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wildalphabet.bsky.social
Kolby 🐊🦆🪲
@wildalphabet.bsky.social
390 followers 340 following 97 posts
They/He. Transgender Southern Conservationist. Herptile, Bird, and Insect enthusiast. Urban ecology nerd. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈
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wildalphabet.bsky.social
BIRD PROTOCOL activated. Take a bird, leave a bird!
Adult male Grackle in the middle of a strip of grass surrounded by lily pads within the surrounding wetlands. The grackle is black with a bluish sheen.
April 16, 2025 at 12:23 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
Metamorph eastern spadefoot toadlet from Covington County, AL.
An impossibly small eastern spadefoot toadlet (a bug-eyed warty frog that has just left the pond aftering concluding its life phase as a tadpole) next to a toothbrush head for size comparison which the toadlet is smaller then. The toothbrush head is white with a purple band and purple and white bristles. Both the toadlet and the toothbrush are on a blacktop table that you would commonly find in a science lab. The table is peppered with specks of yellow pollen. A small eastern spadefoot toadlet (a brown bug-eyed warty frog that has just emerged from a wetland after completing its tadpole life stage) slightly angled side profile. Its eyes are incredibly big compared to its head. It is sitting on a blacktop table that are commonly seen in science labs that is speckled with yellow pollen and it up against the side of a house with tan wood panel siding.
January 26, 2025 at 10:36 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
#transjoy from a nice little snow day!

Also found this very cold Grizzled Mantis (Gonatista grisea)! First time seeing this species mostly found in Florida and they mimic lichen!
A snowman that is about knee height with acorn eyes, a little stick nose, stick arms, and a pine needle smile. A Grizzled Mantis on a brown live oak leaf. The leaf is on some icy snow.
January 22, 2025 at 5:52 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
Enjoy this blurry picture of a Great Horned Owl I saw yesterday on a walk! I wished I had my binoculars or my camera, literally could have been the best photo I’d ever taken.
A Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree covered in Spanish moss and resurrection fern.
December 30, 2024 at 2:04 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
Just got some gifts from my folks for the holidays since my partner and I are staying home this year. Lucky for me, one of them wasn’t wrapped so I guess I get one early!

Really excited to read and annotate Joan Roughharden’s Evolution’s Rainbow! #Booksky
Front cover of Joan Roughgarden’s Evolution’s Rainbow 10th Anniversary Edition.
December 15, 2024 at 9:11 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
And regrettably we got worse with box turtle

My own photo to compare featuring Magma, still one of the prettiest eastern box turtles, Terrapene carolina, I’ve ever seen.

Found in Michigan during my time working under a grad student within the Refsnider lab of the University of Toledo.
An emoji of a box taped up with a turtle label on it with two arrows pointing which way is the right side up. An eastern box turtle being held by a white hand with its face and two front legs sticking out. Its shell black with yellow markings that kind of look like Rorschach patterns. Its legs are black with lots of blocky reddish orange dots. Its face is black with yellow orange markings that is similar to dias de los muertos face pattern. Its eyes are dark brown. The background is a dirt parking lot that backs up to a small hill cover in thick grassy vegetation.
December 8, 2024 at 9:05 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
Next I tried Chicken turtle, Deirochelys reticularia,

But again not that accurate although this would objectively be a hysterical symbiotic relationship.

Photo: Florida Chicken Turtle (Deirochelys reticularia chrysea) taken by Mary Keim.
An emoji of a white chicken sitting on top of the shell of a green turtle. A side profile of Florida Chicken Turtle, which ha a dark colored shell with faint yellow lines that connects to the side of the shell with a larger yellow block of the underside. It’s mostly black head it pointed slightly upwards revealing some of the yellow stripes on the underside. The turtle is on the edge of a sandy dirt road. There is a small amount of grassy vegetation behind the turtle.
December 8, 2024 at 9:05 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
Ooh this fun let me try some herptiles!

First up the Pig Frog, Lithobates grylio

Seems a little off too me

PC: Kevin Enge
An emoji of a light green frog smiling wearing pink pig nose that is strapped to its face. A pig frog (bronze/brown in color) on the ground surrounded by brown to burnt orange fallen leaves and small light green grasses.
December 8, 2024 at 9:05 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
How did I just learn about the frog that got sent flying into air the by NASA’s LADEE spacecraft at lift off.
It is pitch black as NASA’s LADEE spacecraft lifts off a pad next to a tower at Wallops Flight facility in Virginia on September 6, 2013 at night around 11:27 pm EST. There is also a frog at least 15 ft in the air in the foreground of the debris being kicked up. Smoke and bright orange light are produced by the ignited engines.
December 2, 2024 at 10:52 PM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
QP/Share your photo with texture!
Bark of a shortleaf pine tree.
November 25, 2024 at 2:14 AM
wildalphabet.bsky.social
Anyways Happy Trans Day of Remembrance Amber. I can’t believe it’s been over 2 years without you. You would have loved our new cat Eggy. RIP
A Siamese/tabby mix sits very sleepily on the lap of a person wearing black basketball shorts and a red t-shirt.
November 21, 2024 at 3:13 AM