Relatable Corvid

Update: lots of snow has fallen, and the resident beaver has emerged to inspect

Happy Thanksgiving! ❄️🦃

It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation: Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.

Hi Bluesky! We are the Genomic Variation Laboratory based at UC Davis. Our current projects include: 🧬 CRISPR-based SHERLOCK assays for eDNA detection 🧬 Metabarcoding to detect animal and plant diversity in predator diets and ecosystems 🧬 Population genetics of fishes and more!

I miss California 🌁🌄😢

It's been awhile, but I found myself recommending to someone today our groundbreaking code, lead by the inimitable Andy Kern, that magically converts pdfs to... pdfs. This solves the conversion issue so many journals pose to the intrepid scientist. github.com/andrewkern/p...

Look how Great this Cormorant is.

A movie that takes place where you’re from

Incredibly heartbroken to have to announce that my husband and I did not, in fact, see the Yellow-headed Caracara in Wilmington, Delaware today 😫

The Trump Administration is looking to decimate the Endangered Species Act. Proposed changes would: - LIMIT new species from being listed - REMOVE protections for federally-threatened species like Piping Plovers - REDUCE critical habitat protections

Too much light pollution in central Maryland, but still cool to see the faint pinks and greens of the aurora

To be clear, I’m not happy about any of this. I think the dems completely betrayed their base. They conspired with republicans to make this “deal” to reopen the government. The promise of a vote on healthcare means nothing. We got literally nothing from this shutdown and the dems lost everything.

Good morning, I’m still angry.

I think the strategy is to get us furloughed feds all paid, make the holidays less stressful by eliminating the layoff threats through January, then try to negotiate ACA subsidies, and if (when) that goes nowhere with republicans, the dems will shut it all down again…

Pearl Crescent 🧡

Is…is this…trolling?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The official USDA site is blaming trans people for SNAP benefits expiring.

#CrowCoG is hiring🚨MULTIPLE PAID RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITIONS 🚨for our 2026 field season (May - Sep)! Field and aviary-based positions - come help us study the remarkable tool-making New Caledonian crows. Apply here: bit.ly/3WlxxHE

My kids and I made a six-layer rainbow cake today, just for funsies 🌈🎂

Just look at the reductions to the USGS science centers in this document. An 80% reduction in staff is all the scientists. The only people left will be admin and IT staff who will be needed to shutdown the centers. The writing is on the wall for all other EMA science centers…

See for yourself. The releases court document outlines all the planned RIFs for competitive areas that include protected union members. Areas not included are not safe. They simply have no union members relevant to the TRO. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Given the recently revealed planned layoffs for some USGS science centers that have protected union members covered by the TRO for shutdown layoffs, it is now obvious this administration is primed to go through with eliminating the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area. Once the shutdown is over, we’re done.

Just sitting here waiting to be fired

Los Angeles-based activist and #1 NYT bestselling author and illustrator, Nikkolas Smith, draws 'AntifAmerica' featuring the Portland Frog and Portland Chicken, in response to No Kings Day yesterday.

@sarahmackattack.bsky.social look what I found in the wild!

I haven't had the capacity to keep up with moderation lists for a bit, but this one is really obvious, so I'm stealing some energy from Future Me: a list for the extremely obvious wave of inauthentic accounts following today's newly-created US gov accounts bsky.app/profile/did:...

Fight misinformation while supporting your mental health:

WTAF

Looks like a good guide - the general data cleaning part is a lean intro to some very common issues in all sorts of data. Would be great if every phd who touches raw data was offered a short course in these basics (in R or Python or whatever HipsterScript) cleaning-data-r.ala.org.au/2_general-cl...

Took a walk in the woods today 🌳

I love that Alexa thinks Coldplay and Oasis are “similar” to Radiohead lol

I don’t know where my path will go next

We found a Northern Walkingstick today!

If conservationists work from a compromised baseline, our notions of abundance, scarcity, and ecological wellbeing will keep getting defined downward: "The researchers show that using the 1970s as a baseline tends to normalize an already severely degraded state." phys.org/news/2025-10...

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

This might be the lowest low so far this year for federal employees

Oh ok 🫠 www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Well shit www.govexec.com/workforce/20...

Just a reminder that WTFJHT exists and is a really good summary of the day in politics.

Thanks to gift cards I’ve been saving for a year, I finally got an Arc’teryx jacket, like any self-respecting Ornithologist would 🪶🥰

Millions of birds cross Oregon during peak migration season, which lasts through mid-October.

UPDATE: The 2025-2026 list of faculty and postdoc positions in ecology and evolutionary biology is out! Be sure to check out this active and helpful community run resources! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

An eastern Monarch at Cape May, NJ on its journey south 🦋

Y’all, they’re taking away free speech.

12 September 1914 | A German Jewish woman, Regina Berelowski, was born in Berlin. In March 1943, she was deported to #Auschwitz. She did not survive. --- Women at Auschwitz. Lesson: https://lekcja.auschwitz.org/2022_kobiety_en/ Podcast: https://youtu.be/ijTxtbNlJO8

People of Berkeley! Join us next week.