If you’re someone that’s never voted before you are a really person today. Your vote matters, not just to me personally (which it does) but even in the grand scheme.
Because it’s not just about the presidential race. It’s also about all those important down ballot races that can be V tight. And those races determine things like your state’s Supreme Court judges.
You know, like the people in TX that just decided NOT to throw out 100k votes.
So yeah, your vote matters. If it didn’t, the GOP wouldn’t be bending over backwards to suppress it. Gerrymandering wouldn’t be a thing.
So please, go vote. Tell your friends to vote. Ask your neighbors if they voted. And stay safe at the polls!
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#1 although uncommon, reverse mounting (where females mount their male partner) does happen. In fact at the Cleavland NHM staff had to give their female educational crow a stern talking to because she would not give her mate a break!
#2 the largest crow roost in the US held over 300,000 birds!
#3 there are two official species of crows in North America including the American crow and the fish crow, but reports indicate a small breeding group of house crows in Florida as well. 📷 David Laliberte
Earlier in the week my class was delighted to host @MyFrogCroaked to share his work on frog conservation. To prepare my students, I researched and gave a short lecture on frog biology.
I was not ready for how truly strange frogs are. Here are a handful of mind blowing facts...
1) most frogs don’t consume water orally. Instead they absorb it through their skin. Of those, many have a particular area on their belly/pelvis for just this purpose called the seat patch or the drinking patch.
2) frogs use their freaking eyeballs to help push food towards their esophagus.
Notice how the hedgehog balls up defensively every time the crow migrates towards its vulnerable head. The crow is the reason it’s having such a hard time crossing, not the reverse.
Here’s a few more instances of hooded crows being delightful jerks
A springtime thread: interesting things you may not know about bird reproduction
1) Only 3% of bird species have a penis. For the majority that don’t, sperm are transfer by the male and female touching their cloacas together. This is called “the cloacal kiss,” which I hate.
2) Birds that have penises include waterfowl, ostriches, and emus. In ducks, the penis can be extremely long and weird. In these cases the vaginas are likewise complex and weird. The reasons for this are very dark and discussed in more detail here:
3) Birds only have 1 ovary (usually on the left) and can generally lay 1 egg a day. If the strategy is to have all the eggs hatch on the same day, the female will wait until the whole clutch is laid before she starts incubating.
Let's start with the shallow stuff: Their looks. Hot damn.
Ughhhh I love crows. But I also love ravens. Here are some hansom AF ravens
Ok back to crows. I friggen love crows. These pictures are all from the Bothell crow roost. You can learn more about roosting and why they do it here: corvidresearch.blog/2017/12/08/150…
Fucking Hitchcock. If you’re going to make a horror movie about wildlife can you at least not make the premise based on a totally normal, non-threatening thing animals do as apart of their natural history? Because otherwise things like roosting get👇 for the rest of time.
But since he did, and its clearly got a lot of folks concerned, let’s discuss!
These are great-tailed grackles. Grackles look similar to crows and other corvids but are in a completely different family of birds called blackbirds. 📸 Darren Clark
Great tailed-grackles are found throughout the American SW and down into South America. How they came to occupy these areas has a super interesting history reflecting both intentional and unintentional choices by people.