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illgottencranes.bsky.social
Lex / Cranes
@illgottencranes.bsky.social
330 followers 510 following 280 posts
Artsy biologist guy, almost a PhD, queer immigrant 🇺🇸->🇳🇴 Limited bandwidth.

e/em, xe/xyr (any spelling!), or he/him 🏳️‍⚧️
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illgottencranes.bsky.social
Lex / Cranes @illgottencranes.bsky.social · Jan 29
Cranes status: I have pretty bad hand pain and need to limit my use of electronic devices.

Trying to balance my ratio of politics to nature/art posting, but alas, existence is political.
A photo of a very round pigeon plushie reclining in a yellow armchair, blue and gray walls in the background. A pair of headphones squishes its head as it stares off to one side. The photo has been lightly edited for dramatic effect.
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
jocelynanderson.bsky.social
A Sandhill Crane with a small splash strolls towards the shoreline.
November 24, 2025 at 10:13 PM
illgottencranes.bsky.social
Learning is a process 😩 I got a few hours into version 1 (bottom) of this painting of a branch and also a bird, before realizing I REALLY didn't like my choices there. So I re-started (top) and like it a lot more with more white showing through.

...also I'm not skimping on paper again after this 😅
Photo comparing two partially-painted watercolors next to each other (newer on top, older on bottom), showing the same subject but with slightly different color choices
November 23, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
kelleywelley.bsky.social
Here is a watercolor painting of a Bartail Parrotfish, Scarus caudofasciatus, for my Sunday Fish Sketch.
Reference photo(s) by Stephen Spangler, Scuba.Spanglers.com

#sciart #marinelife #coralreefs #oceanconservation
#parrotfish #spanglersscuba
#sundayfishsketch
Watercolor painting of a Bartail Parrotfish
November 23, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
leier-coyol.bsky.social
Needle felted keychains, these and more critters will be available this christmas on my shop!
#SciArt #felting #art
November 23, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
ivetasaviary.bsky.social
Red-footed Booby & White-crowned Parrot I drew for the #birdtober challenge

#birdart #wildlifeart #parrot 🪶
Red-footed Booby in flight made with marker and watercolor White-crowned Parrot in flight made with marker and watercolor
November 22, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
neromxm.bsky.social
Dinovember day 22: Sauropelta edwardsorum
(Watercolour painting with ink. Bamboo paper)
#Dinovember2025 #SciArt #PaleoArt
November 22, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
washbearswares.bsky.social
bird wirewrap challenge DAYS 73-84 🐦‍⬛🪶

hoopoe • pileated woodpecker • frigatebird • rainbow lorikeet • violaceous jay • barnacle goose • violet-green swallow • cedar waxwing • indigo bunting • brown-headed cowbird • ostrich • altamira oriole

#birds #birdart #SciArt #art #artist #jewelry
a 6-photo collage of various wirewrapped bird pendants a 6-photo collage of various wirewrapped bird pendants
November 22, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
jocelynanderson.bsky.social
A Pileated Woodpecker tips her head back after getting a beakful of water. Most birds, like this woodpecker, drink by scooping up water with their beaks and then tilt their heads back to send the water down their throats.
November 20, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
casswart.bsky.social
Today is #WorldAnteaterDay 🎉💙

Giant Anteater sketch study. Conservation status Vulnerable. They have a distinctive snout with a 2-foot-long tongue and no teeth, and feed almost exclusively on ants and termites.

#AnteaterDay #GiantAnteater #AnimalArt #SciArt #SketchStudy
Giant ant eater sketch studies and poses. I included a large front facing view and side vies as well as rendering the skull.
November 19, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
davidcsimon.bsky.social
Portrait of a Pied Currawong.
#birds
Photograph of a large black bird from the shoulders up. It has a long, robust beak with a hooked end, and striking yellow eyes. It is somewhat crow-like in appearance, despite being a passerine bird and not a corvid.
November 21, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
davidcsimon.bsky.social
A Brown Cuckoo-dove and his marvellous eye.
#birds
Photograph of a male Brown Cuckoo-dove, from the neck up. It is a rich brown colour with iridescent feathers on the back of its neck (indicating that it is a mature male), a short black beak, and an eye with a bright red ring surrounding a blue centre. Highly detailed close-up of the same subject's eye. The inner blue ring grades from very light blue at the centre to dark blue to almost black on the edges, but is lightly speckled and undulating in gradation. Combined with the black pupil at its centre and the vivid red ring on the outer edge, it looks like a stellar phenomenom - a combination of an eclipse and a supernova.
November 22, 2025 at 3:19 AM
illgottencranes.bsky.social
Some quick acrylic pen drawings on wooden ornaments that I did to procrastinate on a watercolor that's giving me trouble. 😛

Two-sided. Festive and winter pigeons for me, christmas and plausibly all-year rhinoceroses for my mother-in-law. First time drawing a rhino, iirc
A wooden ornament with a portrait of a grey domestic pigeon wearing a Santa hat against a starry blue background A wooden ornament with a painting of a light brown domestic pigeon standing fluffed on one foot amid piles of snow, wearing a red scarf A wooden ornament with a portrait of a rhinoceros inside of a festive green, white, red, silver, and gold patterned border. The rhinoceros has a Santa hat on one horn and the longest horn is decorated as a christmas tree, and it's wearing a white and red scarf. A wooden ornament with a painting of a blue rhinoceros running on a field of yellow, with a green sky - I have a lot more shades of blue than gray, so I just shifted all the colors to be weird. :P
November 23, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
coreyartusimagery.com
I have a second set of Santa Hat Bird greeting cards available! 🎨🐡🪶

Illustrated in Procreate. No artificial nonsense. From birds suggested by folks who came to my art booth this last summer in Humboldt County in northern California.

