iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Grant Gigot

Jason Dove Mark @jasondovemark.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Love this piece by @hhansman.bsky.social: "Noticing your own sense of felt local ecology and tracking it over time can be fuel for action. I’ve become obsessed with pinning down this sense of ecological erosion that seems to be swirling all around us." orionmagazine.org/article/the-...

orionmagazine.org

The Ecology of Attention - Orion Magazine

Tracking a changing world at Walden Pond

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Big Marsh Park! What once was an industrial slag dumping ground is now home to an expanding restored prairie. Lakeside daisy (seen in the second picture) was considered extirpated from IL but was discovered growing on this slag, which is now known to mimic native ecosystems like dolomite prairies.

If anyone knows what this is, I would love to learn! A small green and brown insect-maybe a caterpillar? - perched on a leaf, hoping to blend in. Kind of looks like a kitten from some angles.

Lakeside daisy—a small yellow bloom in the midst of green shoots in soil

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

🎵 “When you try your best, but you don’t succeeeeeeed” 🎶 🎤

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James Elkins @purelyfiction.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

What counts as real complexity in a novel? It is plot? Length? Obscure references? Here’s an essay on that oddly under-theorized topic, with some proposals, and glimpses into several years spent reading Finnegans Wake, Arno Schmidt, and others. www.themontrealreview.com/Articles/Fou...

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Eric Stassen Photography @estassenphoto.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

We were fortunate to see several varieties of kingfishers, including a brown-hooded kingfisher right outside our patio, and a giant kingfisher at Lake Panic. #bird #kingfisher #southafrica #kruger #krugernationalpark #wildlifephotography #safari

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

A charismatic arachnid and pulchritudinous orchid in a prairie in Illinois. (Yeah, I’m trying to increase my vocabulary.)

Ladies tresses - a short orchid with white flowers sitting low among green grasses and wildflowers in the morning sun

Yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia), an orb weaver, poised in the middle of its web stretched between prairie plants.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

This is Beaker, everyone. Apologies for my deranged face but I’ll be thinking about this moment for the rest of my life. #tawnyfrogmouth

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Stephen Boisvert 🇨🇦 🟦⭐⭐⭐⭐🟦 @srboisvert.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

My favorite flycatcher. Mostly because it is so easily identifiable! Great Crested Flycatcher. Bill Jarvis Bird Sanctuary, Chicago. #Birds #Flycatcher.

A Great Crested Flycatcher perched on a branch. Showing a bit of crest and its yellow belly and slightly rusty wing feathers and tail.

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Reposted by Grant Gigot

Dr swift parrot @teamswiftparrot.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

We have been out catching rufous scrub-birds again this week which requires a blood sacrifice to the forest gods for success

6 hands clasped and interlocked absolutely filthy covered in scratches and bandaids

A small brown bird with a white throat held in a hand

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Anyone know what kind of little 🐸 this is? They were sunbathing while watching me remove purple loosestrife in the wetter parts of Superior Street. May be my new best friend?

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Annual camping trip with my brother and sister! This year we hiked to Gem Lake an hour east of Seattle. First day offered us a foreboding, foggy, rainy, reflective ascent and many hours of time in the tent to talk. The next day, all downhill with a roaring sun and blue lakes beckoning us to swim 😎

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

On this cloudy, lazy Sunday morning I finished How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper! @howtoloveaforest.bsky.social One of my goals this year is to read more books about conservation and journal along the way. I want to spend time absorbing what I’m reading. Here are a few highlights from HTLAF!

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Hiking in Washington and saw my first pika. Apparently they’re lagomorphs like rabbits. We saw them dragging little branches with leaves around which another hiker taught me was “haying.” Enjoy this video of me telling this particular pika that he’s the “love of my life.” #hiking #mammals #cuteness

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I wanted to take a break from prairie pics and give a little BlueSky love to my new favorite hobby! The climbing community in Chicago is so welcoming, and I feel like nothing brings people closer than humbling tumbles from the wall and a fear of heights that makes your pits sweat. #climbing

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prairieguy2017.bsky.social @prairieguy2017.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Wildflower Wednesday! The beautiful flower of Tall Cinquefoil. I luv the white, green, & yellow colors. I am also mesmerized by the different shapes within this flower including the dark green inner star shape. www.prairiewanderlust.etsy.com #photography #nature #wildflowers #prairie #iowa

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Somme Prairie. This place instills such a sense of reverence in me from all of its decades of stewardship history. I always feel so lucky when I’m volunteering there. (I also played the vital role of tick-checker for the journalist who was there, so) #ecologicalrestoration #prairie #conservation

Volunteers holding scythes among the green forbs and grasses of Somme Prairie, sunset tinting the sky a light blue and purple.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

At sunset, stewards assemble for some “surgical” scything, cutting (in an almost “plucking”-way) individual tall goldenrod stems one at a time, allowing for leadplant and Culver’s root and more to have room to thrive. That golden-light while targeting goldenrod? Come on. Ten-out-of-ten. #prairie

Volunteers walk a path through a prairie. In the center is a man in a plaid button-up shirt holding a scythe, his back to the camera. To the left the setting sun casts a golden hue upon the green expanse.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Prairie plants from a remnant prairie. I spent the morning pulling invasive sweet clover and admiring short green milkweed, a lifer for me (if plant-enthusiasts use that language too!). Also thought the hummingbird moth was a lobster-shaped bee 🦞 #restorationecology #stewardship #prairie #plants

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Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

What does a “restored” ecosystem mean? If the climate is different... If species have moved... If habitats have changed... …what are we restoring to? If we keep measuring success against a world that no longer exists, we’re chasing ghosts. Featuring @jcsvenning.bsky.social

predirections.substack.com

Is restoration chasing ghosts?

