iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Woah!! What an utterly incredible perspective of coral 😍 🧪🦑🌿 Looks like alien art, but it's a very real and intimate view of Cauliflower soft coral (Dendronephthya) looking up from its base towards its fractal tips. Australian Geographic 2025 photo competition Winner 🎉 📷 Ross Gudgeon

$Thick, pale pink trunks textured with short, darker pink wriggly lines, branching into fractals towards the middle of the image, leafed with spiky white polyps at their tips.$

010528

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

There's a massive flock here in Abbotsford atm, along the river, like 50 or more. Way larger than I've seen in previous years.

Three black cockatoos with bright yellow cheek patches drinking from a puddle in an almost empty concrete casting pool.

071

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

I did finally plant up my little garden bed with natives in between naps. Surprised to finding weeding quite meditative so far (I'm sure I'll get sick of it at some point though, lol). Loving the little bursts of #WildOz colors though 🥰

Small raised garden bed planted with young kangaroo paws, grevillea, happy wanderer, paper daisies.

Close up of bright pink and orange pea flower

2130

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Here you can see a trail of detritus she stores on her web, some of it a larder for times of scarcity, but these caches also include plant materials. So researchers suspect the rotting vegetation may lure more prey.

260

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

A chonky mother-to-be tending a web so strong she could occasionally feast on tiny birds, bats or snakes. Didn't find the male on the meter-wide web. They are tiny in comparison, 4 mm compared to the 4 cm Australian golden orb-weaver female pictured. 🐡 🧪 🌏 #InverteFest #WildOz #Invert

Spider with very large, rounded abdomen mostly grey with back-lit coppery legs

711510

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

A juvenile galah who was incredibly tolerant of my attention 🥰 Here you can see the youngster's nictitating membrane over its eye - a third, transparent eyelid that birds can close for protection against dust, wind, foliage etc, while still allowing some visibility. #WildOz #NatureWriting 🪶🧪🌿

A large, white capped pink parrot with grey wings and black eye half covered by an opaque membrane, grazing on grass. Grey feathers scatter through the punk around its neck which mark it as a juvenile.

1618

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

If you see this, quote with flowers from your gallery 🌿 #nativeplants #wildoz

Large bright pink hakea flower that's a rounded cone of tubular tepals rather than petals.

5504

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

If you see this, post something orange. This smol friend, the transverse ladybird, is common all the way from India to Australia. 🧪🌿 #inverts #WildOz

Shiny orange and black blotched ladybird with delicate little antenna sitting on long nailed fingertip

1241

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (5/20) 💙📚 #BookSky #BookChallenge

Book cover illustration of a man and older lady dressed in late Victorian era clothing having tea in a garden, titled The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

040

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Is Bob the sea piglet Gilbert uses for cover? 😂 📷 MBARI

Translucent many tube legged sea cucumber with a spikey pink crab crawling on it

010

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

@flyingtrilobite.com another arrival for the SciArt feed 😊 (Love the heck out of your work Zoe, welcome!)

Two colorful framed paintings, one of the diverse species if octopus, the other of different species of sea horses.

110

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Eeeeeee!! What an adorkably silly face 🥰 Researchers found this baby king crab (Neolithodes agassizii) hitchhiking on a plastic bag in the Gulf of Mexico. They usually live at depths of 200–1,900 metres and grow up to 12 cm in size. 🧪🦑 🌿 What would you name this tiny crablet? 📹 NOAA Fisheries

54812224

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

yep it's a sternum below a tucked under abdomen/apron! 🙂 These might be helpful? 📷 Atlas of Invertebrate Anatomy by DT Anderson

190

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

OMG I JUST SAW A BLUE BANDED BEE! First time seeing one up close after much searching 😄 And it was while watering my neighbors garden, so I should be able to attract some too!! (Yes, I'm way too excited about this but just look at how freaking stunning they are 😂) 🌿🦑 📷 Possent phsycography

Fluffy orange bee with huge green eyes and blue and black banded abdomen.

