Check out this amazing fall migration track from our female Gray Catbirds we studied this summer! This lady picked up on that big night of Sept 29th and made a nice 40 miles per hour flight from western massachusetts down to Philadelphia! We're excited to see where she is picked up next!

Honestly it’s writing more grants 🤷‍♀️

We’re up on the Mt this week for Bicknell’s Thrush but the spruce-fir is buzzing with migratory birds! Surprisingly the top is very dense with migrants (mostly young) despite the low food and cold conditions. Here’s a few of our bycatch friends. (All birds captured under USGS BBL and state permits)

I love how the default description for white male ecologists is ‘quantitative’ while for everyone else it’s ’so good with people!’

Resting up this #caturday with some needed naps

Amazing what a week of full bellies and warm snuggles will do #catlove

Not ever day that longhorn cuckoo bees (Triepeolus sp.) out number the bumblebees during surveys! Three species yesterday on one plot. All on blue vervain (verbena hastata) which appears to be heavily favored by this genus

OH GREAT NOW THE SWAMP IS WOKE www.iflscience.com/deep-in-virg...

Worked from home this week to play catch up on papers but the cat distribution system had other ideas. Needless to say I haven’t gotten anything done because snuggles took priority.

Now that you’re super stoked about #moths from #mothweek, check out a paper I published this year that I’m very proud of. Spoiler alert: the tree composition in a forest fragment predicts the abundance of specialist and generalist moths. More #keystoneplants = more moth diversity #plantanoak

Fascinating!

Grumbling that lots of concept & opinion papers on urban sustainability/biodiversity get published all the time without real data. We submitted a data-driven paper on plants, inverts, birds, and soil and get rejected because none of the invited reviewers agreed to review it. Frustrating.

Fall migration has started! Techs caught a bay-breasted warbler this morning. The start of the molt migrants that don’t breed on Mt. Mansfield, but spend 2-3 weeks molting fresh plumage for the rest of their journey. #mansfieldsongbirds

Here’s 1 year of blue vervain (verbena hastata) growth from plugs planted in our experimental #nativeplant gardens last year. Lots of activity! #vceecotypeproject #pollinators #buglove #gardensforwildlife

If you’re having the kind of day I am, you might need this.

Some actual good news for once? www.eenews.net/articles/for...

Tis the season for fun field work, awesome data collection, learning and mentorship, beautiful days on the mountain, and baaaaaabies #vcemansfieldsongbirds #ornithology #pollinators #vermont

Hi, I'm a climate journalist for the Boston Globe. If you're a federal employee working in New England for EPA or the Forest Service (or you were, until last week..) I'd love to hear from you. My colleagues and I at @bostonglobe.com are dedicated to protecting our sources. Signal: erinmdouglas.23

Freedom from kings. Freedom from fascism. Power to the people forever. ♥️ Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸

You can’t understand bird declines without also understanding insect declines. Grateful our work on insect-bird interactions was highlighted by Smithsonian Mag. If you love birds, think about whether your actions are helping the insects they need to survive. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

The pollinators we’re seeing in the garden plots are good and all, but dang was I excited to see this gorgeous creature 💚💚💚 Black swallowtail caterpillar on Zizia aurea

Fun day of Saturday field work! Helped my mentee Kevin band and find gray catbird nests. Getting around the habitat is no joke, but the weather was gorgeous! #femalebirds #ornithology #vceinthefield

Heck ya white river junction @dunkindonutscoffee.bsky.social . Love the native plant landscaping! Way to go supporting biodiversity! Take my money! 🌱🐛🐦

A right-winger -- a registered Republican, a Trump voter, an evangelical anti-abortion activist -- assassinates a Democratic official. Republicans respond by blaming the left. Democrats respond by blaming ... no one.

I’ve never had a photo selected for a journal cover before 💜 So glad my first was a caterpillar! 🐛 many thanks to @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social for her beautiful photography!

The June issue cover of "Ecosphere" is here! With a shot from @dlnarango.bsky.social & Straley's study of the value of native vs near-native vs non-native plants for insect wildlife Browse the issue: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21508925...

Harvard president receives standing ovation during commencement.

New episode of the Bird Joy Podcast with Corina Newsome! open.spotify.com/episode/4OdV... 🪶🎙️🖤

Very happy that our new paper in TREE is out today! We call for a paradigm shift in how we build our cities toward evidence-based urban greening. Cities are key battlegrounds in the fight against biodiversity loss but current planning often falls short. We outline the scientific case & a way forward

Back on the mountain, saying hello to old friends #mansfieldbirdresearch

New paper! If trees are closely related, does it matter where they are from to plant-eating insects? We raised >950 Promethea moth caterpillars on 14 Prunus species to answer that question. Turns out, it matters a lot! Non-native trees = Lower performance OA paper here: doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

Beautiful but chilly day on the lakeshore for Birdathon+! I’m up to 40 species so far. What’s your guess for how many I get? All winged things count that are id’d to species.

Spent some time out in the field yesterday to enjoy some birdy bycatch. Nothing is better than bird banding in the morning and pancakes for brunch. 💜 Baltimore Oriole, American Redstart, Mourning Warbler, and Least Flycatcher

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit. This cannot be allowed to happen.

New Paper! We tested the effectiveness of keystone plants by examining moth communities along both an urbanization gradient & forest composition gradient. Spoiler alert: tree species matters! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Pic: Kit Straley

A few beautiful native flowers around the yard this week #gardening #gardenforwildlife #nativeplants

A student of mine is starting a new project on catbirds this summer and I am weirdly excited to learn more about these goobers

I am extremely pleased to share this feature articulating why I have lost my sanity lately. www.science.org/content/arti...

This blackpoll project is SUPER cool. Cutting edge tech and migratory modeling. And you get to work with a stellar multi-org team! Apply!

New PhD position available on blackpoll warblers with fieldwork in the boreal forest and tropics. @audubon.org @birdscanada.bsky.social @vtecostudies.bsky.social

Do you know a kid age 8-14 who has bird nerd potential? VCE is helping launch an Upper Valley Youth Birding Club, and it meets for the first time this Sunday! Only five spots left, register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Jfc 🔥

Orpine (live-forever) is coming up in the northern woodlands. An invasive succulent found along roadsides in New England. Seems to crowd out other early spring flowers like trillium and trout lily. Immensely satisfying to remove. Two years of pulling & this year I have only a handful to remove.

Once again, I am looking at proofs and wondering if I was drunk when I put these references together. And before you say it...yes, I use zotero! How could this be so wrong?!

NSF director resigns. This doesn’t bode well… ww2.aip.org/fyi/nsf-dire...

My NSF PRFB on the genetics of female polymorphism in hummingbirds was terminated yesterday. I don't have much to say, I'm just sad. We've discovered so much, and could have gone so much further. If anyone else is in the same boat, esp postdocs, please reach out, it would be good to connect.

Another successful adopt a plant meetup! 36 more people took new native plants home across the Manchester NH area. Including one random family I met in the boba tea shop 🤣

Folks are submitting data on planting conditions for #adoptaplant! We had 700 folks sign up, & 550 confirmed they would pick up plants at one of our events. During the 1st event, ~90% of volunteers came (50/56). 1/2 have already submitted data successfully on our app. six more events to go!

Our communication gurus tell me that I needed to update my LinkedIn for networking because this is one of the sane places on the interwebs. Not sure if that is true, but I did it! Connect with me if you haven’t already: www.linkedin.com/in/desiree-n...