BIG day for warbler genomes, with work led by @kevinfpbennett.bsky.social! Whole genomes nearly *every species* of warbler. Warblers the most "Pokémon" of the bird world? Well, they're also trading their coloration genes like valuable collectors cards ... www.psu.edu/news/eberly-... 🦉🧪

The new Enabling Discovery through GEnomics (EDGE) Program page is posted. Please contact us at [email protected] if you have questions. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Sorry, who is this? 🤨 @electrolemon.bsky.social

There’s a whole book about it 🧪 a.co/d/h4cO7Ro

After dipping on basically every rarity chase in the past month I finally managed to have some success this morning. This Chestnut-collared Longspur popped up in Fitchburg 2 days ago and thankfully stuck around until I could get out there! Only the 6th state record and a full on lifer!

Check out our cover article by @timjanicke.bsky.social and colleagues about the role of sexual selection in animal speciation. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic.... The beautiful illustration is by Katharina Bóth.

Your daily Avian Hybrids story! How many rosy-finch species are there in North America? avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2021/06/19/h... #ornithology

the annual snowfall required for me to take your city seriously is like 11” minimum. nobody is using 300 days of sun to serve the lord

Also there was this Rusty Blackbird, posing beautifully in the early morning light

A benefit of heading north for Thanksgiving this year was that it gave me an opportunity to chase this Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at Spencer Peirce Little Farm in Newbury. My second for both Massachusetts and Essex County

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild: North Atlantic Right Whale Elfin-woods Warbler White-tailed Ptarmigan Bicknell's Thrush Long-wattled Umbrellabird

I love the Dropkick Murphys because "Irish-American" + "gen X" + "punk rocker who's been at it for 30 years" should be the formula for the most racist guy alive but instead Ken Casey is constantly giving interviews where he's like "fascists are demons from hell and that's where they belong"

Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬 We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies. Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!

As of this morning, Starbucks workers across the country are officially ON STRIKE. And we're prepared for this to become the biggest and longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Say #NoContractNoCoffee with us: DON'T BUY STARBUCKS for the duration of our open-ended ULP strike! $SBUX

1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge. Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Happy partially muscled skeleton screaming by the perimeter fence day to all who celebrate. A solemn 30 second screaming before vanishing will take place at 11am.

Aurora! Naked eye and everything from Newton right now!

PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE FLUFF

Ran down to the cape yesterday to see one of the highlight rarities of the year. This Brown Booby has been hanging around the harbor in Dennis for the past week and was showing beautifully on the jetty when I arrived. Only my second for Massachusetts!

People gripe about separating Hairy and Downy woodpeckers in the field (especially with the former's recent move back to Leuconotopicus - meaning they're no longer even congeners!) but tbh I've never found them too difficult to ID. The vocal differences alone are usually more than enough

Most wolfpacks in Boston are leftist and politically correct

Can we normalize lighting stuff on fire?

Also present were this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and adult Cooper's Hawk, both posing in front of some lovely fall foliage

Got some nice shots at Mount Auburn Cemetery yesterday while looking for a previously reported Clay-colored Sparrow, including these unintentionally artsy Great Blue Heron portraits

And another! Same spot, a week later

The Haunting of Hill House (1999)

Good rainbow over Newton center this evening

Dipped on the Purple Gallinule in Longmeadow on Sunday so went on a pick-me-up wild goose chase ~20 min south in East Windsor, CT, where this Greater White-fronted and Pink-footed Goose have been hanging. Both birds flew in together after about 10 minutes, a rare sight on this side of the Atlantic!

New computer so I'm finally able to do some photo editing again. Here's some very autumn-y shots of a Savannah Sparrow! Taken at Millennium Park in Boston on the 15th

Good morning sea watching from Rockport as this nor'easter continues to roll through. Missed out on the massive scoter push yesterday but still got my first Razorbill of the season, along with several Cory's Shearwater, Kittiwakes, and good views of a close Parasitic Jaeger ebird.org/checklist/S2...

YOUR BOSTON RED SOX ARE POSTSEASON BOUND!

Finally got my daily ebird checklist streak up to 1,000 days! Not bad considering I was originally aiming for 365...

Lightfield 4D has landed at the HCBI. If you are in Boston, come check it out! hcbi.fas.harvard.edu For those not in Boston, enjoy this GIF of a hydra moving around with a z-depth coded LUT

**PhD POSITIONS** I am recruiting 1-2 PhD students to work on sociality and cognition in Monk Parakeets, starting Fall 2026. Full ad is here: hobsonresearch.com/index.php/20... (please help spread the word!)

🚀 Our new paper is out @natmethods.nature.com! Kuffer & Marzilli engineered conditionally stable MS2 & PP7 coat proteins (dMCP & dPCP) that degrade unless bound to RNA, enabling ultra–low-background, single-mRNA imaging in live cells. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧬 www.addgene.org/John_Ngo/

North American bird declines are driven by reductions in common species | www.science.org/doi/... | Science Advances | #ornithology 🪶

Applications are open for Spooky Streets and Fall & Harvest mini-grants! Apply before September 22 and receive up to $300 to host a block party in your neighborhood this fall. 🎃 boston.gov/spooky-streets

Phew. Okay, so, this is tough. I can't afford to pay for the surgery my beloved Eugenides needs to save his mouth from severe inflammation and infection. I'm chronically underpaid by my day job and already struggling financially. Please ... I need help. www.gofundme.com/f/gen-sad-ki...

Sometimes a subject just insists upon itself. Monarch nectaring on some ungodly ornamental flower at Rock Meadow Conservation Area gardens in Belmont.

The first Aguillon Lab paper is officially out in early view at Evolution!! Led by postdoc @devonderaad.bsky.social, we’ve explored the hybrid zone between black-headed and rose-breasted grosbeaks in the Great Plains. #ornithology #hybridization #speciation #evolution doi.org/10.1093/evol...

Sundog over I-90 and the BU campus this evening!

Literally the most informative word cloud I've ever seen, holy hell

Noticed a small orange butterfly flying around Hall's Pond in Brookline last week. On closer inspection it turned out to be a species I've spent a decade looking for - a personal favorite and North America's only carnivorous butterfly, the Harvester!

This is the assignment. Get everyone you know to show up. This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill. Spread the word, far and wide. OCTOBER 18th. www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i...

Evolution Meeting 2026 logo contest! The winner will receive meeting registration and an Evolution 2026 t-shirt. www.evolutionmeetings.org/2026-logo-co...

New England states and others in the Northeast are forming a new public-health effort that will included bolstered surveillance of communicable diseases. All the New England states except the Live Free and Die one.

Spent some time down in Connecticut and Rhode Island recently trying to shore up my life lists for both states (finally broke 100 in CT!). Was super lucky to have this young Green Heron walk within about 8 feet of me! At the Quonochontaug Breachway in Charlestown, Rhode Island

How are these the finalists? Not even 1 of the Pine Tree concepts? This is a disaster.