I was interviewed last week by The Scenic Route Podcast, which is hosted by Cal Klinzing, a very talented undergrad here at OWU. We discussed birds, urbanization, feral cats, and resiliency. If you want to listen, here's the Spotify link: open.spotify.com/show/63QY3iw...

One thing that keeps me going during the fall semester is listening to the Carolina Wrens singing in my suburban development. Things get so quiet after the breeding season ends, but those wrens just keep singing their little hearts out.

Still kind of in disbelief that we are regularly having debates on topics like this...

PhD position available to study the migration ecology and year-round demography of blackpoll warblers.

Must be Exam 1 day in Invertebrate Zoology!

Yesterday, I had a off day and did a poor job presenting a crucial example in Intro Bio. When class ended, I recorded a short video with a better explanation, posted it to the LMS, and emailed my students an apology + link to the video. I checked today how many had watched it. Only 3/38. #notgreat!

Wow!

The amazing Karen Gallardo-Cruz is looking for a field technician to study Barn Owl responses to tractor noise! The position will be in Lodi, CA this spring/summer (mid-March to late-June). $20-23/hr and housing provided. Check out the job ad here: karp.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/u...

We're going to see a lot of bullshit in the coming days and weeks about "causes of autism", and most will be based on flawed, over-interpreted observational studies (1/n)

Postdoc advertisement! Hi all, I'm looking to hire a Postdoc in BIOACOUSTICS for work on Owls. Your job would be to collect & analyze bioacoustics data, and write papers. 🦉🦉🦅🐦🦜🦉🦉

I miss the old brand #CDC

Our 5yo loves ankylosaurs - he even dressed as one for Halloween last year - so this discovery is big news in our family! Wow.

I did not expect how much my email volume would increase when I became Department Chair. One week into the new semester and I’m ready to declare inbox bankruptcy and start over.

#OnThisDay in 1858, a seminal journal article comprised of papers by Alfred Russel Wallace FRS and Charles Darwin FRS on the theory of evolution by natural selection was published by the Linnean Society, the first public announcement of the theory of evolution. bit.ly/3k8fq4u

A sobering look at the parallels between current NIH leadership and Lysenko, a Soviet sycophant whose pseudoscience killed thousands. It can only get worse from here, especially with vaccine access and misinformation. rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/bhattachar...

Saw the movie F1 today. Came in knowing almost nothing about the sport. Great overall! Lots of similarities to Cars 3. (Most of the movies I see these days are animated…)

Decided to cover up some old political stickers on our car. This one was too good to pass up! 🐦🛸

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said." It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy. I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

New article out: The effects of sleep disturbance on a songbird’s vocal performance royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #science #birds #sleep #birdsong #urbanecology

Well, this came out today. Terror birds (Phorusrhacidae)were not friends, but food. Bueno, hoy salió esto. Las aves del terror (Phorusrhacidae) no eran amigos, sino comida. #PaleoSky #Phorusrhacidae #Paleontology #Fossils royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

AI folks have now discovered “thinking”

Um, that's not science

Intro level prof at another giant state school. I am nearly certain that the biggest impediment to my students' learning is time. Some of them are overloaded on activities, but for many - probably most - it's jobs, and for many of them those aren't optional.

What makes a country great in the 21st century is science, and it’s really insane to purposefully destroy its science enterprise.

Dear Science Journalists, Please mention when your write-ups covers work that was funded by federal agencies that are now being dismantled, defunded, and censored. The public needs to know what is being lost, and if you don't tell them in the context of Cool New Science, who will?

I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science

New preprint on morphological and cultural divergence in Darwin's cactus finches in two Galapagos Islands. Led by Melanie Kaluppa, with @jeffersongl.bsky.social @alperyelimlies.bsky.social @klf-univienna.bsky.social #ornithology #bioacoustics #prattle www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Low hanging fruit, but still 🔥🔥🔥

I’m worried for my alma mater.

TFW you try to simulate a predation attempt by an eastern rat snake with a rubber decoy, but a real rat snake beats you to it. RIP to the wren nestlings that used to live here. 😅

For some reason, House Wrens don't observe Memorial Day, or any holidays or weekends. They just continue doing interesting things that we don't want to miss. So, we celebrated "work" today by banding this male with patriotic colors.

Just amazing science right here. The amount of effort to collect this much field data, even from "common birds," is astronomical. And look how aggressive those male wrens are!

Heard from a former (undergrad) student who just defended her PhD. Students: tell your old profs about your successes and achievements. It's not bragging, and we love to hear about it. It's one of the best parts of being an educator. #academicsky

Check out @gettyscience.bsky.social ‘s blog post describing our recent paper on Northern House Wren nests! You’ll get some background not included in the main article. americanornithology.org/finding-the-...

A few days ago, my co-author and I were trying to recreate an analysis from a published paper. It used an R package that we'd never seen before and were shocked to learn that it required a license ($$$) to run. First time encountering that, and I do not like it. Now analyses are behind paywalls.

Last year a robin pair nested literally on one of our bird feeders. It worked. They fledged two broods. I just found this new nest on the side of our house. Same bird? Impossible to know, but the circumstantial evidence is strong. Will keep you updated.

About to present at an admissions event and didn’t pickup my name tag. Someone just walked up, introduced themselves and asked if I was a prospective student. Not bad for a tenured professor approaching 40!

Check this one out— super-cool mesocosm design to test the impacts of night time warming. Turns out, it’s not great for these lizards. Thanks to @constantperry.bsky.social and Alexis Rutschmann for the fantastic collab.

Congrats to all the NSF GRFP awardees!! I was very upset to see the 50% reduction in the number of awards (>2000 to 1000). What a huge loss, especially for all the students in the honorable mention category. In a normal year, many would be celebrating. Ugh.

WORLD-FIRST: Ground-breaking research published today in the Ornithologist Journal has, for the first time, translated common UK bird vocalisations into equivalent phrases in the human language. The results tell us a lot! Extracts below... 🧵

Well it finally happened. I had to use trigonometry in everyday life to measure an angle for a flooring project (tan[x]=opp/adj). Turns out my sixth grade math teacher was right.

Out doing nest box maintenance this morning, and I was surprised to hear a WINTER WREN singing. One of my favorites! If you don't know the song, take a break from your doomscroll and listen - you won't be disappointed: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw-N...

The crow’s nest has really captured our 5yo’s interest. He’s been using binoculars for “bird lookin” and now that term has replaced “birdwatching” in our house.

All those years of putting out peanuts finally paid off. There’s a pair of crows nesting in our suburban yard! That’s about as exciting as it gets. 🥜🐦‍⬛🪹

At OWU, students nominate professors to give 3-minute, "i^3 lectures" that mimic TED talks. I was honored to present a few weeks ago, and discussed animal culture and evolution. Have 3 minutes? Check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=33qK...

Thrilled to see *National Geographic* highlight the wall lizards living in Cincinnati and our research on these little guys! www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... #WalliesWorld

I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for my parakeet sociality & cognition project! This position is for people finished with undergrad but who have not yet started grad school. Must be totally fascinated by parakeet social drama (there's a lot of it!)🪶🧪 Job ad here: ornithologyexchange.org/jobs/board/s...

This morning I gave a 3-min lecture on animal culture for the OWU Connection Conference that included one of the greatest slides I've ever created. I'll post the video once I have it.

I don't even know where to start besides pointing out that rescinding this policy is incredibly fucking stupid. My endocrinology students are always shocked and appalled at how long we studied males almost exclusively. 50% of every species is female, and the sexes are not the same!