Rae Spencer
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raespencer.bsky.social
Rae Spencer
@raespencer.bsky.social
67 followers 160 following 47 posts
Writer. Reader. Quote hoarder. Easily distracted by cats and shiny objects. Often anxious, sometimes depressed, always awkward. she/her

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raespencer.bsky.social
That's a very close match, but maybe I'm too far north for them? Also, the ones I photographed seemed to have more distinct dark caps over their foreheads with pale markings all the way up their throats. I'm leaning a bit toward bank swallow (sand martin)? I wish my photos were as clear as yours!
Photograph of a small bird in flight. Photographed as it flew overhead, the bird has dark primaries and tail feathers, a dark cap of feathers on its head, and pale feathers on its throat, chest, and abdomen. The background sky is deep cloudless blue, and the late afternoon sunshine, reflected off the bird's pale feathers, is tinged with yellow.
November 27, 2025 at 1:53 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
I have a confused relationship with these holidays. Stress, anxiety, nostalgia, overload, silly gifts, glitter, guilt, and that earworm jazz riff from the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.

I want to hide but also be present. Not wholly present, just present enough to breathe.

#addHerper
Surface-level photograph of a mostly submerged bullfrog in our small dragonfly pond. The frog is resting with only its eyes and nose above water. It is surrounded by young water lily leaves, which are shades of purple and brown, along with mature green and yellow leaves, as well as floating mats of green algae. The frog's prominent eyes are opened wide. Its oval irises are brown and shiny, speckled with gold and edged with pale yellow. The frog's skin is smooth and dry, over its nose, and has a dark coloration with green highlights.
November 26, 2025 at 10:21 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
My birding skills are not equal to the task of naming our little visitors. My best guess puts them in the martin family, but that is merely a guess. Whoever they were, and wherever they were going, I enjoyed their company. 🪶

(If you recognize them, please comment!)
Photograph of a small bird in flight. The bird has pale feathers on its chest and abdomen, with darker feathers across its back and wings. In this photo, the bird's wings are spread wide as if gliding, and its short tail feathers are tucked into a forked silhouette. The background sky is a deep cloudless blue, making sharp contrast against the gold-tinged sunlight reflecting off the bird.
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
The birds were speedy and agile and difficult to keep in my viewfinder, especially with a longer lens. Even so, I caught a few lucky frames. 🪶
Photograph of a small bird in flight. The bird has pale feathers on its chest and abdomen, with darker feathers across its back and wings. In this photo, one wing is dipped low, and the bird's tail feathers are fanned into a quick mid-air turn. The background sky is a deep cloudless blue, making sharp contrast against the gold-tinged sunlight reflecting off the bird.
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
Yesterday evening, as the sun fell to just the right angle, flock after flock of these tiny aerialists passed over the house. They glinted so brightly, in the gold-tinted light, that I couldn't resist digging out the camera. 🪶
Photograph of a small bird in flight. The bird has pale feathers on its chest and abdomen, with darker feathers across its back and wings. In this photo, the bird's wings are folded for a quick dive, and its short tail feathers are tucked into a forked silhouette. The background sky is a deep cloudless blue, making sharp contrast against the gold-tinged sunlight reflecting off the bird.
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
But now I live in Virginia, near the coast, and my sky is filled with such a perplexing variety of swifts, swallows, and martins that I'm at a loss to name any of them. (My Tennessee sky was likely filled with variety, too, though I was content, then, to call them all barn swallows.) 🪶
Photograph of a small bird in flight. The bird has pale feathers on its chest and abdomen, with darker feathers across its back and wings. In this photo, the bird's wings and tail feathers are spread wide and flat as if for gliding. The background sky is a deep cloudless blue, making sharp contrast against the gold-tinged sunlight reflecting off the bird.
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
My childhood sky, in Tennessee, was filled with barn swallows. They nested in our sheds and barn, as well as under the bridge that spanned our little creek. Any birds hunting insects, mid-air and near sunset, were barn swallows by default.

