American Robins (Turdus Migratorius), Males (1-3) And Females (4 & 5), Taken January 10, 2025, In Georgia,

Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta), male, taken July 30, 2024, in Georgia, US

Dragonflies remain fierce contenders for my favorite photo subjects, at least amongst bugs! For their size and speed, they're very cooperative. I've even had some take advantage of the mosquito cloud following me to grab a snack! This guy just sat on the tip of this stick and helped me make some sick looking pictures!

Peeps

Hooded Warbler (Setophaga citrina), male, taken April 1, 2025

Quite the uncommon visitor showed his face at the feeders yesterday! I've only seen hooded warblers once before: a small group traveling south last fall. Males of this species can be distinguished from females by the black band around their face, which resembles a hood! Females can look much like other warblers such as Pine Warblers (Setophaga pinus). They can be distinguished from male pine warblers by their olive backs and easily distinguished from the brown females by color!

What they don’t tell you about getting into bird watching is that once you get into it, you do not get to decide when you bird watch. You can be on the beach of some distant tropical country with nothing planned except relaxing. But then you see a Common Fluttering Nut Buster and you’re like fuckkkkkkkk holy shit guys the Common Fluttering Nut Buster is not supposed to life this far west holy shitttttttttt

Coppery Leafhoppers (Jikradia olitoria), nymphs, taken May, 2025, in Georgia, US

A small collection of J. olitoria nymphs to showcase how variable they can be, even when found in the same place! Even with all this color, some colorations are still missing—green and brown most notably. Despite their highly variable colors, these nymphs can still be easily IDed due to shared pattern traits and their signature curled posture, which they only share with a few other leafhoppers (in the US and Canada). I feel like a Pokémon collector trying to collect all the forms of this species' nymph when I put them all side by side like this lol!

Stone Centipede (Order Lithobiomorpha), taken March 19, 2025, in Georgia, US

A lovely, striped stone centipede! I found this one while stripping bark off of pine trees and got what is probably my best picture of one of these guys yet. Stone centipedes (and most centipedes, honestly) tend to flee as soon as they're uncovered, so they're very hard to photograph. This guy, however, sat very still for me! What a polite individual!

Red-banded Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea), taken May 21, 2025, in Georgia, US

I've begun seeing G. coccinea about! This leafhopper's patterning is quite variable, often overlapping with the patterning of G. fennahi, the Rhododendron Leafhopper, and making it hard to ID. If the leafhopper has any hint of an isolated stripe on the wing (seen very clearly in this image), it is G. coccinea, as G. fennahi's stripe connects fully to the edge of the wing. It can also be helpful to check if the leafhopper is feeding on the plant it sits on and documenting what the plant is, as G. fennahi is only known to feed on rhododendron species while G. coccinea is far less picky and feeds from a wide variety of herbaceous plants!

Magnolia Green Jumping Spider (Lyssomanes viridis), juvenile male, taken February 7, 2025, in Georgia, US

This streak of warmer weather has reawoken the magnolia greens, and I am very happy to see them again! I saw two individuals this day, both juvenile males. This one was very nice about jumping at the camera, while the first one proceeded to climb up my phone, onto my arm, and into my hoodie sleeve. I took off and inverted my hoodie, but I never found him so I suppose he dropped to the ground somewhere. His tricks worked for once!

Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), taken April 30, 2025, in Georgia, US

A chickadee fluttering around the suet feeder! This individual seemed quite reluctant to use its right foot, possibly due to an injury. Despite that, it was able to perch upright and on the feeder bars fine after a bit of adjusting. The chickadees are always very bold, and even injured this one is no exception!

Pale Green Assassin Bug (Zelus luridus), taken April 20, 2025, in Georgia, US

Behold: an adept assassin! This is the earliest I've seen an adult of this species—usually I only find nymphs until around July. Whether that's because there are less adults or because they're too good at camouflage I do not know! Assassin bugs move slowly and strike their prey with their proboscis, injecting paralyzing venom and sucking the juices out of their prey, similarly to spiders. Because they have venom, their "bites" can be quite painful, but are generally harmless and quite rare. I can't imagine they're any more likely to bite than spiders, and I handle spiders safely regularly, so I'd say they're safe to hold as long as you're respectful!