In one example, mob tapes brought Loggerhead Shrikes into the middle of a cottonwood restoration plot, I cannot recall shrikes ever caring about pishing, and I cannot imagine them in that habitat or location via pishing.
Broadcast playback triggers reactions that are magnitudes above pishing. Also I’ve walked in on mob tape scenes, with birders cranking to Channel 11, drawing in birds from a much larger radius than pishing could ever achieve. And pishing brings in a smaller set of species.
🧬🐧🧪🌎❄️🦉 New research from our #PenguinScience team and collaborators! An international team of scientists identified 35 viral genomes found in Antarctic penguins–offering a rare window into how wildlife and viruses evolve together in one of the planet’s most extreme environments. shorturl.at/rTGy9
In 59 years of #birdbanding at #PalomarinFieldStation, only 26 #BeltedKingfishers have ever been caught. Therefore, it was a huge surprise to our banders when they caught this #HotBirdInHand at Palomarin on 7/13 + a second one only 3 days later at the nearby Pine Gulch! 🤯📅🌎🦉🧪🌐
Scientists have been trying to understand the vocalizations of birds—and discovering that the animals have intellectual abilities far greater than most people had imagined.
In Tucson. I drove through almost 2 hours of steady rain to get here, and to see the drought, and the blasted creosote and wrecked palo verde amidst vast stretches of standing water from this incredibly unlikely storm was breathtaking. I was so lucky to see this today.
A day in the field, training point count protocol followed by recon of Piru Creek sites, the northern peak of Least Bell’s Vireo expansion. There were < than 10 vireo pairs on the Santa Clara River in the 1980s, now there are several hundred. A pale swallowtail on prickly phlox in Piru Canyon.
“We have clear evidence that conservation works in halting declines,” said Michael J. Parr, President of American Bird Conservancy. “The science is solid on how to reverse the damage done, but to succeed, these issues need to be taken seriously.”
Learn more at abcbirds.org/news/2025-st.... 🐦
Psyched that this is complete and released, with important information on aridland birds in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico.
I love this, thanks.
It's National Invasive Species Awareness Week!
Did you know that domestic cats are among the world's most harmful invasive species? You can help keep your cat and other animals safe by keeping your #CatsIndoors.
#NISAW
I want to be clear: the private sector, as it presently exists, *cannot* quickly spin up to fill any void left by substantial dismantling of #NOAA. Full stop. If that were to happen, people would die in extreme weather events who would not have otherwise, & economy would suffer.
The deep pool of black light that is a Coastal California Gnatcatcher’s eye. These are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
We found this buddy while exploring Least Bell’s Vireo habitats and damage from an invasive beetle in the Tijuana River Valley last week.
A lovely California Towhee from Amy Tan. I’ve spent several years working on an endemic Mojave Desert population of them in the Argus Range. I love unique takes on species we think of as ‘common’!
Thank you @abcbirds.bsky.social for sharing this with me ❤️
Thanks to @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social for highlighting our research on habitat changes caused by wildfires in the #MojaveNationalPreserve! This study compiles vital data to support bird conservation & guide fire management strategies. 🐦🌵🔥
🔗 https://buff.ly/4hwFMt0
Please forgive crosspost of this question on Threads, not sure which platform is best. Can you link me to this NWS precip map site? I used to use the Precipitation Analysis page, which then got folded into an NOAA National Water Prediction Service GIS interface that is a bit clunky. Thank you
A screenshot of Maggie Smith's "Good Bones" Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children. For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.
Poetry Foundation not fucking around with today's poem of the day
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/89897/...
Fascinating
They Built Their Fireproof Dream Home. Even if It Lasted, Would They? www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/u...
Both Things Can Be True, Says Man Lying Twice
The whole thing is stacked against people, and expressions of people, to save a couple people’s bottom lines, or to get someone a little promotion for selling us out.
It reminds me of the robot recordings that play after you call a business on the phone, asking us to rate the person’s performance. They never ask us to rate the robot’s performance, just like there is never retraction or admission when AI sucks.
Damn, all of this AI crap they keep forcing on us. With your writing, your music, your art, you are communicating yourself. Why would anyone abdicate that to a machine, other than tacitly admitting that you don’t trust yourself?
Weighing in at 2-3g, the Volcano Hummingbird is one of the smallest birds in the world.
Pros: Its short bill can only feed from flowers too small for many other species.
Cons: It takes about 2,700 flowers to meet daily metabolic needs.
Learn more at BOW!
buff.ly/4ffYtPQ
Thank you California #WildlifeConservationBoard The WCB has awarded funding to @abcbirds.bsky.social and several partners, including #AmargosaConservancy, UC Davis, and #CaliforniaBotanicGarden for set of restoration actions within the Amargosa Basin. Read more at abcbirds.org/amargosa-res...