Meet another "Traveller" - this aquatic warbler recently completed his first roundtrip journey from 🇱🇹 to 🇳🇱 to 🇲🇱 and back. I just learnt his story today when I saw a post about an aquatic warbler who lost his tail. Here's hoping lil' Traveler continues to thrive! aquaticwarbler.eu/2026/05/15/a...

...including, among other interesting-sounding articles, my reflection piece "Bird-safe glass as a step toward species-inclusive design" #TreatGlassSaveBirds ecologicalcitizen.net/issue.php?i=...

"The EPA has ignored its responsibilities to regulate noise for 40 years perpetuating the perception of the public and government officials that noise is simply an annoyance or a nuisance rather than the very serious health hazard it is." mailchi.mp/quietcommuni...

We sit down with Nandita Bajaj of Population Balance to ask the questions most institutions actively avoid: What role does human population growth play in anthropogenic harms to animals? And why is this conversation silenced in academic, conservation, and policy circles? medium.com/p/impacts-of...

One extreme of rewilding purism: apparently genuine moral indignation directed at birds for choosing human-built structures instead of "wild" nature for their nesting sites. Birds: Don't listen; more power to you if you can co-opt the built environment for your purposes. Humans: Be good neighbors.

"The night is not empty. It is habitat, shelter, a clock and a compass for countless species." Yet a US start-up "plans to launch satellites fitted with large-scale mirrors to direct sunlight onto the Earth's surface, regardless of whether it is day or night." www.buglife.org.uk/blog/what-ha...

Blue tit fledgling tries to figure out what to make of the large featherless biped below 🐦

Cider is usually not Traveller's adult beverage of choice, but this bottle had their name on it!

I am Traveller Heron's human. Aside from sauntering and bird-noticing, my passion is behind-the-scenes administrative work. Sometimes I also write things in my spare time. I'm pinning this link to a webpage where I try to keep an up-to-date list of what I've been working on: u.osu.edu/mcfarland.309/

Traveller enjoys an Argentinian Malbec while wearing a necklace that tracks an Argentinian penguin. Unfortunately, the tracker of our original penguin, Simon, stopped transmitting recently. However, we've been assigned a new penguin, Columbia. I like that app also describes their personalities 🐧

If you're in an area that's impacted by the recent wildfires, you may be curious about how smoke impacts birds as well. Scientists have only recently begun studying smoke's effect on birds, read some of what they've found so far: www.allaboutbirds.org/news/is-the-...

As some you may know, Traveller and I very fond of Schiermonnikoog and its lepelaars (#spoonbills) and we are alarmed to hear about the recent of case(s) of bird flu 😢 😬

"How did such a scrappy little bird break my heart wide open? I believe it was this deeply intimate confirmation that each individual bird is utterly unique, with its own personality and spirit. Can we go beyond identifying birds to identifying with them?" abcbirds.org/news/melissa...

"The information processing unfolding inside Claude is no more likely to result in consciousness than a simulation of a weather system is likely to generate a real hurricane." Interesting take from a signatory to the NY Declaration on Animal Consciousness. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Traveller Heron concurs. The Dutch rail system is not perfect, but it has the attribute of existence, for one thing, which passenger rail in central Ohio (for example) does not.

Traveller Heron concurs. Traveller and I like to keep things small-scale, slow, and simple and use only foot and bike in day-to-day life, wherever we are. But we rely on public transportation to reach our preferred small towns and villages in the first place.

Heck yeah, bryophytes!

I s'pose I should get back to work on that intrinsic value chapter at some point. Y'know, I never studied intrinsic value *as a topic* during my philosophy years, but I sure got plenty of experience being asked "Philosophy?! What good is THAT??" and replying "It's good in itself, pal."

"Since 1975, regulations have defined 'harm' to include habitat destruction ... "The Trump administration has now changed the definition of 'harm' in a way that leaves out habitat modification." Of species on the US endangered species list, 81% were listed because of habitat loss and degradation.

Traveller has found us another Douro DOC Vinho de Garça. The Douro Valley seems to love its Herons, and Herons love its wines 🍷 🇵🇹

Chatty oystercatcher 🪶

Every Heron is an individual. "Some are highly conservative, sticking to a single foraging ground & returning to the exact same park lagoon every day. Others constantly experiment, moving between different parks, the river & harbors based on prey availability." greatlakesecho.org/2026/07/05/r...

Wonder how many decades it will take to unfuck all of the incorrect, politically-driven harm on all government websites where they've been defaced? www.doi.gov/pressrelease...