Restoration is often trying to recreate ecosystems that no longer exist — or can’t

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

High art* from a rainy day of stewardship on the longest day of the year *my phone was waterlogged and not working for the next 12 hours after taking this #savanna #watercolor #ecologicalrestoration

A smeary accident-photo on a rainy day of ecological restoration stewardship. A smudge of volunteers can be seen walking in a single-file line among green foliage, forbs and grasses.

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Mary Gemignani @marygemignani.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

There are two pairs of Sandhills near the university. One with colts and this pair that seemed like they had just come off the nest (sadly without colts) and were preening away in the parking lot at the trail head. They were preening at a rigorous pace. Good to see them. #birds #SandhillCrane

A Sandhill Crane is preening his wings and back.

A head and neck shot of a Sandhill Crane. The neck feathers are ruffled.

I later saw this par again after their preening session under some oaks foraging for food.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I just finished the 42-mile stretch of the North Country Trail in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. It snakes along the coast of Lake Superior’s stunning cobalt and emerald waters, passing through low coniferous areas up to hardwood forests, sunlight easing through rustling beech & birch leaves.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Look what I spotted during my walk along the pier by Montrose! The way it looks like his head is falling every time he runs 🥹 #pipingplover I stopped for just a second to capture a quick video before moving on.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I saw my first common nighthawk at Superior Street last night! A fellow volunteer heard its iconic “meep” and as we looked up saw it soaring (erratically) among the ComEd electrical towers that scour the sky. This site always has a special post-apocalyptic allure with those. Also, Happy Pride!

Blue flag iris popping off at Superior Street Prairie

Volunteer steward collects blue-eyed grass seeds in a prairie at sunset, with ComEd towers scouring the sky behind

An amorphous rainbow blob wishing us a happy start to Pride!

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Another sunset restoration day at Superior Street. Common yellowthroats and yellow star grass and golden dodder all added to the golden hour tinge imbuing this remnant savanna and prairie with warm magic. And look at the cutie patootie hiding from my old iPhone X in the second pic

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

I just learned it’s #WorldBeeDay ! Sharing this Wild Llama hat of an Abejorro Chileno, a wildly cute, enormous, fluffy orange bee native to southern Chile. I saw one tumble to the ground with its flower still in hand, and then pick itself right back up to continue its daily pollinating.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Montrose Bird Sanctuary in Chicago was buzzing with the excited whispers of many birders and the tweets and tunes of migratory birds yesterday morning! One of the piping plover was sat on their nest, keeping the eggs protected from the cold, crisp Lake Michigan wind. Some snaps from my friend below!

Willet pensively walking along the Lake Michigan shore

Chestnut-sided warbler in a rare moment of stillness on the ground

Wilson’s Warbler feeling confident in his little dark head patch

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Reflecting on a recent trip to Chile. I saw the cutest viscacha basking in the evening desert glow, an alerce tree thousands of years old in the Valdivian rainforest, a rotund Chilean bee plummet to the ground when its flower broke, and a rich blue rippled glacier in Patagonia as a grand finale.

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Reposted by Grant Gigot

Ethan Tapper @howtoloveaforest.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

If you know what to look for, you can learn a ton about forests just by looking at maps! Here’s an example of my “forest detective computer magic” (lol) #forest #forestry #tree #trees #ecology #ecosystem #nature #science #stem

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Reposted by Grant Gigot

Jonathan Tonkin @jdtonkin.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Periodic reminder that without biodiversity, we’re all doomed. Let’s not brush it aside and focus solely on carbon (obviously critical). Focusing on carbon while sidelining biodiversity is a catastrophic mistake. Biodiversity isn’t optional. It’s fundamental to our very existence.

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Photo dump from a weekend of restoration work around Chicago. I feel like there’s something beautifully ominous about all of these minus the one of me holding a chainsaw which is JUST ominous

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Peregrines volunteers, heads down working on removing one of the LAST patches of buckthorn at Somme, a site where a stewardship community has been doing restoration work for almost 40 years (or more?!) 😭 (Look bottom left to see a shadow of me holding a smartphone for the pic. Classic.)

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Remnant woodland burns Toasted mushrooms, cute sedges Tough white oaks grateful Thank you for reading my post-prescribed burn haiku 🙏

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Grant Gigot @grant-gigot.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Another beautiful autumnal Sunday at Superior Street Prairie, just after the first snow of the season. Stewards can be seen here walking a fire break put in for an upcoming Rx burn, while discussing management of encroaching aspen and black locust trees and admiring showy goldenrod seed heads 🤩

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