cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Tsuro is always our go-to short game for when folks are getting to game night and getting into the mood. We also like to play Uno at the end of the night when our brains are fried or Jackbox.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Neverwinter Nights and Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was a little kid. I watched my dad play Neverwinter and had to indulge in my own tiny fantasy to play as a "dragon." Still at it.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I always go for a druid-type in games (I have a druid of the coast in a 5e game and now a moon druid in BG3) and I too am frustrated that I can't really do spells while Bear. But it's okay, because I am Bear.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Consider your possible "cures" in the same way humans "cure" their blindness. If your dragon has cataracts, surgery could be an option if you could find a vet willing, able, and trained to do it. But if this is a natural degredation from age, there is no "cure."
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Oh yeah, camouflage for different purposes on different parts of the snake. Definitely a neat one to find.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Since roadside hawk is an actual species in Latin America, I might stick with calling our red-shouldered hawks by their own common name, even if they do tend to be on the roadside a lot! I was excited for a moment since I hadn't heard of a rare raptor in Florida.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 75%
But they're preventing that with this legislation.
/s, Florida is pulling so much shit right now too.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
It was a battle between my queer identity and my biologist identity. For regular browsing and posting, science won out. But I have an account with blajah.zone too to discuss the queer agenda.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I consider myself a people, and I prefer my body jewelry to be gold if I can afford it. A few pieces are gold-colored anodized titanium (which are fading), but very prominent pieces are solid gold. I like yellow gold, not rose gold. I actually think titanium/"silver" looks more tacky than gold.
But that's just for pieces of jewelry that go into my body. For bracelets and such, I prefer brass, leather, and shades of brown. I don't wear necklaces.
Gold cars are disgusting though.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Wow, that's impressive! I'm a hiker too, but I don't have the time to do that much hiking. Besides, I'm also looking for birds and other wildlife, so my 5 miles can take nearly 4 to 5 hours, hah.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I too use peanut oil for cooking nearly everything. So cheap.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I've only just started weighing again. My "big loss" was in 2019, and while I couldn't maintain my lowest weight, I've largely maintained and even built muscle to stay within my healthy range. I've tipped up in the last year after some medical changes and muscle building. There are still bits of me that I'd prefer looked different. CICO worked for a time, but I hate it, so I'm falling back to fasting when possible (which I've basically always done anyway). Just gotta be conscious of the snacks, especially those my new work keeps trying to feed me!
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I wonder if this would work for my feeders, how clever! They're such a menace.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Same with me and Catan. I generally do not like resource-hoarding "competitive" games anyway, and Catan did not help that.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I definitely have my fair share of close crops, especially herps! I also posted a close crop (because it was just that close) of a brown-capped rosy finch to the wildlife photography community today too.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I like to leave some habitat because I find it adds interest and complexity to a photo. Plus, sometimes the birb no longer appears smol if so focused in the photo! I've gotten more comfortable with even more distant shots of birbs, too--sometimes I can make raptors look illegally smol.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
Many of my friends are biologists themselves, but not all are as well-verse in birds, so I'm definitely the bird guy there. Or wildlife guy, as in the case of my family. Kinda why I started bird ID and snake ID communities here when I didn't see them (not sure how to link to them on mobile).
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
I like to post pictures to get the community more active, but I'm also down for discussion.
Laat year, I was a teaching assistant for a study abroad course to Honduras. One of our stops was PANACAM, one of the best national parks in the country (I spent about ten days there this year, such a beautiful location). We only had half a day there. The class happened to contain only women, and the day we visited, we learned of the US Supreme Court's decision regarding abortion access. Demoralized, I led a group to a bird tower in the forest in our remaining time. They were largely uninterested in birding, but they were into the more charismatic species. In the span of an hour on that tower, we only recorded ten species, but the experience was quite exceptional. I located three king vultures far in the sky and was able to show them to the students. A dozen or so swallow-tailed kites swooped around the tower. I photographed a dark morph short-tailed hawk with a lizard in its bill across two passes (a publication I'm working on). The students located a keel-billed toucan before I did. And best (for them) of all, a white-nosed coati decided to pop up in the leaves just 20 feet from us.
