Deafening myself with Dog Days are Over while walking to my grad student orientation and minutes later seeing Florence’s next album announcement #ftm6

“Defunded but not defeated” is the hardest quote of resistance I’ve heard so far

Not enough people (me included as of just a few minutes ago) are aware of the existence of Sámi rap, which goes astronomically hard

A casual morning in the bog: my lifer White Fringed Orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis), one of dozens blooming between tamaracks and spruces, swamp candles and cottongrass, purple pitchers and sundews, with singing Lincoln’s Sparrows and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers

So I’ve gone to two poetry open mics in a row—one at @busboysandpoets.bsky.social and then another tonight at Tryst, both in DC, and man the community of cool people you find at these things rivals the folks you run into while birding. The vibes: it’s fun to be human and talk to other humans

Sitting in the parking lot of Breaks Interstate Park, the only place within like 15 miles that has good cell signal, just called like 9 senators offices, and a Cerulean Warbler sings in the trees above me. Proof of God?????

My mom (veterinarian) had a client ask about me the other day. My mom told her that I’m headed back to VT for an MFA. Today, she came in with a selection of poetry books, and asked my mom to pass them to me🥹 Neruda, Lorca (whom I’ve wanted in my library for a while), Cohen, and more!! #poetrysky

A few words of comfort from CS Lewis. Don’t allow fear to remove what defines you.

A friend just asked me what I do to stay hopeful and I told him one of my favorite strategies…I stay hopeful by remembering that no one has any idea what the fuck is going to happen, so as long as we don’t know, we gotta do what we can.

Marine veterans are speaking out against the troop deployment in Los Angeles. Across the country, they’re taking down their American flags that have flown in front of their homes for years. Remember, we have friends everywhere.

*Mourning Warbler popping out 10 feet away from me in full sun* “No one will ever believe you” *disappears before I can so much as touch my camera*

From BlackLiturgies on insta

We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope.

it's cool that we managed to put machines on mars that can take and send pictures and i support space exploration as a public endeavor and public good, but holy fuck everything we've seen out there is so much uglier and less cool than our own planet

How does a president just have the power to strip research funding from a university. No one person should have that power. Presidents should be civil servants, not kings. Otherwise we would just have kings

First day as a junior instructor for @audubon.org Hog Island Spring Migration on Monhegan program and the campers are about to arrive

@greatsmokynps.bsky.social I literally just watched a whole family of Ovenbirds fledge their nest in front of me I’m gonna CRY🥹

Me: Can I get a county lifer Mourning Warbler? The universe, for some reason: Nah but I got 14 other warblers and 4 first-of-years

"And isn't it ironic? Don't you think? A little too ironic And yeah, I really do think"˜Ãlanis Morissette

First Gull-billed Tern I’ve seen in the US since 2017 plus 6 other tern species, 14 shorebirds, 6 gulls, Chuck-wills-widow, Western Cattle Egret, and a continuing female Redhead all make for a banger of a morning on the Outer Banks #birdsky

Calling all scientists! There's less than one week left to boost support to protect endangered species' habitat safeguards in the Endangered Species Act. Sign on to the scientists' open sign-on letter here and please share: biodiv.us/4mojih5

The first two Shrek movies are undoubtedly unmatched masterpieces but the third one doesn’t get enough credit for also being great. Snow White using the power of Led Zeppelin to unleash a horde of birds against two talking trees? The sequence of the king dying? The baby nightmare scene? Iconic

Dodging cars barreling at Mach 5 down a mountain road to photograph a blooming Frasier magnolia only to drive further down the road to find a lower, easier-to-photograph magnolia

Since I’ll be busy on the Global Big Day, a college bestie and I made today our “unofficial big day”, and we raked in an even 100 species, including 21 warbler species, a Barn Owl, and 30 Bobolink! Undoubtedly the highlight for me were these ridiculous flame azalea blooms, spotted by said bestie!!

Sometimes I see people online asking how poetry specifically can change the world and while there are a lot of ways to tell them that is missing the point entirely I think right now this is one of the most important of them

Writing/doing any sort of work in a coffee shop/cafe has me eating in the daintiest manner possible. Were I in my car, I’d be housing this pastry. But here? With my journal and my lemonade, surrounded by strangers? I’m taking little rabbit bites with my pinky up.

