Made Awkward Eye Contact With An Osprey Flying Overhead Today

Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia), taken April 24, 2025, in Georgia, US

What I believe is my first butterfly of the year, at least that I've been able to photograph! I saw what I think was a Blue Morpho in early, early spring, before almost anything was awake, but it flew off before I could get a picture. Since then, it's been some skippers and a few Tiger Swallowtails, but never when I have my camera on me! This guy was touched down because of a storm. I went out right after the rain, when many flying insects are still reluctant to fly, and was able to get a couple decent pictures!

Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus), adult (top) and juvenile (bottom), taken March 7, 2025, in Georgia, US

More hawk news... It seems as though one of the juveniles was able to chase the other out of this area and has staked a claim on the woods here. I've been seeing the red-tailed hawks less, and today the victorious juvenile showed up with a partner who already has adult plumage! I haven't seen adults here in at least a couple years, so this is a good sign that these two will be nesting this spring. It's fairly unusual for a hawk without adult plumage to be breeding, but definitely not unheard of and can still result in a successful brood!

The adult hawk was not happy with me taking pictures and flew to a further branch when I went outside. As usual, the juvenile was much more tolerant of my presence (likely used to my dumb ass at this point) and let me get closer before the adult called for it. It then joined the adult in a tree where they began calling together. Hopefully they nest somewhere close enough that I can monitor their progress. I'd love to see their babies once they fledge!

Globular Springtails (Order Symphypleona), taken March 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

In order of appearance: Ptenothrix curvilineata (1), undescribed Dicyrtoma sp. (2), Ptenothrix marmorata (3), undescribed/unknown Ptenothrix sp. (4)

I've been in a globular springtail phase for a couple months now, and the past few days I've been doubling down in my efforts to find as many as possible. I spent a couple hours yesterday digging through dead wood and found and photographed 40 individuals! I love the diversity of patterning in this group—they're absolutely tiny, but so so gorgeous.

P. marmorata is definitely the most common customer in my part of the woods, but I found lots of the 4th individual as well. That guy is a bit of a strange situation, since it might actually be a regional color morph variant of P. marmorata! It doesn't look much like it, but animals are weird and this stuff happens sometimes. Hopefully we find out what it is soon!

Zabulon Skipper (Lon zabulon), male, taken May 14, 2025, in Georgia, US

My first skipper of the year, proudly showing his colors in the sunlight! Unlike most butterflies, this species displays very noticeable sexual dimorphism, males having bright orange/yellow blotches on their wings while females are mostly brown with some white spotting. They can often be seen perched on leaves, spreading their wings in the sunlight like little orange flowers!

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), male, taken February 11, 2025, in Georgia, US

Cardinals have been pretty shy at the feeders as of late. They all show up and just sit in the trees, too nervous to come down. Even a red-winged blackbird came down before them, and they've been horribly difficult for me to photograph! This guy came down to pose for me, though! He seems to be starting his spring molt, poor guy lol.

Common Pill Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare), taken March 21, 2025, in Georgia, US

She lost her pants!!! You can clearly see the difference between old and new exoskeleton on this individual, which is very cool! The new exoskeleton is still soft, evident by the iridescent sheen and rounded appearance of the segments. As the exoskeleton hardens, it will become darker and rougher, eventually looking identical to the old one, just a tad larger!

Psyllid (Genus Craspedolepta), taken April 4, 2025, in Georgia, US

Psyllid time!!! I was very excited to see one of these guys while inspecting some flowers for exciting stuff. These definitely count as exciting! I've only seen a few psyllids ever, but they're so, so cool. Much like aphids, they are very picky about what they eat from, and many are single-host specialists, so it's important to know what the psyllid you find is eating from (if it's feeding) or sitting on to have the best chance at a species ID! I tend to document all of the flowers I see insects visiting to annotate them on iNat, but I don't have this one yet (somehow), so I'll have to get back outside and check lol. For now, genus is as far as I can go with this!

Braconid Wasp (Family Braconidae), female, taken April 23, 2025, in Georgia, US

A elegant woman with an even more elegant butt-katana! This little lady was flitting around slowly in the wake of brief rainfall, likely cautious of flying, so she made an easy subject. My favorite types of wasps are ones who sit still and stare off into space for long periods of time—easy pickings!

Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), taken May 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

This offended squirrel is staring down at me after I scared him away from his foraging spot! I didn't want to, but he was directly in my path, as squirrels often are. He did make for a cute picture before he parkoured up and away through the trees, though. Squirrels get too much of a bad rep. They're called "tree rats" for being annoyances but, in reality, they are just silly little guys. I absolutely love it when they visit the feeders, even when they jump onto them to stuff their faces!

Scarlet-bordered Assassin Bug (Rhiginia cruciata), taken April 25, 2025, in Georgia, US

A bit of an interesting lifer! I've been seeing these guys flying around me, but they either would never land or would spook too fast to get a good look. Fortunately, this guy landed right in front of me and politely stood still while I did my best to get pictures as the sun glared onto my camera display and made it impossible to tell if my image was in focus or not (horrific). This species is part of a subfamily referred to as millipede assassin bugs which, as the name would imply, exclusively prey on millipedes. They have evolved to specialize in hunting millipedes, possessing unique venom, mouthparts, and other physical features that allow them an advantage over other predators when hunting them. They're quite interesting, and may be the culprits of some millipede husks you find while digging through leaflitter!