I love birding, but I really love getting others into it and making cool observations with them. It was a memerable day for sure.
As hawk watch locations across North America start hiring and counting migrating raptors, the raptors themselves are gearing up to head wherever. I've had the opportunity to see and photograph a lot of raptors in the past two years. The two common accipiter hawks, the sharp-shinned hawk (or "sharpie") and Cooper's hawk are often mistaken for one another. While the sharpie is usually considerably smaller than the Cooper's, size can be difficult to judge in the field. Sharp-shinned hawks often travel in pairs during migration. I hope this graphic helps you to visualize some of the differences between these two species.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
The gain and then subsequent slashing of human rights based on fascist beliefs and lack of representation (and possibly over representation by fringe groups that capture the news cycle). Across the world, populism and fascism is gaining in popularity - again. It felt like we'd gotten past this point for a minute.
A link to the African Snakebite Institute, a great organization dedicated to snake identification and education in South Africa.
Only a favorite because they're so skinny and wiggly, I like showing the blunt-headed tree snake to students because they're just not what people new to snakes think a snake looks like. There are definitely weirder species out there, but the big eyes and shoelace appearance amuse the non-herpers. Honduras, June 2023
I love finding brown creepers. I often find them just scanning tree trunks, though there's one singing at one of my birding spots now. Pennsylvania, USA, March 2022
I was amazed at how close these birds got. I had given up most hope on locating one (I wasn't sure where local birdfeeders were), but then I found a handful of em at a parking lot up the mountain. Colorado, USA, May 2022
I don't get tired of little ducks like teal. Two cinnamon teal on the left, blue-winged teal drake on the right. Colorado, USA, May 2022
Merlins kinda breed in my area, but you're more likely to find them during migration. I believe we found three on this day. Pennsylvania, USA, Oct. 2022
In the right habitat (a pile of rocks near buildings at somewhat higher, but not quite cloud forest, elevation), the yellow-spotted night lizard can be easily spotted... at night. They have a pretty nice chomp. They always look to be in shed. Honduras, June 2023
Sometimes warblers don't care how close you are. This one was probably ten feet away. They are truly smol, and I like to crop my photos. Honduras, April 2023
This cicada is such a brilliant emerald with gold tints. And they screm. Honduras, June 2023
I was hoping for Erie watersnakes, but this was a nice find anyway. This area is known for having melanistic garters. May 2022
Golden-crowned kinglet Pennsylvania, January 2022
Few warblers retain their breeding plumage into fall. Most warblers transition into a nonbreeding/winter plumage after their young have fledged. Some look kinda close to their breeding plumage, but others look radically different.
A lot of baby or small snakes can be confusing if you're not sure what you're looking for. Fortunately, in the US, they're all relatively easy to ID with photos of decent enough quality. In the eastern US, Dekay's brownsnakes are super common, both juveniles and adults. Their range largely overlaps with the eastern copperhead and only slightly overlaps with the cottonmouth. Both the copperhead and cottonmouth will have yellow tail tips as juveniles, and even when young, they are considerably larger than juvenile (and some adult) Dekay's brownsnakes. This brownsnake also usually has a pale neckband as a juvenile in addition to a spotted or chain-link pattern on its backside.
cadamanteus 1y ago • 100%
They have "teeth" in the same way some birds have "teeth." For tortoises, there are some pointy bits on the beak that function similar to our teeth, but they do not fall out like ours often do. It's just for pulling leaves off of plants in arid environments. Again, some birds have "teeth" almost like this, but they function more like filters for birds that sort through mud and water to find food.
Routine: - As I Am Dry & Itchy shampoo and conditioner - Scrunch in LA Looks Extreme Sport Gel on wet hair, a dollop for front and back - Scrunch dry with microfiber towel - Diffuse with low heat, then cool, until about 70% dry or I'm bored - Air dry, then scrunch out the crunch
Honduras, June 2022
Sometimes I don't even know what I'm photographing. This is a male blue-black grassquit doing a "I'm sexy" dance as he calls.
Harlequin ducks! Ohio, Feburary 2023
Ohio, February 2023
Ohio, May 2022