I study ornithology from an interdisciplinary perspective. My research has focused on bird diversity and tropical land use. I'm currently working on a book about birds in art. I teach international study abroad and love travel and visiting museums.
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She was brought to the US as an 8yo, worked hard, studied, earned a scholarship, planned to become a nurse. ICE kidnapped her. Held her for 6 MONTHS in a detention facility with conditions so miserable that she finally agreed to voluntarily move to Honduras, which her family left at gunpoint.
The administration slashed National Park Service staffing, delayed seasonal hiring and is pushing current staff to their limits. The resulting, extensive impacts in this new report are just the beginning if they don’t change course. https://bit.ly/4mtyWaq
So irresponsible. This is an important article news.climate.columbia.edu/2025/08/25/t...
Agreed Senator. This is getting ridiculous and Noem must be running out of lies.
Thank you, former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland for speaking up for national parks. Tell Congress to #ProtectEveryPark - join us this Saturday Aug. 23 at events across the country and online! Visit NPCA.org/everypark for details.
[FOUNDER'S BRIEF - @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social] The more intimately we understand the scale of ecological loss, the harder it becomes to stay hopeful. Yet the people living closest to the crisis are often the ones imagining the boldest futures.
What is this guy doing in a Cabinet position???? Where is the off-ramp?
"One of the reasons the epidemic of violence against women is so unacknowledged is because cases like these are talked about individually, and often treated as though they are shocking aberrations rather than part of a pervasive pattern that operates at all levels of society."
When Europeans arrived to the Pacific Northwest, they spread smallpox to the Indigenous people, plundered salmon, hunted down deer, and erected sprawling cities. New research details the profound impact, in numbers.
Because too many people in America don't care about their fellow citizens. The self made individual wants to keep all his money for himself.
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
Obscene
A recent review suggests that the more ambitious ceiling of 1.5°C(2.7°F), which nearly every country in the world pledged to work toward under the landmark Paris climate agreement, may be too warm for the planet’s polar ice sheets and trigger massive sea level rise.
A new analysis of more than 70,000 wild animal species reveals that climate change now threatens thousands (nearly 5% of the assessed species) of the planet’s wildlife, along with overexploitation and habitat degradation. Ocean invertebrates are particularly vulnerable.
Amazing new exhibit by ceramic artist Sarah Conti on view at Eutectic Gallery in Willamina Oregon.
I called Zinke's DC office last week and had a nice chat with his staff. There is hope.
What is going on with the people that were in the US legally and deported to El Salvador? The Cato Institute has a newly released report on this violation of due process rights.
That is right. They feel shame even as they abuse their power. Just like the KKK in their white hoods.
✋
Can Congress reinstate her?
He will hopefully continue the work on addressing climate change as Pope Francis tried. With 1.5 billion followers it could make a difference! Pizza and baseball are ok too.
There’s so much happening right now, I thought I’d put together a running thread on the dismantling of #climate and research and knowledge infrastructure in the United States 🧵
So messed up. AI is taking away energy sources to humans and water from nature already. Where are the analyses of tradeoffs?
News outlets could do a better job helping people connect the dots. Thank you for covering this. The President went on record saying he cares about jobs while cutting and causing forced retirement of thousands of federal workers doing jobs that require years of specialized training. Call this out.
Hopefully not the old growth forests. I'm not sure where they will mill all the trees.
Take back the power of the purse Senator. Congress can stop this power grab and scam.
Who controls the money supply for this evil? Can Congress defund ICE and the money Trump is paying to El Salvador?
"the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man mistakenly sent to a gulag... and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps. This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, and it has to be identified as such to be stopped" snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror
"Few apes have done more to unsettle human certainties than Kanzi the bonobo. He wasn’t the first nonhuman primate to use symbols to communicate, but he was the first to do so with such fluency, subtlety & apparent ease," writes Rhett Butler in Mongabay's occasional series, Founder's Briefs. Read:
Except maybe every slave owner? These guys really are so 17th-18th century.
What a nightmare.
WORLD-FIRST: Ground-breaking research published today in the Ornithologist Journal has, for the first time, translated common UK bird vocalisations into equivalent phrases in the human language. The results tell us a lot! Extracts below... 🧵
My favorite bird call!
Inexperienced bros getting important jobs that are beyond their capabilities or interest. They are just there to break things.
How can this happen? Who will be held accountable and how do we get them released?
We are sending people for indefinite detention without trial at a foreign gulag because they have tattoos about soccer teams and about loving their mothers.
Iain Douglas-Hamilton spent a lifetime communing with and championing African elephants, which he regarded as more than objects of study. A new film co-produced by the organization he founded, Save the Elephants, explores how his work challenged the fortress model of conservation. Read:
Colorado College’s annual survey included residents of 8 Western states, the majority of whom identified as politically conservative or moderate, shares Inside Climate.
Last night, 99% of House Republicans voted to codify the Trump-Musk coup. Every Democrat except Rep. Golden stood united against this extreme MAGA spending bill. Senate Democrats still have the power to stop this sham of a government funding bill by holding the line. Contact your senators ASAP. 👇
Silk turban please! And a pearl!
I love this puffin tea box too!
Betty Ann is a super hero!
Common Kingfisher along the Arno River, Florence, Italy. Life bird at least in the wild. Often painted.
Here I react to the shameful behavior of American leaders and media toward the Ukrainian president. No doubt there were more, but I saw five failures on our side: of hospitality, decency, democracy, strategy, and independence. Please watch and share. snyder.substack.com/p/five-failu...
Me sketching in plein air as painted by a fellow workshop attendee.
Cool, Wingspan is a favorite so I'm willing to branch out taxonomically speaking.
Thank you!
Excited to start building my bird related contacts #addBirder
Nice! Thanks!
Cool! Would it be remote?
One supervising ranger left at Grand Teton National Park. Rethink those summer vacation plans apnews.com/article/trum...
www.annefrank.org/en/topics/de...
Hello! I'm interested in birds in nature and birds in art. Hoping to connect to people active at the interface of science, art, and nature conservation and education.
