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friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Chuckling Duck
@friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
10 followers 3 following 190 posts
I am legion. Canadian. Prairie boy. Bureaucrat. Ecologist. Family man. Gardener. Mennonite.

I play a mean game of Minesweeper but am otherwise entirely mediocre […]

🌉 bridged from https://mstdn.ca/@friesen5000 on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/
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friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
If you gaze into its eyes long enough it eats your soul.
#flyday #flyfriday #flydayfriday #insect #diptera
A fly looks obliquely toward you, its compound eye a hypnotic maze of black and electric green.
December 26, 2025 at 9:31 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
#3goodthings

1) a warm house on a cold winter day (fire crackling in the fireplace a bonus)

2) feeling less unsettled today (last couple of days had their share of the restlessness of unfocused anxiety)

3) thoughtful colleagues - today thinking of the one who […]

[Original post on mstdn.ca]
A coffee-filled white mug with floral edging. The words in the center of the mug read 'Don't forget to be awesome". Beside the mug is a bag of coffee labeled 'Java Jingle'.
December 23, 2025 at 2:39 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
@mike
December 22, 2025 at 1:23 AM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
The weather in Manitoba:
#manitoba #weather
December 18, 2025 at 4:55 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Seems optimistic.
Post update computer screen that says "You're 100% there. Please keep your computer on."
October 29, 2025 at 2:44 AM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday #bloomscrolling #flowers #pottery
A vase (with a snake - look closely) made by my daughter, filled with beautiful cosmos flowers.
A clay vase filled with pink cosmos flowers sits outside on a railing on a sunny day. A clay snake (part of the vase) pokes out at the base of the flowers.
October 26, 2025 at 9:48 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Blaze of glory.
#silentsunday #autumn
Brilliant red leaves against a clear blue sky.
October 19, 2025 at 7:48 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
#silentsunday
A square dock floats on a lake on a foggy morning. The trees on the far shore are barely visible through the fog as a grey outline. The water is completely calm. On the dock are gulls.
August 24, 2025 at 2:42 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
It's National MothW Week!! Let's see your moth pics!

Here's a White Flower Moth (Schinia bimatris), an endangered species here in Canada.
#nationalmothweek #moth #insect #lepidoptera #manitoba
A moth with pure white wings, orange face and belly, and green eyes staring at the camera while licking the finger tip on which it sits.
July 19, 2025 at 1:24 AM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
And there was evening, and there was morning...and it was good.
#silentsunday #sunrise #sunset #canada #lake
The orange and purple of a sunset reflected on a calm lake surrounded by spruce and pine trees. A wooden boardwalk crosses the foreground along the lake shore. Bright morning sunlight reflected on a calm lake surrounded by spruce and pine trees. A wooden boardwalk crosses the foreground along the lake shore.
July 13, 2025 at 1:41 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Jerry's hawk-pants were fooling no one. But he did look damn fine in them.
#insect #moth #lepidoptera #erebidae #hawkpants
A brown and orange moth. Its front pair of legs have a floofy brown covering to about a third way down that looks similar to the feathers covering the upper parts of the legs of many hawk species.
July 12, 2025 at 12:22 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
#entomology #insect people - whose baby is this? My first thought was a sawfly but I'm really not sure. An odd lepidoptera caterpillar? A hover fly larva? Other? Manitoba, Canada. Today.
Cc @nev @xris
#caterpillar #sawfly #Hymenoptera #lepidoptera #diptera
A green 'caterpillar' with a black line on its side and a pale orange head.
June 22, 2025 at 7:49 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
If I could, I'd curl up in rose flower with a buzzy fluff. Who wouldn't?
#bumblebee #bees #pollinators #Hymenoptera #insects
A bumblebee with orange and yellow stripes collects pollen from a pink rose flower.
June 20, 2025 at 3:48 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
"On my way, love, just having a quick pint at the extra-floral nectary."
#insects #flies #diptera #ecology #botany #prunus
A small fly visits a nectar-producing protrusion on the stalk of a cherry leaf.
June 19, 2025 at 11:08 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Fly 1: "Hey guys. What ya doing?"

Fly 2: "Oh. Hi Gary. You found us..." *side whisper* "What's he doing here?"

Fly 3: *shoulder shrug and an I-don't-know-don't-blame-me look*

Fly 1: "Can I join you?"

Fly 2: "Ah, sure."

Fly 3 (muttering): "Ugh. Great."
#insect […]

[Original post on mstdn.ca]
Two small yellow and black flies standing at the edge of a head of yellow flowers as if looking over the edge. A third fly appears to be climbing up beside them.
June 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
After the day she'd had, Allison felt justified stopping at The Spittlebug for a drink before heading home.
#insect #wasp #Hymenoptera #nature #ecology
A wasp on a plant stem next to foam created by spittlebug nymphs.
June 12, 2025 at 10:35 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
You rang?
#wasp #insect #Hymenoptera
Close up shot of a the face of a tiny wasp, as if it's popping into the photo from the bottom right. It is short white hair along the inner margins of its eyes and above its mouth like a mustache.
June 10, 2025 at 12:49 AM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Endless mud flats at low tide on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada. A critical migratory stopover place for shorebirds.
#tides #bayoffundy #newbrunswick #coastlife #birds
A strip of beach in the foreground, then an expanse of brown mud interrupted only by the other side of the bay off in the distance.
June 6, 2025 at 6:01 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Just me hanging with some 350 million yo plants on the shores of the Bay of Fundy. #fossils #botany #newbrunswick #plants #nature
My hand for scale beside a linear striated fossil of an Equisetum-like plant in mottled brown rock. Fossil tree trunks embedded in a cliff face.
June 6, 2025 at 5:33 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
The mine and larvae of the Lilac Leafminer Moth (Gracillaria syringella). Native to Europe, but widely established in North America. The tiny transparent larvae are so cute!
#insect #moth #leafminer #lepidoptera #manitoba #gracilliariidae
A blotchy mine on the leaf of a lilac. Six tiny transparent moth larvae feeding in the mine.
May 30, 2025 at 10:53 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Many will be the chokecherries this year. Jars of jelly in the form of flowers.
#silentsunday #bloomscrolling
May 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
After he issued several stern warnings, Dooley has settled back to deck-based monitoring of the MourningDove, albeit on high alert for territorial transgressions.
#pets #dogs #dogsofmastodon
A large dog looking alertly up at a Mourning Dove sitting on a power line running beside his yard. View from the rest of the dog's head, ears alert, looking at the Mourning Dove.
May 24, 2025 at 11:15 PM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
These wee beasties (aka Thrips) are making a mess of our house plants. Trying diatomaceous earth for control.
#insects #thrips #houseplants #plantpests
Tiny mottled insects seen through a microscope.
May 21, 2025 at 1:25 AM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
The cherry flowers were full of honey bees, the odd bumblebee (probably Two-spotted), and four Syrphid species, including this Globetail.
#bees #bumblebee #diptera #syrphidae #pollinators #insects
A white flower hosting a small fly that really wants you to think it's a bee.
May 14, 2025 at 12:16 AM
friesen5000.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy
Operation #toadfriend was a success! Well, I'm interpreting it as friendship - it's hard to read Toad's feelings - they're very cryptic. Not much for conspicuous enthusiasm.
#toad #toads #Amphibian #manitoba #anaxyrus
Toad on my hand, facing the camera. Sideview of Toad.
May 13, 2025 at 12:14 AM