More hybrids. Today on the Texas coast. FulvousxBlack-bellied Whistling Duck. The barred rump is particularly intriguing.

be very careful of folks that throw around the word "sustainability" too much. What used to be a good word has been hijacked by careerists looking out for their own good. The only thing they are trying to sustain is their own job. Environment is second priority.

One of the most fascinating sagas I've experienced. We recently found what we thought was a typical Black-chinned Hummingbird @riceuniversity.bsky.social but after more photos came in, it became clear we were looking at a hybrid Ruby-throated x Black-chinned, one of few ever documented in the field.

One of the most bizarre conversations I had today. A gentleman came up to me tell me he had a stuffed passenger pigeon and wanted to know what to do with it. And indeed he has a stuffed passenger pigeon

First year students at @riceuniversity.bsky.social have to take a writing class. With AI, teaching these writing classes has become challenging but we focus on nature journaling and relearning how to observe and then communicating our observations thru words and sketches. We beat AI everyday.

I don’t know why this bird in the middle never changes its position n

My local rufous hummingbird before sunrise, sitting in the freezing cold. These little guys somehow produce enough heat to make it through the sun-zero temperatures. Even the bill is warm! Thermal imaging scope.

Myiarchus flycatchers ordered by size and intensity of yellow underparts. When it comes to flycatchers, differences between species tend to be very subtle. Impressions of size and color in the field can be quite subjective, but the differences are real.

Jan and Feb are typically when we get the strongest cold fronts along the Gulf of Mexico. These fronts push their way down and bring odd birds. This California Gull showed up today just outside of Houston, TX.

Benitoite on natrolite with neptunite. Benitoite is a barium titanium cyclosilicate. Formed when Ba-bearing hydrothermal fluids pass through Ti-bearing blueschists during retrograde metamorphism associated with serpentinite mélanges.

Nutting’s Flycatcher from a ranch in Marathon, Texas. We had two birds out there. They are probably more regular here than we think. So much of west Texas is on private lands that have been under-explored.

Out in west Texas where there are no city lights, the skies are filled with stars. The night is perfectly quiet except for the screech owls calling beneath Jupiter and its moons rising.

Ripples in the Cretaceous Aguja Formation in Big Bend National Park. These formation is mostly composed of marine shales and mudstones but there are occasional sandstone layers that mark brief changes in depositional environment.

These are the relevant morphometrics to measure on a flycatcher. Although absolute measurements are very helpful, relative metrics, essentially proportions, are just as useful. These are the features that can be measured from photos or what you see, with some training, in the field.

Acadian Flycatcher migratory routes rewritten. In spring, most of the migration takes a largely land-based western circum-Gulf path. In fall, they take an easterly route through Florida and across the western Caribbean, bypassing most of Texas. Most fall Acadians in Texas are misidentified.

Immature Rufous Hummingbird @riceuniversity.bsky.social. These guys are getting ready to fly north for the summer, perhaps as far as Alaska. Before doing so, they need to replace some of their worn juvenile feathers. This one is still growing in its central tail feathers and inner primaries.

Next Monday @riceuniversity.bsky.social we have a panel discussion on the geopolitics of critical minerals for the energy transition. Geology does not distribute natural resources fairly. This leads to a complex web of trade and geopolitical tensions. events.rice.edu/event/415347...

Basaltic dike crosscutting Precambrian granites and arc cumulates. Arabian Shield on the flank of the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia.

A Western Willet flying over me. In the fall, the Eastern Willets along the coast fly south to their wintering grounds and are replaced by Western Willets returning from the north. Willets are here year round, but the two species trade places every season. And yes, they are different species.

We r having a panel discussion on critical minerals Dec 8 @riceuniversity.bsky.social in conjunction with the French Consulate of Houston.

AI is great for speeding certain processes up. It's a good tool for those who already have decades of domain expertise. But the race to bring AI into our world is sure to produce the most uncreative and unimaginative generation in the history of human evolution.

After seemingly disappearing for 5 days, our Allen's Hummingbird @riceuniversity in Houston, TX has returned. Where did to go to all this time?

so I've been playing around with AI (GPT), asking it how Pt-bearing sulfide layers form in layered intrusions. I asked critical questions, prompted it to think about physics, and after many iterations, it came up with this model. Utter nonsense, violating physics! Be very careful of AI.

Galveston, upper Texas coast this am. What appears to be a Vega Gull, the recently split Siberian counterpart of the Herring Gull complex. We had a good gull day.

