#migrating tree frogs

[princessmagicverse]

Here’s the third VMV. The fourth and Final VMV will be posted this Valentine’s Day!

[kaythefloppa]

The Final Four Episodes of Season 7 Confirmed

On June 1st, 2025, at the start of this month, I made it to Wild Kratts Live for the first time. It was a truly breath-taking experience to see the Kratt Brothers in person in what was essentially a very well put together live-action remake of a Wild Kratts episode.

As per usual, at the end of the show, they announced the future episodes that they worked on. For this month's show, they confirmed that they were finishing up the final four episodes of the 20-episode season. Here is a bootleg clip of the announcement from when I was there.

Anyways, here is what to expect from the final batch of episodes for the 7th season.

The fish-eating loon. This was previously alluded to in other live-shows, but essentially we'll be getting an episode on the loon, a major predator to freshwater and saltwater fish, and likely a loon-inspired Creature Power Suit.

African leopards. This was also confirmed in previous live-shows, however, this is the first instance (to my knowledge) that confirms that the leopard episode we're getting is that of the African leopard, mentioned several times with live-action footage in Season 1, and finally shown in animation in the Season 6 finale. More than definitely will we see a leopard-inspired suit to add to the roster of wildcat inspired Creature Power Suits.

Tree frogs. This animal was not previously mentioned in other WK live shows, but now we know the previously unmentioned animal whose feature episode will be included in the final batch. Martin confirms a Tree Frog Power Suit, so there is no doubt about it.

Armadillo. Another animal previously mentioned to have an episode. An interview with Martin reveals the plot for the armadillo episode, in which Zach challenges the Kratt Brothers to a bowling contest, whilst they're in their Armadillo Creature Power Suits.

Anyways, that's what we can expect. According to a current.org article, Season 7 will end in 2025, a two-year run for a 20-episode season of Wild Kratts as usual, so we can expect the Season 7 finale finale to air sometime this fall.

And now for your thoughts. Which episode are you excited for the most? Which Creature Power Suit are you excited for the most? Which animal are you excited to finally see in the spotlight? Which episode do you think is going to be the finale? And what do you hope to see in each episode?

Personally, I hope that the Tree frog episode brings back Rex. Tree frogs are endangered primarily because of habitat loss and logging. This could be a chance to finally show us what happened to Rex after Paisley's redemption and follow up on those loose threads by showing him threatening the tree frog habitat and either remaining a solo villain, or redeeming himself and getting back with Paisley to help her and the rest of the Kratts save, protect, and learn about tree frogs. Since this is going to be in the last batch of episodes for S7, I really hope they do this so that we can wrap up the Paisley/Rex story arc before the finale and establish a new status quo set in stone when Season 8 comes around (although I'm almost convinced that we won't see Paisley confront Zach, Donita, and Gourmand post-betrayal until Season 8, which I'm fine with).

I also hope the armadillo episode addressed the armadillo migration up north due to climate change, and how the one threat armadillos face in midwestern North America is cars on highway that endanger their species. It's been an ongoing thing happening in my town for the past 5 years that I think the show is very much in bound to tackle and shed light on.

But anyways, let's see what these new episodes have in store!

[outofangband]

Pastures of Yavanna Headcanons

Lórien headcanons

Board

Also thank you to @hobbitwrangler for your kind tags on my board that inspired me to finish this!

Somewhat different format to my previous post, I hope that's okay!

The realm of Yavanna is a testament to the vibrancy and variety of Valinor. While there are pastures and gardens, there is also a variety of ecosystems, ranging from temperate to tropical to frigid. Tolkien canonically says that in Arda are all creatures that do or have ever walked the earth and many that haven’t. Not all are represented in Yavanna’s realm but a huge number are

Instead of one organized realm, I think Yavanna and her Maiar maintain a number of places that they travel easily between but that are physically spread out across the wilds of Valinor. Elves can ostensibly travel between them but the act is much harder. A number of passages and portals are guarded by the Maiar of the realm. 

Her temple and one of her largest gardens is located in the foothills of Taniquetil, on the opposite side of Valmar. These are surrounded by a network of creeks and groves. A huge variety of life is represented here alone from mosses, thousands of flowering plants and dozens of species of trees, grasses, pollinators including bees, butterflies and moths, beetles, hummingbirds and small mammals, as well as lizards, frogs and salamanders and others.

Yavanna has one of highest number of Maiar, many of whom often or always take on the form of flora or fauna (as I talked about here their sentience and duties are also on a spectrum!!) A number of trees especially throughout her realms are in fact Maiar, some which may sleep for centuries at a time.

Though elves often gather in the gardens of Yavanna, many of her spaces are as dangerous as any wilderness. While the borders might be contained, what lies within them are free. Lusciously overgrown forests, prowling beasts and a variety of other natural perils.

Elven devotees of Yavanna often learn in one area of her domain rather than its entirety. A small number of them work to compose records of species and their habits, as well as detailed cartography of her realms.

The symbols of her devotees represent the diversity of life with pendants most commonly showing either camphor, sequoia or oak trees, or smaller forms like beetles, hummingbirds, or tree frogs.

One ceremony involves watching wildebeest like creatures travel across the plains in the far wests of Valinor. About a hundred elven devotees approach on a weeks long journey to witness this migration under the stars, far beyond where the lights of the trees, when they stood, and after their destruction this event would be forever held in twilight as the light of Arien doesn’t fully reach the plains.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Anthropocene Magazine:

The question isn’t “Why did the salamander cross the road?” It’s “Why did the salamander cross UNDER the road?”

The answer: To get to the other side without being squished by a car.

For salamanders and other amphibians, like so much wildlife, roads are no joke – not even a bad one. For creatures who migrate between the water and the surrounding forest, the effects can be particularly lethal. Each spring, adult frogs, newts and salamanders will move en masse from their wooded homes to nearby ponds and streams to mate and lay eggs. If a road lies in their path, the results are predictable.

Residents of of Monkton, a small town in the far outskirts of Vermont’s largest city, Burlington, witnessed a cruel example in the spring of 2006 on a town road that cuts between uplands and water. “They counted over a thousand dead animals on the road in just two nights,” said Brittany Mosher, an ecologist at the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington.

Instead of just shaking their heads and muttering about the damn traffic, locals got busy. Led by Monkton resident and state wildlife biologist Steve Parren, neighbors, state officials, university scientists and environmental groups collaborated to build a possible solution: Two 1.5 meter-wide concrete tunnels were built beneath the road, amphibious underpasses meant to give these creatures a safe route when they felt the stirrings of spring.

But would they work? That’s where this project stands out. In recent years, technical fixes to reduce road-crossing carnage have become increasingly common. That includes motion-sensitive warning lights at elk crossings and large, animal-friendly overpasses or tunnels. But the long-term outcomes often aren’t measured or only after the infrastructure is built, missing the rigor of studies comparing what happened before and after.

Not so in Monkton. There, for 12 years volunteers and UVM scientists spent rainy spring nights surveying parts of a 1.3 kilometer stretch of road to count amphibians, both alive and dead. Five years of that work happened before the underpasses opened.

Those spring forays revealed what amphibian advocates had been hoping for. In places where the tunnels and adjoining concrete “wings” were installed, the body count fell by 80%. Among amphibians that aren’t adept at climbing trees (or small concrete walls), the effect was even greater, with a 94% drop in deaths. “It was surprising. I knew that underpasses would work, but I didn’t think they would be that effective,” said Matthew Marcelino, an ecologist at UVM and lead author of a new paper describing the results in the Journal for Nature Conservation.

The tunnels, it turned out, weren’t only for frogs and salamanders. Wildlife cameras captured black bear, bobcats and porcupines crossing beneath the road as well.

That doesn’t mean the problem was completely solved. While deaths of climbing amphibians, especially tiny frogs known as spring peepers, fell by 74%, it wasn’t statistically significant. Distressingly, the total number of dead amphibians didn’t improve in buffer zones on either side of the tunnels, as well as sections of the road further from the tunnels.

[pushovermediacritic]

The Land Before Time Liveblog 1

The Land Before Time (1988)

Right off the bat, I'm surprised at how short the first movie is. Since it was in theaters, I assumed it would be at least 90 minutes, but no; it doesn't even crack 70.