Happened to walk by this golden-ringed dragonfly and got lucky grabbing a shot with my iPhone SE 🐉🪰

With the "Vindtelefon" on Lyø, Denmark, one can talk to Mitch McConnell for 20 minutes. fyens.dk/faaborg-midt...

"Birding [or bird-noticing] helps interrupt cycles of stress and rumination by directing attention outward." "Birds make us care about birds, but they also make us care about the world we share." 👍

The waiter approaches the table with a glass of wine. "Chardonnay?" he says quizzically, before placing the glass on the table. "Oh, we're just going to share that."

The #rewilding movement must not ignore our flying friends in its demands for habitat connectivity. It is essential to guarantee that #birds and other flying migrants have safe paths through the #air.

The rain finally abated for a couple of hours, so I hiked up a hill to take in the views 😎 📸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I was really hoping to the Avocet on the BBC News landing page instead of Freedom 250 and Farage, but I found him/her... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Wow. I hadn't realised that Utrecht had once made itself so car-centric.

Worth a read by #rewilders, esp. others who were attracted to #rewilding as a counterpoint to anthropocentrism - for surely the perspective of #curlews is among the non-human perspectives that deserve consideration? "Curlew conservation reminds us that nature recovery cannot be one-size-fits-all."

Here is another picture of the local #heron in flight, and s/he also wanted me to clarify that the "flying to be free again" reference is to Strawbs, not Rod Stewart 🪶 www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwvK...

...but Not (No Coffee) does NOT imply Not (No Workee) Third cup of coffee. Still no workee. Never deny the antecedent ☕️

Overheard while dining out with Traveller: American: "... there are lots of fireworks." Brit: "Why is that?" American: "We want to show everyone how big our dicks are. Blowing shit up. Making lots of noise..." Checks out.

Looking over some notes from a light pollution conference, I wondered why I'd written something about "lighting curlews." Then I realised I'd written CURFEWS 🤦‍♀️ ...then I turned the page & really did have notes about #curlews! I'd nearly forgotten this one. 1/3 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

One of the Critically Endangered of Heronkind (see also giant White-Bellied of Himalaya foothills), <1000 alive on Planet Earth. Just rediscovered in Vietnam and in 2025 across 6 new breeding sites in China. A Heroneer's commitment & hard work is always eventually rewarded. 💙

🎶 Flying... flying... flying to be free again... 🎶 #heron #fiskehejre #graureiher 🪶

Okay, it was finally time to get a higher res picture of the local grey #heron... 🪶

Still no "real camera" on hand, but at least the Heron decided to fly close enough (with a high-enough contrast background) to be visible in a phone pic...

Okay, sometimes we also indulge in oystercatcher spirits. According to Isle of Cumbrae Distillers, Veya Vodka is the counterpart to Maura Gin, featuring the artwork of Martina Martin.

Today a certain other social platform reminded me that before Traveller Heron, there was Vattensnok...

I've been enjoying two weeks of not carrying a camera with a telephoto lens when I go for walks. Oh, and here is a photo of the local Heron.

“‘We mostly think of nature as biodiversity, a concept, but this made it so personal, so emotional and so horrific.’” Fascinating study that asked volunteers to imagine — first-hand — what it might be like to live as a wild animal.

What amazes us is how many of these benefits were never the explicit goal. Safer streets led to independent kids. More space for walking and cycling fostered stronger social connections and a greater sense of community. Unexpected gifts of a city treating cars as guests rather than guests of honour.

"Having certainly strained ourselves to the utmost through research and learning, we will no longer be inferior to them in any respect..." Not bird-related, but I'm a bit fascinated by micro-CT and this is so cool. This page is more informative than the news headlines. scrollprize.org/firstscroll

We all start out this way... It's what we do next that matters #HeroneerTipOfTheDay

"Their responses indicated they have a mental imagery of the meaning of their vocalisations. In other words, that they understand the meaning of their call types." A test for "speaker meaning" in songbirds? Way more interesting than Dr. Dolittle... www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Makes my home state sound as embarrassing as it truly is: "Senate Bill 1 outlawed diversity, equity and inclusion on college campuses, banned faculty strikes and prohibited universities from weighing in on 'controversial' beliefs from immigration to climate change." eu.dispatch.com/story/news/p...

"This is something we humans do to the dead. We use them to explain systems they did not build and failures they did not survive. A fallen soldier is made to speak for policy. A sodden bird becomes a commentary on federal competence and the condition of a backsliding democracy."