iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

and just for context, here was me, white-knuckling it through mud during that same storm!

Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I usually don't post my bird photos because they are not good. But today's alt #BirdOfTheDay theme is #BadWeather — birds in inclement weather and I had to post this pathetic hawk following a mega-rain in Tsavo East in Kenya. Rain can be a stressor for birds!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Enjoyed being a buckeye for the day! So fun to connect with so many former K-State folks as well!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Just found out it is #BlackCatAppreciationDay I clearly live with the best one…

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Serious FOMO not being at #AOS2026 but great to see former mentees meeting up with current grads and making connections through shared love of #manakins!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I found more Ontario #grassland today complete with #GrasshopperSparrows Unfortunately, I don’t know who owns it yet. I also found a U-Pick blueberry farm. All in all, 10/10 kind of day

Beautiful grassy field, some flowering for a, a couple of distant trees… mostly fantastically empty

A basket containing 4 litres of fresh blueberries on my counter top

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

For me, hanging out on the shores of Lake Huron is the definition of summer. Spent my childhood at my grandmother’s cottage and although this is a different part of the lake, the vibes are identical. Bliss.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

If you want graphical evidence that #cattle prefer recently-burned areas, here you go! 1 week of foraging locations from pre-treatment yr ( #VirtualFence ); collars recorded locations, but cattle went where they liked. Purple = burned that yr, yellow = not burned. #Tallgrass #prairie #VF

Map with many red dots (= cattle locations) closely matching purple shading and avoiding yellow and orange areas (burned 1-2 yr previous).

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Ontario #GrasshopperSparrows are weird… saw 2 singing from TREES yesterday, & apparently are totally fine with huge military telecommunications structures. So looking forward to understanding what makes them tick.

GRSP habitat in Prince Edward Co, Ontario; regrowing grassland 15 years since restoration began

GRSP habitat in Prince Edward Co, Ontario; grassland in field with many massive military commutation towers

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Adventures in attempting to capture Whip-poor-wills (with @animalsonthemove.bsky.social grad student Ingrid). We caught a lot of mosquitoes but no birds, sadly

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The #grasslands in #Ontario are small and scattered and really different from the Great Plains… and also incredibly beautiful! Grasshopper Sparrows, upland Sandpipers, Eastern Meadowlarks & other hanging on in #CardenAlvar

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

In simplistic terms, we wanted to understand why #manakins are so cool! Why did sexual selection act on this lineage so intensely but not in other lineages? 75 yr ago, David Snow proposed that frugivory was precursor to strong, sexually-selected traits & behaviours. This MS proves him right! 4/n

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

#NewPaperAlert! This one has a massive author list and has been a LONG time in coming, but is SO COOL! First, check out the first figure to get you interested! Manakins! Fruit! Sexual-selection in action (displays and Z:A chromosomal diversity)! Read on for the back story & link 1/n

above: montage of brightly coloured tropical birds, some in interesting display postures, some eating fruit
below: a phylogeny that includes those same taxa (and others) and a plot of the ratio of genetic diversity on the autosomes relative to the Z chromosomes

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Today’s office… I am a very lucky person!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

A goal in selecting prairie study sites is to span as many ecological contexts in which Grasshopper and Baird’s sparrows are found. That led me to these little patches of grassland surrounded by conifers in the Cypress Hills. #PrairieRoadtrip

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Classic S Manitoba scene and a tiny piece of what all the farmland destroyed… the wet side of the prairies are so much scarcer than the dry side

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Will be posting favourites from my recent #PrairieRoadtrip for a while. It was the grassland grand tour! Here is a hidden gem at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Souris rivers in SW Manitoba.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

And then there was a dust storm… at least the wind subsided (to about 45 kmph) and I could walk out in the prairie! Tough for birds though…

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Ah yes… the prairie reminded me of my insignificance yesterday and today

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

@mikekaspari.bsky.social , you will like this video better than the last one. South eastern Alberta is pretty amazing.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

So happy to be heading out to the lands of huge skies, wind, cryptic little songbirds, and amazing sunrises! Boarding flight to Winnipeg followed by 2 weeks traversing this HUGE area. Intimidated & excited!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

