Sign in

Brian Rolek

@brols.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.6K following 74 posts

PhD | Quantitative Ecologist at a nonprofit | Applied conservation science | Birds esp Raptors and Passerines | Bayesian stats | Population Ecology | Forest Management | Dadding

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa @benjaminschultzfig.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Very metal nominee for Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Over a caiman carcass, a black vulture spreads its white-tipped wings. © Andrew Parkinson / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
417644
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Alex Zalben @azalben.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Dolly Parton, among a thousand other amazing things she did in her life, gifted over 330 million books to kids through her Imagination Library program. Her passing is a tremendous loss to the world, but you can support the program today to keep it going imaginationlibrary.com
imaginationlibrary.com
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.
45121555979
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Big new @adriftlab.bsky.social paper - we show for the first time that plastics affects seabirds at the POPULATION level. Plastic ingested as a chick reduces recruitment of birds to the breeding population. And the story is pretty grim. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
316092
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
I've never had a manuscript peer-reviewed by 5 people at one go before but I just got one back. This manuscript should be bulletproof after this. 😂
240
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Free advice. It is many orders of magnitude faster to recode and run your Population Viability Analysis in R than to run it in Bayesian software from an Integrated Population Model.
200
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Pablo Macias Torres @pablomaciastorres.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A high-quality peer review should always be standard. But paying reviewers seems reasonable, especially when journals charge such substantial publishing fees and the reviewing process is so important
0139
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
I've been wrestling with model convergence so I'm giving Empirical Bayes another try. Has anyone tried this out in their own research? Not seeking advice but curious about whether it worked for others.
000
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I've been using the No AI version of DuckDuckGo and am impressed with the results. It seems to favor reliable sites and has a clean interface: noai.duckduckgo.com
Screen shot of DuckDuckGo's "NO AI" search homepage, with orange type and cheerful duck in a green bow tie.
1226954
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
A critical part of my "writing a manuscript process" has become jamming as much of my hard work into the supplemental materials as possible just before submission.
020
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
I got some really interesting results back a few weeks ago. I'm excited to write this one up! Good things to come. Obligate scavengers are the coolest.
030
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
If youre using AI to help with coding/stats on manuscripts, be sure to get a code review from someone who actually knows how to code/do stats. The AI slop era has arrived.
130
Reposted by Brian Rolek
The Peregrine Fund @theperegrinefund.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
New Publication 📰 American kestrel population trends and vital rates at the continental scale bit.ly/4c19FjT 📷 Jim Shane Figure 4 from Howell et al., 2026 #RaptorResearch #Ornithology 🪶
A small brownish-orange, grey-blue, and black falcon holds a cricket in its mouth while perched on a branch. A publication headlined titled, "American kestrel population trends and vital rates at the continental scale" is overlaid on the image.
044
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Janet Hill @saskajanet.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Oscars for birds? Count me in. We cannot deny that the Killdeer deserves recognition for their amazing performance as a wounded prey item to distract predators from their kids #birds #BirdOscars
Two shorebirds with black neck rings. One is sitting on a nest in the grass while the other checks in.
517516
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
“Novelty” of approach is overrated and no I won’t be expanding on this.
5311
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Jennifer Molidor @jennifermolidor.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
I love condors. They are critically endangered and quite the characters. But they’re also incredibly important. With iron-strong stomachs, they are the disinfectants of ecosystems and protect from disease. We have much to improve in our relationship with them. www.azcentral.com/story/news/l...
azcentral.com
Condors soar over the Grand Canyon, kept aloft despite lead ammo threat
The California condor nearly went extinct, and remains imperiled by the threat of poisoning from lead ammunition.
