Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
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vicky.science
Vicky Stein (agentredsquirrel)
@vicky.science
3.1K followers 460 following 1.3K posts
The friend you send bug pictures to. Also accepting dead-thing-on-beach pictures, dog pictures, and stories about your cats.
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vicky.science
It is the season of decomposers and eroders
Photo of the same gray mushrooms but as seen from underneath, where their delicate gills are obvious. Behind them in the background a signpost echoes their shape and coloration, reading “prevent erosion, stay on trail”
November 19, 2025 at 9:15 PM
vicky.science
Please imagine this video accompanied by the “boingoingoingoingoing” soundtrack of your choice
November 19, 2025 at 9:13 PM
vicky.science
The Turkening Begins
A plastic wrapped turkey in the foreground with a label reading TURKEY, RUBY’s KITCHEN, in an industrial kitchen background with several people working at stainless steel sinks
November 18, 2025 at 7:19 PM
vicky.science
Things have been BUSY — lots of folks need our help right now and we are lucky to be able to lift the load a little. 600+ tasty dinners today, and more tomorrow!
November 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
vicky.science
The rains have returned.

I know other places have good reason to worship the spring but watching pipe-cleaner limbs sprout back from charred forests of redwood trees and mushrooms burst out from damp soil, I can’t help but give my whole heart to fall.

(Do you see the people in this picture?)
Photo of too-thin conifer trees, with branches emerging like green peach-fuzz from their tall trunks. In the far distance, tiny people are walking toward the base of one of the trees
November 7, 2025 at 12:51 AM
vicky.science
Even at my regular size I still dream about the tops of these trees. I love you, California
Photo of an enormously tall majestic coast redwood tree soaring into a forest of similarly tall trees
November 7, 2025 at 12:47 AM
vicky.science
I could hitch a ride on the banana slug bus when I didn’t mind taking my time
Photo of a yellow slug inching down a tree trunk with a smiling person in the background
November 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
vicky.science
We’d visit the oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sp.) cathedral when we needed to feel small(er)
Photo of the underside of a creamy white fluted castle of a mushroom on a log framed by green leaves
November 7, 2025 at 12:43 AM
vicky.science
I’d ride a salamander (Batrachoseps sp.) like a noble steed across my tiny kingdom
A pale skinned hand holds four tiny salamanders, slender, cocoa-brown, and moist. Each is no more than two or three inches in length. Their gummy limbs are tiny even in comparison to their little bodies
November 7, 2025 at 12:41 AM
vicky.science
I’d sleep in a hammock of lace lichen (Ramalina menziesii)
Photo of fingers holding a strip of lace lichen, pale pale green and net-like in shape with holes all the way through so you can see a path and leaf litter behind them
November 7, 2025 at 12:38 AM
vicky.science
I’d wear one of these golden-eye lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus) fruiting bodies as a fancy hat
Lichens growing on a twig. Some are ribbon-shaped and green, and the focal cluster are vibrantly orange, with sunburst shapes or eyelashes coming off of their round forms
November 7, 2025 at 12:36 AM
vicky.science
If I was small enough to live in an oak-leaf pinwheel village I would drink out of these pixie cups (Cladonia chlorophaea)
Lichens in the shape of minuscule goblets, with a fine pebbled texture and vibrant spring green color
November 7, 2025 at 12:33 AM
vicky.science
I! Friggin! Love!! Oak! Leaf!! Pinwheel! Season!!

