A podcast about fun, and sometimes creepy, animal facts!
The podcast will be returning soon, with the episode about cats purring as promised! There was some mayhem around the apartment that delayed getting things done last week, that's settling out, so we're looking at sometime next week getting the podcast out. In the meantime, .in.ragtime is being very helpful and providing many purrs! She just turned 16, part of the inspiration of a cat-centric episode. Stay tuned for updates!
It's the time of year where I start figuring out how to put different hats on animals! How do you think a butterfly would wear a little witch's hat for Halloween?
This little Glanville Fritillary butterfly is all ready for the Halloween episode, which is on its way! But what about this butterfly could possibly be creepy enough for a Halloween episode? Stay tuned to find out! And to see more bugs in little hats!
This just in: more newts!
My page is slowly becoming a newt appreciation page and I am very ok with that.
Need more salamanders and newts in your life? Here's some cute lil guys for ya!
We have 1) adult Eastern newt, 2) a wee Red-backed Salamander, 3) a red eft (juvenile Eastern newt), and 4) another wee red-backed salamander
Episode 58 has just been uploaded! And man, don't you just love a good graphical abstract? While it does look a little goofy, it is a pretty accurate description of what jellyfish learning looks like! This recently published paper by Bielecki et al provides evidence for jellyfish using a type of learning previously thought to require a centralized brain. We're talking all about it in this week's episode, so tune in to learn more!
Jellyfish famously don't have a brain, but are they capable of learning? In this weekend's episode, we're going to talk about a paper that was recently published talking about how a species of jellyfish seems to be capable of learning! How can you learn if you don't have a brain? Be sure to tune in to this week's episode to find out!
It's ! Have you ever found a caterpillar but for the life of you could not figure out what butterfly or moth it belonged to? Maybe it's actually a sawfly larvae! This guy is a Cimbex sawfly.
This is what happened to me! Thanks to the helpful folks in the Hartford Salamander Team, I am learning that sawfly larvae look a lot like caterpillars. How do you tell the difference? So far, I just know that it's a sawfly if it's not a caterpillar, I will have to update when I learn how to tell the difference!
It's been a newt-filled couple of weeks for me with plenty of newt sightings, so let's continue with newts! Episode 57 was released yesterday and is all about everyone's buddy the Eastern Newt.
Tune in to learn all your newt and salamander related facts! Did you know the red eft is the juvenile stage for the eastern newt? Or that they're quite toxic? Or what about what makes a newt a newt, and a salamander not a newt? I cover all of this and more in this week's episode.
I FOUND ONE! With the flower petal folded in like that, and the poor, unsuspecting bee in front of it, it was hard to get a good picture, but looks like I found a goldenrod spider! I've been keeping an eye out for them since we talked about them a couple episodes ago, so this was a pretty exciting spot.
I saw a peculiarly folded petal, then noticed the peculiarly positioned bee, and after a bit of looking, I finally saw the spider hidden in the shade of the folded petal!
Tune in to Episode 55 to learn about these guys and their camouflage skills!
Yesterday's newt spot! Especially on a tricky hike, I always deem a red eft spot as lucky, and it is now officially deemed the Newt of Luck! Or maybe the Eastern Salamander of Encouragement? Either way, I credit this newt with giving me the boost I needed to finish the hike up the mountain.
Such a good newt friend.
Went on a nature walk the other day, and saw some cute little frogs! So little that my camera decided the leaves would be a better focal point. The first few are spring peepers, and then the last one we're pretty sure was a young wood frog! I don't think I've seen wood frogs before, so that was a fun spot.
Cats are pretty good at sleeping, .in.ragtime here loves a nice blanket for napping, but what's happening in that little brain of theirs? Do they dream? What makes them sleep so much?
In the episode coming out tomorrow, we'll be talking all about sleep! Well, not quite all about it, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to sleep. What we will talk about though is some of what happens as we sleep, the different stages, and some of the different ways our bodies tell us it's bedtime!