2254
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Methods in Ecology and Evolution @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
🤔Looking to make your #code more #reproducible? Check out our new and improved guide to Reproducible Code! 🧪🌍️ Find it here👇️ buff.ly/10TeNok @nhcooper123.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org
06443
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
The Bearded Vulture continuing its reign as the most metal bird by eating bones and doing this. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
160
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Dan Mennill @dmennill.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
In memory of Dr. Keith Hobson, the Society of Canadian Ornithologists is collecting donations to support the Keith Hobson Early Career Research Award. If you have the means, join me in supporting this initiative: www.zeffy.com/en-CA/donati... Details: www.sco-soc.ca/early-career...
01212
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Sometimes I just enjoy the aesthetics of discrete traceplots
000
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today. Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology
30516308
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
A preview of my upcoming talk at Raptor Research Foundation. Evaluating management of Ridgway's Hawk using IPMs and PVAs. Press play and watch the Population Viability Analysis go!
010
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
So many people have made personal sacrifices working every day to improve living standards for all of us. They are heroes that often go unrecognized and deserve better. I'm thinking about you all today.
050
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
Check out our latest where we look at long-term trends of Boreal Owl captures, juvenile captures, body condition, and cycles. Great work Justine Le Vaillant! A collab with @hawkmountain.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EZU6Z...
tandfonline.com
Demographic trends for the Boreal Owl, Aegolius funereus, using standardized migration monitoring data in eastern North America
Many boreal species have declined during recent decades in North America. Various indexes suggest that populations of the Boreal Owl Aegolius funereus are declining across North America, but very f...
020
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Someone please do this with Grasshopper Sparrows. It would be pretty wild because their early successional habitat can result from fires, agriculture, or mechanical manipulation. Cool study!
040
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
As of today, I'm officially an Elective Member of the American Ornithological Society (AOS)! 🎉🎈🎊 I always need to remind myself to stop and celebrate these things.
050
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Here's an extremely useful study for those using survival models that compares different implementations. Just my luck, guess which model I had been using for a not-yet-published study. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Comparison of Bayesian Models to Estimate Survival From Dead‐Recovery Alone and Together With Live‐Encounter Data: Challenges and Opportunities
Different models in the Bayesian framework for analyzing dead-recovery data, either alone or together with live-encounter data to estimate survival, are presented and compared. Although all but one o...
140
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Using non-centered parameterizations of the normal and multivariate normal distributions has absolutely rescued a couple of complex models for several projects. It served me well when models become intractible or take too long to run.
210
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Monica G. Turner @monicagturner.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Please, please, please-submit to good journals (society + reputed publishers), respect peer review, and do your reviews with integrity. So important. Thanks to all of you who do. @steve-carpenter.bsky.social @esajournals.bsky.social #Ecosystems
26926
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Latest achievement, I made my model indices spell s,c,a,t. Thats sex, captivity, age, and time. Sadly, my study has nothing to do with actual scat.
140
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
Wildlifers who have traveled/lived in Costa Rica, what should i check out after a conference in October?
000
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Yeet Kune Do @yeetkunedo.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
re: generative AI I have finally fully and accurately explained my problem with how it’s marketed and used. And now, you can use it, too.
Generative Al is being marketed as a tool designed to reduce or eliminate the need for developed, cognitive skillsets. It uses the work of others to simulate human output, except that it lacks grasp of nuance, contains grievous errors, and ultimately serves the goal of human beings being neurologically weaker due to the promise of the machine being better equipped than the humans using it would ever exert the effort to be.

