iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I’ve got an animal mystery. Squirrels are eating my tomatoes (potted on the deck) so hubs put some netting over it and it appears something got trapped ‘cuz there are droppings inside the netting. Whatever it is is good at hiding! We’re guessing a lizard. Or possible a mouse. Camera trap charging.

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Mark Hamill @markhamillofficial.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

You're entitled to your own opinion. You're NOT entitled to your own facts. #BelieveTheScience What he said 💯 👇 👇 👇

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

One of the things I like about growing from seeds is I forget what I planted where (no, I can’t be bothered to mark them) so it’s always a delightful surprise when things start growing and flowering. 😆 No, I don’t need them identified because I enjoy the surprise!

Unknown seedlings growing in a window box.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

College students will ask if they can submit an assignment 6 weeks late then get frustrated when grades aren’t posted the next day 🫠

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I spoke too soon yesterday. We now have 5 eggs! #birds #bluebird

5 pale blue eggs in a nest made of brown, dried plant matter

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

We’ll have eastern bluebird chicks in about 14 days! #birds #bluebird

A nest made of dried grass, pine needles and twigs cradles 4 small, pale blue eggs.

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Reposted by Shauna

Katie Hinde @mammalssuck.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Giraffe, like many other ungulates, don't always get all their nutrition just from leaves. Giraffe get some of their essential minerals by eating BONES #Osteophagy (Bredin et al. 2008). Giraffe looks forlornly at the That's So Metal Division #2026MMM

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Carlos Chavez Ramirez @carloschalicothere.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Is your golden retriever friendly because of its breed? Genetics says: not really. A citizen science study of 18,000+ dogs found breed explains only 9% of behavioral variation in individual dogs. Personality predates modern breeds by thousands of years. #2026MMM www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"Effect of breed on behavior.
(A) Biddability is among eight behavioral factors defined from surveys. SE, standard error. (B) Dogs in some breeds tend to score unusually high or low for this factor compared with dogs overall. (C and D) Border collies score lower on average for biddability (vertical line at median) but vary widely (C), including genetically confirmed border collies (D). (E) In mixed-breed dogs, border collie ancestry has a small genetic effect on biddability. [Photo credits: K. Wirka (Sprocket); M. Wisniewski (Caboose); B. Hoadley (Molly); M. Logsdon (Hunter); A. Macias (Lily); S. Staples (TWooie)]"

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Don’t sleep on Brendan Fraser’s #RentalFamily. It really is a beautiful story.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Painted lady butterfly wings viewed through a dissecting scope #inverts #butterfly

Painted lady butterfly eye, head and part of a wing

Closet up of an orange and black butterfly wing showing the texture and Fri fed edge

Closeup of the wing showing individual orange and black scales

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

It’s okay to step away for a moment when things are unbearable. Small, ordinary, beautiful things aren’t pointless when things are heavy. A reminder to notice the beauty that’s still here. Dragonfly compound eyes.

Close up microscope view of amber colored compound eye of a dragonfly lab specimen. Repeating hexagonal lenses reflect light. A few sensory hairs are visible as well as the blue iridescent labrum.

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Lyle Lewis @race2extinct.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

The fossil record preserves bones, not biodiversity. But extinction happens at the scale of bacteria, fungi, mosses, microfauna, parasites, soil invertebrates. Entire kingdoms of life disappear without leaving a mark.

Two species of fungi peeking through pine needles.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

“and this all follows from sympathy, a fundamental element of the social instincts. A man who possessed no trace of such instincts would be an unnatural monster.” Darwin, The Descent of Man, Chapter IV

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

My phone camera was able to pick up just a hint of the pink and green of the Northern Lights over Virginia tonight. 10 second exposure

Night sky on a river with pale pink and green of the Northern Lights. Lights from houses shine on the horizon.

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Michael Li (李之樸) @mcpli.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

A seeming bit of history tonight as Ghazala Hashmi becomes the first Asian American to win statewide office in Virginia - and the first Muslim woman to win statewide office *anywhere* in the United States.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Moss? Idk. found on the ground in Virginia USA at St Mary’s Wilderness near the falls #nature

This is a close-up image of what appears to be a patch of moss or a similar bryophyte.