So much fun looking for #woodcocks last night with CAM folks! What started as 4 of us turned into >dozen & we added more folks at the parking lot who didn't know where to go! @animalsonthemove.bsky.social need to do more field trips together!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Sometimes you just can’t concentrate anymore and you have to daydream about your favourite things

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

I'll be talking about grassland birds on Monday night! this is actually the first of 3 webinars I'm giving over the next 3 weeks. But this one will especially be geared for the general public if anyone is interested! #ornithology #sparrows #tallgrass #prairie

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Heard and saw my first woodcocks of the year yesterday evening! Throwback to when I FINALLY captured one with my class. We were ALL *so* excited! (Captured/handled with permits) #ornitholgy #timberdoodle #banding #peent

Hands holding a bird with bulging eyes and a very long droopy bill against early spring background of leafless shrubs

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Work at home days are the best…

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Finally, my hooman remembered that it is #Caturday

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

@aircanada.bsky.social , when are you going to follow suit (www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/t...) and clarify/improve your instrument policies (TRAIN CHECK-IN STAFF!) re instruments? EXACT same thing happened to me, AC Wpg-Toronto. It is totally unacceptable. I have lodged a complaint & not heard back.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Changing rain under climate change is relatively neglected axis of modern world... this study highlights one of the reasons it is worth paying attention to. Also, 1 of first tests of hygric niche concepts that form much of my current research program. Final kudos to Katy! She is a rockstar! 7/7

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

#NewPaperAlert! So incredibly proud of Katy Silber, former PhD student & post-doc for publishing ALL of the work she did in the lab. This last paper @pnas.org answers the question, how and why does rain matter to bird reproduction, *generally*? Here is the graphic summary... details below. 1/n

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

WARNING MUSICIANS! @aircanada.bsky.social hates musicians! Despite a clear policy about being able to take instruments on board if there is room in overhead (there was), Mario at Wpg check-in gave me no choice. On jet bridge, I removed the violin from case & cradled it unprotected whole flight.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Spent a week embracing the cold! Reading week in Wpg

Skating on the Assiniboine River with my brother with MB legislature behind him

Listening to music outside (musicians inside box!) at Festival du Voyageur

Indoor music tent at Festival du voyageur

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Super cool seminar from @kristymferraro.bsky.social today at @westernu.ca Biology! I get asked by ecosystem ecologists about the role of birds in ecosystem processes… she had answers.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Some days, the sun shines and everything seems just fine

Edge of Lake Huron: frozen ice to the horizon, blue sky, sparkling snow, snow covered dunes in foreground

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

oh YEAH! Ornithology + the Yucatan in December??? Count me in for #IOC2026! If I haven't met you IRL, let's meet there!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Here is a snippet of the viola piece, written by Emily, a MS student and violist on the left

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

It is so easy to live in an academic bubble but so great when I remember to participate in all the cool things happening on campus! Tonight, art opening at the Macintosh gallery with lots of great art and a viola quartet!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

hello peeps! If you happen to live in Kansas or nearby, and are interested in how novel grazing technology (remote-controlled cattle!) have advance conservation goals in economically viable ways, come to our workshop!

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Well, actually, there are some other cool things too. There is this tiny endemic golden frog that lives in the terrestrial bromeliads… an endemic carnivorous sundew plants… hard table rock that gives the Tepuis their shape… and the super spunky cliff flycatchers. We loved it all.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

There are no signs, no guard rails, no gift shops or light shows. Just an *amazing* spectacle surrounded by forest.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Kaieteur Falls is the tallest single-drop waterfall in the world (apparently). UNLIKE basically every natural wonder I have been to, it is almost completely undeveloped. There is no road. The only people there with us were the other 10 people on the charter flight and 1 ranger.

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

On the TWELFTH day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, 12 TOURISTS TOURING… (yes, ONLY 12–at one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world!) #Guyana #birds #birding #NaturalHistory #12DaysOfGuyanaChristmas

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Alice Boyle @birdfiddler.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

We caught up with the Yellow-browed sparrow on a previous trip to Brazil, so this lovely little Grassland Sparrow was the last in the genus I hadn’t seen. If I were to come back to Guyana, I would definitely plan more time in these arid regions.

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