A closeup of a deep purple Camas flower, rising up from tall green grass.

More Camas. I'm going to enjoy every day of their short season, and they're even prettier in the rain.

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.

Thanks for the tip. These are from just off 34 in Linn County.

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

Dozens of purple Camas lilies with yellow pollen sacs, with four to six flowers per stem growing in tall green grass.

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

Tagged birds have been seen up into southern Indiana and Illinois, so midwesterners, keep an eye out for vulture tags too!

Keep your eyes peeled in Tennessee for vultures sporting jewelry My friend Erik Almy spotted and photographed the black vulture above near Watts Bar Dam recently. Some people refer to vultures as buzzards, but no matter what

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 scott.rush@msstate.edu. Every observation helps. I talked to Scott for a story on black vultures a few years ago. #birds #vultures

newschannel9.com/sports/outdo...

Map of the contiguous United States showing the spring bloom index anomaly as of April 19, 2026 from the USA National Phenology Network. Many areas are earlier than normal.

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

FDA Finds E. coli in Raw Farm Cheese Matching a Second Outbreak During its investigation of an ongoing Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak involving Raw Farm-brand unpasteurized cheddar cheese, FDA detected E. coli in a product sample not matching the current outbre...

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.

A purple sunset sky behind Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon. The sky and rocks are reflected in rippled sand at low tide.

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

I saw someone the other day say that they think of weeks as a 7-game sports series. You just have to win 4. Yesterday was a crap freelance day, and today was a good one. I needed it.

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.

Two maps showing Temperature (left) and Precipitation (right) outlooks for May, June and July across the US. The temperature map shows bright red spots in the Mountain West and Southeast, meaning much higher than normal temps. The precipitation map shows lower than average in the Northwest reaching inland to Kansas, and higher than normal along most of the east coast and some of the Southwest and western Alaska.

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

A chart showing the decline in newspaper jobs since 2007, with every single year starting lower than the year before. From about 350k in Jan 2007 to about 78.4K in 2026

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...

A screenshot of the Youtube live stream of the Artemis Two mission, it shows the Artemis 2 craft on the far left lit by the sun, and in the middle of a completely black background is Earth, looming fairly large half shadowed, with the brightly lit part showing blue ocean interlaced white clouds

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...

The Fun-Size Auklet is a much better name for that Least, anyway.

No bird is lesser. And don't get me started on least.

Forecasters predict, prepare for increased drought and wildfire risk in Oregon after NOAA climate outlook After a mild winter and dry spring outlook, here is how Oregon is preparing for the potential of its warmest year on record.

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.

The white flag, aka the official flag of the Confederacy

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

Keep Cats Indoors - American Bird Conservancy Outdoor cats kill up an estimated 2.4 billion birds in the U.S. each year. Discover how American Bird Conservancy is reducing the threat of roaming and stray cats through our Cats Indoors program.

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...

Fisheries Biologist – Nooksack Tribe Nooksack Tribe is hiring for the position of Fisheries Biologist The Fisheries Biologist position provides a key role in supporting treaty rights and fisheries for the Nooksack Tribe. Under the direction of the Fisheries Program Manager, this position serves as the technical lead for salmon spawner surveys, carcass sampling, and harvest sampling. This includes supervising fishery technicians, performing field work, overseeing data collection, data QA/QC, and data analysis and reporting.

Nooksack Tribe is hiring for the position of Fisheries Biologist

We're on strike! Don't visit propublica.org on April 8

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

Trump Uses “God Squad” to Slash Endangered Species Protections The decision could defang the Endangered Species Act and condemn the world’s most endangered whale to extinction

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):