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Nimblenewt

@nimblenewt.bsky.social

🇨🇦Nature nerd by the Salish Sea. Lichen enthusiast; nudibranchs, liverworts, tiny mushrooms, seaweed, plankton, authors and cats. Also amphibians! And invertebrates... (Note: any newt-handling photos are only to remove them from roads or other dangers.)

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Avi Lewis@avilewis.ca · 22h ago

And for Canadians across this land, it is a kick in the teeth to call this climate bomb of a project “in the national interest”. It is in Big Oil’s interest for sure.

Nimblenewt@nimblenewt.bsky.social · 18h ago

We have them too! In Killarney Lake next to Mt Work, if you’re nearby, and Shawnigan Lake if you’re over the Malahat. I have added an article with the UBC researcher because it’s interesting and also the photo is exactly how I would expect a jellyfish researcher to celebrate catching their subject:

Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 21h ago

It's that time of year! Freshwater jellyfish are beginning their annual blooms in the northern hemisphere! Look for these ghostly creatures in lakes and ponds from Spain to San Fransisco, Seattle to Singapore! 🪼 Craspedacusta sowerbii 📸 in ALT from @inaturalist.bsky.social

Photo of a freshwater jellyfish (white on a dark background) by Павлик Лисицын on iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67973524
Avi Lewis@avilewis.ca · 21h ago

Au cours de la fin de semaine, plus de 5 000 Britanno-Colombien·nes ont dû fuir leur domicile en 24 heures, victimes de deux des quelque 130 feux de forêt qui ravagent actuellement la province.

Victoria Rose Richards@aerialembroidery.bsky.social · 24h ago

'You'll choke too' - an aerial embroidery landscape inspired by all the wildfires happening right now... I'm upset every time I smell smoke outside and somehow we have people starting them maliciously too! But we all breathe the same air so they'll choke too (1/2 - see thread for close-ups)

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn landscape from above. It shows a forest on the right, a line of fire and charred ground with smoke on the left. The smoke is felted wool.
Nimblenewt@nimblenewt.bsky.social · 19h ago

Everyone please admire the lovely long toes on this daft cheeky invasive European Wall Lizard! Gave me a tremendous runaround when I offered him an arm-ladder out of the perlite bucket under my co-worker’s potting bench. How they get stuck in these weird spots mystifies me, glad he didn’t dessicate.

Podarcis muralis, the European wall lizard, in juvenile form (the cute but gangly stage), sitting in a half-filled bucket of perlite which he has kindly crapped on. He (real cheeky defiant teenage boy energy here but could be any gender) has pretty checks arranged in lengthwise rows down his spine and beautiful long toes that is a way of distinguishing them from all of our native lizards. Adults are about triple the size and stockier. These wall lizards are invasive, and were in fact introduced to BC just down the road from where I work, back in the 60s, when the SPCA shut down an amateur petting zoo and the defiant owner released all the creatures into the forest. Now they’ve hitchhiked all over BC in vehicles and with uninformed citizens thinking they’d be cute pets (they are fiesty and escape artists and will poop on every surface more than mice). The Saanich Peninsula and Cincinnati Ohio were the original infestation locations for all of North America; now they widely invasive. At work we used to have tons of our lovely native alligator lizard but these guys outcompeted them (the European wall lizards don’t go properly dormant, I see them basking on sunny Doug Fir bark in Feb; I think they eat the tiny emerging alligator lizard babies); now we never see alligator lizards☹️ This one will get pretty colours when it is bigger, the ones in the greenhouses are mostly green and black with only some keeping the brown; none of us know why. At my mum’s all of hers are brown; they live in her siding😒 Ironically when I visited the Channel Islands off of France, there was a sign saying their Wall lizards were in decline and at risk of becoming endangered, which struck me as amusingly ironic. Maybe we can arrange a repatriation effort if their local ones die out haha. Ours have colonial vigour apparently!
Nimblenewt@nimblenewt.bsky.social · 2d ago

I’ve been getting OT after work, and it has kept my spirits up to watch the crow nest outside the reflective window by the physio gear; I can look at them without disturbing their family! 3 hungry chicks that the staff have named MikeCrow, MacCrow, and VelCrow (parent hiding relatably below nest)

