Last week I was treated to 7 rough legged hawks hunting in pastures in the Alberta foothills. They will soon be en route to their northern breeding grounds and red-tailed hawks will fill their hunting perches. #Alberta #wildlife #birding #raptors #birds 🪶

Since it is quite clear that my institution's admin are monitoring faculty accounts: If you are visiting a faculty member's lab during an open house, it is not acceptable to talk over the top of them when they are trying to explain their research to you and members of the public.

Possibly my last spotting of redpolls this year as spring is in full swing. Taken last week in the foothills. #Alberta #wildlife #Canada #birding #birds 🪶

Publication seems a REALLY long way off, but do reach out if you'd like to schedule a book signing, talk, reading, podcast interview, exhibition, or any combination of the above to help get A New Unfeathered Bird off to a flying start next year. 'A celebration of all birds, across all time'.

A pair of Powerful Owls roosting together in a Brisbane park. The female, on the left dismissing the myth that males and females can be distinguished by head shape. Males supposedly have flatter, squarer heads, but we've found head shape is more dependent on an owls mood and weather. #birds #wildoz

Found the map of areas approved for use for Strychnine in Alberta. Expect to see dead ground squirrels above ground, dead dogs and other pets, as well as a wide range of poisoned hawks, owls, skunks, foxes, coyotes etc. There is no more painful way to kill an animal. @johnemarriott.bsky.social

Here At Alfred's We Fully Embrace ai #madmagazine

Boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus) from last week's trip to the foothills. #wildlife #Alberta #Canada #birding #birds 🪶

Air service from southern 🇨🇦Alberta at Lethbridge will very soon be ending. WestJet carrier is terminating service. No announcement of any other Company offering air service to 250,000 people. Maybe 🇨🇦Canada could invite AirChina to start offering Regional Air Service for all smaller Canadian centres

Were these raggedy ostrich medical freedom yokels in remote BC about to cure bird flu & dethrone Ozempic? Was the farm really a multi-billion dollar biologics manufacturer disguised as a Maple MAGA convoy separatist squat? Nah, it was a scam. 🙏🏻 CBC fifth estate and Mark Kelley

At the Parliament of Catalonia, MPs and animal protection groups joined forces to call for an end to fur farming: www.furfreealliance.com/mps-and-anim...

#ornithology #birds

Lakes are still frozen in the foothills but the melt is happening and migrants arriving. First American robin was spotted this morning #Alberta 🇨🇦

🎉 Congratulations to Will Smith for his highly-commended talk at #BOU2026 last week Will received an @nhbs.bsky.social#BOU2026voucher for his talk 'Use of anthropogenic landscapes in wild Rock Doves' #ornithology 🪶

Very proud to present our paper on the spectacular “dances” of Victoria’s riflebirds! Out now in Current Biology. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Gang-gang Cockatoo, male. #birds

PSA for grad students in #ornithology: Make sure you read the guidelines for small grants before submission. I am reviewing some excellent grants this year but some cannot get funding because requests were made for items that are not permitted ☹️

The #BirdOfTheDay alt theme today is #RareEncounters birds you have captured least in your camera roll Orange-bellied Parrot - rare and critically endangered. So privileged to observe 3 of them close to home. #birds #birdwatching #birdphotography #birdlover #BirdsOfAustralia #ProtectBirdHabitat

🚨PhD opportunity🚨 🪲Deep-red vision and infrared sensing in jewel beetles 🪲 Understand how jewel beetles detect and integrate deep-red light and heat information to drive behaviour. Location: La Trobe University, Bundoora Contact: [email protected]; www.amanda-franklin.com

Willows are coming out but the lake is still frozen. The amount of snow to melt bodes well for grouse breeding season. Lots of water = lots of buds, green shoots and insects. #Alberta

WHAT'S UP? A willow ptarmigan peeks over a snowdrift in Southcentral Alaska's Chugach State Park. The park and its mountains overlooking the state's largest city are alive with wildlife-viewing opportunities. #wildlifephotography #BirdsSeenIn2026 #birds #birdphotography #birding

European Transposed Onto North America At The Same Latitude Surprised? See the reverse here: brilliantmaps.com/cities-tr...

GRANT REVIEWER REMINDER: in Canada you are not allowed to use AI of any kind for peer review of grants. ** reviewers are meant to keep grant content confidential ** please do not share someone’s unpublished, planned research with an AI program. kthxbai

Maybe rural Alberta should stop their xenophobic, homophobic, separatist nonsense and then they might be able to hire professionals like doctors, veterinarians, etc #abpoli www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

IOB's latest The Peculiar Necks of #Herons and Anhingas: A Study of Cervical #Morphology in Pelecanimorph #Birds by R C Fleming and C R Black doi.org/10.1093/iob/... #science #ornithology #biomechanics #avian

Despite the yo-yo's in weather, including flurries this morning, there are lots of Richardson's ground squirrels up and about. #yql #Alberta #Canada #wildlife #mammals 🦊🇨🇦