(Oak-leaf pinwheel mushrooms are the fruiting body of the Collybiopsis quercophila fungus! They literally grow right out of fallen coast live oak leaves in my neighborhood)
Photo of a village of tiny beige-capped mushrooms on thread-thin stems and lime-green mosses More moss and mushrooms, showing the delicate ridges of the gills under the mushroom caps Fingertip for scale, showing that the mushroom caps are maybe an eighth of an inch wide
November 7, 2025 at 12:31 AM
vicky.science
Happy Halloween, nerds
Photo of three people standing behind three carved pumpkins that they are mimicking/matching in their costumes, faces and posture. The first is Tina Belcher from Bob’s burgers, with black rimmed glasses. The second is Louise Belcher with a pink bunny-eared hat. The third is Gene Belcher in a yellow shirt Three people dressed up as the Belcher kids from Bob’s Burgers
November 1, 2025 at 5:09 AM
vicky.science
Why do bald eagles hate Nevada
Screenshot of a map of North America labeled “Bald Eagle range map by ABC” that shows bald eagle ranges for breeding, wintering, and residency. There’s a distinctive hole or gap exactly mirroring the borders of the U.S. state of Nevada
October 19, 2025 at 2:57 AM
vicky.science
Visited some PNW slugs this week. Growing fondness for Portland as a city and I like that their slugs are bananas-ready-for-bread
Photo of a yellow banana slug with black spots splashed over the main part of its body on a moist hard dirt trail
October 16, 2025 at 5:20 PM
vicky.science
Made a friend in the park!!
Photo of a green praying mantis perched in a leather oak shrub, with a light skinned hand behind it to help separate the green insect from the busy background
October 8, 2025 at 6:33 PM
vicky.science
Admiring a bit of structural pigment
October 1, 2025 at 7:13 PM
vicky.science
Photo of a common madia (Madia elegans), a California wildflower with yellow three-lobed petals and a wine-red center. The petals jut out at slightly irregular angles Cartoon image of Cynthia, a Barbie-style doll owned by the character Helga from tv show Hey Arnold. Her tufts of yellow hair mimic the common madia petals
September 24, 2025 at 6:30 PM
vicky.science
Diggin up some stuff in the yard
Photo of a hand holding a bunch of small but mighty homegrown carrots, bright orange with a dusting of dirt and stringy roots hanging off, floofs of feathery green leaves emerging from the top
September 14, 2025 at 12:36 AM
vicky.science
He's so beautiful 😭😭😭
screenshot of a photo of an old, old book open to two facing pages. across both pages, a drawing of a monstrous squid or something like a squid with tentacles splayed, what looks like a spiral mouth, and stark staring eyes. Illegible text surrounds the drawing, but it seems to be labeled "een poelomp"
September 12, 2025 at 9:13 PM
vicky.science
Drawing bugs and birds in between classes at the @wildwonder.bsky.social conference today. It’s a good time to see cool nature things. Go outside if you can.
Photo of a watercolor and ink artwork in a rough-textured page of a journal. Text at the top reads “predation on predators” and text blurbs throughout along with drawings describe an interaction between a fly, a leafhopper assassin bug, and a black phoebe which ends up eating the assassin bug.
September 11, 2025 at 1:54 AM
vicky.science
He Be Hootin’
Against a turbulent cloudy sky, the silhouette of a great horned owl with plumicorns poking up, partially bent forward and tail extended. It is standing on a telephone wire suspended above the black mass of leaves on a backlit Japanese maple tree
September 10, 2025 at 6:21 AM
vicky.science
Ok don’t get me wrong, it’s so nice that my mom’s friend saw this cute card and thought of me for my birthday. I love it, I do! But… can you spot any of the several baffling things about it that have me giggling? 🦑🧪🐡
Photo of a card with a vintage scientific illustration art style showing several ocean animals including an eagle ray, an octopus, a jellyfish, a pufferfish, and a seahorse. They’re all labeled with species names at the bottom of the card (some just have genus, or family) and the top of the card reads “Aquatic creatures” and “cetaceans”
August 26, 2025 at 11:18 PM
vicky.science
Albondigas and rice for dinner today at Samaritan House of San Mateo! The one thing that saves my sanity these days is helping. Highly recommend. 700+ people will eat today because we’re in the kitchen chopping and cooking and packing.
Photo of a compostable tray filled with one meal of white rice, big juicy meatballs, and a sauce with carrots and tomatoes. Cilantro over the top adds a pop of vivid green
August 26, 2025 at 6:15 PM