Actually, I'm really surprised that the first Land Before Time is the shortest movie in the series. Again, since it was the only one to get a theatrical release, I always assumed it was the longest. Maybe the others are longer because the first movie isn't a musical, while the rest are.

Missed opportunity to have the Universal logo changed to Pangaea.

The movie opens on this little amphibious freak swimming around.

Help me out, what is this freak?

Somehow, I completely forgot this was produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

The narrator introduces that this is in the time of dinosaurs and the leafy plants are dying off, so they're migrating West to the Great Valley.

We see multiple shots of various dinosaurs eating water plants, implying that they're eating lower-quality food because of the famine. The narration doesn't say why the famine is happening, it's not a drought, we see plenty of lakes and rivers and water plants.

The first baby dino we see hatch is Ducky the Saurolophous, voiced by the late Judith Barsi (very sad story there). It's interesting that this technically makes Ducky the oldest member of the group.

Ducky's hatching scene shows her as curious and excitable, but naive.

The next baby dino to hatch is Cera the Triceratops. Her hatching scene shows her to be headstrong and stubborn, but also vulnerable.

We also see Ducky and Cera each having multiple siblings.

Littlefoot the Apatosaurus hatches next, but not without some drama. We see multiple broken eggs around him, and the narrator explains he's an only child, after a short sequence where his egg gets stolen and then goes through a natural Rube Goldberg track.

Littlefoot's hatching scene establishes him to be fearful and shy, but loving. His "herd" is just himself, his mom, grandma, and grandpa. No mention of Littlefoot's father, though we'll meet him in later movies.

Then we timeskip and Littlefoot is older. Littlefoot's mom pulls down a lone Tree Star (a large leaf) for him to eat, and the animation of the dew on it really is beautiful. The animation throughout this movie does a lot of cool stuff with perspective to make the adult longnecks look truly enormous. Slow pans as they move their heads and necks, with extreme fish-eye effects on the perspective, it's really cool.

Littlefoot doesn't actually eat the Tree Star, though, because he's distracted by hearing Cera playing.

She's terrorizing a beetle by charging at it and breaking the rocks it lands on. I like the animalistic honking noise she makes when she's about to charge. She acts like she's going to eat it until it shoots her in the face with some kind of chemical deterrent, which makes Littlefoot laugh. She squares up and they charge at each other, but are interrupted by Cera's father, who reveals some racism (speciesm?) and says that "three-horns never play with long-necks".

Cera blows a raspberry and repeats his words while Littlefoot's mom retrieves him. Littlefoot's mom explains all the different types of dinosaurs we'll see and says that they never work together, simply because they're different, but there will surely be many long-necks at the Great Valley for Littlefoot to play with.

Here a major theme of the franchise is introduced, that being racism and fear of those that are different and unfamiliar.

Littlefoot's mom also says the Great Valley is "past the great rock that looks like a long-neck and the mountains that burn", and when Littlefoot asks if she's ever seen it, she says no, she just knows it's there in her heart. Weird that she knows landmarks to it, but maybe it means she heard these directions second-hand.

At night, Littlefoot and Cera reunite while chasing some frogs, and they play in a bog together until Sharptooth (a T-Rex) shows up and chases them into a thorny thicket. This movie treats "Sharptooth" as the name of this particular T-Rex, but I'm pretty sure later movies just use it as the species name like Long-Neck and Tree-Horn.

Littlefoot shows Cera the way out of the thicket, but Cera makes them go a different way and Sharptooth is able to follow. Littlefoot gets tangled and they barely manage to escape by Littlefoot whipping the thorny vines he was tangled up in into Sharptooth's eye. Littlefoot's mom then shows up and whips the Sharptooth in the face with her tail.

This is the start of the iconic and tragic battle between the Sharptooth and Littlefoot's mom, with Littlefoot and Cera caught in the middle. I always thought this happened later in the movie. It happens around the 16 minute mark, not even halfway.

The fight is also WAY more epic that I remembered it, and it ends differently. Halfway through, an earthquake starts up, and all four of them are basically just scrambling to survive, with Littlefoot and Cera at one point accidentally riding on Sharptooth's tail and running up his back. And it's implied that Littlefoot's mom doesn't just die from her injuries from Sharptooth, but also from the earthquake.

Anyway, the earthquake separates Cera and Littlefoot on one side and her parents/his grandparents on the other side.

Littlefoot's mom tells him that she'll always be with him and to let his heart guide him (but the heart whispers, so listen closely), and then she dies. This death is the darkest thing in this whole franchise, and it haunts every subsequent movie as the sole dark element that can't be sanded over.

The next day, Littlefoot is grieving and runs into an older dinosaur named Rooter. Littlefoot blames his mother and himself for her death, and Rooter reassures him that it's neither of their faults, and it's just the great circle of life. And that he'll always miss her, but he'll always carry her with him as long as he remembers her.

Littlefoot is depressed, and then he sees a tree star that makes him remember her words about finding the way to the Great Valley. Then he mistakes his shadow for his mom, but the following shot implies the shadow does represent his mom being always with him. He reunites with Cera and tries to convince her to travel with him, but she's stubborn and racist and refuses, going her own way.

Littlefoot then meets Ducky, and though he's initially hesitant to talk due to racism, she appeals to him by telling him about how she was separated from her parents in the "great earthshake", and he offers for them to travel together, which she accepts with enthusiasm.

Littlefoot tries to eat a branch but accidentally whips Petrie out of it, and that's how we meet Petrie the pteranodon. Petrie can't fly and insecure about it.

Cera rediscovers Sharptooth and, thinking he's dead, decides to headbutt it a few times for catharsis. That accidentally wakes him up, because he was just unconscious, not dead.

Petrie decides to hang out on Littlefoot's head and messes with the tree star, which he hates, so he starts running to make Petrie fly off. They run into a skeleton and then run around in panic until they run into Cera, also running away from Sharptooth.

Both Littlefoot and Cera are too proud to admit they're scared, so Cera starts spinning a tale of bravery to impress Duckie and Petrie about how she stood up to Sharptooth, despite Littlefoot's insistence that Sharptooth is dead. Cera accidentally launches Ducky at the end of her story, and that's how Ducky runs into Spike's egg. She comments that he's "late" and tells him to get up, peeling open Spike's shell around him piece-by-piece while he tries to go back to sleep.

Spike is a Stegosaurus and doesn't talk. In this movie, it's ambiguous whether that's just due to Spike being a baby, but later movies go off that "late" comment from Ducky to imply that Spike has some sort of developmental disability. And also Chomper hatches from an egg and talks later on, but Spike never does.

Speaking of Chomper, that's another thing where the talking gets confusing. In this movie, it's not just Sharptooth, none of the carnivorous animals in this movie talk, like a Dimetrodon who crosses the kids' path. Later sequels go back and forth on that, though I seem to remember the ultimate implication is more that carnivorous dinosaurs have their own distinct language and culture from herbivorous dinosaurs, and both can be learned.

Spike eats a lot and is lazy. To make him come with, Ducky rides on Littlefoot's tail while leading Spike along with berries on a stick.

Cera stays separated from the rest, though still obviously traveling with them.

Littlefoot sniffs out a cluster of trees, and Cera claims that she discovered the Great Valley. A whole herd of long-necks run past them and eat most of the leaves, and Littlefoot says this isn't the Great Valley. There's one small tree left uneaten, and the kids (minus Cera) make a totem pole to reach the leaves.

When they get some, Cera insists she can get her own food, and starts headbutting another tree. Littlefoot throws her a bunch of leaves to make her think it worked. Cera teases them about Sharptooth and the others sleep next to her while Littlefoot insists there is no Sharptooth and sleeps by himself. One-by-one, the other kids join Littlefoot until all of them, Cera included, are sleeping together, literally inside a sharptooth footprint. Ignorance sure is bliss.

Next morning, Cera wakes up to the sound of a growl and wakes up the rest of them to run from Sharptooth. Sharptooth stomps on Littlefoot's tree star while chasing them, shattering it. The kids manage to escape through a crack in a stone wall. On the other side is the rock that looks like a long-neck, indicating they're going the right way, but confidence in Littlefoot as leader is shaken because of his denial of Sharptooth.

They climb a rough mountain, exhausted. Littlefoot urges them on that they're going the right way, only to find an empty valley at the bottom.

Cera shit-talks Littlefoot's mom's directions, and Littlefoot attacks her over it when she refuses to take it back. Note that Cera wouldn't know that Littlefoot's mom is dead, she might just think that she got separated like her parents did.