If James Hetfield declares that all new fans are now part of the @metallica.com family, then by extension all of Metallica are honorary Hokies🦃

“This is not our record” is goddamn bone-chilling. And here we are stuck with a president who switched back to single-use plastic straws in the federal sector, after dishing out thousands of reusable ones in 2019-2020 To top it off, here’s part of his justification for doing so (via @apnews.com):

Men are not constantly being told “you’re bad,” they are constantly being told “LEFT WING SJWS THINK YOU’RE BAD” by conservative propaganda. There’s a huge difference.

Family group of Red-headed Woodpecker, 13 species of warblers, two American Robin nests, Yellow-breasted Chat, 9 Bobolinks, and as much oriole song as you could wish for

The Alleghenies of western Maryland and West Virginia—‘nuff said

Huge migration night tonight yall—turn off those lights!! #birdsky

Musk’s staffers are now forcing federal employees at several agencies including the FAA to sign non-disclosure agreements. The goal is simple: silence the resistance through more threats and now, forced agreements. Maybe we’re not supposed to be talking about being forced to sign NDAs… oops, lol.

Remember: NOAA is not its social media accounts. Do not let the takeover of NOAA communications take away your support of the real NOAA and the very real scientists behind it. The administration would want nothing more than for us to stop supporting our science agencies 🧪

Booksellers have faced censorship and harassment defending the freedom to read. Celebrate your local bookstore and support their ongoing role in safeguarding intellectual freedom. press.princeton.edu/ideas/bookst... #BookstoreDay

I'll say this as many times as it needs to be said. Save our Freaks. Don't mine the Deep. (also maybe unfollow NOAA. They're a disinformation account at this point. Fuck.)

Absolutely insane that a Sharp-shinned Hawk going full tilt can tuck its wings and slide through a gap less than 7 square inches in size. And not more than 6 feet in front of me as I watched!

After not having the chance to use my macro lens in nearly a year, in the past week I’ve been fortune enough to host a #GrayTreefrog in our yard and flipped a stunner of a #SpringSalamander out in western Maryland. We are so back.

My friend's student asks me to share: The administration is trying to destroy the Endangered Species Act from within. Public commenting is basically the only way to thwart this rule before getting to court. If you have a few minutes to comment: www.regulations.gov/commenton/FW...

Somehow #TheLastofUs just managed to churn out the single most intense and stressful episode of television I’ve ever seen, on par with, if not exceeding, that of some of the best Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones episodes. All I’ll say is, when the apocalypse hits, I’m gonna find some big dogs

Some pretty momentous news— This fall I’ll be returning to @virginiatech.bsky.social, to start a Masters of Fine Arts in #creativewriting!! My focus? POETRY! I’ll be drawing upon the inspiration of Appalachia for work the revolves around the natural world, and our place in it. #poetrysky

Jumping up and down with joy as the local lovebird Cooper’s Hawks circle over our pasture, then squealing with glee as a Broad-winged Hawk comes charging in out of nowhere

One of the first splashes of migratory color to arrive in the east each spring. Palm Warbler (Yellow), Howard County, MD

I can't emphasize enough that the most important thing journalists can do right now is publish exactly this kind of article

Driving across the Erie shore of Ohio, seeing swans, and transforming them from Mute to Trumpeter through sheer force of will

American Tree Sparrows singing and a distant hunting Northern Shrike in the wetlands behind my weekend Vrbo in Michigan. I may not feel my fingers, but at least the birding is solid

This dire-wolf bs will be a disaster for conservation going forward. All it takes is an asshole billionaire going "we'll just de-extinct [some endangered species] later on" and then you'll have conservative donors and politicians dropping support. “De-extinction” is a headline hook, nothing more.

Inside me there are two wolves. One of them has a 15 genome edits the other 20 genome edits. Neither of them is a dire wolf.

Currently at a store that sells a bunch of animal/dragon/dino figurines by the checkout and one of them is a T. rex but with FEATHERS. Nature is healing.