I saw my first evening grosbeak of the year today. Two of them, in fact. All I could think of as I watched the pair flit around each other and sing is that at the rate they're declining, I don't know how many more moments like that I get. I hope I get to be old, and I hope I see grosbeaks when I do.

Ten seconds of calm, for any who need it. This is Plunkett Creek at Beazell Memorial Forest, Oregon. #oregon #pnw #water

I’ll be damned. The Pulitzer board did it. Good on them

"For the first time in more than 100 years, evidence of cougars reproducing in Minnesota was documented in video captured by the University of MN's Voyageurs Wolf Project (youtu.be/7EL1FRB11DU). The videos, shared with the MN DNR by the project researchers, show a female cougar with 3 large kittens"

They’re basically admitting that creating nonconsensual deepfakes of women is not an unintended outcome of this technology but rather its main selling point, which some of us recognized all along

I think one source of my recent writing malaise has been not pitching enough. I know some writers hate it, but it's one of my favorite things. It reminds me that however frustrating my day is, there are always more cool stories out there. For me, it's the stage of discovery and hope in the process.

Supreme Court Overturns ‘Right v. Wrong’ https://theonion.com/supreme-court-overturns-right-v-wrong-1819573211/

I say it again and again: Because we don’t learn the real history of this country, we do not understand what this country is capable of. After 1870, 22 Black men served in Congress. By 1901, because of racist SCOTUS rulings, electoral coups and election cheating and violence, there were none.

I work with so many great editors. But as a freelancer, I work with the occasional editor who forgets what it's like to pitch and write and edit and invoice and wait and wait. I don't want a bad apple to spoil the bunch and make me forget my great experiences, but some days, it's harder than others.

Data center uncertainty is making power grid planning difficult, experts say. I've got one weird trick to make your planning easier again. It also saves water in what is widely expected to be a historic drought year, and protects farmland. Stop letting them build. www.opb.org/article/2026...

Fantastic album cover. It has everything. The lead looking slightly off camera; the drummer who is, if anything, too interested; the bass player sad about something unrelated.

No predators on this round of trailcam videos from the farm. Just a bunch of frolicking deer. #oregon

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! Visit one if you can or boost a fave. They’re more than shops. They’re community resources, precious third spaces, part of the fight against book bans and genAI. And if you need a book to get you out there, today’s a great day to pre-order Tyrant Lizard Queen

No journalist should attend. No news organization should attend. Those who do are fundamentally compromised, and they should be treated as such.

WHAT an opening to the judgment striking down RFK's latest anti-trans policies. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Zhang Shan won the gold medal for the mixed skeet shooting event in the 1992 Olympics. The International Shooting Union *immediately* banned women from competing against men.

Happy Day After Earth Day. Another good day to look at the world and walk through it and notice something small and amazing.

This is a fabulous piece by Emma Marris at @biographic.bsky.social. If one sentence could sum up my environmental politics, it's this: "The problem isn’t that humans use nature; it is how." A perfect Earth Day read: www.biographic.com/tending-to-p...

There's only one good planet for humans, and it's perfect for us. It's also perfect for tigers and tree ferns, hellbenders and hellebores. So many wonders. The greatest lie ever told is that we left the garden. We've damaged it, but Eden is so resilient if we give it half a chance. Happy Earth Day.

There was never an ethical or consensual use of these things. Their existence violates consent. They were always going to end up a tool of fascists.

We're not good! The only silver lining is that the Mets are still a little worse.

We're getting closer to peak Camas lily time here in the Willamette Valley. They are my favorite wildflower, and their bulbs are an important First Food for local Indigenous people. I usually catch them in ones and twos in a wet meadow, so it's great to see dense patches like this. #oregon

If you're in the Southeastern US or nearby, keep an eye out for one of these 600 wing-tagged vultures. Email sightings to Scott Rush at [email protected]. Every observation helps. I talked to Scott for a story on black vultures a few years ago. #birds #vultures newschannel9.com/sports/outdo...

Aside from Florida, nearly the entire contiguous U.S. has experienced earlier than average first plant blooms in 2026. Earlier springs can cause longer allergy seasons, accelerate wildfire risk, increase pests/mosquitoes, and lead to less reliable snow-fed water. Map: www.usanpn.org/data/maps/sp...

Articles about Jared Kushner's diplomatic role with Iran that mention Kushner has received billions from the Saudi government (2/28-4/19): NYT: 5 of 58 WashPost: 1 of 43 WSJ: 0 of 40 AP: 0 of 26 CNN Wire: 0 of 18 NY Post: 0 of 17 Chicago Tribune: 0 of 4 LA Times: 0 of 4 Boston Globe: 0 of 2

Four points in this ongoing saga of raw cheese products in California worth repeating. 1) Recalls save lives. 2) Pasteurization saves lives. 3) We've known both things for more than 100 years. 4) Get a clue.

