I have a 100 gallon tub of water near my house so wildlife can drink. Just as it was getting dark a short while ago something caught my eye and this small White-tailed buck came to drink. Somehow this fella got a plastic jug caught up in his velvet antlers...I hope he can get it off. I had to chuckle at this sight, however, something I had certainly never seen before. Anyway, he drank some water then trotted away. Hope he will be OK!

Ultramafic outcrop near treeline, 31728 VT
David Barrington (VT) writes 8 Jan 2024: The character I found most useful was the ratio of the length to the maximum width for the medial pinnae—roughly 1:1 in P. lemmonii, 3:1 in P. lonchitis, and (though more variable) around 2:1 in P. kruckebergii. The two hybrids [31726, 31733] come in around 3:2.

you enter the bathroom, expecting nothing unusual, but unknowingly, your bumhole is met with a pair of soulless eyes staring back at it.

as you start to sit down, you hear something slosh in the water beneath you.

you jump up, startled.

as you peer into the toilet bowl, you see him, the prince of wadda mooli himself.

you pay your respects and escort him outdoors–back to his kingdom

you then reclaim your porcelain throne

The first time I had ever seen this, i videoed the entire event as well from entry to exit. It was as if this species swims all the time. I sent it to a frogmouth expert and she had never seen that before. The bird chose to swim and flew away very easily after its swim. There appeared to be no explanation for the bird swimming as it was not particularly hot or anything unusual.

This leucistic individual is Salamander C. This one has been photographed and observed since 2010 many times by Don Scallen and it had at least been alive two years before that, making it thirteen years old- two years older then me!

Fern in a flatwood slope forest. Found near bodies of water in a moist habitat and grown next to other ferns in clumps.

Large, green, with triangular fronds that are divided and alternate down the stem.