The majority of the texture consists of densely packed, light green to yellow-green, small, and curly or winding plant structures. Interspersed among these are several clusters of paler, almost white or light beige shoots that look like they are emerging or growing upright, providing a contrast in color and form. The overall texture is very intricate and rough.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Novavax has been available in the US since 2022. How are pharmacists still not familiar with it? #GetBoosted #CovidIsntOver

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

This is an oldie that I found on my camera roll but still find it so calming. #nature #leaves

A dark green leaf with serrated margins that have yellowed, on a blurred background

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Online recipes used to be fun. Now half of them are AI garbage missing major steps and written awkwardly. If it’s from 2025, I’m skipping it. #CookingFail

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Skype a Scientist @skypeascientist.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Alrght everybody, get your Tin Can Telephones out. We need your help! We reach new people by word of mouth. Send all your educator friends this pic! Teachers, librarians, scout troop leaders, etc! We offer our program for free, so we need help getting the word out without advertising $$.

A purple and red octopus talk to each other on the tin can telephone. Purple octopus says “want to connect your students with real
Scientists?” Then red octopus says “Skype a scientist matches groups with scientists for virtual q&as. It’s free!” And then an orange flapjack octopus says “get a match at skypeascientist.com”

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

This fall, @megstampede.bsky.social & I are collaborating to create a 2026 calendar! Each month features a different animal, facts about them, & actions we can take to help them! Sales will fund our '26 Native 🌱 Project Order before 10/1 to get a free plant sticker! www.etsy.com/listing/4366...

two cuttlefish hover over a reef where the female has laid eggs with tiny little baby cuttlefish in them. It's the month of December

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Lots of mushrooms popping up after all the rain.

Picture of a tan colored mushroom taken from below, looking up at the gills, in afternoon sunlight. Blue skies in the background.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

I think the ectotherm crew is pranking the bird and mammal crew because I keep hearing/finding live crickets in the office but we don’t use live crickets in the bird and mammal diets. #animalkeeper #zoos

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Silver Spring Progressive Action @sspaction1.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Today is the 1st day of early voting in VA. Let’s do some flipping and make VA bluer. Let’s elect @abigailspanberger.com for Gov., give her a bluer house of delegates, elect Ghazala Hashmi for Lt Gov, & Jay Jones for AG. Make a plan to vote & go to iwillvote.com?state=VA to find your polling place!

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

A new species for me- a short-tailed shrew, i think. It could be either the N. or S. species. Rare for mammals it has a venomous bite. Carnivorous. I found it scavenging around in seed the birds dropped, probably looking for worms and insects. It uses ultrasonic clicks to help it navigate. #mammals

Nighttime trail-cam image of a Short-tailed shrew. It's on the ground amongst sparsely leafed shrubs and grasses. There is a red circle around it for ease of visibility.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

My teen is researching cryptid creatures of Ecuador/South America through books and articles for a high school psychology class, but we’re curious 🧐 Are there any local tales or stories they might be missing? Any insights would be amazing #Cryptozoology #Anthropology #FolkloreStudies #Ethnobiology

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

It’s finally happened. One of my kid’s childhood friends (who they are still friends with) is a student in the class I teach at the university. I hadn’t seen them since elementary school about 8 years ago but I immediately recognized them. #worldscollide #adjunct

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Highlight of my day was relocating several hundred (thousand?) teeny tadpoles from a concrete watering hole to the wild. Swim free and grow strong legs little ones! #amphibians

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

I’m in my early 50s, and It’s wild to think that no one had detected planets beyond our sun until I was in college. Now thousands are catalogued, with some potentially in the ‘habitable zone.’ #science is amazing.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Any minute now these beauties will have their wings and another generation will continue the migration to Mexico. #butterflies #MonarchButterfly #invertebrates #arthropods #pollinators

Two monarch butterflies almost ready to emerge. The black and orange wings are visible through the transparent chrysalises hanging in a white mesh enclosure.

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California Academy of Sciences @calacademy.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Those endless waves of seagrass that cover the California coast might appear unremarkable—but they’re bastions of biodiversity that have both supported Indigenous culture and flourished under Native stewardship for centuries.

