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Nomad Naturalists

@nomadnaturalists

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Nature isn’t far away — it’s all around you
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Despite the name, bald-faced hornets are not actually true hornets.

They are a type of aerial yellowjacket, recognizable by their striking black-and-white markings and the large paper nests their colonies build.

A colony begins with a single queen in the spring. As the season progresses, it can grow to include hundreds of workers.

Even more impressive is how they build their nest. Workers chew wood fibers, mix them with saliva, and use the resulting paper-like material to construct layer after layer around the colony.

It is an impressive piece of natural engineering, but one best appreciated from a distance. Bald-faced hornets can aggressively defend their nest if they perceive a threat.

Follow @nomadnaturalists for more nature content like this

#baldfacedhornet #yellowjacket #wasps #waspnest #insects #insectlife #entomology #naturefacts #wildlife #nature #animalbehavior #naturalengineering #ecosystem #naturewalk #midwestnature #explorenature #getoutside #discovernature #nomadnaturalists by @nomadnaturalists

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13 hours ago

This spider isn’t scared of me — it’s looking at me. 👀

Meet the bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax), found crawling around porches and railings all over Virginia.

Unlike most spiders, it doesn’t spin a web to catch food — it stalks prey like a tiny cat and pounces using a jump powered by fluid pressure, not muscle.

It can leap two to three times its own body length, and it never jumps without anchoring a silk safety line first.

Its secret weapon: some of the best eyesight of any arthropod on Earth.

Those big front eyes give it sharp, 3D vision — probably why it felt like it was staring right back at me.

Mostly just curious. Has one of these ever looked right at you? Comment below. 👇

📍 Filmed in the wild — follow @nomadnaturalists for more backyard discoveries.

#boldjumpingspider #phidippusaudax #jumpingspider by @nomadnaturalists

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4 days ago

You might recognize this bird by its sound before you ever notice its colors.

The red-winged blackbird is one of the most recognizable birds across North America. Males are mostly black, but when they display their wings, you can see the bright red shoulder patches edged with yellow that give the species its name.

Those colorful patches are more than decoration. Males use their calls and visual displays to advertise and defend their territories, especially during breeding season.

Once you learn their distinctive song, you may be surprised by how often you hear it around wetlands, marshes, fields, and roadsides.

Sometimes learning just one bird call can completely change what you notice on your next walk.

Follow @nomadnaturalists for more nature content like this

#redwingedblackbird #blackbird #birding #birdwatching #birdcalls #birdsong #birds #wildlife #nature #naturefacts #ornithology #wetlandbirds #midwestbirds #midwestnature #naturewalk #explorenature #getoutside #discovernature #nomadnaturalists by @nomadnaturalists

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7 days ago

Cute? Yes. Touch it? Absolutely not. 🚫🐛

This is a white-marked tussock moth caterpillar — and those fuzzy tufts and black “horns” aren’t decoration, they’re barbed hairs that can cause a genuine skin reaction if you handle it.

Look, don’t touch.

Here’s the part most people never see: once it cocoons and transforms, only the male gets wings.

He becomes a small brown moth with huge feathery antennae built to sniff out a mate.

The female stays completely wingless her whole life — she never flies, just sits on her old cocoon and lays up to 300 eggs before she’s done.

Have you ever come across one of these in the wild? Comment below — and tag someone who touches every bug they find. 👀

Follow @nomadnaturalists for more of what’s crawling around out there.

📍 Filmed in the wild

Still photos credits:
- Female: Peterwchen
- Male: Animalia

#whitemarkedtussockmoth #caterpillarsofinstagram #viral by @nomadnaturalists

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11 days ago

Most of the time, we only see a few ants crawling across the surface, but there’s a lot more happening underneath.

Ant colonies are highly organized societies. Workers search for food, maintain the nest, and communicate using chemical signals called pheromones to help coordinate their activity.

Flip a log and you might get a glimpse of what’s normally hidden. Those little white structures are ant brood, the colony’s developing eggs, larvae, and pupae.

When the nest is disturbed and the brood is exposed, workers quickly begin moving it back to protected areas.

An entire organized world can be hiding right beneath our feet.

***Whenever you look under logs for wildlife, carefully put them back the way you found them, they’re important habitat for all kinds of small creatures.

Follow @nomadnaturalists for more nature content like this

#ants #antcolony #antbrood #insects #insectlife #entomology #underlogs #microhabitat #forestfloor #wildlife #nature #naturefacts #naturewalk #ecosystem #biodiversity #explorenature #getoutside #natureisallaround #discovernature #nomadnaturalists by @nomadnaturalists

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15 days ago

Challenge: Name a more beautiful lake than this.

Bet you can’t…

#peytolake #banff #banffnationalpark by @nomadnaturalists

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19 days ago

I wanted to create something that could support a little more life in my backyard.

