegalligan.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

jon (2017) (1/3)

Warm yellow fancomic cover. A gray toned comic panel of Jon Arbuckle from Garfield lies, as though on a table, in the center of the cover.

JON: a fancomic by gale galligan

PANEL 1
Exterior of a suburban house.
LIZ (off): I promise, you'll have a great time. We've known each other since undergrad, they're all really nice.
JON: But do any of them like polka?

PANEL 2
Liz and Jon prep snacks in the kitchen.
LIZ: Sweetie, nobody likes polka.
JON: Tell that to the international polka association.

PANEL 3
They carry party snacks out of the kitchen.
JON: Remind me: Jody and Evan, Ravi and Dan, Anna?
LIZ: Emma and Cameron.

PANEL 4
Liz sets down a party tray. She glares at a cat in the foreground. The cat yawns. It's Garfield.
LIZ: These are for the guests.

PANEL 1
Garfield eyes the snacks from a couch; a dog, Odie, is drooling over them.
JON (off): So Jody, Ravi, and Emma are vets, Evan's a lawyer, Dan's...
LIZ (off): A social worker, and Cam's an editor. For a science mag, I think.
JON (off): Hoo boy.

PANEL 2
Jon tries to bail; Liz grabs his arm.
JON: I'm gonna go pick out a tie.
LIZ: Come on! They're regular people.

PANEL 3
Liz hugs Jon tight.
JON: I dunno, Liz, it's just -- / it's my first time meeting your friends, and they're all... / I don't want to embarrass you.
LIZ: Jon.

PANEL 4
She takes his face in her hand.
LIZ: They're going to be our friends now.

PANEL 5
They kiss.
SFX: ding dong

PANEL 1
Liz opens the door to reveal Ravi (holding wine and wearing a tie) and Dan (in a snappy turtleneck).
LIZ: Ravi! Dan!
RAVI AND DAN: Liz!

PANEL 2
Ravi hugs Liz.
RAVI: You haven't changed a bit! How's work?
LIZ: Oh, the usual. Tiny dogs everywhere.
RAVI: Don't I know it.

PANEL 3
Ravi shakes hands with Jon; Dan has a hand on Ravi's shoulder.
RAVI: And this must be Jon!
DAN: We've heard so much about you.

PANEL 4
Dan thumps Jon's back; Jon stiffens nervously. Liz walks Ravi into the living room.
LIZ: Come on in! We've got cheese, snacks, a few bottles...

PANEL 5
Liz waves sheepishly over her shoulder at Jon; Jon is gesturing to the place at his collar where a tie WOULD be. We can see Ravi's tie very clearly in the foreground.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 20/05/2026

Today at work I spotted these little raccoon tracks! There are tracks from another animal too but I'm not sure what it is.

A pair of animal paw prints in some mud. There is a set that sort of look like human hand prints but with claws - that's a racoon, probably front paws. There is also another, smaller pair of tracks, in nearly the same position but offset enough you can see both kinds clearly. These ones look a little cat-like but are quite tiny.

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/05/2026

Wow I applied to vote in the Eisners on the off chance my little micro-pub counts as me being a comic professional and apparently it does. Huzzah!

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/05/2026

Today's nature friends are on opposite ends of the camouflage spectrum. Spider pic courtesy of my co-worker whose nature name is Cottontail!

A photo of a spider on a stone wall. The spider is well camouflaged so it blends in, but is holding some kind of prey it just caught. The prey item is black and dark red and stands out a little more.

A white moth on the same stone wall as the spider. Unlike the spider it doesn't even remotely blend in; it is almost entirely white with just a few tiny black spots. It's very fluffy and cute

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 18/05/2026

A thread with some good good birds I saw up by Lake Erie the other day!

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Evelyndroid's Aperture Science and Bugge-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Ordinary leaves with the normal number of legs 💚 (Archasia auriculata treehoppers)

Large treehopper facing you, tiny pink eyes, and a large leaf-like pronotum towering over long-ways

Side view of the creature, showing how the pronotum resembles a small round leaf - the same texture as the oak leaves it's resting on, down to the tiny yellow "freckles"

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 14/05/2026

Yes! It's in the alt text, but this one is an eastern eyed click beetle, Alaus oculatus

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 14/05/2026

Anyways apparently the eastern eyed click beetle is notable because its larvae are carnivorous, whereas most click beetle larvae eat plants. The adults are gentle giants who prefer nectar! They're called click beetles because they can make a clicking sound, though it isn't totally clear why

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Endangered Art Books @endangeredartbooks.com · 14/05/2026

There was this one kid in my group today who was like the most pro at finding cool bugs! He found both of these, good for him!!

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