The new Yukon Archives database is live! From historic photos to maps, films and documents, your window into the Yukon’s past just got a whole lot clearer. Read more: yukon.ca/en/news/yuko...

Frozen Yukon ground squirrel droppings preserved DNA from dozens of species over several glacial periods. They also point to an Arctic ground squirrel lineage no longer living there.

I spoke too soon about there being no voles in my garden this spring. Turns out, they're back. And busted. This evening, Vole #21 is snacking on the edge of a local golf course -

"Regarded by aficionados as a delicacy, their intensely salty, fishy and gamey flavour is an acquired taste; novices can find it repellent" - www.theguardian.com/environment/...

1/ I used to have nest boxes on the back fence, protected by the shade of some Columnar Birch trees. And for a couple of years, swallows raised their babies in them. Until last summer, when Catfood-the-squirrel discovered them & ate all the eggs at one sitting -

This, coupled with 15-minute cities -

In the wake of the latest oil and gas lease sale for the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge yesterday, please read @trinamoyles.bsky.social's beautiful story about an immersive caribou art exhibit that I am very sorry to have missed when it was on in Whitehorse.

For anyone who needs to kickstart their bird photography, Tim Laman’s Bird Photography Masterclass is now 35% off - www.timlaman.com/course-1-spe...

“Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.” • John Lennon

David Inshaw (born 1943) The Raven 1971

"There was a void to fill for a portable device with powerful #BirdNET capabilities that didn't require a questionable, battery-powered Raspberry Pi setup" - becausebirds.com/review-birdw...

"The ethical approach to bird photography is important to ensure that we don’t have a negative impact on the birds that we love" - www.birdscanada.org/tips-for-gre...

One day soon, I'm going to treat myself to a floating-hide - youtu.be/xyffv81ujvE?...

Science named the seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy worldwide as the 2025 Breakthrough of the Year. Learn more about last year's #BOTY on #WorldEnvironmentDay: https://scim.ag/4pbMoAv

McIntyre Creek. #Watercolour on paper,12x16 inches. #Watercolor #YukonArt Painting of the day 2292.

Looking for a geologist/mapmaker in #Whitehorse, #Yukon? You could consider @halfmens.bsky.social: his map on "Selected Trails in the Whitehorse Area" is currently in production - snowwork.com

Migratory birds perform extraordinary journeys—but we still don’t fully understand how they do it. #TiiaKärkkäinen, @pablosalmon.bsky.social & @barbarahelm.bsky.social reveal why the field of migration physiology is still wide open for new discoveries ➡️ vist.ly/56fr7 #ornithology

Fox hunting on the banks of the Yukon in Whitehorse this morning

1/ Once you have read @johnvaillant.bsky.social's book, "Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast", you will realise that this well-meaning advice quite underestimates the ferocity of wildfires now - #Whitehorse #Yukon

1/ The Trump administration will auction off 689,000 acres of Alaska's #Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling today - financialpost.com/pmn/business...

1/ #Yukoners, are you ready for summer? No, not like this... 📷 credits to float-eh.ca

" #Motus is an international collaborative research network that uses automated radio telemetry to track the movement & behaviour of small animals, like birds, bats, & insects; & is a program of @birdscanada.bsky.social 🇨🇦 in partnership with collaborating researchers & organizations" - motus.org

1/ Haruki Murakami's novel the "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" features an allegorical bird, so named by the protagonist's wife because of its mechanical, clicking call - www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/118727...

"A birding novelist is as likely to observe the observers as well as the birds" - www.aba.org/essays-on-bi...

"The Book of Birds delivers a stark warning in its introduction about the 'great thinning of the skies … Dawns and springs are quieter; the air emptier. An ancient avian orchestra is falling silent'" - www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

This nature documentary, "The Bird House: Wildlife Research On The Edge at Long Point", tells the story of the impacts of weather, storms, & high water at 🇨🇦 Canada's most isolated bird banding & research station in the middle of Lake Erie - youtu.be/hQSWnSbOA6Y?...