Buy now to get in time for mailing out!

#art #BskyArt #Christmas
Illustrated Santa Bird Boxed Holiday Greeting Cards Set #2, 5x7" with Red Envelopes
These birds are all dressed up for the Season! Each bird wears a Santa hat of brilliant red, perched on the head of its beautifully rendered form.  Birds include a Raven, an Osprey, a Northern Sp...
goimagine.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
artbyemilytull.bsky.social
These Starlings are back with me having been on display in the USA for 6 months.
"Murmuration 2"
Hand embroidery thread painting artwork
www.emilytull.co.uk/store/p23/st...
#birds #FlyDay #WildlifeArt #FiberArt
A peach fabric background with bird silhouettes overlayed with 12 starling outlines created with hand embroidery. On top of those are 6 starlings which are partially hand embroidered in detail.
November 21, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
tinylongwing.bsky.social
Half hour environment sketch, Tasmania, late Cretaceous. Leaellynasaura mid-molt out of summer browns and into winter whites scans the landscape in the weak fading Antarctic sunlight.

🎨 #SciArt #PaleoArt
Rough digital illustration of jagged angular rocks emerging out of low brushy plants. At the peak of the rocks, a small fluffy mostly-white dinosaur with a short beak and compact body perches, grabbing the edge of a rock before it decides to move forward. Its extremely long tail hangs down the rock face.
November 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
jocelynanderson.bsky.social
The Red-headed Woodpecker stands out in the landscape, especially on sunny days.
November 22, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
mikemelton.bsky.social
I found this amazing Trosia semirufa moth on my window last night at @casabentbill.bsky.social

#moths #lepidoptera #nature #costarica
Fluffy white moth with bright red spots and tufts resting on a dark reflective surface.
November 23, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
mikemelton.bsky.social
Here's a little more detail of the eye ring on the male Black-headed Trogon at Agami Island. The blue is skin; not feathers.

One day, I hope to get a closer view of this species.

#birds #nature #costarica
Close-up of a dark-feathered bird with a pale beak and bright blue eye ring against a soft green background.
November 23, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
mikemelton.bsky.social
I watched a large group of young Ocellated Antbirds hunting in an antswarm with their parents yesterday. I've never been this close to this species, as I could have literally reached out and touched this bird.

This is an obligate antbirds, meaning...

#birds #costarica
Brown and black speckled bird with a blue face and pale bill perched on a slanted branch against a soft, blurred background.
November 23, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
mikemelton.bsky.social
Incredible image, Glen!
glengrambo.bsky.social Glen Grambo 🇨🇦 @glengrambo.bsky.social · 2d
African buffalo are one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. They can way 900 kg and are apparently considered grumpy.
I’d be grumpy too if I had to carry a bunch of yelling red-billed oxpeckers around all the time!
This bull was slowly eating his way down the Sabi River in Kruger Park, SA
A bull African Buffalo crosses a river in Kruger park, South Africa. He is walking towards us and has quite large horns. He is carrying about a dozen red-billed oxpecker birds on his back. The oxpeckers are eating ticks and parasites off the buffalo and also acting as sentinels to warn the buffalo about approaching predators.
November 23, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
emily.space
PLEASE this.

And also to scientists writing press releases, too - calling something "AI" when it was actually your student spending 12 months fitting and validating a model is disingenuous
mcnees.bsky.social Robert “The Baste God” McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 3d
Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪
November 23, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
jocelynanderson.bsky.social
A Sandhill Crane couple strolling along the shoreline on a Fall morning.
November 21, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
cameronjnixon.bsky.social
Ever feel like your town gets more nighttime tornadoes than others?

Here's a map of tornadoes by time of day (nighttime tors are plotted on top of daytime tors to stand out). I feel for you Tulsa, Jackson, Birmingham, Nashville...
November 20, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
booksofm.com
If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.
November 20, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Lex / Cranes
moriartylab.bsky.social
Canadian COVID Forecast Nov 8 - Nov 21, 2025

CANADA

VERY HIGH [no change]

About 1 of every 118 people is infected.

Compared to lowest point of pandemic in Canada:

-Infections: 7.6 x higher
-Long COVID: 6.0 x higher
-Hospitalizations: 10.4 x higher
-Deaths: 12.2 x higher
This image describes the Canadian COVID Forecast for the fourteen-day period between Nov 8 - Nov 21, 2025, which is produced by COVID-19 Resources Canada. Canada’s COVID Forecast outlook is VERY HIGH [no change] with a COVID INDEX SCORE of 10.1 About 1 of every 118 people is infected. Estimated infections this week: 583,200-806,200 What these numbers mean: MODERATE 1-5, HIGH 5-10, VERY HIGH 10-15, SEVERE >15 COMPARED TO THE LOWEST POINT IN THE COVID PANDEMIC IN CANADA How much higher are key indicators compared to the lowest point in the COVID pandemic in Canada? Waste water, infections: HIGH; 7.6X higher Long COVID: HIGH; 6.0X higher Hospitalizations: VERY HIGH; 10.4X higher Deaths: VERY HIGH; 12.2X higher HOW TO HELP: EVERYONE: UPDATE vaccines every 6 months WEAR N95-type masks AVOID indoor social gatherings AVOID crowded non-essential places Who is HIGH RISK? People 60 and older, babies < 1 year, pregnant ALL AGES: immunocompromised OR medically at-risk OR no vaccine or infection in the last 6 months Recommendations are based on the COVID-19 Risk Index from the Peterborough ON Public Health Unit COVID-19 Resources Canada is a grassroots organization of volunteer scientists supporting Canadian COVID responses. Sources, data and methods for the COVID Index are available at www.Covid19Resources.ca
November 10, 2025 at 10:58 PM