Hot and dry out. It was perched at a sign at the park behind our house
neurobiologist, ornithologist, scruffy looking nerfherder, social distancing since 1974, currently at U Lethbridge, Treaty 7 lands 🇨🇦 🇦🇺 stuff open access link for our book: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/6000/Bird-Brains-and-BehaviorA-Synthesis
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Hot and dry out. It was perched at a sign at the park behind our house
One of several brown thrashers still hanging out along the riverbank. Not much longer and they will all be flying south. #yql #Alberta #wildlife #birds #birding 🪶🇨🇦
It is undoubtedly his plan, despite claims in the election campaign of doing the opposite. If any money is put into research, it will be boutique programs and industrial partnerships, which very, very, rarely lead to major advancements in Canadian research.
This is great news for my colleagues but means that researchers in 🇨🇦 will struggle even more to pay publication fees. Our federal government could do something but as usual will not and then wonder why we continue to lag in research and innovation.
I learned recently that the developments at U Adelaide are becoming widespread in Australia. In Canada, admin wants most courses to be in person because they need the revenue from parking, food and other money spent on campus. However it’s only a matter of time before they follow Australia’s lead…
Agreed. I think online lectures are a good option for some courses for some students. Intro Neuroscience course gets 2x the enrolment online compared to in person, but we provide both options. In person is how I try to connect with students (and recruitment them into our lab!).
Sorry but I am not buying the notion that online chats and breakout rooms provide similar experience to in person interactions on campus. In addition, providing online lectures that can be stored puts university teachers at risk of losing jobs.
The Rufous Hummingbird is still sticking around our neighbourhood, fueling-up prior to their southern push. In this photo there is both bee balm and bumble bee bomb. #birds
Powerful Owls are listed vulnerable & aren't doing so well due to habitat loss & other factors. Birdlife Oz @birdlifeoz.bsky.social are running a campaign to help them (using 📷 by @lucyparkerpaul.bsky.social & myself 🙂). If you'd like to support POwls, click the link birdlife.org.au/campaign/don...
An American crow looking a bit rough yesterday afternoon. #yql #Alberta #birds #birding #wildlife 🪶🇨🇦
Too many students aren’t getting their needs met. Alberta’s per-student spending is the lowest in the country. That has to change—for kids, for teachers, for our future. #StopTheExcuses #KidsCantWaitAB
Gang-gang Cockatoo, adult male. #birds
A mallard keeping a watchful eye out during its afternoon siesta. #birds #birding #ducks #yql #Alberta #wildlife 🪶🇨🇦
Graham was the best! So sorry to hear about him passing.
More mountain bluebird goodness today. I will therefore reserve complaints until tomorrow. #birds #birding #wildlife #yql #Alberta 🪶🇨🇦
You might also appreciate this song that I consider appropriate for responding to the UCP: youtu.be/QjNKbOFPnOc?...
On a related note, I have heard the same claim about enlarged ventricles in sloths. Paul Manger reckons that enlarged ventricles might be associated with eating leaves with high levels of secondary compounds, with the extra CSF helping to flush them out? 🤷♂️
No, I don't have a digital format of it and I cannot even remember if he states anything about the ventricles in the paper. I will see if I can find my hard copy and scan it. It was in an edited book series from around 1987. Andrew Isles probably has copies of the actual books for sale.
The “entertainment” at the Grand Final has been terrible for a long time. Terrible, anti-woke and pro-Trump is going way too far and in keeping with the AFL’s responses to racism and homophobia.
Whoever said 10% never read the original study, published as a book chapter and cowritten by my PhD supervisor. The issue, according to him, was that the ventricles are enlarged in koala brains and at the time (mid 80s) MRI would not have been an option.
Osprey perched along the banks of the Oldman River yesterday. #yql #Alberta #raptors #birds #birding #wildlife 🪶🇨🇦
They are tricky to find most of summer. September they are typically more visible in the coulees. Popson Park near the picnic shelter is often a good spot to see them.
A mountain bluebird against a blue sky this morning. #yql #Alberta #birds #birding #wildlife 🪶🇨🇦
An eastern kingbird looking deceptively innocent. #birds #birding #yql #Alberta #wildlife 🪶🇨🇦
Here is your reminder, on this last Saturday in August 2025, that the first Saturday in September is International Vulture Awareness Day.
Because many Alberta voters are ignorant, stubborn, xenophobic and paranoid of change. And the province attracts similarly minded people from elsewhere.
I’m with you 1000% At the rate things are progressing I am looking at trying to start teaching me class with the kid at home and hoping that I don’t end up being locked out. The UCP has $$ for industry all the time but 💩 for any form of education.
Someone needs to ask the minister why both of his ministerial jobs have had major issues with collective bargaining. This is the same bs he pulled with post secondary in his previous position. #abpoli #Alberta www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
On the eve of the Labour Day long weekend, I am thankful for the UBC Faculty Association who have stood by me (and many others - the stories I could tell!) 100%. Remember that HR is not your friend and neither is Faculty Relations. Your power lies with your FA.