This movie is a lot more violent than I remember the sequels being. And an interesting theme is rocks breaking when they fight. Littlefoot and Cera are just kids, but they are destroying pretty big rocks as collateral damage in this fight.

The same thing happened with Sharptooth vs Littlefoot's mom, they were demolishing huge boulders with ease, and even Cera when they first met was crushing rocks with her headbutts (which didn't do anything to Sharptooth). It seems to be that the film is implying the dinosaurs were crazy-powerful, enough to reshape the landscape. Like it was an ancient time of titans. That's definitely NOT something I remember carrying over into the sequels, but it would have been interesting to keep. I never thought power-scaling would be mentioned in this liveblog.

The fight ends with Littlefoot trying to walk away like he's won, but Cera jumps off a wall and headbutts him in the butt. Littlefoot tears up and tells her to leave. Interestingly, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike spend most of the fight hiding and scared while the two fight, but afterward they decided to go with Cera, not Littlefoot (though Petrie does try to convince Littlefoot to stop), because her way looks easier. At least at first, the next we see of them, Cera's group is walking around an active lava flow with several active volcanos around her.

Spike lags behind to try and eat a lone plant, while Cera presses onward. She jumps over a chasm and Petrie falls off her head into the tar below. Cera completely ignores his cries for help and walks away, but Littlefoot apparently followed them and comes running in to help. Spike ripping up that plant got him and Ducky stranded on a rock, but Littlefoot knocks over another rock to save them. They then try to save Petrie, but all get covered in tar.

Cera gets attacked by a whole group of Pachycephalosauruses (who don't talk and keep licking their lips, did the writers think they're carnivores?), but the Pachy pack run away at the arrival of this absurd elephantine tar monster thing:

Which is obviously just the other kids in a stack, calling back to their stack earlier to reach the leaves (Spike is the legs holding a bone in his mouth, Littlefoot's tail is the "trunk", Petrie's wings are the "ears", and Ducky is holding two branches as "horns"). Cera doesn't realize it, though, and she cries for her friends to save her from it. Ducky reveals it's them and there's a brief expression of relief on Cera's face. But then they laugh at her for openly being scared and she tries to save face while slipping in tar, which only makes them laugh harder.

Cera stomps away behind a waterfall and breaks into tears, the narrator explaining that she's too proud to admit she went the wrong way.

Cera's fatal flaw is pride. She's proud of herself, of her strength, of her knowledge of what is Right. But there are MANY points in this movie where her pride and refusal to admit when she's wrong directly hurts herself or others.

After swimming through a pool, Littlefoot's group sees Sharptooth in the distance and he hatches a plan to straight-up murder Sharptooth in cold blood.

Littlefoot's plan is to get Sharptooth into the deep end of this pool, figuring he can't swim with his tiny arms, then push a boulder onto his head. Petrie will give the signal to push, and they all collectively decide Ducky has to play bait.

Ducky "ME?! Oh, no! Nonono, nononono..."

This is a great screencap. I love Littlefoot and Petrie's shit-eating grins and half-lidded eyes, while Spike seems to have concern over Ducky's safety, but accepted the group's consensus nonetheless.

Ducky goes in anyway and tries to draw his attention, but somehow Sharptooth does a ninja maneuver and jumps down from the ceiling behind her. She runs between his legs and then Sharptooth trips and slides down the hill toward the pool, with Ducky on his nose. Once in the water, Ducky is able to swim away from him, and Petrie whistles the signal to push the boulder.

Littlefoot and Spike aren't strong enough, though, and Petrie throws a small rock down to distract Sharptooth. Sharptooth headbutts the cliff, making Petrie fall, but the gust of wind from Sharptooth's exhale while roaring allows Petrie to finally get the hang of flying. Sharptooth turns his attention back to Ducky and chases her around the pool, but Petrie summons up his courage and dives down to claw at Sharptooth's bad eye. Annoyed, Sharptooth does like a 100-foot vertical leap out of the water, onto the boulder that Littlefoot and Spike are trying to push.

Ducky gets off of Sharptooth's nose to push and Cera comes in like a big damn hero, headbutting the rock and together they push it over on top of Sharptooth. The moment is great, though it's ruined a little by an obvious ADR line from Littlefoot where he yells "Cera, you're back!" without his lips moving.

Sharptooth falls in the water with the boulder, sinking and presumably drowning, though not before grabbing Petrie.

Then the other characters cry and mourn the apparent loss of Petrie, until he climbs back up and asks why they're leaving without him. Then there's a weird scene of Littlefoot, all alone, seeing his mother forming in the clouds above the pool.

He's sad and tells her that he tried to follow the path but it's just too hard, he'll never find the Great Valley. She fades away and leads him through a tunnel to the Great Valley, he was so close and did find it.

Littlefoot calls the others over, and as they catch up there's a weird continuity error where Littlefoot is slowing to a stop with Petrie already perched on his head.

The kids re-unite with their respective families. Ducky tells her parents and siblings about her "new brother" Spike, Petrie tells his mom and siblings that he can fly, Cera returns to her father and nuzzles noses (interesting that she doesn't have anything to tell him, such as "don't be racist", for example), and Littlefoot finds his grandparents. Then Littlefoot has a flashback of his life and the kids come together in a big hug as the Narrator assures us that these kids will grow up in the Great Valley and pass on the story of this journey to their kids and future generations.

Well, this and 13 other stories from when they were kids, but those are sequels for another time. And surely nothing bad will ever happen to the Great Valley, they have to grow up there, right?

Anyway.

Now that the movie's over, here's why it was so short: a ton of footage was cut from this movie to make it less scary and more straightforward. According to Wikipedia, 19 finished animation cuts of Sharptooth were cut in the production phase, and then another 10 whole minutes were cut just a few weeks before release.

This is why there are a lot of weird little continuity errors, like in Sharptooth's attack where he only has one eye before Littlefoot whips the thorny vine into it, and some weird cuts in the mom vs Sharptooth fight, like where Littlefoot's mom gets an injury on her neck despite not having one earlier, or how Littlefoot and Cera get separated from his mom right before the earthquake, which starts up out of nowhere.

Also, Spike's intro was cut short, Petrie's fake-out death scene was going to last longer, and the scene of Littlefoot seeing his mom in the clouds and finding the Great Valley was originally going to happen BEFORE he runs back to save the others at the volcano. That makes a lot more sense, it was weird that Cera's "wrong way" that immediately took her into volcano territory was also just a short walk away from the pool that was right near the Great Valley, but it makes more sense if Littlefoot had found it ahead of time, went back for his friends, then led them almost to it when they saw Sharptooth.

That also fits better with the movie's prominent anti-racism themes, if Littlefoot found the paradise he was looking for, but then decided it wasn't worth enjoying alone and ran back for his friends, even though they're different from him and they split up on bad terms. And racism being a major theme isn't just an assumption on my part, here's a direct quote:

Don Bluth: "…we came up with another idea that none of these dinosaurs get along with each other, they all hate each other. They're taught from the time they were born not to associate with each other, that's racism".

Ultimately, the original Land Before Time is great.

For pros, the color grading is REALLY interesting in this film, the various scenes have SUCH intense color tone variation that it feels like the characters have a modular color pallet at times.

And now that I have glasses and a good screen, the details in the animation pop a lot more. I love the weird little details that make the main characters less conventionally appealing, like Ducky's knobbly mouth and Littlefoot's wrinkly lips and neck. Those details definitely get smoothed over in the sequels, and I can appreciate them more now. The dialogue and voice acting is another strong highlight, there's a reason these characters stuck with kids and became icons enough for a franchise.

As for the cons, the cuts and changes do hurt the continuity, pacing, and themes a bit. I think having Littlefoot find the Great Valley ahead of time and then going back for his friends would have been better as far as the anti-racism theme goes. Sharptooth is also a pretty glaring hole in the anti-racism theme, being treated by the characters as just a vicious monster yet still clearly having intelligence in his character animation and actions. And as far as voice acting goes, Cera's father is pretty stiff, but he's ultimately a small role.

As far as giving the movie a score goes, I think I'll give The Land Before Time an 8/10. But a theoretical "uncut version" would probably rank higher, likely either 8.5/10 or 9/10.

