iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/12/2025

#3GoodThings 1) a warm house on a cold winter day (fire crackling in the fireplace a bonus) 2) feeling less unsettled today (last couple of days had their share of the restlessness of unfocused anxiety) 3) thoughtful colleagues - today thinking of the one who […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A coffee-filled white mug with floral edging. The words in the center of the mug read 'Don't forget to be awesome".

Beside the mug is a bag of coffee labeled 'Java Jingle'.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/10/2025

#SilentSunday #BloomScrolling #flowers #pottery A vase (with a snake - look closely) made by my daughter, filled with beautiful cosmos flowers.

A clay vase filled with pink cosmos flowers sits outside on a railing on a sunny day. A clay snake (part of the vase) pokes out at the base of the flowers.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 19/07/2025

It's National MothW Week!! Let's see your moth pics! Here's a White Flower Moth (Schinia bimatris), an endangered species here in Canada. #NationalMothWeek #moth #insect #lepidoptera #Manitoba

A moth with pure white wings, orange face and belly, and green eyes staring at the camera while licking the finger tip on which it sits.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/07/2025

And there was evening, and there was morning...and it was good. #SilentSunday #sunrise #sunset #Canada #lake

The orange and purple of a sunset reflected on a calm lake surrounded by spruce and pine trees. A wooden boardwalk crosses the foreground along the lake shore.

Bright morning sunlight reflected on a calm lake surrounded by spruce and pine trees. A wooden boardwalk crosses the foreground along the lake shore.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/07/2025

Jerry's hawk-pants were fooling no one. But he did look damn fine in them. #insect #moth #lepidoptera #erebidae #HawkPants

A brown and orange moth. Its front pair of legs have a floofy brown covering to about a third way down that looks similar to the feathers covering the upper parts of the legs of many hawk species.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 22/06/2025

#Entomology #insect people - whose baby is this? My first thought was a sawfly but I'm really not sure. An odd lepidoptera caterpillar? A hover fly larva? Other? Manitoba, Canada. Today. Cc @nev @xris #caterpillar #sawfly #hymenoptera #lepidoptera #diptera

A green 'caterpillar' with a black line on its side and a pale orange head.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/06/2025

If I could, I'd curl up in rose flower with a buzzy fluff. Who wouldn't? #bumblebee #bees #pollinators #hymenoptera #insects

A bumblebee with orange and yellow stripes collects pollen from a pink rose flower.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/06/2025

"On my way, love, just having a quick pint at the extra-floral nectary." #insects #flies #diptera #ecology #botany #prunus

A small fly visits a nectar-producing protrusion on the stalk of a cherry leaf.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2025

Fly 1: "Hey guys. What ya doing?" Fly 2: "Oh. Hi Gary. You found us..." *side whisper* "What's he doing here?" Fly 3: *shoulder shrug and an I-don't-know-don't-blame-me look* Fly 1: "Can I join you?" Fly 2: "Ah, sure." Fly 3 (muttering): "Ugh. Great." #insect […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Two small yellow and black flies standing at the edge of a head of yellow flowers as if looking over the edge. A third fly appears to be climbing up beside them.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

After the day she'd had, Allison felt justified stopping at The Spittlebug for a drink before heading home. #insect #wasp #hymenoptera #nature #ecology

A wasp on a plant stem next to foam created by spittlebug nymphs.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 06/06/2025

Endless mud flats at low tide on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada. A critical migratory stopover place for shorebirds. #tides #BayOfFundy #NewBrunswick #CoastLife #birds

A strip of beach in the foreground, then an expanse of brown mud interrupted only by the other side of the bay off in the distance.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 06/06/2025

Just me hanging with some 350 million yo plants on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. #fossils #botany #NewBrunswick #plants #nature

My hand for scale beside a linear striated fossil of an Equisetum-like plant in mottled brown rock.

Fossil tree trunks embedded in a cliff face.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2025

The mine and larvae of the Lilac Leafminer Moth (Gracillaria syringella). Native to Europe, but widely established in North America. The tiny transparent larvae are so cute! #insect #moth #leafminer #lepidoptera #Manitoba #Gracilliariidae

Six tiny transparent moth larvae feeding in the mine.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2025

Many will be the chokecherries this year. Jars of jelly in the form of flowers. #SilentSunday #BloomScrolling

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/05/2025

After he issued several stern warnings, Dooley has settled back to deck-based monitoring of the MourningDove, albeit on high alert for territorial transgressions. #pets #dogs #DogsOfMastodon

A large dog looking alertly up at a Mourning Dove sitting on a power line running beside his yard.

