Alex Holt

A screenshot of Alex's Bird-dex website showing the Roseate Spoonbill, the 666th they've uploaded to it.

666 - the Number of the Roseate Spoonbill: while I've got over a hundred more Bird-Dex entries to write for the rest of the trip, my entirely arbitrary choices in which to upload first has resulted in this being the 666th Bird I've done an article for on there.

(Unless you count escapees anyway)

For context, there are 16 regular raptors in the UK of which Sparrowhawk are the third most common by breeding pairs.

Indeed, there are more sparrowhawk pairs than those of the other 13 species *combined*

It's not a rare species by any means - if you know how other birds react to them you could probs see them most weeks at least once - but people aren't used to seeing even the eildlife that does live around them and that's sad...

An article on Yahoo News titled "One of UK's smallest birds of prey spotted in city" showing a picture of a sparrowhawk.

I just wanna talk about this randon news article a sec. No shade on the observer cos a close encounter with a sparrowhawk is a magical thing, BUT, are we that detatched from nature as a society that a sighting of a very common species is news worthy?

I'm home! Thank you to all the lovely people I got to meet and hang out with at Dragonmeet!

Come say hi! We have free stuff and it's shiny and we like to talk about nerdy things!

On the train to ExCel for Dragonmeet 2025!

See you all soon!

How does this work in regards to flats and apartments then? Does being invited into the building give access to every property?

Random thought:

In worlds where Vampires obey "invitation only" rules, can you invite them in on a room by room basis ie "you can come into the porch"

If so, is thr popularity of open plan living a vampire conspiracy?

A huge grey lizard with black stripes.

R7: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana

A black lizard with a yellowish brown head.

R6: Yellow-headed Gecko

A Common Basilisk - an olive green lizard with a large sailed back.

R5: Common Basilisk

A large crocodile curled around, half subsumed in the water.

R4. American Crocodile

A robust brown lizard with an orange underside.

R3: Delicate Ameiva

A roughly scaled green lizard clings to a rock.

R2: Emerald Swift

A head shot of a large male green iguana, though in this case orange with it's breeding season colours.

And last of our Costa Rican vertebrate collections; Reptiles!

R1: Green Iguana

A recently deceased unidentified tree frog in the talons of a bird of prey.

Bonus for my "Recently deceased List" - anyone have this thoughts on this one?

A brown frog with many dark blotches.

A6. Forrer's Grass Frog

A large and robust but otherwise typical frog.

A5. Savage's Thin Toed Frog

A tiny black frog with vivd green markings.

A4. Green and Black Poison Dart Frog

A small lumpy grey-brown frog.

A3. (Possibly) Mexican White-lipped Frog

A small delicate pale frog perches on concrete.

A2: Fitzinger's Robber Frog

A large warty toad standing on a dirty concrete structure.

Who wants to also to also see an Amphibian Roundup?

A1: Giant Toad

An infographic with a pale background. Black text reads "Science & Sorcery's messages" Four information boxes include the following: A blue box with a raised fist icon. "Empowerment through STEM. Understanding the world through science is a joyful and empowering experience." A green box with a positive/negative icon. "Science is not neutral. It influences and is influenced by a wide variety of social, historical, political and cultural factors" A yellow box with an icon of our planet. "Recognising the flaws. The world we live in is deeply flawed in terms of humanity's treatment of power, wealth, the planet and each other." An orange box with a lightbulb icon. "Building a better future. By imagining new worlds we can identify problems, solutions and alternatives that we can transfer into reality through our actions."

Science & Sorcery is an actual play studio creating STEM focused one-shots and campaigns ⚗️ ✨ 🎲

We're a team of 4 science communicators & performers:

@dagmarmadillo.bsky.social
@sciwithrach.bsky.social
@drtalksalot.bsky.social
@alexjholt.bsky.social

Watch us on YouTube! buff.ly/mBK6CbC

There's a bunch really but ones that come to mind include:

X-men Legends (both)
Morrowind
Star Wars Pod Racer
Dragon Warrior Monsters
Dungeon Keeper 1/2
Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (1)

Additional:

- Heard Mantled Howler Monkey

- Saw some kins of rat-lile sp briefly?

- Maybe a third squirrel?

- Lots of bats of at least sevsral species based on size and colour , no idea what tho

An agouti - a rodent that looks like the midpoint between squirrel and capybara.

M6: Central American Agouti

A small brown bat is claspes upside down drom the side of a tree - it has twin lightning bolt patterns in tan down its back.

M5: Greater Sac-winged Bat

A small, drab squirrel.

M4: Red-tailed Squirrel

Sadly only two out of those three; Khalil and Rachel are still gonna be the ones providing all the Science & Sorcery glamourous melanin factor 🤣