today's the Global Big Day, when all birders are encouraged to report as many sightings as possible into ebird to collect widespread data. I went with my queer birder club to long point, a good location for catching migrants, and we saw 42 different species of birds!

we also ran into a university group doing a regular snake survey in the park and got to say hi to a beautiful melanistic garter snake

also I got to experience ticks on me for the first time in my adult life. thankfully you have about a day between them crawling into you and them chomping down, so I could just brush them off, but I need to get more serious about tick safety as their range is expanding north

pants tucked into socks, light-coloured pants, deet-containing bug spray on your legs, and a tick check when you get home

@soph_sol oh no not ticks! glad you caught it before it bit down though