Evan Grimes, M.S.

Thank you !

Thanks for 400 followers y’all! I’m very excited to share more this year, and make a lot of cool new content! I just accepted a new Environmental Scientist position after a couple year hiatus of bartending and applying to loads of things. Networking I did all the way back in 2021 led to an offer! 🧪

A red and black wasp-like insect on some shrubbery

A red and black wasp-like insect on some shrubbery

Poison Ivy Sawfly (Arge humeralis) from Iowa. Beautiful little animal #invert

and a pearl from a river system I lived by last time I worked in the state. This one got featured in the latest Turtles of North America!

If you go to the right habitat they are actually pretty easy to encounter! Afaik their listing is due to the vulnerable/limited habitat range and to be able to give stiffer penalties for poaching these turtles that can’t be ID’d morphologically ex situ. Here’s some Pascagoula Maps from the same trip

Map turtles have been one of my absolute favorite groups for a long time and only recently have I had the gear to truly capture their elegance. These two magnificent ladies are Ringed Map Turtles (Graptemys oculifera) that I photographed in Mississippi last spring. #herps 🐢

A small grayish owl looking down from a tall oak tree with green leaves

A small grayish owl looking down from a tall oak tree with green leaves

I happened to walk under a couple of loud fledgling barred owls exploring their nest tree last spring 🦉 #iowa #wildlife

This morning, there was a public hearing at Bessemer City Hall in Alabama to discuss the zoning of a new data center, which would likely cause the extinction of a newly-discovered small endemic fish, the Birmingham Darter. Best of luck to the fish people. abc3340.com/news/abc-334...

I’m almost certain AI ads only exist to scam people with poor, uncorrected vision

A large maple tree with yellow leaves in front of a brick building. There is a pumpkin on the building staircase and leaves litter the ground.

A large maple tree with many orange leaves, some are falling and some are all over the ground and side sidewalk

Various red orange and brown maple leaves on a concrete surface

Various green, yellow and brown maple leaves on a concrete surface with some grass in the top left corner

Some #fall foliage highlights around town. I can’t get enough of fall here. Most of the leaves are gone at this point but it was great while it lasted 🍁🍂

Closeup of a wolf spider species on sand with small babies on her abdomen

A beautiful mother on the move with her young. Rabidosa sp. from the southern pine forests in Mississippi. #inverts #macro #spider

A brownish snake with yellow stripes coiled on some light brown rocks

One of a handful of young Eastern Ribbonsnakes from a nice lakeside hike in southern Mississippi this spring. Common species are still always very pretty! #herps

A young Gopher Toroise next to a cell phone #herps

An olive green snake with dark blotches coiled on a rock

Likely my best photograph of Nerodia rhombifer (Diamondback Watersnake) I’ve gotten yet, a male found poking around a lake’s edge. Southern Mississippi, April 2025. #herps

Re-adding this to peoples’ timeline cause I think it deserves more attention 😅

A large bubble bee with a brownish patch of fuzz on its abdomen. It is coated with flecks of pollen and pollinating Verbesina alterniflora, a yellow native bloom

My first encounter with Bombus affinis (Rusty-patched Bumble Bee) last week was pretty magical. Can’t believe I finally got to see this endangered beauty! 🐝 #invert

A yellow gray and blackbird on a branch singing

A yellow gray and blackbird on a branch shaded by some leaves, looking to the left along the branch

A yellow, black and gray bird standing on a branch, looking down to the right looking for insects

A yellow gray and black bird standing on the top of a tree branch with new leaves, biting at something on the end of the branch

The incredibly vulnerable Golden-winged Warbler occasionally graces me with its presence in the Midwest doing my spring birding. This year was one of those years, and got some amazing looks at him! Some estimates say 98% declines in their Appalachian populations. #birding #warbler #wildlife

The Yellow-blotched Map Turtle (Graptemys flavimaculata) was the first map turtle I ever saw in the southeast as part of an undergraduate summer course in Mississippi in 2017. I was overjoyed to get some great in situ shots of some basking this spring! #herps

A dolphin mid-air above the ocean's surface. It has scars on its back and sides from the teeth of other dolphins

An Eastern Pacific long-beaked common dolphin showing off some stunning teeth rakes mid-jump off the coast of southern California 🌿🦑🦊

A small checkery snake with bright orange stripe on sand. A large pinecone is in the background

They make the gartersnakes pretty down south 😳. Eastern Gartersnake, south Mississippi #herps

Another #filmfriday featuring this beautiful Marbled Salamander from a higher elevation wetland in northern Georgia. The autofocus can be hit or miss on this 90’s point-and-shoot but I almost always like the results. December 2024, Canon Sure Shot Tele 80 📸 + Kodak Royal Gold 🎞️ (Exp. 2001) #herps

my cat, he’s so handsome ☺️

A large adult female (right) and adult male (left) map turtles basking

A large adult female (right) and adult male (left) map turtles basking

An adult male surfacing below a hatchling on a stick

Hatchling lap turtle on a small branch above water

A highlight of my spring trip to Mississippi (and honestly a lot of my southeast trips) is going for Graptemys. Map turtle diversity is unmatched in the southeast, and Graptemys gibbonsi (Pascagoula River Map Turtle) is my favorite of them all! Mississippi, April, 2025 #herps

Black-and-white Warbler on the move! #birds

Iowa City today #NoKings

Closeup shot of a neat fossorial snake from the southeast, the Pinewoods Littersnake (Rhadinaea flavilata). Love to see these when I get the chance in the warmer nights down south. #herps

A medium sized snake coiled upon a bed of pine straw

A sizable Eastern Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis saurita) from a coastal hardwood hammock in southern Mississippi 🐍 #herps #filmfriday

A Palm Warbler looks up from a small branch

I feel like I end up seeing Palm Warblers the earliest in Iowa. This spring was no different! #birds

A bright orange warbler on an oak limb

A bright orange warbler on an oak branch with a spider in its mouth.

A bright orange warbler on a stick looking to the right among young leaf and flower buds of an oak tree

A bright orange warbler on a stick in the shade

Blackburnian Warblers have some of the prettiest orange gradients in between their black streaks. This is the first year I’ve gotten good photos of them! This guy was so focused on catching bugs he didn’t mind me watching close by. #birds

Metamorph dusky gopher frog

Easter Spadefoot

Three-lined salamander

Southern toad

Was too busy and missed posting for amphibian week (one of the busiest weeks at work coincidentally) so here’s a few of the ones I photographed on a recent trip to southern Mississippi! #herps 🐸