Not me staying up past my bedtime to do podcast research about...sleep...
Behold, the color changes of the goldenrod spider! Unfortunately, I couldn't find where I found a photo of an all pink one last week, but here's some photos of the yellow vs white spiders. And yes, in the first photo there is indeed a spider in there! A yellow goldenrod spider really does blend in super well against a yellow flower, and a white spider blends in super well against a white flower. Against the purple flower.....only in bug vision do they blend in well.
You can learn about how the goldenrod spiders change color and camouflage in the most recent episode, released this past weekend! And if you want to find a goldenrod spider for yourself, spending some time in a meadow can be a great place to start. I know I'll be paying closer attention to the flowers nearby to see if I can spot one for myself!
Habitat loss is one of the major contributors to declines in many of our favorite bugs and the animals that rely on them. Increasing the diversity of your yard can be a great way to help them out!
As described here, butterflies, bees, dragonflies, beetles, spiders, mussels, and other invertebrates sustain life as we know it. Yet many are declining due to habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change, and more.
We can all take action to help. Consider converting lawn into diverse natural habitat or growing native plants in the garden. Eliminate or reduce pesticide use in your space. It can be as simple as turning off lights at night. Advocate for the invertebrates we depend on!
Learn more: https://xerces.org/publications/brochures/why-we-need-insects-and-other-invertebrates
Happy Sunday! Have a happy little beetle hanging out on what I'm pretty sure was queen anne's lace 🥰
The oceans are officially the hottest they've been in recorded history, and the water around South Florida broke some records at the end of July! Not really a record you want to break, this one triggered a mass coral bleaching and mortality event in some of the surrounding reefs.
When coral bleaches, the coral gets rid of the tiny algae living in its tissues. This happens whenever corals become stressed, and conditions aren't favorable for the algae to do photosynthesis. Since the algae give coral their color, when the algae leave, this causes bleaching!
I cover this and more about coral bleaching and then some of the ensuing efforts to save the coral in my most recent episode. Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts.
Ever wonder what impact a beaver dam can have? Well, here's your before and after! There was a beaver dam in the brook behind the lab, and I was finally able to go check it out this week after all the rain and flooding washed out the dam. The water level in the stream went down dramatically, abd the old beaver lodge that was in the beaver pond is now on dry ground!
There has seemed to be less beaver activity in the last couple years, so we're unsure if they'll come back and repair the dam. Now that the pond has drained though, the stream has slowed down quite a bit. Beavers are more drawn to faster flowing streams, so we'll just have to keep an eye on it to see if they return or not!
It's been a busy couple of weeks, but here are some pictures for the last two podcast episodes! Episode 52 talked about the tiny little cookie cutter shark and the chaos it can cause, and then episode 53 covers the friendship between hermit crabs and their sea anemone buddies 😊
Image 1: The top left there is the little guy responsible for all of those cookie cutter circles taken out of things like that seal in the bottom right, and the great white shark. Such a cute little guy, taking such big chomps!
Image 2: A nice collection of photos of the variety of anemone situations on each hermit crab. Some hermit crabs only have one anemone, like the ones in the bottom left that help to strengthen the shell, and others can have up to 4 anemones! The larger the shell = the more anemones you can have. Really, if you have a big enough shell, the limit of sea anemones does not exist!
Whaaaaaat! These aren't animals on my animal-themed feed! These plants I saw this weekend though are wicked cool and quirky, so I'm gonna share them anyway! They have a few common names, ghost plant or Indian pipe seem to be the more common ones.
But what's cool about these plants is that they don't do photosynthesis! The one thing that plants are supposed to do! Somewhere along the evolutionary track, they decided to ditch the chlorophyll and the photosynthesis in favor of parasitism.
They take advantage of the relationship a fungus has with a different plant! The fungus makes nutrients available to the plant, the plant makes sugars for the fungus, and the ghost plant takes the sugars from the fungus. So, in a roundabout way, the ghost pipe just gets its sugars from another plant's photosynthesis!
