Thanks for this contribution to Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment!

My latest 'Value in nature' post celebrates the many valuable ecological services provided by bats, while calling attention to various threats to their populations. mscaterino.pika.page/posts/bats-w... #biodiversity #nature 🌐

A new editorial of mine in Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment , about the value of spending time with people on their land when doing ecology. 🌎🌿🦤 Walking the land with property owners Tom A Langen, Catherine Benson, Rick Welsh esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Oh cool it also includes the fucking IPCC

A great profile of the legendary Billy Barr, who has collected 50 years of winter climate and phenology data in high-altitude Gothic, Colorado. 🌎

The US is withdrawing from the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). Along with other international organizations related to conservation, resource use, climate, and diplomacy. I wonder how long until the US withdraws from CITES? 🦤🌎

A moving essay about being a faculty member at a good but inviable small college. #academicsky

"Behavioural scientists are increasingly calling for context as a key to addressing pressing problems caused by human behaviour. However, despite its powerful ability to generate contextual hypotheses on the basis of relatively simple rules, ecological thinking is rarely applied to human behaviour"

In 5,000 years, almost all texts and video / audio recordings from our century will be lost to time. Future historians will pore over what remains, which will consist mostly of fragments from the Epstein files.

I finished my patch of the Canton-Potsdam NY CBC -11 C with 30 kph wind. Roads very icy and blowing snow. 24 species First bird: Raven Last New Bird: House Finch Most abundant species: Snow Bunting (of course) at 113 Best birds: 4 Bald Eagles, a Red-bellied Woodpecker 🦉🌿

An excellent essay on human evolution, and the reevaluation of 'archaic' humans. I don't agree with all (bow & arrow wasn't a key adaptation; the first people in the Americas came without it), but it's worth reading if you are curious about how our lineage is the only hominid that remains on earth.

The warm winter days are the worst Snow clings to skis like a bad thought Today is cold and powder snow Sun peek-a-boo-ing behind clouds Down the old gravel road, I glide And focus on the stride and slide #poetry

As we ski along the hedgerow, The ash saplings, boughs uplifted, Pay homage to the snowy sky. Winding through the floodplain forest The alder cones dangle and swing Like tiny Christmas ornaments.

It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans. 🧵 1 of 9

Massena NY, USA Christmas Bird count My patch: Temperature -11 to -2 C Number of species: 30 First Bird: American Crow Last new species: Red-breasted Merganser Most abundant species: Common Merganser (420) Best species: Common Loon, Northern Shrike Notable: 17 Bald Eagle, 79 Trumpeter Swan 🦉🌿

An important study that demonstrates what we should already know: we must be very cautious about inferring the phenotypic consequences of single gene variants to human evolution.

Some days it’s like dragging A heavy sack of birdseed Along a sidewalk Today I glide down-trail like a snow-swallow The golf-course my Greenland #poetry 🌿

Is it all in the hips? Scientists break down woodpeckers’ head-hammering moves. Plus, what makes one ant a queen and another a worker: buff.ly/0fOLcp3

Here is a sweet story with a local angle here in the North Country of NY, for folks who like Stranger Things. Teachers and high school arts programs make a difference.

"Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast" -- wow what a comprehensive analysis by Yeung, @xiyang.bsky.social et al. 🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Freakin' birds. This seems so obvious, I'm grumpy that I never thought of this before.

Some of the nicest students I have met were immigrants or children of immigrants from Somalia. The President & VP are rancid racists, duplicitous as the gutter segregationists of old, but far more dangerous, leading a red hat army of vicious, bigoted Americans. To stay silent is to abet the rot.

I'm with Team Franklin.