3450466

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

This stringling is so thin it can only fit its anus on its throat! Slender snipe eels are the most vertebrae containing vertebrates, stringing together around 750 spine bones into their 1.3 m of length. Their miniscule profile helps them hide. 🧪🌿🦑 📷 @whoi.bsky.social, @montereyaq.bsky.social

Coil of what could be thick but tapered wire if not for a rounded head and even thinner long snout

close up of tiny eel head with large eyes and ridiculously flimsy looking long open snout

1110727

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (4/20) 💙📚 #BookSky #BookChallenge

Blue book with some wear and the title This Changes Everything

1120

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

Share a shot from your first birding of 2025 🪶 #WildOz Was fun to see this Australasian darter fishing up close 😄 Such a prolific hunter - caught four fish in front of us! @alexriesart.bsky.social thinks this fish is maybe a baby Aussie bass?

long, snaking, white-slashed brown bird neck emerging from dark water with a silver fish skewered on its narrow pointed yellow beak

0601

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

Seeing a spoonbills in the wild for the first time 😊

too large white birds with dark spoon shaped beaks wading in wetlands

010

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (3/20) 💙📚 #BookSky #BookChallenge

Book cover for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with red border showing a blue whale and pot plant falling from the night sky

080

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Share a shot from your last birding of 2024 🪶 #WildOz

Blue cheek and capped, black headed small grey bird with beak open in a song

4281

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Thank you! It's two bedroom lengths of this that fences the courtyard in 🙂 Faces northeast so gets plenty of light till about mid afternoon all seasons, is sheltered from east, south & west winds by the long building/hill opposite but does get some northerly winds.

100

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Hey #WildOz / #OzPlant folk, I've finally cleared my courtyard garden bed so am wondering what native plants would thrive contained and provide the best resources for wildlife. I'd like to encourage more visits from honeyeaters, wrens, pardalotes, paper wasps etc. in Melbs. Would love suggestions! 🙂

391

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

To everyone who felt like they climbed mountains just to stay in place this year, or even fall behind: same. It's hard and so exhausting when things are being relentlessly sucky, but let's keep on trying to defy that gravity, together 💙

cartoon of a figure standing on a mountain peak saying "I did it" and another figure, still struggling out of a mountainous ditch, saying the same

012821

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Water dragons are everywhere at the moment! This is the most festive one I've seen so far. He's put on his fancy colors to try impress the ladies. #WildOz #UrbanWildlife 🐍 🌿

Lizard with black markings, yellow throat, red chest and spikey crest scales

719028

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (2/20) 💙📚 #BookSky #BookChallenge

Book cover with contemplative looking chimp on it and title The Age of Empathy.

041

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. (1/20) 📚 #BookSky #BookChallenge

Book cover of The Last Unicorn with an illustration of a white unicorn in front of a sunset sky

2120

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

My fave local walk area! The bat roost is incredible. Been meaning to return soon to try get some shots of the babies too 😄 Thanks for cleaning it up a little!

Three dark grey furry fruit bats with bronze neck floof and big soulful eyes hanging from a branch.

192

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

These fellas think they're so funny! 😆 🪶 Laughing kookaburras are the largest kingfishers in the world. One of the few predators that dare take on our dangerous snakes, they grab the venomous reptiles by the head and whack them against a hard surface until they can be safely swallowed 🧪 #WildOz

two large white kingfishers on a branch with thick pointed beaks gaping open, lightly blue sprinkled brown wings and black-banded reddish tails

512119

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

These most fancy-shaped of sea pancakes need our help: nb.australiainstitute.org.au/end_salmon_f... Tamania's Maugean skate's family can be traced back all the way to Gondwana 66mya. But they are now critically endangered & under threat from commercial salmon farming 🦑🌏🌿 #WildOz 📷 Jane Rucker/IMAS

Flat, curved sided triangular shaped grey fish pancaking on sand sea bottom

19530

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

We're super lucky to have more than one type of night life here 🥰 Each evening a sky stream flows from the banks of the Yarra River, as thousands of grey-headed flying foxes leave their roost to feed across the suburbs of #Melbourne and beyond. 🦇🌿🦊 #WildOz #nature #photography 🧵

Silhouetted city towers sprinkled with colorful lights, beneath an even more dazzlingly colorful sunset sky, with a stream of fruit bats black against the fairy floss and golden clouds.

