Cyrus Amelia Fisher

Nineteen SFF stories and poems with aromantic MCs exploring the depths of platonic relationships. Common Bonds returns in this second volume of speculative short stories and poetry featuring aromantic characters. Housed within this anthology are a scientist who makes a terrifying discovery at the ...

RELEASE DATE! March 26, get a copy of this awesome anthology with my awesome story in it! buy.bookfunnel.com/yilbsiz3a6

How You Can Help | Friends of California Condors Wild and Free Learn about how you can help: volunteer, sign up for our newsletter, donate, or visit our gift registry!

Anyway, this got out of hand. If you're feeling energized and want to do something to help, there's lots of cool ways to do so at www.friendsofcondors.org/how-you-can-...

And be sure to stop by the Oregon Zoo and blow Kaweah a kiss.

But even as there are many people who walk through life as if lacking some essential organ of human compassion, there are many others who don't. Like condors, we're a social species. We find value in the lives around us. We fight tooth and nail against our own worst impulses, and sometimes we win.

(then again they also seem to feel no sense of connection or duty to their fellow human beings so who is surprised lmao)

Like many people, I often wrestle with a sense of hopelessness about how we treat the environment and the animals within it. It seems like most of the people with any power experience no sense of wonder when they look at the natural world, and feel no sense of duty to preserve it.

But that single pleasant experience was the work of decades, and thousands of human hands: it was the legacy of all the people who decided that, in the face of seemingly impossible odds, we were not going to let this species die.

On a surface level, I got to enjoy watching some young condors practicing their mating displays at the zoo. It was fun, and informative. I get to walk away from it with a newfound appreciation of a cool species I hadn't thought much about before.

I know condors are the go-to success story of bringing a species back from the brink, but it really pays to remember what an amazing triumph it was. As humans we have the ability (and perhaps even inclination) to destroy our own environment, but we also have the tools and empathy to preserve it.

- In the 1980s, there were only 22 California condors left. Due to meticulous breeding programs, protective regulations, and tireless work, there are 566 condors in the world, 369 of them wild.

California Condors Surprise Scientists With Two 'Virgin Births' Genetic data revealed that two females laid fatherless eggs

- Condors have been shown to practice parthenogenesis, aka virgin births! www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/c...

- Despite having a wingspan of around 9 feet, they weigh around 15-30 pounds.

- Their featherless heads flush red in response to their mood, especially during mating displays. The redder the head and eyes, the sexier the bird!

- They likely can live up to 60 years old! Kaweah is 40 :)

A few more fun condor facts:

- Their stomachs have the same PH as battery acid, and that's part of why they're so susceptible to lead poisoning from bullet fragments. Their stomach actually dissolves the metal, and so they get a much higher dose of it in their systems.

The keeper explained that this is a mating display, and that part of Kaweah's job is to teach the younger condors in his enclosure how to do condor things. So this is either him asserting himself as a sexy, dominant bird, or him flirting with his younger colleague, or both :)

Also please enjoy this video of him being a goober. Stick commentary by @conquerorworm.bsky.social 😂

Life-altering condor experience at @oregonzoo.bsky.social, Kaweah (42) is such a beautiful and charismatic guy! A keeper mentioned his hatch day is next month, does anyone know the specific day? I'd love to come wish him happy birthday 😭❤️

Yippee, a story my friend described as one of my bleakest!!

Incredible art of gritty playing fiddle on the roof of a west Philadelphia row home. In Yiddish it says Fidler Oyfn Fakh פֿידלער אױפֿן דאַך)

We put on an all-Yiddish community production of fiddler on the roof in Philadelphia and cast member and local artist Sofie Rose Seymour created the most amazing show poster that ever was

Keep drawing, keep writing, keep creating. Society struggles to quantify the benefits of art, but it does help.

Despite not meeting my goal of reading 75 books (already pretty ambitious for me), I'm feeling really good about the reading I got done in 2025. I only read 4 more books than I did in 2024 (56 vs 52) but I read 8,000 more pages in total and my average page count was 100+ higher!

there exists no keener pleasure than disassociating for 3 hours straight while sorting through 3,000+ photos and grinding my teeth to the tune of "In The Halls of the Mountain King"

I guess it doesn't technically count as deadnaming if it's just my middle name now, but also, come on now...

Nothing like getting a short story rejection that uses the wrong name and includes an editor's note saying "this story has no plot" LMAO. Not a great look

The Book of Queer Saints: Volume II The Book of Queer Saints: Volume II [Murray, Mae, Rumfitt, Alison, Ashe, Paula D., Richard, Sam, Piper, Hailey] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Book of Queer Saints: Volume II

Favorite Stories: “I Love You, Lola!” by @stacywayne.bsky.social, “Hemorrhage,” by @cyrusafisher.bsky.social, “First Feast on Film,” by @superfiend.bsky.social, “Caregiver,” by @amandamblake.bsky.social.

www.amazon.com/Book-Queer-S...

Okay but it's actually wild how drawing from life so quickly rewires your brain to think about light and shapes so differently. Really helping me understand the balance of defined lines vs soft ones, texture, light... and one day perhaps I will actually be able to execute that understanding lmao

Turns out doing something difficult with the option of constantly complaining to someone else about how difficult it is makes it so much better!!

It needed a certain je ne sais bwak

And while I'm here, here's the OTHER drawing I did with @augustw.net in my very own backyard! Does it count as a speed paint if it took me a long time

I appreciate our little doodle dates so much!! They really surprise me with what I'm capable of when I push past the "ugh this sucks and I'm bad at it" stage that with most of my other hobbies I have plenty of experience soldiering through

Always so interesting how the second you post something publicly your third eye opens and you immediately understand all the things you could do to improve it. I don't even mean this in a self-deprecating way it's actually super helpful 😂

And here's my contribution! Digital painting is... hard....