One of the perks of having a spring birthday is that I get to celebrate it in the middle of field season. Whether I'm at a field station or have timed my schedule to be at home between sites, it's always a whirlwind day during my favorite time of year.

I had to post this photo because (a) it was my first birthday in the field, (b) it was my last before grad school, and (c) I love you back, Archbold!

The Pymatuning crew took me out in 2008, during which we engaged in horribly weather-inappropriate activities.

Okay, enough indulging, onto cool things from the field!

I had to completely guess at the name of this wildflower when trying to ID it. "Wildflower Ontario checkered" turned out to be a good hunch: It's a checkered lily, and it stopped me in my tracks.

The pattern is unbelievable. (Could it involve...the anthocyanin pathway? Actually, I have no clue. Help me out, plant people!)

Ribbon snake looking recently fed. Maybe that also explains why it didn't torpedo into the water when I came across it.

I was on my way out of the marsh when I accidentally cornered a bunch of enormous bullfrog tadpoles. Obviously the next step was to pick them up and admire them. Obviously this one feels the same.

Sort-of-ventral view, displaying the sucker. Did you know that tadpoles have way more convoluted digestive tracts than adult frogs, reflecting the transition from a herbivorous to carnivorous diet? I didn't either, until I had to teach that to forty kids last December.

This green frog was actually belly-up when I saw it. I wonder if it had a parasite that made it conspicuous to primary hosts, like the trematode larvae that make fish jump out of the water and get eaten by wading birds. Or maybe it was just dying. Any ideas?

Seeing this freshly eclosed dragonfly made up for the day I was home sick from second grade and missed all the monarch butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.

Hmm, a blob in the sky. What could it be?

Exactly right. It is a porcupine wedged in a tree.

This position seems neither comfortable nor adaptive. But I suppose when you're a porcupine, you can pretty much get away with whatever the hell you want.

No hard feelings, Bubbles...but holding a live bird in the hand is so much better. I can't wait to be doing this in the Bahamas VERY soon.

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And with that, I'm off to bed. This post is for everyone reading. Thanks for being part of an amazing day.