Krista Stracka

Migration Dashboard - BirdCast Explore nightly migration data in your region

Bird migrations are happening above our heads and through the night.

Who’s traveling where you are? Explore here:
dashboard.birdcast.info

A bird with a bright blue head, chestnut colored chest, and white belly perched on a tree branch, facing forward

Grumpy bluebird 🪶
#Birds #Bluebird #BackyardBirds

Facing forward, a male cardinal sings while perched on a thin tree branch

"Good morning!" sings a cardinal at the top of his tiny lungs 🪶 #birds #backyardbirds #cardinal

Cartoon of a fox in a purple dress with a bow on its head. It is stood at a library check out desk and has a book and date stamp in front of it. It is leaning back and looks to be screaming. The word librarian hovers next to it.

Mood:
📚

Tree of lust and damnation, rooted in a heart on top of a sphere with a skull on it, and violent animal heads on its branches.

Valentine's Day Came Early!

Here's a tree of earthly love (aka LUST) I spotted on view @artinstitutechi.bsky.social yesterday! From the 17th c. Netherlands, and frankly quite bonkers!
www.artic.edu/artworks/271...

A black-and-white bird with a red cap perching on a branch covered in scaly bark and white fungi.

My drawing of a Downy woodpecker searching for #OnlyBeautifulThings in this tree 🙂 #birds #SciArt

A dark-eyed junco looks directly at the camera while perched on a black curved pole

A cute little dark-eyed junco waiting for a turn at the feeder

#Birds #BackyardBirds #NationalBirdDay #BirdPhotography #Birdwatching

A damselfly resting on the tip of a long, thin cosmos flower leaf

A #damselfly from warmer days

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekAForAngles #insects #damselflies

Infectious diseases killed Victorian children at alarming rates — their novels highlight the fragility of public health today Between 40% and 50% of children didn’t live past 5 in the US during the 19th century. Popular authors like Charles Dickens documented the common but no less gutting grief of losing a child.

Science affords us the luxury of forgetting the impact of infectious diseases
- In the 1st half of the 19th century 40-50% of children in US did not make it past the age of 5
- TB killed 1 in 7 people in US and Europe
- smallpox killed 80% of infected children
theconversation.com/infectious-d...

Closeup of a male Eastern bluebird perched on a slanted wooden rail

Bluebird borb 🪶 #AlphabetChallenge #WeekZForZoom #birds

Thanks! 😊

Closeup of a crocus flower

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekZForZoom
#MacroMonday

Newberry Library discovers it holds the largest example in existence of an extremely rare paper type Little was known about the manuscript, which donated by Edward Ayer, a tycoon who made his fortune supplying railroad ties.

The Library of Congress analyzed the pages of an ancient manuscript donated to the Newberry Library and made an astounding discovery: The manuscript was printed on a type of paper so rare that only 10 sheets were known to exist.

The Newberry’s manuscript is about 49 sheets long.

Watercolor and gouache replica of a medieval book of hours letter D. The middle of the letter is filled with gold paint surrounding two small violet-like flowers.

Day 19 #ArtAdventCalendar Illuminated letter, as described in the book The Illuminated Alphabet by Timothy Noad and Patricia Seligman. Watercolor and gouache. Patterned after a 14th century book of hours.

A cluster of white, bell-shaped Lily of the valley flowers at eye level

Lily of the valley

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWForWhite #flowers #FlowerPhotography #bloomscrolling

Thank you!

Hello from Normie to Herbert and Vernon! Love the names 😍

Walter! Love the name 😍

Cardigan Welsh corgi with an earnest expression sitting on his haunches with his front paws in the air. He has mostly white fur with patches of black and gray.

Norman, the cutest beggar
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekWForWhite #corgisky #CorgisOfBluesky #dogsky

Beautiful!

An up-close image of the unfurling petals in the center of a magenta zinnia flower with one vibrant yellow pollen floret to the lower left

#Zinnia, zoomed in

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVibrant #FlowersOnFriday #FridayFlowers

Thank you 😊

A sleeping #bumblebee in a calendula flower bed framed by vibrant orange petals #AlphabetChallenge #WeekVForVibrant #insects #bees

Left side view of a Carolina Wren perched on the edge of a roof. Its reddish brown and tan plumage and white eyebrow stripe stand out against the bright blue of the sky.

A very loud Carolina Wren borb perched on my roof 🪶 #BackyardBirds #Birds #Birdwatching

Close-up of a gray squirrel with brown coloring resting on a wood fence with a walnut in its mouth and its front leg dangling over the edge

Gray squirrel on a break
#squirrelsky #squirrelscrolling #AddMam

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekUForUnder

Pacific sea nettles #jellyfish

Close-up of a frog sitting in a garden beside a tiny mushroom

Here's a pickerel frog (I think?) that hung out in my garden over the summer 🐸 #herps

Beautiful! It's one of my favorite places

Got a raptor? Share a raptor!

#birds #BaldEagle #BlackwaterNWR

Thank you, Stephanie!