View from the rest of the dog's head, ears alert, looking at the Mourning Dove.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/05/2025

These wee beasties (aka Thrips) are making a mess of our house plants. Trying diatomaceous earth for control. #insects #thrips #HousePlants #PlantPests

Tiny mottled insects seen through a microscope.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/05/2025

The cherry flowers were full of honey bees, the odd bumblebee (probably Two-spotted), and four Syrphid species, including this Globetail. #bees #bumblebee #diptera #syrphidae #pollinators #insects

A white flower hosting a small fly that really wants you to think it's a bee.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2025

Operation #ToadFriend was a success! Well, I'm interpreting it as friendship - it's hard to read Toad's feelings - they're very cryptic. Not much for conspicuous enthusiasm. #Toad #toads #amphibian #Manitoba #Anaxyrus

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 10/05/2025

My Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) is blooming. An odd little plant that has continues to perplex pollination ecologists: why the elaborate flower if primarily self-pollinated? Seed dispersal is courtesy of ants (myrmecochory) who carry the seeds to their tunnels to […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Photo of velvety green leaves above ground-level cream and burgundy flowers.

Tubular flowers of Wild Ginger. They have cream interiors and outlined in burgundy. In the center are the reproductive structures.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2025

"OK folks, listen up - tailgate meeting. I know it's been a slow couple of days what with it being cool and windy as sin. But today's looking better so we may get the first pollinators today. Be ready - it's been a long winter and they're counting on us. For the […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A cluster of pale purple pasqueflowers preparing to open on a spring morning.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/04/2025

Let's face the day together, folks. Not sure we'll make otherwise. #dogs #cats #pets

A cat and a dog sit side by side facing the rising sun.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 18/03/2025

For #MothMonday I present Nessus Sphinx (Amphion floridensis). I have soft spot for Sphinx (aka Hawk) Moths - their pollination relationship with flowers is pretty cool. Ok I may be biased given it was the subject of my masters thesis, but still. #moth #insect #lepidoptera #manitoba #sphingidae

A fair sized moth alternating black and grey bands across its wings and body, with a pale yellow band part way down and a tuft of brown "hair" immediately behind its head.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/03/2025

Where is the print option in the Waterfox browser? Android. @Waterfox #waterFox

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 11/03/2025

For #MothMonday I give you the leaf mine of the Poison Ivy Leaf-miner Moth. As its name suggests, the larvae live in and mine the insides of Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron) leaves, clearly unaffected by the oil that so irritates human skin. The mines are relatively […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A green leaf of Poison Ivy with a linear blotch mine.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 09/03/2025

Aurora out doing their thing. Nice to be away from the city lights. #Aurora #NorthernLights #manitoba

The night sky with a band of green aurora.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 08/03/2025

Realized pasqueflowers (locally called crocuses), the first flowers of spring, may be blooming in as a little as a month! Friends, I'm so ready. #winter #spring #wildflowers #pasqueflowers #Manitoba

They had come upon a whole clump of crocuses burst into purple and gold. Mary bent her face down and kissed them. "You never kiss a person in that way," she said when she lifted her head. "Flowers are so different."

Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 06/03/2025

Your annual reminder that many seed packages of "wildflowers" are not, in fact, wildflowers. Of the species included in these ones there's maybe 2 that are native to this area (and those 2 are domesticated varieties). I'm convinced seed companies sweep up whatever […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Photo of three packages of seeds labeled as wildflower mixes.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/03/2025

White-banded Potter Wasp (Ancistrocerus albophaleratus). Manitoba, Canada. #WaspWednesday #wasp #insect #hymenoptera #Manitoba

A black wasp with pale yellow dots and stripes sits on my finger.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2025

The soil here must be infused with the tears of relief cried by the hundreds who were free for the first time in their lives. #slavery #UndergroundRailroad #history #Ontario

A plaque in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, about a ferry crossing that was the final leg of escape for hundreds of slaves from the US.

The first line reads "At this former ferry crossing, hundreds of escaped slaves experienced freedom for the first time."

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/02/2025

My local library is featuring some books for Black History Month, including From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad. I'm learning lots, especially appreciating hearing about the nuances and permutations of perspectives among both the […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A paragraph from a book describing antislavery initiatives following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The last two sentences are highlighted and read: But while many northern whites who moved to the area were against slavery, they were also not interested in having free blacks in their midst. They were antislavery but also antiblack.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/02/2025

The 3rd Law of Feline Dynamics states that three cats at rest on a bed will be equidistant. #cats #CatsOfMastodon

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/02/2025

#3GoodThings 1. A crackling fire in the wood stove 2. Doing a crossword with my daughter 3. Time with the big Boi. #dog #DogsOfMastodon

A big mottled brown dog looking a little too interested in something off camera.

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Chuckling Duck @friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/02/2025

Little known fact - cats can change color to fit in better with their surroundings. #cats #CatsOfMastodon

An orange tabby has its head in a transparent bag with polka dots of various colors beside a pile of markers of various colors.

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