Unfortunately, it seems like this franchise is dead, as much time has passed since the attempted revival movie as there was between that one and the last one before it. More time if you count the tv show. The potential demand for an uncut/remaster of the original Land Before Time has never been lower.

Anyway, see you next time for The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure!

[letaot-ze-magniv]

General guide to birds in Israel pt 2- cooler birds

This will be a long post. Link to part 1

White spectated bulbul/bul-bul me-mush-kaf

Usually referred to as just bulbul, this bisexual king is the roundest and my most favourite bird. IMPORTANT! BULBUL MEANS DICK! DO NOT TALK ABOUT YOUR LOVE FOR BULBULIM IN PUBLIC!

These birds are slightly larger then the house sparrow and are easily distinguished by their yellow butt. Their calls are reminiscent of frogs. They mate for life and are all bisexual and they cuddle each other. They are a menace to farmers because they are fond of fruit and tend to nibble just a little at a time. You can find them in all parts of Israel as long as there are nice trees nearby.

Eurasian blackbird/shakh-rur

These timid birds like to hide in bushes and trees. Their calls are beautiful and I love them. They are smaller then a pigeon. The males are black and the females are brown. They feed on seeds, fruits and bugs, and use their beaks to search the ground for worms. You can find them in Jerusalem and the north, they like cool weather and don’t fuck with sand.

Great tit/yar-ge-zi ma-tzui

Life isn’t easy for these tiny psychopaths, which might be the reason they developed such a temper. Their Hebrew name translates to “angry one”, and for a reason. They are very aggressive towards other birds. They also feed on the brains of bats. You can distinguish between males and females by the thickness of the black stripe on their belly- males have a thicker one than females. They are most common to the north of Jerusalem, but you can find them in some parts of the desert.

Palestine sunbird/tzu-fit bo-he-ket

No, that’s not a hummingbird, it’s the sunbird! Despite their remarkable likeness they aren’t even a little related. Sunbirds feed on nectar and are pollinators! The males have black feathers that shine in the sunlight (which is how they got their name) and the females are a muddy grey, but they’re just as lovely. You can find them in all parts of Israel, especially near lush flowery areas!

White wagtail/nakh-li-e-li la-van

First migrant bird everyone!!! (Some blackbirds migrate here but some nest during summer so shhhh) This lovely round bird starts it’s visits around October and leaves when it gets hellishly warm again. Due to global warming the wagtails visits are shortening, so appreciate them while you can. Like their name suggests, the wagtails wag their tails. A lot. You can find them near water sources during the cold-ish months of the year!

Eurasian jay- or-va-ni shkhor ki-pa

Eurasian jays can be found in other parts of the world, but I’m pretty sure the one we have in Israel is a different sub-species because the ones in Europe lack the beautiful black top that they’re named after.

The jay is a type of corvid, and in addition to being extremely social and intelligent, these birds can mimic other animals. Due to urbanisation, the jays learned to mimic car alarms, the ringing of phones and the cries of human babies. Jays are extremely fond of acorns, and burry them in the ground in preparation for harsher months. A single jay can remember between 4000 to 5000 hiding spots!

Syrian woodpecker/ na-kar su-ri

This picture is of a male woodpecker. The females have a completely black head. Woodpeckers can locate bugs that have burrowed inside trees and use their beak and long tongues to eat them, thereby helping the trees get rid of pests! Woodpeckers also love acorns, and compete with jays over them. To prevent concussions, the woodpecker’s tongue wraps around their brain, keeping it in place while they peck. You can find them in non-desert areas of Israel!

Lesser whitethroat/siv-khi to-kha-nim

Another migrant birds! These floofballs come here twice a year, once in spring and once in autum, although some whitethroats nest in the north all year long. During their migration you can find them everywhere in Israel, even in very urban areas! They get their Hebrew name, which roughly translates to miller’s shrubbery-liker, because their white chests look how a miller’s apron would look after a long hard day!

Super winged lapwing/sik-sak

The siksaks are water birds with ridiculously long legs that they use to stab their prey. They kind of look like they are wearing a tux! Their original Hebrew name was “sharoni mezuyan”, which translates to “one that lives in the Sharon and is armed with a weapon” but also “fucking sharoni”. You can find them anywhere in Israel as long as there is a near enough water source.

White breasted kingfisher/shal-dag la-van kha-ze

One of my favorite birds. The kingfisher is a magnificent bird of prey with brilliant blue feathers that always make my day. They are most common in the north and west of Israel, but they nest in smaller numbers in the south. They kingfisher’s diet consists of not only fish, but of crabs, frogs, slugs, bugs, and even the occasional rodent. Their varied diet helps them thrive even in drier areas.

[freesia-writes]

Ch 33: The Waterfall

Master List ~~ Previous Chapter ~~ WC: 3.4k Fanart by @acryliccassetteart and @the-little-moment!

I can't stop giggling at this mood board but it just captures the vibes of the chapter so well. ;)

.

“Come on, Hunter. Let’s just see what happens,” Omega begged, directing her most winning smile at him as he stared flatly from across the table. They were enjoying a late breakfast on a lazy day, and her curiosity about the mysterious blossom he’d discovered a while ago had taken front and center stage. He didn’t want anything to do with it, despite the baffling way it had come to him; it was too tightly wound around painful memories that he’d done his best to stuff away.

“You take it, if you want,” he offered, but she shook her head immediately. 

“It had to be the ‘recipient’ or whatever word it was,” she corrected. “It might turn me into a frog if I try.”

“That could be interesting,” said Hunter, eyes sparkling with a bit of mischief. It warmed Omega’s heart, not having seen his brighter side for nearly a month now. He’d been fairly upbeat during his wild adventures with Luciana, but after his overindulgence on Plata, and more so after the recent wedding, he’d seemed weighed down with an internal conflict that he refused to share. 

“I’ll try it if you come along,” she smiled, lifting her chin slightly as she became fairly certain she had him convinced.

“Alright,” he said, softening considerably as she beamed in enthusiasm. Her internship year had come to a close, and upon the completion of all of her evaluations and reflections, she had decided to take two part-time jobs to further narrow down her interests as she prepared for the Advancement Ceremony, after which she would officially be free to craft her life however she saw fit. One of the current pursuits was with a group of engineers on one of the neighboring islands, and the other was in one of the shops in The Cobbles, where she was learning about natural remedies and holistic healing methods. She was equally drawn to things requiring mental acuity as well as the tender-hearted care of others, and Hunter realized he didn’t often take time to fully appreciate how incredibly well-rounded she was. He was, however, continually amazed at her impervious optimism, and it had encouraged him many times over. 

He brought up the coordinates that Tech had sent for this “magical waterfall” and put the flower in his backpack, handling it carefully even though it had been secured in some kind of stasis orb that kept it perfectly suspended within the round shell. Omega threw in a few snacks as well as a couple of packable towels that would expand when the seal was broken, and the two of them set off.

.

Artwork by @acryliccassetteart <3

.

The walk was thoroughly enjoyable – a leisurely stroll punctuated with happy conversation and periods of quiet. It reminded him of Lyra, so he started thinking about all of his recent dates with Luci instead. It seemed that they’d spent every free moment they had in each other’s company over the last few weeks. If she wasn’t at work, she was visiting his shop, and if she had a day off, they had plans for workouts or adventures. He’d been out hunting increasingly longer, blaming the bountiful season of herd migration, but it was also the only place he was able to enjoy solitary time in a peaceful setting anymore.

The waterfall came into view, tucked deep within The Forest between two craggy mountains that were covered in trees. A single flat area was etched into the otherwise steep terrain, and the water poured into a pool from the flowing creek above. Omega was bouncing with excitement as they drew near, dropping their bags and inspecting the sight before them. 

“Well, go on!” she encouraged, opening his backpack to remove the orb. “Take it out and let’s have a go.”

“Calm down,” he smiled, pulling his shirt over his head and leaving his swim shorts on. The sun was filtering through the trees, providing some spotty places of warmth, but the rest of the space was mostly shady, which wouldn’t feel great if the water were as cold as he sensed. 

“There’s that beautiful sight again,” Omega teased, pointing at the half-skull butterfly tattoo on his ribcage. He sighed, shaking his head, and she patted him on the back. “You could probably go somewhere to have it removed easily enough.”

“I know. Travel just hasn’t been at the top of my list.”