🇧🇷Papagaio-galego 🌎Alipiopsitta xanthops Conservação: Quase Ameaçada O papagaio-galego é um Psittaciforme da família Psittacidae. 📷 Celso B Almeida

More pathetic news from Alberta rural municipalities. They want to reopen grizzly bear hunting to “protect people”. How about people who live in bear country take personal responsibility for their properties and behaviour instead? #abpoli #wildlife #Canada www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Premier Danielle Smith is scapegoating immigrants to hide her own failures. Say no to her discriminatory referendum. Join me and sign up here. ouralbertaadvantage.ca

Snow goose-palooza continues. This time from north of town rather than south of town. #yql #Alberta #Canada #wildlife #birding #birds 🪶🇨🇦

I am super excited to share that Yolanda Morbey and I at the centre for @animalsonthemove.bsky.social are recruiting for a postdoc with expertise in analysis of #Motus data! Please help us get the word out! Deets here: www.uwo.ca/cam/research...

This aligns closely with my thinking. There’s very little evidence of negative effects of playback on birds, bit overusing it can be bad for birds and birders. Here’s our perspective piece on the topic… ecosystemunraveller.com/wp-content/u...

Since it snowed where I live today, and the bears are up, I made a new video in my educational short series. Enjoy! youtu.be/dNrJexuvGWo

Want to do a PhD @universityofotago.bsky.social on climate impacts on #NZ vertebrates w/ Michael Knapp, @plubbe.bsky.social, @atennyson.bsky.social & me? Comes w/ fully funded scholarship & will investigate climate extinction risks using genomics & niche modelling evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

Pablo Villar et al discover male octopus mating arms are sensory organs used to find females, navigate internally to the oviduct & deliver sperm. From behavior to structure, these findings offer a framework for how sensory systems shape reproduction & species barriers www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Alberta removes education from curriculum

Join us here at @laurentianu.bsky.social as we rebuild our ecology/evolution group. We are hiring an assistant professor in animal ecology Working with me is a treat, so that's a bonus not mentioned in the ad. laurentian.ca/about/career...

The Orange Cat Brain Atlas is here. 🧠🐈 Today, we published the first comprehensive cellular map of the orange cat brain. The new atlas reveals a single, specialized neuron responsible for behaviors like staring at walls, knocking objects off tables, and the 3am "zoomies."

1/7 The greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator) leads humans to bees’ nests. People harvest the honey, and the bird eats leftover wax. While this partnership is well-studied in other parts of eastern Africa, it hasn’t been explored in southern Tanzania, where beekeeping is big business. #BOU2026

Sometimes I wonder if we'd better appreciate our common birds were they rarer. Like, in the case of the Mallard, would we marvel at their iridescent green heads and purple specula? Admire those curly black uppertail coverts and finely vermiculated flanks? I imagine we would. #birds #albertabirds

My kid, in Grade 11, has told me he wants to be first in line for University-level science courses next year. I should not need the government getting in the way of my choices as a parent, if my kid wants to take university courses early. GET THE MEDDLING GOVT OUT OF MY LIFE

WTF am I supposed to do with an introductory neuroscience course that ULethbridge wants to open up to high school students in which I discuss: gender and sex opioid addictions homeopathy is pseudoscience vaccines are good racism in science #abpoli www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

A deadly avian virus detected in Brazil’s open-air markets is threatening the recovery of the Spix’s macaw. Experts warn that without rigorous monitoring and quarantine at rehab centers, this outbreak could devastate species being prepared to return. Story by @nandawenzel.bsky.social for #Mongabay

Corb is coming to town! Join Corb at the signing event closest to you to sign! St. Albert - April 3 Edmonton - April 3 Ponoka - April 4 Red Deer - April 4 Calgary - April 4 Longview - April 4 Medicine Hat - April 5 Lethbridge - April 5 Locations and times to be announced.

Snow goosepalooza continues, although they have moved around quite a lot since last Friday. Was not fast enough with the camera, but also had amazing views of a pair of Ferruginous Hawks. Lifer for my student and I! #birding #birds 🪶🇨🇦

Another pathetic move by the Canadian government. There is no justification for using strychnine on ground squirrels. Further CBC made no attempt to contact biologists or veterinarians to discuss the dangers of strychnine. #Alberta #Canada www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

One of the weird things about Oz universities' mania for secrecy is how self-defeating it is. In Canada, it's been known for years that spending on external contracts/consultants is in the billions. But equally it's known that nearly all of this is for security, IT, etc, not "Big Consulting".

Female birds more likely to sing when extended family help Territoriality modulates the coevolution of cooperative breeding and female song in songbirds🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Cooperative breeding shapes the evolution of vocal communication differently based on territorial context and sex

Dean 6 months ago: to improve your teaching score on your annual report, you really need to have the Teaching Centre evaluate your effectiveness and approach Dean today: we want to offer your intro course to high school students, what do you think? And people wonder why I get angry all the time

Butterflies suck—nectar. Walruses suck—clams. And most fishes suck everything they eat. But birds? Scientists had never seen suction—until now. https://scim.ag/4tbNmyQ