We've now installed over a third of the 220 nestboxes for our new experiment! It's been cold with a ton of snow, but it's still been a fun time!

My lab is installing 220 nestboxes on 30 farms across mid-Michigan! Nestbox-using birds like bluebirds can eat a lot of insects -- thousands of caterpillars for one brood. We're interested in how much this can benefit organic farmers trying to use natural means to control pest insects

MSU EEB Program monthly birding Pretty good turnout of about 20 people, even in 10 degree weather!

Extra time on exams has become the default accommodation in higher ed—but evidence suggests it often doesn’t help anyone: not students “gaming the system,” and more concerningly, often not students with disabilities either. Read our opinion piece here: url-shortener.me/8R70

Excited to see continued coverage of our recent article on how American kestrels can improve food safety and reduce crop damage on cherry farms: insideclimatenews.org/news/2201202...

MSU EEB birding group (eeBirding) January outing. Surprisingly high turnout for the holiday and temps! Best findings were 4 Northern Pintail.

Really cool press release featuring our recent paper, describing the benefits of predators to agricultural production: www.vox.com/climate/4711...

🍒🪶Excited for our new article to come out in @jappliedecology.bsky.social We show that falcons attracted to orchards using nestboxes reduce food safety risks and crop damage from wild birds. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

September birding with the MSU EEB Community. This is now the 5th year of me running this group!

Monthly MSU EEB Program birding We're just getting into migration, so it wasn't the most exciting birding, but we did see about 20 wood ducks.

Really excited for the Smith BIRDS Lab to be starting up our first large research project! We're surveying small-scale diversified, organic farms in urban and rural areas to examine tradeoffs of having songbirds on farms in different contexts. 📸 Rachel Fredrickson looking for birds at Growing Hope

The MSU EEB Program's monthly birding trip today was packed! This month, we opened up our birding group to the public as part of a warbler ID learning series co-hosted with the Michigan State Bird Observatory and Capital Area Audubon Society. We had somewhere around 40 birders join us!

We are excited to share our new article just out in @natureecoevo.bsky.social 🎉 “Widespread lack of article accessibility policies among ecology and evolution journals” rdcu.be/ejFQH

Super fun morning birding with the MSU EEB community! This month we joined up with the Capital Area Audubon Society to explore MSU's Corey Marsh Ecological Research Center. Fun group and great birds!

Super excited for you to come work with @lars-brudvig.bsky.social and me!

Just got word that I landed my first grant as a #NewPI! 🎉 It's $50k—not huge, but a big milestone in my faculty career!

Our paper is out, and it is distressing. Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

March birding with the MSU EEB community. We got a surprise snow on top of cold/wind, but we still had a great time. We found a bald eagle while leaving the parking lot, a pileated woodpecker, and a rough-legged hawk. Pretty good winter birding, esp. for a park in the middle of town!

Another great birding event with the MSU EEB community! Early February is challenging to find many bird species, so we were pleased with having seen 15. Our two American Black Ducks were my favorites.

There are many ways to get involved w/ the @kbslter.bsky.social this summer & beyond! #RET for #K12 teachers - 8 weeks w/ us this summer! #REU undergraduate positions to work w/ @kelloggbiostn.bsky.social labs! & a new KBS Director & Ecosystems Ecologist! lter.kbs.msu.edu/get-involved...

So excited to see our paper led by @austinrspence.bsky.social out in @jappliedecology.bsky.social! We show most birds present low food-safety risks, but E. coli survives longer in big poops produced by big birds (a thread) besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

First grant submitted as a new PI! ✅

I had a great time birding with my MSU birding group even if the "feels like" temp was 0 F! We found the Short-eared Owls we were looking for. You know, the temp wasn't too bad with 3 pairs of pants, a snow suit designed for snowmobiling, heated gloves, "HotHands" hand warmers, a mask, etc.