Avian Ecologist

Conservation Concern: Yellow Rails

I got into ecology to be a conservationist, so my heart goes out to pretty much all negative effects of land use/land cover change (LU/LCC). That being said, it’s also exactly why I have to be smart about where I put my efforts and focus my attention, if only in vain to save myself a […]

Ice Age Trail

Today, Paul and I kicked around the Cross Plains section of the trail! We walked up around the Wilkie historic home and the hay fields.

Indigenous Language Scholars

As several of my blog followers know (and why they’re here!) I’ve been digging into the etymology of the Indigenous bird names of our continent (North America). I’ve been trying to connect with scholars on these topics on social media, which has inevitably led me to a broader web of Indigenous communities and languages across […]

Etymology Bubble Map

I made this mind map in reverse, such that the central yellow bubble is my main topic of inquiry and the tangential bubbles (grading to “blue”) are more general. This bubble map represents the directions studying this topic has taken me. Please connect me with experts in these fields!

Social Media #SciComm

Today is the 1st round of #NameThatBirdSong since my last post, so the game was on hiatus for about a month! The bird of week is field sparrow, inspired by Rick Wright‘s generous preview of his upcoming book. How bizarre that it took us so long to figure out that that beautiful April song of […]

Pomarine Jaeger!

There’s an incredible record of a pomarine jaeger today at Point Douglas! Many people photographed it, as it was just sitting on the water for awhile apparently. It offered close views for a good number of local birders. I wonder if it was “blown in” by the gales during the week?

Shag Bark Hickory Season

Now is the season to start picking shagbark hickory nuts from the forest floor! Unfortunately, though, I don’t live within the range of shagbark hickory anymore. It’s a good reason to head south and forage!

St. Louis Co., MN Rare Birds: October

The list of rarity records for this month in my county of residence is astounding! yellow rail ancient murrelet vermilion flycatcher brambling gray-crowned rosy-finch McCown’s longspur black-throated sparrow

Jaegerfest

Jaegerfest kicks off today, but we have a collaborator in town so I can’t take off! There has already been a pomarine jaeger photographed this morning!

Twitter Game Roundup

For my weekly sci-comm game on Twitter #NameThatBirdSong I post a bird song at noon on Weds. and ask people to tweet what they think it sounds like (i.e. make up their own original #altmnemonic). The name of the game is a play on that many mnemonics for bird song are some form of onomatopoeia […]