Another Allen’s Hummingbird @riceuniversity.bsky.social in Houston. Amazing we’ve now had two. Our garden is working!

I need help! Scaly-breasted Munias. How many birds in this photo? Trying to estimate how many birds we have, but they keep moving around. Curious how much variance there might be between observers. So first, give me your quick estimate and then count them carefully. How do your numbers compare?

Billion year old shallow water stromatolitic carbonates contact metamorphosed. Green layers with diopside and occasional grossular garnet. Sedimentary layers are preserved, including ripples! Franklin Mountains, El Paso, Texas.

A view of the mid-Tertiary andesitic porphyry of Cristo Rey in El Paso, straddling the Mexican-US border. The laccolith intruded into Cretaceous sediments, pushing them apart. @riceeeps.bsky.social @riceuniversity.bsky.social geology field trip to west texas

In search of pegmatites in the Precambrian Arabian shield. These dikes show the more fine-grained nature of the dike margins and the coarse-grained nature of the dike core due to differential cooling rates. Saudi Arabia.

Here in Houston @riceuniversity our soccer fields attract migrating meadowlarks in late October and early November. One might assume they are the expected Easterns but most have turned out to be Westerns. They r difficult to identify: subtle differences in face, tail and tertial patterns and vocals

And it continues. a winter wren in our urban little patch. One cannot restore urban spaces to their original state, but one can build a diversity of microhabitats that provide cover for migrating birds.

Our little bird habitat @riceuniversity is still on fire. And migration is still on. Yesterday, an Ash-throated Flycatcher showed up. First record for my local patch, making this the 276th species documented for an urban hotspot.

Birds, birds, birds. Showing Christian Cooper the birds of Houston Audubon’s Bolivar flats bird sanctuary on the upper Texas coast and learning from him how to tell stories.

Cedar waxwings are not here yet. But I’m waiting for them. When they come, I know it’s winter. Pen and ink.

800 Wood Storks flew over @riceuniversity.bsky.social at noon today. on their way back south to Mexico for the winter. A magical sight that happens every year, but largely unnoticed because they fly high.

I have emptied out my lab. 25 years. We will soon tear it all down and rebuild for new faculty. The lab looks much bigger without the mass spectrometer. Some of the most critical parts are in my office now. A new chapter awaits.

A little rain in Texas would be nice. It’s been quite dry.

The sidewalk in front of my house, I’ve lined with rocks from all over the world, from two billion years ago to the present, from all types of geologic environments. I wonder how many people pass by and never know they are walking back in time. LOL

When a rare bird shows up, especially one as cool as a calliope, birders flock. @riceuniversity.bsky.social

Still don’t know what is going on. This morning I stumbled across a rare Calliope Hummingbird in my hummingbird garden @riceuniversity.bsky.social. Last week, an Allen’s hummingbird.

Allen’s Hummingbird @riceuniversity.bsky.social, our 274th species for this urban hotspot. Long overdue.

Shatter cones in a recently discovered Precambrian impact site near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Shatter cones are the result of shock waves generated by the energy of a point source impact. These shockwaves radiate outwards from the point of impact, fracturing rock along the way.

CEOs are saying AI is going to replace many jobs. that may be true. But the most AI replaceable job is that of the average CEO and MBA fortune.com/2025/10/10/k...

All hands on the great unconformity in the Sandias, New Mexico. Pennsylvianian limestones on 1.4 billion years A type granites. @riceuniversity.bsky.social geology trip.

Not sure what's going on. This past week I discovered Red-footed Booby, Tropical Parula, and Western Wood-Pewee... and then today, an Allen's Hummingbird from California popped up on my morning walk to school. Houston, Texas. @riceuniversity.bsky.social

Here we go. We finally figured out where this bird disappears to. Red-footed Booby. One of very very few inland records of this seafaring bird. Houston, TX. Much better photos than yesterday's grainy shot of a flying bird from half a mile away.

In just a few days near Houston, Texas I found a red-footed booby, tropical Parula and a western wood-pewee, a truly bizarre and unlikely combination of birds.

We found this amazing katydid in Honduras. Haemodiasma tessellata. Camouflage at its finest.

How about a coral snake up close? Foothill forests of the Caribbean slope in Honduras.

One of the most important and magical shorebird stopover sites in the country is the Bolivar Flats Bird Sanctuary in Texas. It is currently under threat from development and we are in a race to save it. houstonaudubon.org/conservation...