I just read this. Could Aussie consultancy groups kindly F off and leave us alone? First we had “pathways” consultants for international student recruitment and now this? @ydbelanger.bsky.social
Western Kingbirds are still hanging around here, but likely not for long. #yql #Alberta #wildlife #birds #birding 🪶🇨🇦
Here's my entry for #ThreeBirdThursday, three northern rough-winged swallows. #birds #birding 🪶
Teachers: we really need supports for complex needs in classrooms, lower class sizes, better working conditions, and appropriate funding UCP: best we can do is a book ban
A young Swainson's hawk was apparently unimpressed by my presence under its roost this morning. #yql #Alberta #wildlife #raptors #birds #birding 🪶🇨🇦
My new favourite birding hat courtesy of an MSc student!
Yet it is the model almost every university in 🇨🇦 has embraced, following the lead of the Americans, Australians, etc. It’s depressing and demoralizing.
“University leadership is becoming a class apart, she said, no longer senior academics who have risen through the campus ranks, but more like movable CEOs. “ How to fix Canada’s broke universities? There’s a template for that. apple.news/ArcGbCfr3Qgq...
Department of Hummingbird War. 🪶
Our job ad is now out on the ULethbridge website and University Affairs. We are looking for a systems neuroscientist working with animals (note that we do not have facilities for nonhuman primate research). #academicsky #sciencejobs #Canada #neuroskyence 🧠🧪🇨🇦 uleth.peopleadmin.ca/postings/8586
An abundance of cedar waxwings this year everywhere I go. Buck Lake, Alberta, 🇨🇦 #birds #birding #Alberta #wildlife 🪶
Also none of her f-ing business what another province does.
I often refer to him as "obscenely photogenic". He gets compliments on his looks almost every week. Luckily he doesn't let it go to his head 😆
For #InternationalDogDay, a portrait of our Large Munsterlander "Indy". He is named after Indiana Jones due to his penchant for digging up everything in our yard when I first brought him home.
Following all your kayaking posts I decided it was time to get the canoe on the lake last night.
Neudorf touring modular nuclear reactors? To paraphrase Jackson Lamb, it would be easier to explain the concept of Norway to a dog.
That sucks but Hot Incident Report sounds like an up and coming Indie band
Yet another juvenile Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio). In late summer, they seem to be everywhere. They don't really have a forked tail... its plumage just got mussed up in the bag while it was waiting to be ringed. But it looks cool! 😀👍 #BirdingHungary #shrikes #birds #birding #ringing
If they have not done so already, the next step for admin is to hire private security to monitor activity on the picket line with people and recording equipment. One senior admin even drove past the picket line repeatedly to estimate numbers. And they wonder why we don’t trust them 3 years later…
If it is anything like our lock out, they even disabled email forwarding and some senders are blocked completely. This is all part of the university administrator playbook and it will permanently damage faculty-admin relations. #solidarity ✊🏻
More feed cleansing goodness. More parrot loveliness. A regent parrot at Gluepot Reserve.
As someone who often reads and cites older papers I am begging people to not use AI tools to find or cite references. This is now going to become a topic of discussion of our lab meetings.
Washington DC wildlife: Ruby-throated hummingbird perched on a ceiling fan blade this afternoon on our deck. She let me get so close I took the photo with the macro lens I use for insects. 🪶
For everyone preparing NSERC discovery grants also heed the advice below!
We are in the very busy period of #cihr review. Couple of things. Please, please, please stop - using “within” when it should be ‘in’ - using ‘influence’ or ‘impact’ as verb when you need directional, measurable effect - saying you ‘believe’ - having non-testable hypothesis statements Kthxbye 👍🏻
Every enrolment drop is also a drop in local rentals and other student spending, and every grant drop is a loss to local spending--and both also hit the university budget. The @dalfaculty.bsky.social is standing up to the bullying just fine--the Board is just costing Dal and the region money.
Lots of common yellowthroats still calling in the reed beds today. Buck Lake, Alberta, 🇨🇦 #birds #birding #Alberta #wildlife 🪶
A bit of black-capped chickadee side-eye in the shady branches of a willow tree. Buck Lake, Alberta, 🇨🇦 #Alberta #birds #birding #wildlife 🪶
Hey there Bluesky. Sorry I haven’t been around the last couple days. Here’s a young Osprey looking a wee bit silly. They sure have great expressions #birds 🌿
Possibly but Parker mentioned the UK, so….
So his plan is to remove most of the service and tourism industries, a large % of healthcare workers, my spouse, etc. another good reason to get my son’s dual citizenship sorted out in Australia
As far as staff losses similar to the current situation in Australia though, Alberta is far less dependent on international students than the majority of Aussie unis. That said, cancelling and merging programs has already happened (as you know) and will continue to happen.
The Alberta provincial government and various Aussie state governments follow each other quite closely, so anything is possible. That could include removing tenure, firing staff, and merging of universities/colleges. The Alberta "advantage" strikes again!