A crow’s nest in the twiggy green canopy of an oak tree outside the second floor window of a building: the three dinosaury sturdy but still bald-looking chicks have their heads stretched up and open bills extended to the sky, while their mum (Sherryl Crow) or dad (Russell Crow) hides from their ravenous yelling offspring below the nest. Now, to be fair, they might be perched diligently guarding them from squirrels or herring gulls or raccoons, but they really did give the impression that they were just taking a desperate moment to themselves before re-entering the parental fray. It’s pretty fun how much the specialists at the clinic have enjoyed giving the family appropriately Crowish names, and how carefully they have pointed out the family to patients right when we most need our spirits boosted as we tackle our strengthening exercises🖤☺️
蓮猫 Lotuscat@lotuscat.bsky.social · 2d ago

足元のツメゴケを踏んづけていた。気づくのにだいぶ時間がかかったが、大丈夫のよう。でも巻き爪ぎみだな...。長野県佐久穂町八千穂高原 #地衣類 It took a while before I realized I was stepping on a colony of Peltigera lichen growing on the ground. They're fine. Yachiho Kogen, Sakuho-machi, Nagano #Lichen #FungiFriends

Close-up of the apothecia of Peltigera lichen. The tip of the lobe has turned brown and turned inward to form the spore-producing structure. The thallus is dark green.Colony of Peltigera lichen on ground. The lobes are wide and dark green (look dark grey in photo) and the "nails" on the edge of the lobes are red-brown.
Anjali Dayal@anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 2d ago

I know they’re puffing up to be intimidating but also they just look like they’re spectacular and they know it

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance @sandiegozoo.bsky.social · 2d ago

Feathered phenom 🐦 Kagus suddenly splay their head crests and wings to make themselves look larger, scaring away predators and defending their territory. Known as the "Ghost of the Forest" for their pale plumage and eerie calls, these flightless birds are actually quite gentle and docile.

Nimblenewt@nimblenewt.bsky.social · 2d ago

‘Chinook [salmon] is the main source of food for B.C.’s critically endangered southern resident killer whales. There are only 74 of these orcas left… “The disease is pretty well known in farmed fish, and it’s a pretty severe disease where it can kill fish in a matter of days.”’

B.C. researchers discover deadly bacterial disease in wild chinook

UBC and the Pacific Salmon Foundation scientists have found tenacibaculosis — a bacterial disease that causes lesions and death — in chinook.

vancouversun.com

Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 3w ago

Are you a Canadian PhD student or recent grad (or international person with a PhD from Canada or currently in Canada) and want to do geohazards or geomorphology research with me @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social , get in touch! 🧪⚒️❄️🛰️ nserc-crsng.canada.ca/en/funding-o...

Canada Postdoctoral Research Award program

The Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program supports and promotes research excellence in a wide variety of disciplines and broad fields of health, natural sciences and engineering and social...

nserc-crsng.canada.ca

Nimblenewt@nimblenewt.bsky.social · 7d ago

My greenhouse shelf rotted and when I removed it today I found a pretty crust fungus eating it, and a SLIME MOLD!!!🐸 The crust is Coniophora puteana I think; the slime mold is my old-growth rainforest friend Stemonitis fusca, who I am delighted to meet so unexpectedly! 🤎🤍🤎 #SlimeMold #FungiFriends

A white painted greenhouse shelf is collapsing from rot, the decaying part is coated with a creamy and slightly warty crust fungus. At the bottom of the decayed section 5 clumps of delicate brown fireworks appear to emerge; they are the matte brown fruiting bodies of the chocolate tube slime mold, Stemonitis fusca. Just a beautiful collection of unexpected and delightful organisms!
Alison 🇨🇦@n8rnerd.bsky.social · 7d ago

MOLEY MOLEY MOLE! 😍 I never dreamed I'd get to see a star-nosed mole in my yard and then this one just scampered alongside my garage while I was watering the garden! They're so weird and I love them ❤️ #neature

A star-nosed mole alongside the foundation of Alison's garage.