1/ So proud of @helenwalne.bsky.social - one of her amazing images just made the cover of TIME magazine for a story on the extraordinary biodiversity of the Great African Seaforest -

1/ "Birds of the Yukon Territory" was first published by @ubcpress.bsky.social in 2003, & is now out of print & hard to find. You can buy a PDF ebook copy here, for an eye-watering (for a digital copy, that is) $60 - www.ubcpress.ca/birds-of-the...

1/ “I started building nest boxes for me to photograph & film from, which were in fallen-down trees. I’d get my chainsaw out and make them into a natural nest box. The frustration was I couldn’t see what was happening inside, so I started placing cameras": www.theguardian.com/environment/...

1/ This afternoon, armed with some annoyingly vague directions, I ascended a steep bike trail up onto the escarpment above #Whitehorse to find a pair of bald eagles & their two hatchlings -

1/ “I think that, if required on pain of death to name instantly the most perfect thing in the universe, I should risk my fate on a bird’s egg" - www.theguardian.com/books/2016/a...

A decade-old video of a male Northern Flicker defending his territory at dawn, using chimney caps as steel drums. Loud doesn't begin to describe what the 15-minute long drumming/calling sessions sounded like inside the house - youtu.be/GrEbH3MwHSA?...

1/ "Birds are the distraction that make bitter human realities more bearable": www.poetrynw.org/field-note-w...

We need this in #Whitehorse YT, where an alarming number of social media posts continue to display a pathological antipathy toward cyclists, often opined by rugged individualists driving really big trucks. Why they feel threatened by someone on two skinny wheels is beyond me -

This sentiment is echoed by many across the world, who are now living (invisibly) with #LongCOVID - "For me, birding is a form of mindfulness, which helps me focus on what’s in front of me, rather than the pain in my body" - www.aba.org/birding-and-...

1/ Unlike traditional LFP or NMC batteries, sodium-ion batteries: ▶️ perform well in freezing conditions, as sodium-ion cells can retain about 90% of nominal capacity at -40°C; ▶️ they offer ranges of 600 km for EVs; carnewschina.com/2026/04/22/c...

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“Although the surface of our planet is two-thirds water, we call it the Earth. We say we are earthlings, not waterlings…The sea is the cradle we all rocked out of, but it's to dust that we go.” - Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction #Whitehorse #Yukon #shoppingcartsoftheYukon

1/ Want to immerse yourself in birdwatching, & don't know where to begin? Try reading about it. Herewith a list of recommended books that I will continue to expand -

Some good news for a change: the comeback of the Dartford Warbler has been helped by the restoration of the birds’ heathland habitat - www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is the first spring that the voles got the memo: usually, after the snow melts, I discover several vole holes, along with their dizzy "lawn fests". Over the last few years, I have humanely trapped 20+ voles & relocated them to the bush. Which just happens to abut a local golf course 😉

My daily visitor, helping themself to breakfast...

Wildfire, in a region heavily treed with boreal forest, is an ever present risk in the North. Like Ross Burnet's emergency kit, my kit isn't yet quite complete. But there's no excuse, time is a luxury we may not have this summer in the #Yukon - yukon-news.com/2026/05/27/f...

City Birds: New Study Shows Urban Habitat Matters for Migrating Species https://therevelator.org/urban-habitat-migrating-birds/

1/ This is the original footage, widely circulated starting in 2012, of a hooded crow sledding down a snowy roof on a plastic jar lid in Russia. It is a real, well-documented instance of animal play - www.dailymotion.com/video/x18czi1

1/ "There is something so deliberate about this play: the crow uses a toy; it searches for the best sledding path; it repeats the adventure down the roof; it keeps upright with its feet planted on the lid when, as a bird, it could simply fly" - www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

1/ "What bird populations do usefully indicate is the health of our ethical values. One reason that wild birds matter—ought to matter—is that they are our last, best connection to a natural world that is otherwise receding" - www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/art...

“Sometimes I ask somebody, ‘is it possible that I heard a Say's phoebe?’ And they would say, ‘oh yes, yes. They’re quite common around here.’ … And so then, I would do that over and over and over again": www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

"The @yukonbirdclub.bsky.social is inviting residents across the territory to take part in the 41st annual Helmut Grünberg Yukon Birdathon, a 24‑hour birding fundraiser running May 29 to 30": yukon-news.com/2026/05/26/y...