He flipped a tiny switch on the protective orb, and it split open with a hiss, allowing the blossom to drop into Omega’s outstretched hand. It was no longer glowing, but still maintained an ethereal creamy white color, the runes still barely visible along the edges of each graceful petal. 

“You go in here, I think,” she said. “I’ll climb up to see what’s at the top.”

“Be careful, the rocks look crumbly and–”

“Hunter.”

“Alright.”

She made her way nimbly up the mountainside, aided by tree trunks that were conveniently placed to allow for solid steps, and she planted herself on a strong foothold as she peered over the ledge that held most of the flow before it crashed down the waterfall.

“There’s a little pool up here. The water seems to move slowly through all these rocks,” she called down to him. “So I’ll throw it in when you’re ready!”

Hunter sighed, wading into the chilly water down below. His body tensed more with each passing step that sank him in deeper until the bottom evened out as he neared the waterfall. Shielding his face from the spray, he glanced up to Omega, squinting as he saw her thumbs-up, then watched her lob the flower over her head into the pool above. He waited for a moment, staring at the water coursing down, but nothing seemed to change. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and sensing everything he could. There was nothing extraordinary about the scents or sounds, and the vibrations emanating from everything both living and dead felt the same as always. So he stepped all the way beneath the waterfall, shivering as it splattered over his head and shoulders. 

He was grateful that it wasn’t a very big flow, otherwise it would have been significantly more difficult. But as it were, he turned to face away from the rock wall, tilting his head back and running his hands over his hair as it washed away from his face. He didn’t feel anything other than the crisp refreshment that came from the cold water, and he rubbed his eyes in his hands.

Then he gasped in surprise.

Behind his closed eyes, a colorful vision was coming to life. He furrowed his brow, squeezing his eyelids together as it developed before him. He was able to make out a graceful curve of the edge of something fibrous, and at its edge were hundreds of things that looked like tadpoles. The whole image glowed blue and green, some of the tadpoles radiant with activity. 

Then suddenly, he was walking in a large meadow; some sheep were grazing nearby, and the scents and sounds were so realistic that he felt an anxiety rising in his gut. Distracted by the appearance of a fox that bounded toward from the forest, he stopped, watching the creature as it wove through his legs, brushing against his calf before cavorting playfully through the grass and flowers. It rolled onto its back, revealing its soft belly, and he bent to pet it. The fox closed its eyes, as content as could be, and Hunter found a smile on his face.

Without warning, the fox snapped at his hand, sinking its teeth into the side of his palm with a sinister gleam in its predatory eyes. He yelped, clutching his hand to his chest, feeling the pangs of pain there as well. He rose to his feet, taking a step back to kick the animal as hard as he could. Suddenly, everything froze except for a gentle gust of wind that reached from the sea with glowing tendrils of bluish green that danced gracefully through the air. They settled on the fox, also unmoving, and swirled around it a few times in loving caresses, then disappeared inside of it. 

Then he was free to move again, as was the creature, who got up, shook itself off, and, without a single look back, trotted back into the forest the way it had come, tail swishing pleasantly as it vanished with a carefree frolick. Hunter stared after it, perplexed and hurt. One of the sheep at the edge of the herd, with an older-looking lamb beside it, was watching them, ears flicked forward in alert vigilance and body tensed in apprehension.

The vision darkened, returning to the original image of blue and green tadpoles lined up around a curve. But now the same blue-colored breeze from the meadow swept through, its graceful wisps flowing freely through the fibers of the starkly-contrasted colors of the shape. Somehow, though, it was all changed; the tiny wiggling things were receding from its edge, and they were no longer glowing. 

“You alright?” Omega called, slowly making her way down the side to watch him curiously, a touch of concern in her voice as she saw his head in his hands.

“Fine!” he yelled, unable to open his eyes as he studied the mesmerizing pattern before him, committing it to memory as best he could. It slowly faded into darkness, and he couldn’t feel a single hint of peril, rather an overwhelming sense of peace and warmth as the entire thing dimmed to nothing. Now it was a simple idea that surfaced in his mind, something that one of the Xyloans had said at the tiki bar a while ago: the island was sentient in a way. It protected itself and those who lived upon it. There would be struggles and dangers, but only those that served an ultimate good. It was an odd sort of reassurance that settled in his core, as though he were being beckoned to trust the planet itself, and then it was gone. A wave of tingly energy ran over him as he stepped out from beneath the water, sucking in a deep breath as he reeled from what had happened. 

“So?” Omega pressed, face tightening in concern as he drew near. His eyes were large and he seemed to be unable to suppress a small shiver that would tease his shoulders every few seconds. She tore open one of the towel packets, shaking it out as it expanded once freed from its vacuum-sealed pouch, and tossed it to him. He climbed out of the pool, picking it up from the rock where it lay, and vigorously rubbed all of his limbs before moving to stand in the brightest beam of sunlight.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, turning to her with a shrug. “It was something about glowing tadpoles, then some animals in a field… a fox bit me while a sheep watched… then the tadpoles were fading… ” He cringed at the words coming out of his own mouth, suddenly self–conscious about all of it. “But then again, maybe I was just rubbing my eyes too hard,” he chuckled. 

“Well… do you feel different?” she asked, tilting her head at him intently.

“Other than cold, no.” 

“Hm. Well let’s see what Tech has to say about it.”

“We don’t need to–”

But she was already trotting down the mountain. 

Hunter didn’t even have time to change before he was plopped on the couch at Tech and Phee’s. Having air-dried on the hike back, he reclined into the plush cushions as his brother sat in a chair across from him, leaning forward with his hands together and his knees on his elbows. 

“I’m not a med bay patient here, Tech,” he warned, apprehensive at the intensity with which his brother was studying his every move. 

“No, you are not. However, I am highly curious. May I proceed with some questions and take a few samples if necessary?” Tech sat back, lips pressed together tightly as he waited for Hunter’s consent. He knew that, once given, it would prevent the stubborn clone from protesting every next move he would make. 

Hunter sighed. “Fine.”

“Excellent. Please recount the vision as accurately as you are able.”

Hunter repeated it, watching Tech typing into his datapad with flying fingers. Flickers of insight and satisfaction danced across his distinctive features as Hunter finished, sitting back and scratching his forearm. 

“It seems rather obvious, but I would like to ask some additional questions before venturing a hypothesis.”

“Obvious?” Hunter sighed. “Naturally. Anyway, what?”

“Are you able to recall the specifics of our second mission to Pantora?”

“I mean… We disabled the weapons research facility…?”

“Correct. Let’s continue.” Tech proceeded to interrogate him on a seemingly random array of events throughout their past, everything from the previous day to his first memories of existence, and Hunter felt his brain slowly turning to mush as he did his best to answer as much as he could. Eventually, he was at the end of his rope, and he flopped back on the couch in exasperation. 

“Can you just tell me what you’re getting at?” 

“Yes. Your description of the ‘tadpoles’, which is a creative amphibious equivalent… for a child… reminded me of a recording taken of the brain while an individual accessed specific memories. The fact that the vision showed some sort of withdrawal suggests memory loss, however, it does not appear to be yours. As for the part about the animals in the field, I would advise you to take some time to meditate on the potential metaphorical applications of the scene you observed.”

“Cryptic as always,” Hunter muttered.

“I am being as straightforward as possible,” Tech protested.

“No, I meant this island stuff. Should have happened to Phee.”

“According to whom? The entire saga has not yet been completed. Perhaps the resolution will be highly favorable to you.” It was Tech’s version of empathetic encouragement, and Hunter decided to take it to heart. 

“Well I won’t refuse that.”

.

Fanart by @the-little-moment -- go give the post some love!!

.

When Hunter finally got up to make the short trek to his home, he had only made it to the edge of town when he noticed a familiar figure on the road ahead. It was dusk, a time when the fading light played tricks, making everything blend together or seem to be all on the same plane. Fortunately, he was more adept than most at discerning the visual cues of this particular hour, and yet he felt the energy from the person ahead even before he fully recognized who it was. 

“Where were you?” Luci exclaimed as he approached, the urgency in her voice laced with anger rather than concern. Hunter felt a barricade rising in his chest even as she rushed to him and grabbed his hands tightly.

“Went on a hike,” he deflected. “With Omega,” he added in response to the quick flash in her eyes. “Then I went to Tech’s. Why? What’s the issue?”

“I was just worried! I told you I had this afternoon off so I figured we’d hang out,” she admitted, voice softening while the tension remained. 