Whitehead's Spiderhunter (Arachnothera juliae). The most unique of our spiderhunters in appearance. #BirdsSeenIn2025 #Sabah #Malaysia @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social #birds #nature #wildlife @mybirdcards.com @ebrrh.bsky.social
I suppose. But if under 12s are not eligible then what is the point of pre ordering? (Rhetorical, this is all UCP bullshit)
Oh we did. And we will wait and see. Worst case scenario, we drive to Fernie and get him vaccinated there.
But they let us book an appointment for our 10 year old, so what the f???
Snowy Egret Mission Bay, San Diego #photography #birds #naturephotography #wildlife #wildlifephotography #sandiego #birdphotography #birdsky #nature
I appreciate online videos available for a few weeks after meetings and have had success with occasional one day virtual meetings, but I agree there are no easy answers to any of this.
And Albertans are jealous of Ontario. Not only will I have to pay for COVID jabs, our son is deemed “ineligible” because he’s <12.
The UCP in Alberta have quietly announced a ban on covid vaccination for most kids under 12, please report on this and do anything you can to stop it. They have revised to a two phase rollout, neither of which make kids without severe medical eligible for vaccination. www.alberta.ca/coronavirus-...
Researchers have filmed thousands of climbing catfish scaling waterfalls, providing a rare insight into the daring migration of an enigmatic fish. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4lDlFux
@dalfaculty.bsky.social #keepdalstrong
Not sure what you're up to, but there are currently thousands of shorebirds moving south through the #pacificnorthwest at the moment. These first cycle Western (L) and Semipalmated (R) sandpipers wanted to demonstrate how bill length can help tell them apart. #birds #birdphotography #migration
Resident Oriental Honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus torquatus) preening after a wet morning. #BirdsSeenIn2025 #Ipoh #Perak #Malaysia @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social @mybirdcards.com @ebrrh.bsky.social
our paper on how light pollution affects bird vocal behavior is out today in Science!! w/ @brentpease.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Posts like this will cause long lasting damage to faculty-admin relations. As a result of our 2022 lockout/strike, morale at ULethbridge has been in freefall and the majority of faculty distrust everything admin says or does. @dalhousieu.bsky.social no good will come of this.
Happy #worldgoatday from the CVN lab!
Just had the best lunch with a former graduate student who is doing her residency in neuropsychiatry. Former graduate students, please keep in touch with your PI’s. It makes a huge difference to us and is greatly appreciated. #academicsky
Funny, but also incredibly accurate based on our experience.
The board’s plan is clearly to follow that of boards of smaller universities that engaged in lockouts. It is a plan that benefits no one. Keep the pressure up to get them back to the table #solidarity from ULethbridge ✊🏻
Yes, the first home buyers grant and the rise of negative gearing. All things that priced us completely out of the market and submarined our hopes of moving back. All we can do now is occasionally come back for visits, which sucks.
For anyone interested in an academic job in 🇨🇦, we will soon be advertising an Assistant Prof position in Systems Neuroscience (rodents and other animal models) at ULethbridge. There are many pros and cons of working here, so feel free to DM me to find out more #neuroskyence #academicsky
1000% He opened the door to commercializing universities in addition to the children overboard scandal, and numerous other heinous acts.
I still blame this on John Howard, who made it impossible for my spouse and I to consider a future in Australian academia or research.
A life-sized bronze statue has been unveiled on the island of Papa Westray, Orkney, in memory of the last known Great Auk Pinguinus impennis killed there in 1813. The statue is an exact replica of the preserved remains of the bird, which are held by the Natural History Museum.
If it’s anything like Lethbridge, no one will provide any extensions for grants. Many of us lost many opportunities over the course of our 6 week lock out in 2022. Fingers crossed that Dal admin sees reason and comes back to the bargaining table.
With all the attention that the Air Canada flight attendant strike garnered, this action at Dalhousie comes at a precarious time, not only for the incoming students but for faculty as there are imminent deadlines for research grants including CIHR. Hang tight Dal colleagues. 🤞
Excellent! I’m up in Edmonton so I missed going and am working on getting to another site later this week.
How long have I been birding? Well it would appear since at least 1976! #birding
Understood!
Oh no! Hopefully he can keep going for a while!
As someone who lived in Australia for many years and is married to an Australian, we have been trying to convince people in 🇨🇦 to use sunscreen for 21 years to no avail. We share your sentiment completely
A whole new view of bird behaviour! #birds #ornithology 🪶🧪
Thank you! We hope everyone agrees with your assessment!
Broad in scope but strikingly concise, highly accessible, and nuanced - go get this book if you have even the slightest interest in birds and/or vertebrate brain evolution. I will use it a lot. Congrats @evoneuro.bsky.social! #neuroskyence 🧪
@ornellabertrand.bsky.social keynote talk on the evolution of brain structures in placental mammals to interpret fossil ecology @tibbe-evolneuro.bsky.social #ESEB2025 SYMPOSIUM 17.02
Lily Fogg taking us on a dive into Life in dim light and the surprises of the evolution of vision in deep-sea fishes, the developmental events, at #ESEB2025 symposium on evolution of behavioural diversity @tibbe-evolneuro.bsky.social @ebablab.bsky.social @alealisousa.bsky.social @r3rt0.bsky.social