It was a gorgeous weekend at the coast, including this sunset at Haystack Rock. On Sunday, we saw tufted puffins, pigeon guillemots, surf scoters and more, and then about a dozen gray whales on the way home. Cannon Beach is more crowded than my regular haunts, but always worth the trip. #oregon

As an over-preparer, who still often feels under-prepared, the best compliment I can get from a source is "Wow, you did your homework". I've gotten plenty of the opposite, "um, why don't you know this?". So, day made. It's the little things that keep me going. I'm certainly not in it for the money.

Today's NOAA outlook update is all my least favorite things wrapped up in two maps. The entire West is going to be hot, and the Northwest is going to be very dry. I'm thankful for every drop we've gotten this week in the Willamette Valley, but it's not enough. Summer is coming. #oregon #orwx

I have been thinking about this chart for months, and basically reference it any time someone asks me what's going on with journalism nowadays Source: reportearth.substack.com/p/the-washin...

hey kids you may want to tune into the NASA livestream for the Artemis 2 mission it's rapidly approaching home and the earth is getting *big* they're set to splashdown at 8:07 pm tonight www.youtube.com/live/6RwfNBt...

Much of Oregon is preparing for drought conditions and increased wildfire risk after one of the warmest winters on record that left the region with record-low snowpack.

Wishing you and yours a very merry Confederate Surrender Day.

Happy #LocalNewsDay. If you're in Oregon, two news sites that punch above their weight are Oregon Capital Chronicle @oregoncapitalchronicle.com and Columbia Insight @columbiainsight.bsky.social . Read and support both, please. (Bias alert - I've worked with both as a freelancer.) #oregon

Little migrating songbirds are performing one of the most stunning behaviors on the planet-- some are flying from Brazil to Canada, overnight. When they stop to rest they are exhausted and vulnerable. Protect them by keeping cats inside! It helps cats too! abcbirds.org/solutions/ke...

Nooksack Tribe is hiring for the position of Fisheries Biologist

We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

Eastern N. America folks, it's just about go time for the start of the ~3 week peak migration (unless you're on the Gulf Coast, in which case it is go time NOW). Expect waves of incredible birds for the next month and a half Turn those overnight lights off to protect them! [stolen from local news]

This makes me so happy. I've heard them in the hills, but this is the first evidence I have of coyotes using the farm. Eat up, my friend - plenty of mice and moles to go around. You are very welcome here. (Stay for the look back at the end.) #coyotes #oregon #wildlife

We are not in an energy emergency. The lie that we are could cost us the world's most endangered whale and the Endangered Species Act as we know it. My latest for Sierra is about the God Squad and the legal fight coming in the Gulf of Mexico: #whales #wildlife www.sierraclub.org/sierra/trump...

This is the face of a lunar scientist who has just been told that the #Artemis II crew saw SEVERAL impact flashes (the flashes when meteors hit the lunar surface) in real time 😃 🌓💥

yet another reason to leave substack (before they make it even harder to leave):

The Moon is great, but it's also Constantly Changing Wildflower Season, where every day looks different if you let a piece of grassland sit unmowed in the Pacific Northwest. Today, I saw the first of my favorite wildflower, the Camas lily. I'll savor the next month or so with them. #bloomscrolling

Those four humans, the crew of the Artemis II mission, have now set the record for the farthest distance from Earth anyone has ever travelled.

A lot of us want to use whatever space we have to help wildlife. But you know what they say about good intentions. My latest for Sierra is all about avoiding the pitfalls that could hurt our backyard insects, birds and other wildlife more than help them. www.sierraclub.org/sierra/what-...

We literally got an email **this morning** that they were not going to solicit proposals for the *checks notes* lunar instrument development program this year.

It's on me that I assumed this was a joke or hoax when I first saw it. Nope, the several NYT editors who looked at this headline don't know what NATO stands for. The paper has done far worse things morally and ethically, but I'm not sure anything has been quite this technically embarrassing.

I'm writing about Rice's whales and the ESA meeting this week, and I'm legitimately worried that the Rice's Whale content on NOAA's site could go away any day. So while you can, listen to three recordings of the most critically endangered whale in the world: www.fisheries.noaa.gov/southeast/sc...

Yeah. If you have a problem with the civility of Bluesky, I think that's a conversation we can have. It's not always great. But if you're still on X, you are telling me with your whole voice that being yelled at here bothers you more than Nazis there. At that point, the calm discussion is over.