“Sorry,” he said placidly. “We didn’t have any plans.”

“I know. I tried to comm you!”

“Ah. I must have forgotten it at home.” Nonchalance met affront as his eyes met her own, and he felt a nagging sense of conviction at his casual lie. She took a deep breath and shifted, eyes growing large and round. He’d seen this look before; she employed it when trying to manipulate someone into whatever she desired them to be in that moment.

“Alright. Sorry,” she said, deflating to her usual, much more tolerable self. “I just… I kinda missed you,” she admitted sheepishly, leaning into him and tracing a finger along his collarbone.

“Since this morning?” He wasn’t trying to be snarky, he just genuinely couldn’t comprehend it.

“What can I say?” Luci teased, nuzzling in to plant a kiss on his neck. “You’ve got me wrapped around your finger.” Her words sent a shiver down his spine as she spoke against his neck. “Anyway…” She pulled back, regarding him fondly. “I’ve got the best date plans ever for tonight.”

“Ah, I need to change… and it’s getting a little late…”

“Nope! Not a care in the world, babe,” she interrupted, raising a triumphant finger in the air. “I’ve got you. It’s a treat for both of us. Nothing crazy, just some special time to relax because I care about you.”

Hunter was getting tired of being dragged around by everyone who wanted something from him, and he realized with a flash of self-hate that he was doing precisely what he’d accused Lyra of: placating others with no regard for his own needs or preferences. But rather than be riled up at the insight, his shoulders slumped a bit, and he closed his eyes as Luci leaned in for a kiss. 

“Trust me,” she whispered against his lips.

.

Lyra banged the pot against the stove, cursing her own clumsiness as she straightened it and returned to her chopping. She felt particularly cozy that night, lighting a few candles around the kitchen to add to the warm glow from the fireplace, and she was throwing together a last-minute dinner after having dozed off on the couch and lost track of time. As she sliced through the vegetables, she thought she heard a creak on the front porch. She slowly lowered her elbows, holding the knife still against the cutting board. 

Nothing. 

She continued her work more quietly, ears perked for any further sound.

.

Hunter took a deep breath where he lay, flat on a massage table with a heavy blanket draped across his legs and nestled around his waist. Warm oil was spread across his back and arms, and the massage therapist’s skilled hands glossed across muscle and bone, kneading and stroking. He felt like a puddle, having finally given in to simply relax and enjoy it after an internal struggle of how odd it all seemed. Luci was in a room next to him, receiving the same treatment, and then they would have some time to soak in the nearby hot springs. It was a clever setup at this particular spa, where patrons could opt to be alone or with those they came with, and Luci had been notably understanding in offering him all the space and solitude he might want. 

She had been much more clingy of late, and he kept sensing a frenetic energy when it came to his whereabouts. He was surprised at the petty jealousy she’d succumbed to – she’d seemed all too willing to share him in the past and had appeared to be completely secure in his affections. Perhaps she’d been shaken by his withdrawal after Plata, but it had been fanned into a larger flame when Lyra returned. He didn’t feel as though he’d given her any reason to doubt, and she had even encouraged him to be friends with Lyra despite his assurance that he had no interest in doing so. 

The calming music slowed as the track came to an end, and in the silence before the next one began, Hunter was lulled by his own heartbeat, echoed by the masseuse’s, and he paused his thoughts, centering himself in his senses and taking it all in. The building felt empty, he was surprised to note, and he suddenly became aware of a rhythmic vibration from his pack where it lay on a chair in the corner of the room. 

“Sorry, I have to get that,” he said quietly to the massage therapist, who nodded with a smile and slipped out of the room. He sat up, pulling the blanket around his waist as he shuffled to his bag, and his pulse was racing now as he emerged from the blissful fog of relaxation and realized the source of the sound. 

The emergency beacon.

Where was Omega–

No.

Lyra.

The emptiness of the rooms around him sent a jolt of electricity through him as he pulled his clothing on as quickly as possible. Leaving a handful of credits on the table by the bottle of massage oil, he left immediately, murmuring a quick apology to the masseuse as he fled.

.

Song: It's My Life - Bon Jovi (Lyrics) 🎵.

Previous Chapter ~ Master List ~ Next Chapter

Join the tag list by commenting for the discord server link or filling out my form.

@techhasmjolnir @falconfeather23435 @ladylucksrogue @padawancat97 @baddest-batchers

@anxiouspineapple99 @yunggoblin @littlefeatherr @cw80831 @all-mights-babygirl

@totallyunidentified @lightwise @moonstrider9904 @clonemedickix @dangraccoon

@nursekyra @callsign-denmark @heidnspeak @stardusthuntress @lune-de-miel-au-paradis

@ivyyyyy @kashasenpai @followthepurrgil @littlemissmanga @littlemissbshine

@crosshairscrustysock @lamiliani @skellymom @burningnerdchild @galaxyofthoughts99

@sweeticedtea @starrylothcat @mxkyrie @reader6898 @eyecandyeoz

@trixie2023 @vrycurious @youreababboon @photogirl894 @subbing-for-clones

@yve-barr @salaminus @ezras-left-thumb @etod @dhawerdaverd

@techsgalaxy02 @shadowphantomreaper

[cassiopeiasara]

For the fic tropes mashup: Bathena and Curses + Neighbors AU pretty please! 💜

Athena tilted her head as she eyed Bobby sprinkling a circle of salt around his front door. "I thought you didn't believe in magic."

Bobby popped up, his wide eyed gaze as charming as it was amusing. "I don't."

Athena lifted an eyebrow and glanced down at the salt. "You hopin' for snow then? Because last time I checked this is still Los Angeles."

"That's actually a different kind of," he paused and shook his head. "I don't believe in curses and technically this is superstition but it's not for me."

Athena furrowed her brow. "I thought you lived alone." She cleared her throat when she heard how oddly accusatory that sounded. "I mean, you—"

"Buck, the new guy that works the night shift with me," he waited for Athena's nod which she readily gave when she remembered the recent stories of the impulsive but kind young man. "He's convinced he's surrounded by a curse and when I told him it was kind of ridiculous, he accused me of making it stronger."

Athena chuckled softly and Bobby's eyes held hers in that way that had the butterflies in her stomach swarming like it was migration season. "So you're indulging him?"

Bobby shrugged. "I agreed to a few measures."

"What are the others?"

"A rabbit's foot keychain, a promise to avoid cracks in the pavement for the next few days, and hanging water glasses from a tree but I'm thinking of taking that one back."

"It's glass bottles and they should be different colors."

Bobby tilted his head. "I thought you didn't believe in magic either."

Athena shrugged. "I'm from the South and I got an auntie who's a little too into the cosmos." She smiled at his raised eyebrows. "Also May was five when The Princess and the Frog came out so I spent a lot of time researching the references and explaining them."

Bobby nodded. "She still liking UCLA?"

Athena hmmed in the affirmative.

"It's ok to admit you miss her."

Athena bit her lip and looked away to prevent the tears in her eyes. She was happy for May but she missed her soft tones and smile every morning. She took a deep breath. "I have a few bottles if you want and some string."

Bobby smiled. "Thank you though I'm not sure I want to incur the wrath of the HOA if I get caught."

Athena scoffed. "You mean Lola? I'll handle her."

Bobby chuckled and Athena felt her heart lift at the sound. "Thank you."

Athena smiled. "Anytime."

[forgottensibiria]

THE FIST ANGAROVENATOR - ALTERNATIVE REPTILE!

While teliphones are building calamite catacombs, few vertebrates have mastered the arid terrain. One of them was the first angarovenator - Lapideusunguis adam, the "stone nail", which occupied a niche similar to modern geckos.

Lapideusunguis is significantly smaller than Moropiton and, possibly, slightly larger than adult Ariekanerpeton individuals.

Clockwise from top to bottom: Moropiton moropiton ssp. pushkini, pearl mole spider, Lapideusunguis, Oxykoilia, Poseideongenia. In the background - Ichthyocetus megalos

The body is elongated, has a triangular shape in cross section due to the high raised ribs: the thickness from the head to the middle of the tail remains the same. The legs are longer than those of the ancestors, which allows you to travel long distances.

The fingertips are covered with a keratin cover, convergent to the fingertips of tree frogs: they protect the foot from hard and often very hot/cold soil and aggressive substances and allow effective digging.