An illustrated scene shows a trio of three diverse fish species, swimming amid a murky bed of eelgrass. Text overlay reads “Unearthing the Secrets of Eelgrass Meadows with Indigenous Science & Biodiversity Research”

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

doing fieldwork on bats in the southwestern deserts often meant working in the middle of nowhere at night. bears? fine. coyotes? fine. rattlesnakes? fine. but headlights on a dirt road in the distance? terrifying. animals are predictable. humans with unknown intentions are not. #fieldwork

heads lights in the distance with a black sky and lit up road

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Yellow aphids on milkweed in the garden. Where are the ladybugs?

A multitude of yellow aphids with short, thin black legs on green milkweed stem

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Fun find in the garden today -- Bird Nest Fungus! #fungi

A cluster of tan, tiny, cup-shaped Bird’s Nest Fungi nestled in brown garden mulch, each resembling a miniature bird's nest filled with about 5 silvery eggs. The woody cups are about the size of a pencil eraser.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

30 years ago before streaming music and podcasts existed I was often alone in the desert southwest doing wildlife field work, often in the middle of the night. NPR was the only signal I could get, and it kept me sane.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

The monarch butterflies have been visiting. I haven’t seen any flying around the garden but they left me some treasures. #butterflies #nature

View from above of a green chrysalis with a delicate gold band circling the upper part hangs between stalks and leaves of a green swamp milkweed plant. The black cremaster and silk button are visible where the chrysalis anchored to the plant.

View from the side of a green chrysalis with a delicate gold band circling the upper part, hangs between stalks and leaves of a green swamp milkweed plant. The black cremaster and silk button are visible where the chrysalis anchored to the leaf.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

When I step out onto the deck and catch a whiff of fennel I know the caterpillars have been busy munching on the herbs #pollinators #backyardwildlife #butterflies

Eastern swallowtail caterpillar on a fennel stem

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

This summer, I’ve got one kid flipping burgers, one picking crops, and one digging up America’s history. One’s fueling society today, one’s sustaining it through agriculture, and one’s literally unearthing the roots of it all. 🧑‍🍳🫐🪏 They’ve got burns, bug bites and blisters but #NoCrownsJustCalluses

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Danielle Beckman @daniellebeckman.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

I am just a microscopist with social anxiety. But seeing #Covid impact on the brain through the lenses of the microscope has affected me. It’s hard not to feel for the millions sick everywhere. Below is a 2021 video about our research. Can we please keep talking about #LongCovid?

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Phil Levin @phillevin.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

US conservation science is at serious risk. Join a virtual rally May 22 (12–1pm ET) to defend the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area—vital for tracking wildlife, disease, ecosystems & biodiversity. Featuring Drew Lanham & Kenn Kaufman. It’s free, it’s virtual, it’s vital. www.mobilize.us/nwf/event/79...

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Gulo @gulogulo77.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

"loves hugs" and "feels empathy" We need more Elmos less Elons.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Trail cam picked up this beauty of a brown thrasher. #birds

A trail cam caught a BrownThrasher as it stood still for a moment in the green grass showing off its yellow eye and brown speckled breast and belly, looking off to the right of the frame.

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

The possibility that RFK Jr. is going to undermine herd immunity in the United States grows increasingly likely. This would mean that US will be responsible for starting numerous pandemics and potentially destroying the effectiveness of the entire globe’s vaccine arsenal. This is bioterrorism.

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

The camera tipped over, so I missed the big moment when the goslings hatched but once the family moved out, I reset the camera to film the one non-viable egg. I figured something would come along for an easy snack. Sure enough on night two a determined little masked bandit showed up. #mammals #birds

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Julia Saltz @juliasaltz.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

New paper now out! 🚀 Evolution isn't just about selection—it's about how each generation changes the environment for the next. We experimentally show evolutionary feedbacks in action in fruit flies. 🧵 (1/) @pnas.org #NSF #SupportNSF

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Shauna @shaunahaymond.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

So far 4 Canada goose goslings have been spotted out and about. Looks like there was one dud. #birds

A single unhatched Canada goose egg in a downy nest among green leafy plants. A few eggshells from hatched eggs can be seen.

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