(Note: The birds in this photo are not barn swallows!) 🪶
Photograph of two small birds in flight. The birds have pale feathers on their chests and abdomen, with darker feathers across their backs and wings. In this photo, one bird is captured mid-dive while the second bird is veering into a steep climb. The background sky is a deep cloudless blue, making sharp contrast against the gold-tinged sunlight reflecting off the birds.
November 26, 2025 at 2:42 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
I was a ruthless plagiarist, in elementary, and spent years ransacking our children's encyclopedias. My favorite entry was the Roseate Spoonbill. I traced that bird so often it fell out and had to be taped back into place. All of this is to say that I love this image, despite its grainy flaws. 🪶
Grainy and poorly focused image of a juvenile Roseate Spoonbill. The long-legged bird has very pale pink feathers, a long neck, and a long bill that broadens into a rounded, flat "spatulate" shape at the tip, perfect for scooping through mud and silt underneath the shallow waters it favors for wading. Here, the bird is wading through a fall landscape of yellows, browns, and greens.
November 19, 2025 at 1:08 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
When a group of hikers approached from the other direction, the otter dashed into the water too quickly for my photography reflexes.

All that was left were wriggle-marks. If I hadn't seen the dust bath, I couldn't have read "otter" in this pattern.

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #mammals #tracks
Photograph of an otter's dust-bath site in Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The dirt-and-gravel surface is disturbed into a vague pattern of curves and peaks, marking where the otter rolled. I was disappointed that there weren't any clear footprints, only wriggle-prints.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
...and stopped to investigate an interesting scent.

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #mammals
Photograph of an otter sniffing through a clump of grass at the edge of a gravel path at Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The otter has a long muzzle; short ears; a long, limber back; dense, sleek hair; short legs; and a long tail. The gravel path is bordered by mown grass and a tall verge of reeds. The reeds are casting long shadows across the path.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
As the otter reached the far side of the path, it slowed to a walk...

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #mammals
Photograph of an otter, mid-stride, crossing a gravel path at Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The otter has a long muzzle; short ears; a long, limber back; dense, sleek hair; short legs; and a long tail. The gravel path is bordered by mown grass and a tall verge of reeds. The reeds are casting long shadows across the path.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
...galumph...

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #mammals
Photograph of an otter, mid-stride, crossing a gravel path at Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The otter has a long muzzle; short ears; a long, limber back; dense, sleek hair; short legs; and a long tail. The gravel path is bordered by mown grass and a tall verge of reeds. The reeds are casting long shadows across the path.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
The otter finished its dust bath and took a bathroom break on one side of the path, then galumphed back across...

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #mammals
Photograph of an otter mid-stride, beginning to galumph across a gravel path at Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The otter has a long muzzle; short ears; a long, limber back; dense, sleek hair; short legs; and a long tail. The gravel path is bordered by mown grass and a tall verge of reeds. The reeds are casting long shadows across the path.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
My lens was long enough for photos, without getting too close for the otter's comfort.

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #mammals
Photograph of an otter rolling in the dust on a dry gravel path in Back Bay Wildlife Refuge. The otter is doing a shoulder-first luxury roll before wriggling on its back in the gravel. The otter has a long, limber back; dense, sleek hair; short legs; and a long tail. The gravel path is bordered by mown grass and a tall verge of reeds. The reeds are casting long shadows across the path.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
A long time ago, in a refuge not so far away, I happened upon an otter enjoying a dust bath on a gravel path...

#BackBayWildlifeRefuge #otter #addMam
Photograph of an otter resting on a gravel path. The otter is looking at the camera, alert and ready to flee if I prove threatening. The otter has a long muzzle; short ears; a long, limber back; dense, sleek hair; short legs; and a long tail. The gravel path is bordered by mown grass and a tall verge of reeds. The reeds are casting long shadows across the path.
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
Archive housekeeping means rediscovering images that were saved for a specific purpose, then realizing I forgot the specific purpose.

I remember every mistake I ever made, but I can't remember what I meant to say about this end-of-day silhouette of birds roosting in a pine tree...