One recent scientific paper (Evolutionary origin of Hoxc13-dependent skin appendages in amphibians - the pictures above are taken from there) suggests that the claws of amphibians and amniotes were not independently developed, as previously thought. This means that the common ancestor had keratinized fingertips like modern axolotls.

The skin is much thicker (especially the feet and eyelids) than that of the ancestors, but without scales: it hangs slightly at the edges of the trunk. The muzzle is pointed, the head is narrow; the parietal eye is developed, the pupils of ordinary eyes are vertical due to the need to hunt both in the morning sun and in almost complete darkness. The color is bright due to the absence of predators with developed eyesight and serves as a means of communication and recognition of each other at a distance.

Unlike sedentary discosaurids, lapideusunguis is a nomad. Although its anatomy does not allow it to move as fast as modern quadrupeds, this angarovenator constantly (once every two weeks) surveys its territory in search of arthropods. Usually the territory includes two or three calamite catacombs or the usual burrows of some Arachnetiflopontics - Lapideusunguis periodically hunts them, as well as spiders and insects, especially young individuals. His main time of activity is twilight, night and day, he waits in burrows dug by himself or abandoned phone burrows. In the evening, the angarovenator comes out before sunset and basks on the rocks; in the morning it warms up by contracting muscles like some modern pythons - another adaptation important for future evolution.

Another important difference from discosaurids is rapid maturation: instead of 20 years, the larvae mature in a few months. In general, reproduction for lapideusunguis as for amphibians in the desert is a hemorrhoid due to the need to search for a reservoir. Usually, adults are found near the catacombs at night, when rare rains fall. The female lays eggs on wet ground, the male fertilizes the eggs and the female swallows the future offspring like the recently extinct Rheobatrachus silus frogs, after which she drinks some water.

Famous Rheobatrachus silus photo

However, these seymouriamorphs have not yet developed this behavior to perfection, and therefore they usually search for the nearest large body of water, migrating to the remaining forest regions. During the mother's wanderings, the eggs manage to develop into larvae at the beginning or middle of metamorphosis. It is obvious that the following daughter species will abandon the habitat stage in lakes and puddles in favor of throat gestation.

The following posts will be about the development of offspring bearing in Sangaree and in general about the evolution of metamorphosis in amphibians. In them, I will slightly correct the description of Lapideusungis and maybe draw the behavior of this animal during the breeding season.

[randomanimaloftheday]

Day 23#: Boat-Tailed Grackle

Today's animal of the day is the Boat-Tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major)!

Photo credit: MyBackyardBirding

This species of passerine bird can be found throughout the southeastern coastal region of the United States. Males are an iridescent black color with yellow eyes, while females are brown with darker plumage on their wings and tails. The boat-tailed grackle can be differentiated from other grackle species, such as the common grackle, by their longer tail feathers which have a distinct fan shape.

Photo credit: William Keim

Boat-tailed grackles are a non-migratory species and tend to stay in the same area all year round. While some northern populations will sometimes move slightly southward during especially hard winters, they don't usually go too far and this isn't considered true migration. These birds enjoy living in coastal areas such as beaches, saltmarshes, and also near freshwater bodies of water like lakes. They prefer to nest in places that are concealed by trees or shrubbery and that are close to the water. They've also been observed foraging alongside and forming mixed colonies with least bitterns.

Photo credit: Darren Clark

They are omnivores and will forage for food both on land and in shallow water, they are also known to often steal food from other birds as well. They have been observed eating berries, seeds, grain, insects, minnows, frogs, eggs, and even smaller species of birds! These generalists have also been observed adapting well in urban environments and will also scavenge food from humans as well.

[carnivalchimera]

AoT Characters as birds

I'm starting with my favorite trio; Hange, Erwin, and Levi. I also have extensive reasons for my choices via autism cross-examination /lhj

Hange- Scissor-tailed flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus) These birds are known for their aerial acrobatics while in hunting and courtship, and can catch insects mid-flight. In late summer they will form premigratory roosts with flocks of up to 1,000 and take advantage of large trees near towns for roosting sites. When they migrate in the fall they form large, noisy flocks. Scissor-tailed flycatchers also use many man made items in their nests like cloth, string, paper, carpet fuzz, or cigarette filters. As well as having a habit of wandering outside their typical distribution range when on their way to or from their wintering grounds, being seen across almost all of North America or even British Columbia and Nova Scotia. I feel like this all fits Hange as a character with their particular excitement towards the unknown, loud personality, and strong beliefs/hopes in their comrades.

Erwin- Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo) One of the largest owls in the world. They have a somewhat unique flight pattern to owls having both strong, direct movements with shallow wing beats and long glides as well as occasionally soaring on updrafts. They are considered sedentary (for birds) and hold a single territory in their adult life. They are mostly patient hunters, observing from a vantage point before catching prey. Sometimes Eurasian eagle owls will catch prey mid-flight and their diet reflects an opportunistic hunting style. They will eat anything they can find- voles, rats, insects, rabbits, hedgehogs, frogs, lizards, snakes, fish, tortoises, even deer or other birds. They also communicate vocally with a wide variety of hoots, screeches, whistles, and clicks for a variety of reasons. I feel like Erwin has these pragmatic qualities with his character arc and background having one sole focal point and his willingness to do anything to reach it.

Levi- Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) This is a small songbird that has unique raptor like features and habits. They're smaller than an American robin and have tomial teeth just like some birds of prey. Shrikes overall have gained the nickname "butcherbird" for how they hunt and loggerhead shrikes take the extra mile. They'll perch on fence posts and powerlines to scan open fields before diving and tackling prey. These birds will also hover-hunt like kestrels or even hunt on the ground by flapping their patterned wings to "startle prey out of hiding." They use their tomial teeth to strike the nape of the neck on their prey before carrying it off to a tree branch or wire fence to impale their catch to eat or even store for later. They mostly eat large insects but also go after mice and rodents, and occasionally reptiles, amphibians like snakes and frogs or small fish. They can carry prey that are just as big as them with their feet as well. For poisonous prey like monarch butterflies they will leave them impaled for days to wait out the toxins and let them break down. Or they'll avoid eating the toxic parts of insects entirely like with lubber grasshoppers. What really makes this bird remind me of Levi is how fledglings act- mimicking their adult counterparts in exaggerated ways. They will practice things like aerial chases with or without targets, carrying sticks and leaves while flying, making attempts to impale objects on branches or perches after picking them up with the tip of their beaks. Everything about this bird screams Levi to me, it's not even funny. The white marking visible on the black patterning of the bird's wing is called a "handkerchief spot" by one of my sources.

Sources:

Scissor-tailed flycatcher 1, scissor-tailed flycatcher 2, eurasian eagle owl 1, eurasian eagle owl 2, eurasian eagle owl 3, eurasian eagle owl 4, loggerhead shrike 1, logger head shrike 1.5, loggerhead shrike 2, loggerhead shrike 3

[goodbye-hurtles]

To whom it may concern:

On the bad days

when the door looks like an open maw

and the light from the sun burns images

into your retinas that you’d rather forget;

When the wind feels like knives

and the rain soaks you through

even as you stand dry under the shelter

of an umbrella;

When the screams you know are hidden

and the muffled crying echos

down the dark halls;

When time feels as if it is simultaneously in molasses

and white river rapids,

throwing you deep to drown;

When hands make you itch

and touch makes you sick

as if their skin are made of poison ivy

and barbed wire;

When the anger is overtaken by the sadness

and the sadness is overtaken by despair,

and you lock yourself in the closet

holding still so no one knows you are there;

When you see the past

within the present

and very little future...

Remember that tadpoles grow funny little feet

before they lose their tail,

and migrating monarch butterflies avoid a mountain

that doesn’t exist anymore;

Remember that dogs and cats

love their favorite people,

and some caterpillars are fluffy

like teddy bears;

Remember that all things take

and many things give,

like the trees breathing so you can too.

Understand that those who hurt you

with their rough hands

and short tempers,

with their mocking voices

and stronger force...

They will die.

They will rot.