I started with a wildflower seed mix, mixed the tiny seeds with sand to make them easier to spread, scattered them over the soil, watered everything in...and waited.

At first, there wasn’t much to see. Then the first plants appeared, followed by flowers. I added a few other flowers throughout the season, and eventually that empty patch turned into a small wildflower habitat.

The best part? The wildlife started finding it too. Bees and other pollinators showed up to take advantage of the new food source.

You don’t need a huge property to create habitat. Even a small corner of a backyard can provide a little more space for nature.

Follow @nomadnaturalists for more nature, wildlife, and backyard ecosystem content

#wildflowergarden #wildflowers #pollinatorgarden #pollinators #bees #backyardhabitat #backyardwildlife #nativegarden #wildlifegarden #gardeningforwildlife #garden #biodiversity #nature #natureathome #backyardecosystem #habitatgarden #getoutside #explorenature #nomadnaturalists by @nomadnaturalists

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22 days ago

Ever taken Chat GPT on an adventure with you in nature?

If not, try it. It’s pretty funny, and can be informative.

Also, ever held a praying mantis?

#nomadnaturalists #prayingmantis #notai by @nomadnaturalists

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25 days ago

Ever come across a mushroom that looks like it's covered in feathers?

Meet Dryad’s Saddle (Cerioporus squamosus), also commonly called Pheasant Back.

These distinctive mushrooms grow on hardwood trees and fallen logs, often appearing in large, overlapping shelves. Their scaly brown pattern makes them one of the more recognizable mushrooms you'll find in the woods.

And yes, they're edible when young and tender!

One of their coolest characteristics is their smell. Fresh specimens are often described as having an aroma similar to cucumber or watermelon rind.

As they mature, they become increasingly tough and woody, which is why foragers generally look for young, tender growth.

They're also decomposers, helping break down wood and recycle nutrients back into the forest ecosystem.

***Never eat a wild mushroom based solely on a social media post. Properly identify any mushroom before consuming it.

Follow for more fungi, foraging, and nature finds.

#dryadssaddle #pheasantback #mushrooms #fungi #mushroomhunting #foraging #wildmushrooms #mushroomforaging #mycology #nature #forestfinds #wildfood #mushroomsofinstagram #forager by @nomadnaturalists

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a month ago

From glacier to gorge. 💙

This is the Mistaya River — born from the meltwater of Peyto Lake and carved straight into Mistaya Canyon before disappearing into the North Saskatchewan River.

That turquoise color isn’t a filter — it’s rock flour, fine glacial sediment ground down by ice and suspended in the current.

By the time the river reaches the canyon, it’s spent thousands of years cutting through limestone, carving narrow channels and potholes into solid rock.

Even the name tells a story — Mistaya comes from the Cree word for grizzly bear.

Have you ever stood at the edge of Mistaya Canyon and felt how loud that water gets?

Comment below and tag someone you’d bring here.

📍 Mistaya Canyon, Banff National Park — follow @nomadnaturalists for more of where we wander.

#mistayacanyon #peytolake #banffnationalpark by @nomadnaturalists

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a month ago

It looks like a tiny wild strawberry… but it’s actually an impostor. 🍓

This is mock strawberry, a plant native to Asia that has become common across much of North America.

At first glance, the leaves and bright red fruit can look a lot like a true strawberry, but there are a few easy ways to tell them apart. Mock strawberries have yellow flowers instead of the white flowers typical of true strawberries, and their bumpy red fruits usually point upward.

And yes, the fruit is edible. But don’t get too excited. Mock strawberries are usually pretty bland compared with the sweet strawberries we’re used to.

Next time you see what looks like a tiny strawberry growing in your lawn, take a closer look!

Follow @nomadnaturalists for more nature content like this

#mockstrawberry #wildstrawberry #plantidentification #plantid #wildplants #plantfacts #botany #nature #naturewalk #invasiveplants #edibleplants #foraging #backyardnature #midwestnature #illinoisnature #explorenature #getoutside #natureisallaround #discovernature #nomadnaturalists by @nomadnaturalists

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a month ago

Hummingbird? Bumblebee? Nope — this is a MOTH. 🦋

Meet the snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) — a moth that mimics a bumblebee’s colors, flies in broad daylight like a hummingbird, and even hovers at flowers sipping nectar through a built-in straw.

Its wings start out solid and shed their scales after the first few flights, which is how it ends up looking “clear.”
Have you ever seen one of these and thought it was something else?

Comment “MOTH” below 👇 and tag someone who needs to see this.

📍 Filmed in the wild — follow @nomadnaturalists for more strange and beautiful things hiding in plain sight.

#hummingbirdmoth #snowberryclearwing #mothsofinstagram by @nomadnaturalists

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a month ago