#addBirder
A flock of birds settles into a tall pine at Bay Back Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach, VA. Most of the birds, too numerous to count, have settled in rows along the tree's sparse branches, though some are still circling. The tree is part of a coastal tree line, and it has a tiered canopy made of long bare branches that splay into dense clusters of needles at the tips. The image was taken near sunset, so the trees and birds are contrasting silhouettes against a pale sky tinged with orange.
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
In late July, the neighborhood crows spent most of a morning shouting "danger!" about a branch in a nearby tree. I was intrigued enough to snap a few frames, but I didn't see the owl until I downloaded the photos. If I wasn't so tired from adulting, this year, I'd turn this owl into a poem.
Photo of an owl perched on a high branch in a tree. A thick screen of leaves obscures much of the owl, but its eyes are visible, looking into the lens. I didn't see the owl, as I was taking this photo, but I'm guessing that it saw me. The owl's feathers are shades of gray and brown, mostly mottled-looking but with striping around its face.
November 3, 2025 at 9:29 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
Entry/reentry? Video taken in Virginia Beach, 4 February 2025, about 6:20PM.
February 5, 2025 at 12:09 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
In my experience, resolutions are failure traps. Especially mid-winter resolutions. I might be more tempted to join in if this holiday synchronized with spring, but winter is my sleepy season. Anyone else?

Here's a ladybug. It is likely more resolute than I am, today.
Eye-level photo of a ladybug resting in bright sunshine on a weathered wooden plank. The ladybug is orange with black spots over its rounded back. Its head is black with white spots on either side that give the illusion of eyes. The sun's angle is low enough that the ladybug has a prominent shadow. The wooden plank has flecks of peeling white paint, mostly worn away. The blurred background is a winter-bare yard and a weathered wooden privacy fence.
January 1, 2025 at 5:48 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
This little sapsucker seemed happy to have unobstructed access to its sap wells today, after I took down the tree's strands of lights. We're having a spell of warm weather, which meant the sap wells were overflowing. By the time I finished taking down the lights, I was sticking to everything.
December 28, 2024 at 10:58 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
Today's frustration is a new autoinjector med and the US med/pharm industry's refusal to accept accountability for safe sharps handling and disposal.

I typed and deleted a lot of other words for this post. Words that solved nothing and helped no one.

Here's a bee.
Macro photograph of a small bee perched on a clump of furled pink blossoms. The bee is facing the lens. Its head is in focus. It has pale fuzz across most of its face, large dark eyes that are reflecting the sky, and small serrated mandibles. Its thorax has a bald spot between the shiny joints where its wings attach. Fine grains of pollen are visible on the bald area. The pink blossoms, just beginning to open, are produced by Joe Pye Weed, which is a pollinator favorite in our yard. I don't know the bee's species, only that it appears to be one of the solitary-type visitors that I lump into an "unknown mason bee" file in my brain's software.
December 12, 2024 at 6:47 PM
raespencer.bsky.social
We built the dragonfly pond, and they came. It's a story I'll never tire of sharing.

7/7
A pale yellow damselfly is perched on the edge of a round, waxy green waterlily leaf. The damselfly is standing over its discarded nymph exoskeleton. Its thin, still-elongating abdomen is now longer than its wings. Its head and thorax are reddish brown, and its wings are beginning to darken on their front edges. The translucent exoskeleton looks far, far, far too small to have contained so much eye and wing and abdomen.
December 7, 2024 at 1:23 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
Until then, I'm happy knowing that the pond has become a functional habitat that requires very little curation or supervision.

6/7
A damselfly is perched on the edge of a round, waxy green waterlily leaf. The damselfly, newly molted, is standing over its discarded nymph exoskeleton. The lacy, pale-yellow wings are now the same length as its yellow abdomen. Its head and thorax are reddish brown, as are the new stripes across the top of each abdominal segment. The translucent exoskeleton now looks far too small to have contained so much eye and wing and abdomen.
December 7, 2024 at 1:23 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
I'm still hoping to catch a dragonfly emerging, some sunny day when I have camera in hand and time to sit quietly.

5/7
A damselfly is fully molted into its final form, wings almost completely unfurled. The damselfly's abdomen and wings are still pale yellow, but its large eyes and short thorax have darkened to a reddish-brown. Here it is perched on top of its old, translucent exoskeleton, allowing a size comparison. The abdominal segments have lengthened considerably, along with the wings.
December 7, 2024 at 1:23 AM
raespencer.bsky.social
These photos mark the first and only occasion when my camera time and a damselfly's emergence time overlapped.

4/7
A damselfly is molted into its winged form, though its wings have not yet unfurled and dried. The yellowish damselfly is perched on top of its shed, translucent tan exoskeleton at the edge of a round, waxy green waterlily leaf. Small white thread-like filaments are visible in the split of the shed exoskeleton. These are the old, everted linings of the damselfly's spiracles—airways through which the now-terrestrial insect breathes.
December 7, 2024 at 1:23 AM