And you,

you can think

of those silly little frog legs

the love of a dog greeting a human

or a cat kneading bread

and those fuzzy caterpillers

or that mountain that does not exist

as much more important than they ever could be

to anyone ever again.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Do you have any pointers on figuring out speculative island evolution? I have an island in middle of a massive lake & I'm trying to fill it with wildlife that would "make sense". The climate is rather cold & the one species I'm certain on so far is a kind of "dwarf mammoth" but obviously there would be more species then just them.

for starters, here's an article about island dwarfism and gigantism! the gist of it is that in an insular environment such as an island, animals which are normally large get quite small, and animals which are normally small tend to get bigger, just like your dwarf mammoth idea.

as for general island ecology, you're going to have a lot of aquatic animals, as well as flying ones! it being in the middle of a lake makes it less likely to have very many land animals, since they would have had to arrive in a time when it was easier to cross the area that is now a giant lake, but you can certainly have a few, like the mammoths.

I would suggest looking at things like river otters, lake Baikal seals, various waterfowl, and freshwater fish and shellfish! there could also be some species of amphibian, though they're likely in hibernation during the cold months. still, it's not impossible to have amphibians and reptiles in a cold region! wood frogs, for example, are able to hibernate by allowing their whole bodies to freeze in the cold.

here are some important niches to consider:

herbivores, perhaps with the larger ones more focused on trees for food while smaller herbivores consume plants on the ground

rodents, eating and storing seeds and nuts

predators, keeping the herbivore populations reasonably sized

scavengers and opportunistic omnivores

insects and decomposers

pollinators

fish, clams, and other aquatic animals like freshwater seals or otters

migrating birds and waterfowl, as well as predatory birds and smaller birds that eat seeds and insects

water plants!

also consider how the plants got here. are their seeds brought in via the feces of migrating birds? are there plants that reproduce by scattering their seeds in the wind? what's the situation with fruiting plants? etc. an environment can only have animals it is able to sustain nutritionally. grass grazing animals that prefer wide open spaces would have a rough time in a dense forest, and animals reliant on trees would suffer in a wide grassland. how big is your island? what population sizes can it sustain in every niche? every animal and plant available will have an effect on the population sizes of the other species present! as the number of herbivores rises, so too will the numbers of their predators! and if one population drops, so will the others around them.

[strixcattus]

The Wuggthea

I love making up weird birds for this game of bestiary telephone. (Design partially inspired by the very aptly-named Magnificent Frigatebird, which I only just found out about when looking for inspiration. Birds are already so weird.)

The Wuggthea

The Wuggthea, also called the Large-Throated Woodpecker or the Chatterbox Woodpecker, is a species of bird that migrates from eastern Europe in the summer to southern Asia and parts of Africa in the winter.

Female and male Wuggthea have vastly different appearances. Females are slightly smaller, and their feathers are a mottled pale grey across their entire bodies, and they have light grey beaks. Males, on the other hand, have solid grey or black feathers with white shoulders and underbelly. The undersides of their wings and tail are bright red, as is the tuft of feathers on the back of their head and a spot on their forehead, the tip of their black beak, and their featherless throat sac.

Wuggthea eat mainly invertebrates. Though they are often called woodpeckers, and do drill holes in trees, they are just as likely to search for their prey in the soil, or to seek out infested corpses and eat the insects that gather around them. Occasionally a Wuggthea will also eat small vertebrate animals, particularly frogs.

A Wuggthea is capable of making a wide variety of noises. Their most common vocalisations are "chattering" or "chuckling" sounds, which are used for communication. There is also a range of "shrieking" or "screaming" sounds, which are used as alarm calls, and a "cackling" noise which signals the discovery of a rotting log or corpse rich with invertebrates. Males can also use their throat pouches to amplify their "croaking" or "thumping" calls, which are used to vie for mates—those with more impressive calls and more prominent throat sacs are more likely to win partners.

Wuggthea can also make some imitations of sounds they hear, though they are not as clear as those of a raven or parrot. There were some attempts in the 12th century to domesticate Wuggthea, train them to mimic particular human speech sounds, and present them as exotic pets in parts of Europe where they were not native, but their capability for inflicting damage on wooden buildings and producing all manner of unappealing, loud noises when confined made these ventures short-lived.

[fairy-verse]

Does error own any cats/animals? Or the other 3 firstborns?

Error may have a certain love for watching Gnomes, as they’re one of the few magical creatures that are highly active during winter. He once tried to take one home, but it cried so much from being separated from its colony that it made Error feel terrible, so he swiftly returned it and has henceforth been content with merely watching them. However, he does have an old snow owl that he’s good friends with, and on the days where he feels like leaving his mountain nest, he will spend time with her and cuddle up against her warm feathers.

Dream doesn’t have a “pet” per say, but he’s made many animal friends, and will often play around with them whenever he can. Squirrels, birds, frogs, rabbits, deer, and unicorns are his favourites to be around. In the earlier days, before he and Cross became close, he often allowed a couple of squirrels and birds to come and go in his nest during winter. Their company was well wished, and they often enjoyed the warmth that Dream would give when the frozen winds were particularly harsh.

Nightmare has a couple of fruit bats that live in the tree atop his underground nest, and some of these he’ll pet and treat like his own little friends, although he will not hold them back from living their life and is quite content with spending time with them only when they’re feeling for it. There is also a passage within his nest that leads to the den of a sweet badger, and Nightmare, along with Nightlight, will sometime go there to pet and play with him.

Ink has many personal gardens near his various nests where he keeps families of mushroom people safe. In return, he’ll often play around with them and paint them with pretty colours, so they stand out among the others, and while they lack the intelligence to fully comprehend this, they usually seem oddly bouncy when they’re splattered with colours of all kinds. Ink will also ride different unicorns within his forest, for many of them migrate between the Great Forest, through Nightmare’s domain, into Dream’s valley, and back again. They have many tales to tell, and they don’t mind that Ink often forgets the ones they’ve already told him.

[lavender-laney]

choking on sea salt snippet

This next chapter is taking longer than expected (mostly because I realized I don't have an actual outline... oops) so here's a little chapter two excerpt I wanted to share in the meantime!

Sadie is sure her responding smile is strained, but she shoulders past it, subtly tucking her hand into her coat pocket in an attempt to stifle the chill that had seemed to migrate from his frigid skin directly into her bones. Oddly enough, he doesn’t move to open the gate, but instead steps into the tall grass, pushing his way through the foliage. Sadie glances back at her car, left sitting before the gate, nearly swallowed by the thick fog, then grips her bag tighter and follows the man into the dark wood.

For a moment, there are only the sounds of the forest – but wrong, somehow. There is the rustle of a salty breeze brushing against the trees, sending goosebumps across Sadie’s skin. There is the crunch of the pairs’ footsteps as they make their way deeper into the thicket of towering pines. As Sadie listens closer, though, there are no crickets, nor the chirping of frogs. No birds pass overhead with whispering feathers, no chipmunks or mice skittering through the undergrowth. No moths flutter past, no lightning bugs float by like paper lanterns. As she stares at the back of Joseph’s tangled hair, and the bow of his shoulders, she feels a sureness in her heart that there are no creatures in this wood besides herself and this strange man. Feeling horribly off-kilter, she stumbles on her next step, thorns snagging in her pants. The sudden grip of Joseph’s hand against her forearm, stabilizing her, is like a frigid wave crashing over her, sending a shock of ice up her arm. She jolts back, nearly falling into the thorny plant, if not for Joseph’s unyielding hold.  “Thank you,” she manages, attempting to pull her arm away. He simply watches her for a moment before his grasp loosens and she can clutch her arm close to her chest. “I’m not really used to … trekking through the woods like this,” she attempts to chuckle, but it comes out shrill and loud, and she’s sure she sounds on the verge of hysteria. “That’s alright,” he says quietly, almost a murmur, sunken eyes locked onto her own shifting gaze. “A nice girl like you ain’t meant to be out here in the elements like this, but it’s the only way into town, I’m afraid.” "What about the gate?" she asks, glancing over her shoulder, though the forest's edge has long since disappeared from sight. As though he did not hear her, he pushes on, shouldering past a low hanging branch. "We're getting close," is all he says.

I promise there will be actual plot soon instead of just ~ spooky vibes ~

tag list (lmk if anyone would like to be added or removed! or if you'd only like to be tagged for complete chapter posts <3)

@megarywrites @at-thezenith @repressed-and-depressed @plasma-studios @wrenofthewords @palebdot @communist-mariner @phantomnations @thelittlestspider @eurydicefades @inkingfireplace @silverslipstream @atreegrowss @i-rove-rock-n-roll @kaze-writes