We're a little overdue for another ! Here we have the swell shark! Normally, this shark isn't green, but it has the ability to glow in the dark!
Biofluorescence like this is different than bioluminescence. In bioluminescence, the animal is creating its own light. With biofluorescence though, it's absorbing light and then re-emitting it as another wavelength of light. So with sharks, they'll be absorbing mostly blue light and then that comes off as a nice, green glow.
As another fun fact, apparently Monterey Bay Aquarium offers this swell shark picture as a downloadable wallpaper for your computer, phone, social media, whatever! Go here for your shark wallpaper needs: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/wallpapers/swell-shark-biofluorescence
In looking for shark photos to tell you the next podcast episode is coming this weekend, this good boy came up! And it's definitely a shark, not a dog in a shark costume. 100% fish! This dog shark is clearly a little shy, feeling a bit like a fish out of water, but unlike other sharks, that dorsal fin really keeps them afloat.
But if he's in the Kaiwi Channel in Hawaii, he might also be a little nervous about some cookiecutter sharks! After all, cookiecutter sharks have been known to bite creatures much bigger than it. Why is the shark called a cookiecutter shark you may ask? Tune in to this weekend's episode to find out! See photo 2 for a sneak peek at a cookiecutter shark!
NatGeo has SharkFest this week, Shark Week is coming up in a couple weeks, so with July being shark month, it's shark time on the podcast! Let's kick it off with a throwback to these basking sharks I saw on the boat last year! Such a cool spot, we were in the right area to see them, but definitely still lucky. These guys are the second largest fish in the world, second to the whale shark! Want to learn more about basking sharks? Check out episode 36 where we talk all about them!
Haven't had a in awhile! So here we have an Eastern Chipmunk I saw today, on its merry (but cautious) way to its burrow entrance, right in front of me! Chipmunks can have elaborate burrows with multiple entrances, a main nesting area for naps, and at least one food storage area for winter. Since this lil guy had some full cheeks, it must've been bringing some snacks to the burrow. They can be pretty protective of their nests, and any chipmunk intruders will be chased away! If they aren't caught...rival chipmunks will steal precious acorns from the food store and add them to their own nests.
This little ambon damselfish is here to tell you that episode 51 has finally been uploaded! In this episode, I'll be telling you all about the secrets of this ambon damselfish's social lives, diving into their social structures and how they can benefit from gender changes.
Many people know that clownfish can change from male to female, but did you know other animals in nature can do the same! And this week, we're going to talk about one that can not only change from male to female, but also female to male, which is pretty unique. Stay tuned for this weekend's episode, coming soon!
Well, if you ever see a bug with the body of a horse fly but the head of a bee, then you have yourself a sawfly! Just like ants, bees, and wasps, sawflies are also in the hymenoptera. Unlike bees though, they can't sting! Instead, they use their ovipositor to cut into plants and lay their eggs.
Saw one of these snazzy beetles the other day! This particular species doesn't seem to have a common name, but it's one of the oil beetles. When threatened, oil beetles ooze an orange, oily toxic fluid that can cause blistering on the skin (or digestive tract if eaten). Definitely glad I didn't try to pick up this bug!
We're returning very soon! I'm looking to get "this weekend's" episode out in the next couple of days, and I went ahead and planned out nearly a full year's worth of episodes. I think we'll have a truly quirky, creepy, and freaky year ahead!
First Vermont wildlife post! Here we have the Eight-spotted Forester moth. Here in the northeast, the adults are active mostly from May to June, visiting flowers during the day! Their day-time pollinator habits means they are sometimes mistaken for butterflies, but the way they rest with their wings tented over their body is one clue that they are indeed moths!
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Quirky, Creepy, and Freaky posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Send a message to Quirky, Creepy, and Freaky:
Been awhile since you've seen nature? Feeling a little stressy? Take a scroll brake with this babbling brook in the woods of Vermont 😊 #nature #podcast #outside #naturepodcast
Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?