621823

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Someone found his own reflection, despite my barrier piles, and got mad at himself 😂 🐍

212814

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Fun ideas here! And for some extra inspiration, this little one looked like he was auditioning to be a Christmas borble 😄 #WildOz

Grey feathered sphere with a black head section splashed with brilliant blue cap and cheeks. Dark eyes and beak pointed with comical unimpressiveness directly at the viewer.

0242

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Anyways, totally apropos of nothing in particular, everyone should get a chance to admire these critically endangered, most fancy-shaped sea pancakes! Just look at that cute corner snoot 🥰 #wildoz 📷 Maugean skate by Jane Rucker/IMAS

A triangular flat, grayish fish pancaking at the bottom of the sea on sand

1203

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

My first danger noodle of the season! 🥰 This magnificent tiger snake was trailing after some maned ducks. Maybe sussing out if they had ducklings? Or happened to be fishing in the same direction. One of our most venomous snakes, but they prefer to flee as long as you give them room to #wildoz

Swimming cream,and red banded snake with head arched up out of tge water.

3573

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

These striking natives may look fierce but they just feed on nectar. Paper wasps do hunt insects to feed to their young though, and create amazing nests from wood pulp and their own saliva, which, no surprise, feel just like paper. #wildoz #invert 🌿

A striking orange wasp with a yellow face and big eyes, viewed from up close underneath as it clings to a window and another climbs over it.

2281

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Absolute terror beast! 😄

small yellow bearded dragon snug in a clothes pile at the back of a closet

020

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Sorry I can't come into work today, a smol dragon has requisitioned my laptop. 🐍#beardeddragon

3371

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

I have the pleasure of dragonsitting this week! This little cheeky is Vex, and he seems to enjoy running around my apartment 😄 #beardeddragon 🐍

Dark, curly haired woman with glasses holding a yellow lizard with orange markings and a spikey scaled beard

51557

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

this visiting little spy 😂

floor of an apartment with tiny yellow lizard head peaking up over the edge of a bed

010

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

show me a picture on your phone that has your energy but isn't a selfie 🎥 Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary 🪶

5464

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Sky puppies are keystone pollinators & seed dispersers #WildOz 🦇 🦊 Grey-headed flying foxes have a bad rep coz they're rough on trees but seems weird to blame them for something we're so worse at! The #Melbourne colony moved in permanently ~1980s, partly coz of #climate change & habitat loss

Three fruit bats dangling upside-down from a tree branch, two looking towards the viewer with big puppy-dog eyes from dark faces set on fluffy orangy-brown chest fur.

812221

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

A harvestman caught a white-tail spider right next to my couch 😱 Unfortunately I only got the wrapping on film. But this is why it's great to keep some daddy-long-legs about: they'll clean up the biters. White-tail bites darn hurt 😅 (The bad narration is me answering my brother 😂) #WildOz #Invert

1152

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Speaking of nudibrachs, I can't believe it's been a whole year since I encountered my first one IRL on #WildOz 's great barrier reef. Was utterly thrilled!! 😄 Can anyone please tell me what species this is? #InvertID #InsertAnInvert #Nudivember 📷 Wavelength Reef Cruises

Black sea slug with fluro orange antenna and other accents, bright green spots and naked branching gills on its back, amongst sand and colorful coral ecosystem

69513

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

My faves! What a cutie 😍 I'm so lucky I can often see one from my couch as a distant blob. I named her Twig, because until I borrowed some binoculars I wasn't sure if that's all she was 😂 #WildOz 🪶

A branch colored bird pretending to be a branch on a gum tree in front of a dense, fully blooming yellow wattle bush.

140

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline

View from the middle of creek surrounded by towering gum trees, reflecting a pink and purple sunset sky as it empties into a river banked by foliage drenched in golden light

11260

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Quack 😄 Australian wood duck #wildoz 🪶 #urbanwildlife

A white speckled brown duck, neck thrust out with an open mouth quack.

1270

tessa @tesskou.bsky.social · 11/11/2024

Saboteur caught in the act! They are quite clever birds. In some places currawongs have figured out how to unzip backpacks left unattended to steal bushwalker's trail mix.

160