Sometimes I don't even know what I'm photographing. This is a male blue-black grassquit doing a "I'm sexy" dance as he calls.
Ohio, February 2023
Abundant in the right habitat/locality and handsome as adults, we found quite a few of these. Definitely saw more juveniles/females than adult males, though.
June 2022
A lot of rattlesnake species (Crotalus sp.) in the western US look quite similar, but there are a few characteristics you can look at to help you identify them. The body pattern, facial pattern, tail pattern, and head scalation can all help lead you to the correct ID. While identification is not critical for envenomation treatment, it's fun to know what you're looking at (kind of the point of this community).
A couple of immature red-tailed hawks duke it out for some reason. This was at a hawk watch in central Pennsylvania, October 2022.
Sometimes, plain snakes are the most beautiful and interesting.
In the right areas, these guys are downright common. I'm surprised I don't see more posts about them. They're like adorable tiny leopard geckos.
Pennsylvania, July 2023
While we're not seeing a lot of purple finches around the US right now, it's always good to brush up on your bird ID knowledge. Here is a good comparison between these two commonly confused species. You should primarily focus on the lack of distinct stripes on the body, the raspberry tones in the purple finch wings, and the facial coloration and pattern. Male house finches usually have a gray ear patch that lacks any reddish color, whereas the purple finch usually has a really distinctive pattern covered in raspberry.
Harmless watersnakes (Nerodia sp.) are oden mistaken for venomous cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorous/conanti) in the eastern US, even outside of cottonmouth range (the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain). Here is a nice graphic depicting visual differences in their body shape, face, and pattern. Note: this doesn't include all North American watersnakes, but it includes the species more likely to be encountered in the same range.
This stunning large specimen was just hanging out when we came across it. Absolute unit of a viper.
