central flyway fanatic

i was incredibly dysphoric about my round face and softer features until i started looking at the faces of hispanic men and realized that those features weren’t feminine at all, they were ethnic features white supremacy had conditioned me to see as less masculine

You are a bird, and you have to overcome the cylinder-wielding bird stalker to reach the food. There's a million dollar idea for a video game.

The cylinder-wielding bird stalker doesn't do anything, so it's rated E.

So for those of you not familiar with my recent descent into fishkeeping, about 2 months ago a friend of mine who does Hazardous Waste cleanup (specifically cleaning up hazardous places like meth labs) called me up and asked:

"You have fish, right?"

"...Why?" I asked, having become aware that the Fish Distribution System is even more aggressive than the cat one.

"I found a fish in the back of an abandoned trap house. Alive." She clarified.

I could feel my fate settling upon my soul.

"...Send me a pic so I can ID the species and I'll see what I can do."

She sent me a picture of a small purplish squiggle in six inches of fetid green muck. But when I arrived to collect the sludge creature he turned out to look like this:

He's difficult to photograph in focus, but he's a deep wine-dark creature with an iridescent blue sheen. The red patches on his fins mirror where the fins of a Plakat/wild Betta splendens would be, and the rest of his fins are a ghostly shimmering white. This fish was in six inches of toxic green shit.

Naturally, he needed the finest tank I could put together that afternoon.

I think I did alright.

He's so fucking cute. He always swims up to watch when anyone approaches. I've got him trained to do a little dance when I feed him. He likes watching me doing anything in front of his tank.

That's all actually pretty typical of Bettas- they're very intelligent and curious creatures and like learning, which is more than I can say for some of my relatives.

Where Upstairs Kevin (so named because his tank is in my upstairs bathroom) really shines is that a lot of Bettas are... Not sociable. They often eat shrimp, attack other fish in their tank (or get stressed out of they can't commit enough violence to maintain their personal space) or constantly harass and nip the snails in their tanks. Most Bettas are genuinely happier being alone.

Kevin fucking loves his snail (Bluebert) and will shimmy as fast as he can over whenever Bluebert falls off something (it's fine, this is a normal way for mystery snails to get from one place to another).

When I had my Nego D'Aguas in the holding tank, I had to put three of the smallest ones in with him because they were being harassed in the small tank, and he was a perfect gentleman with them. He was trying very hard to shoal with them, but they're very zippy. He was visibly upset (lethargic, dulled colors) when I moved them back to the big tank.

Today was the real acid test: I'm going to move him from his 5 gallon to the 10 gallon so I can use the 5 as a hospital/spare plants tank, and I needed to know if I could have shrimp in with him. Even Betta that are cool with other fish can still see a shrimp and decide they're at the buffet. Unfortunately, there's no real way to know without putting shrimp in with the Betta.

So earlier today, I got half a dozen super-discounted Rilli shrimp (LFS has a massive overstock of them for some reason) and added them to his 5 gallon. There are a bunch of hiding places for shrimp in there and if he was aggressive with them I'd move him to the 10 gallon immediately (I don't want to do that just yet because I need to move the furniture around in there a bit).

Friends.

The shrimp are fully swimming in the open and Kevin is just following them around, curious, but only curious. No gill-flaring, no posturing, no lunges or snapping. Some of them are red, a color that normally triggers aggression in Bettas, and he's just. Hanging out, watching them eat biofilm off the moss. One of them accidentally landed on his head and stayed there for 3 seconds and he only went "???" Until it took off again.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/unblock-my-f-ing-anime-dps-arrests-houston-man-after-threatening-call-to-governor/amp/

[ID in alt text]

"Tutorial" on how to draw an OC with dwarfism (well, some of it).

Boring tired disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is an introductory "drawing" "tutorial" and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. Which happens to be true for everything in general.

You are heavily encouraged to do your own research because this does not contain everything you should know before making a character with any type of dwarfism.

Consider supporting me on ko-fi if you find this to be helpful.

PALEONTOLOGY EVOLUTION

How our perception of Prehistoric animals evolved as more discoveries were made over the decades. Many moe examples at these videos

These posters are available for prints and more HERE

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Youtube Channel

Instagram (new account)

As you may already know... ornithological authorities (such as the AOS and ABA) in North America have decided, for a variety of reasons, to rename all of the birds that have been named after people.

Some examples: Lewis's Woodpecker, Smith's Longspur, MacGillivray's Warbler...

I thought it would be fun for us to come up with some ideas for new common names here on Tumblr.

Here are some criteria for re-naming that might appeal to ornithologists and birdwatchers:

Habitat and geographical range

Physical characteristics

Call/song characteristics

Behavior

PLEASE MAKE YOUR NAMING SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS, REBLOG, OR TAGS.

We'll take the best ideas, and put them in a poll by the end of the week! (I and an esteemed panel of ornithological tumblererrsssres will make the decisions).

WEEK 16 - Smith's Longspur

Smith’s Longspur (Calcarius pictus), male, family Calcariidae, order Passeriformes

Smith’s Longspur (Calcarius pictus), male, family Calcariidae, order Passeriformes,

Breeds/nests in north-central areas of far northern Canada, and parts of eastern Alaska.

Breeds in Arctic lowland areas where tundra meets forest, usually in wet meadows, and in grassy mountain valleys.

Overwinters in small flocks on grasslands in the southern plains of the US. (TX, OK, KS, NB, LA, AR, IA, IL, TN, KY, MS)

Usually found on the ground.

Feed mainly on seeds, but also eat insects in summer.

Unlike many ground foraging birds of similar size, like sparrows, they do not use their feet to uncover food, but use mainly their beaks to glean food the ground and low on vegetation.

Formerly in the Old World Bunting family, family Emberizidae, they are now in their own family (which includes Snow Buntings).

Formerly though of as new world sparrows, they are not, and as aforementioned, are in their own family.

The males are more colorful and elaborately marked than the drab well camouflaged females.

They grow to a max. length of about 17 cm (6.7 in).

They nest in small colonies on the ground, usually near tufts of grass or small shrubs.

Females and males, sometimes multiple males feed the chicks (the birds are often polyandrous). Nests usually have one mother and multiple fathers.

The chicks are fed mainly insects and other small invertebrates.

Hear the songs/calls here: Smith's Longspur Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

photograph by Andrew Spencer

male - photograph by Jared Hughey

female - photograph by Jeff Seitz

We had so much input for this one, that we couldn’t possibly include all the great suggestions, but thanks to you all for your input.

Okay, you made your suggestions, and our esteemed panel of judges has weighed in:

@greycatbird, @passerinethehallway; @proton-wobbler, and I!!!

1. canonically female (no variation)

2. canonically the protagonist of her story (if it’s an ensemble cast you have to say you can legitimately see her as The main character)

3. your personal #1 favorite character in that story (ties are acceptable)