The people that use generative Al for art have no interest in being an artist; they simply want product to consume and forget about when the next piece of product goes by their eyes. The people that use generative Al to make music have no interest in being a musician; they simply want a machine to make them something to listen to until they get bored and want the machine to make some other disposable slop for them to pass the time with.

The people that use generative Al to write things for them have no interest in writing. The people that use generative Al to find factoids have no interest in actual facts. The people that use generative Al to socialize have no interest in actual socialization.

In every case, they've handed over the cognitive load of developing a necessary, creative human skillset to a machine that promises to ease the sweat equity cost of struggle. Using generative Al is like asking a machine to lift weights on your behalf and then calling yourself a bodybuilder when it's done with the reps. You build nothing in terms of muscle, you are not stronger, you are not faster, you are not in better shape. 

You're just deluding yourself while experiencing a slow decline due to self-inflicted atrophy.
127118385592
Reposted by Brian Rolek
The Peregrine Fund @theperegrinefund.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
New Book: State of the World's Raptors 📖 bit.ly/SotWR The new book, led by Executive V.P. of Science and Conservation Dr. Christopher McClure provides an original approach to setting regional priorities for the conservation of raptors across the globe.  Chris with book 📷 Anne Dixon
0116
Reposted by Brian Rolek
The Peregrine Fund @theperegrinefund.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Our Madagascar Program Director, Dr. Lily-Arison Rene de Roland, has been named the 2025 Indianapolis Prize winner! Congratulations, Lily! Read more about Lily's accomplishments and the Indianapolis Prize at bit.ly/4klk1Od 📷 John Mittermeier   #RaptorResearch #birds #raptors
0154
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Brian Owens @scibri.com · 13/05/2025
Are you a US researcher who has recently moved to Canada because of the Trump disruption to science (or are you in the process of doing so)? I want to talk to you for a story in @nature.com 🧪
13437
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Post-doc position available if you're interested in "movement ecology, animal tracking, conservation and sustainability science, environmental planning, human–wildlife coexistence, project management and/or consortium-style, big-data research." www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/I/...
vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk
Post-doctoral Research Fellow - AR3119LS
Post-doctoral Research Fellow - AR3119LS, School of Biology Salary: £38,249 - £45,413 per annum Start Date: As soon as possible Fixed Term for 2 Years with a possibility to extend, <p style="text-ali...
100
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 08/05/2025
The legendary USGS Bee Lab is being shut down. The 2026 budget proposal defunds the Ecosystem Mission Area, which supported the lab. If their science helped your work, there’s still time to make your voice heard. Read below. (1/4) 🧪 #pollinators #Pollinators #USGS #Entomology #Hymenoptera 🪲🪳
usgs.gov
USGS Bee Lab at the Eastern Ecological Science Center
The USGS Bee Lab supports research on native bees. As part of that program we and our co-located USFWS partners develop identification tools and keys for native bee species, take public access hi reso...
6401295
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Getting that new model running just before the weekend 😙🤌
020
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Physics Today @physicstoday.aip.org · 25/04/2025
A science communicator launched an effort to pair artists with scientists whose jobs were eliminated or whose research funding was halted by the Trump administration. The result? Powerful portraits of researchers and their work. ⚛️🧪 doi.org/10.1063/pt.f...
doi.org
Portraits of dismissed scientists personalize US government cuts to science
A hurricane researcher. An invasive-insect entomologist. An e-cigarette toxicologist. A biomedical librarian. Those are some of the people included in Silenced Science Stories, a visual storytelling p...
114866
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Maëlis Kervellec @maeliskervellec.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Honoured to receive the 2024 Robert May prize !! 😊 🎉 Many thanks to the @britishecologicalsociety.org & @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
32611
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Just some mating peregrines at @ucdavis.bsky.social - no big deal #Birds
515518
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Olivier Gimenez 🦦 @oaggimenez.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
🚨🎉 New paper "Ten quick tips to get you started with Bayesian statistics", hope you'll like it 😇🤗 ✍🏽 w/ Andy Royle, Marc Kéry and Chloé Nater 🔗 dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... @plos.org @cnrsecologie.bsky.social @cnrsoccitanieest.bsky.social @umontpellier.bsky.social
Graphical summary of 10 quick tips to get started with Bayesian statistics and how they fit into a larger view of an analytical workflow with Bayesian models.
316269
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Do any of my friends have access to the IBIS journal? Looking for a pdf of Mallord, J. W., K. P. Bhusal, A. B. Joshi, ... (2024). Survival rates of wild and released White-rumped Vultures (Gyps bengalensis), and their implications for conservation of vultures in Nepal. Ibis 166:971–985.
010
Reposted by Brian Rolek
Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Well. At least 21 of my journal articles and at least one essay in a popular book I contributed to were used to train Meta's AI. I never consented to this use. What are our rights here? What is our recourse?
theatlantic.com
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
1912634
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
The Peregrine Fund is looking to hire a Forest Management Specialist
042
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
Brilliant bird-friendly windows at the Halifax Library.
030
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Warning: you cannot unsee what happens to a lead bullet once it penetrates simulated flesh.
010
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Do you hunt or know someone who hunts? Share this video with them that explains the benefits of using non-lead ammunition to human health and to wildlife. #NonLeadPartnership #LeadItGo peregrinefund.org/lead-it-go?e...
040
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Do you hunt or know someone who hunts? Share this video with them that explains the benefits of using non-lead ammunition to human health and to wildlife. #NonLeadPartnership #LeadItGo peregrinefund.org/lead-it-go?e...
peregrinefund.org
Lead it Go | The Peregrine Fund
0136
Brian Rolek @brols.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
The Peregrine Fund is seeking a GIS specialist. Join an awesome team that's making the world a better place. peregrinefund.org/sites/defaul...
047