Getting rough in higher ed. Rider U. in NJ (private, 4000 students) announced it is firing 25% of its faculty this month, raising teaching loads to a 4-4 (5-5 instructors, 3-3 for chairs), 14% salary cuts, ending retirement contributions, tuition remission, & sabbatical support. #AcademicSky

Due to the cupidity of Elsevier and the unethical ambition of the scientist - editor, the once excellent journal Science of the Total Environment is now a predatory junk publication. 🧪 #AcademicSky

Optimist peepers Chirping like it’s Spring On late November’s Last warm and damp day Soon these frogs will freeze Dead the winter long ‘Til resurrection In the first March rains #poetry 🌿🐍

i’m not crying you’re crying xkcd: Fifteen Years

"The high-income admissions advantage at Ivy-Plus colleges is driven by....(1) preferences for children of alumni, (2) weight placed on non-academic credentials, and (3) athletic recruitment" which are "uncorrelated or negatively correlated with post-college outcomes" unlike SAT/ACT scores

A reminder to anyone interested in #brains #birds or behaviour, our new book is available for FREE as an ebook in addition to print copies. #neuroethology #neuroskyence #ornithology 🧪🧠🪶 direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

Unpaid internships reproduce the class problem in conservation. I don’t blame individuals for taking them (though would encourage them to reflect on who can/can’t afford to do so). I do find organizations offering them problematic - it shows me their politics. But you already know all this :)

OK, how weird is nature? Here is a species of ant for which the queen lays eggs that produce males of two species - her own and a distantly-related congener - and eggs that produce daughters of her species and daughters who are hybrids. 🌿🧪

“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”

In the frigid morning gray, ‘Round a pillar, sundogs play! At cold dawn a race is run, Two rainbow dogs chase the sun. #poetry

Some excellent first reflections about the life of James Watson, from one of America's finest historians of biology, who happens to have a book coming out about JW next year.

Last month I featured @calocitta.bsky.social, @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social, and more! #envhist #envhum

Be careful! With the time change, you risk of hitting a deer with your vehicle goes up, at a time of the year when the risk his highest (the rut). 🦊🌿🦤 theconversation.com/another-prob...

Burkina Faso lives up to its name and stands up to the vindictive US government - it refuses to be used as a prison camp for US deportees from around the world, and the US retaliates.

Cool crisp apple air Aspen leaves fall like gold snow The last crickets trill 🌿 #haiku #poetry

The leaves are gold and scarlet, The sky is as grey as lead. It’s time to turn the compost, And put the garden to bed. The air smells of woodsmoke, Old fruit, dead leaves, and bread, It’s time to turn the compost, And put the garden to bed. 🌿🌱#Poetry

HHS Secretary Kennedy "is planning to investigate climate and weather control, and is expected to create a task force that will recommend possible federal action," 🧪

The trouble with Canada geese. 🦉🌎🌿

I am proud to have published an article in this journal. R.I.P. Journal of Fish & Wildlife Management. Deceased not because of a lack of need or demand, but as an intentional political program to eliminate scientific research from the federal government functions. 🧪🌎🦤

An excellent piece on the A2A (Adirondack to Algonquin) biological corridor and the need for wildlife passage structures over some major highways. 🦤🌎

Well, some universities, at least, are refusing to sign away their core principles. Arizona, Brown, Dartmouth, MIT, Penn, USC and Virginia are doing the right thing. #AcademicSky

Hero’s of the day - In a small town of Beckley, WV, Kendra Sullivan staged a one-woman No Kings protest. She was confronted, had the police called on her, but stood her ground. She was physically threatened. Police came more than once and protected her right to protest. This is how we do it.

Many universities are swiftly, even eagerly slipping into the wave of repression against free speech and press. U. of Indiana and Purdue U. are two of those. Bravo on the Purdue Exponent for coming to the support of IU's beleaguered student newspaper. Makes this alumnus proud. #AcademicSky

🔥 When Indiana silenced its student press, Purdue broke the silence. Rivalry became rebellion as students printed the forbidden paper and carried it through the night to Bloomington. This is what freedom looks like when courage refuses permission.

Ungraded homeworks pile high and you drink hot coffee black, When frost is on the windshield and dec’rative holiday crap is back.

Excellent timely piece on how climate change is changing winter on the Laurentian Great Lakes, and the need for winter limnological research across the region. 🧪🌎🌿

Plant Science Research Weekly -- Lessons from 138 bryophyte genomes (Nature Genetics) (Summary by Mary Williams @PlantTeaching.bsky.social) buff.ly/AfoaxtF #PlantaePSRW