iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Caterpillars Count! @caterpillarscount.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Still space in our Caterpillars Count! webinar tomorrow, April 21 @ 11 am ET Learn how to survey foliage arthropods 🐛🐜🦋🐞🕷️🪲 and contribute to a continental (and beyond!) scale monitoring project! #insects #phenology #CitizenScience caterpillarscount.unc.edu/getStarted

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Many thanks to the bee folks who deal with the fact I butcher their taxon’s scientific names but they still make me feel welcome :D

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I wish I could repost this 1000 times. Come on people

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Steph likes native plants @dendromecon27.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

I am probably going to be turning down review requests for the foreseeable future. Maybe once I figure out if our office gets closed or not in the USFS reorg... hot tip: cut your USFS R&D colleagues some slack these days.

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Proposal in with 45 min to spare! 💪 here’s hoping they want to fund me to get some new urban bird (and bee!) research going…

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Making a talk this weekend to share some of our first preliminary findings from the Native Plant Ecotype Experiment! Also presenting on our modeling efforts to use big community collected datasets (iNaturalist!) and provide recommendations for plants for pollinators specific to your ecoregion.

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

This paper is making the rounds again! Exciting update is we just got some funding to study caterpillar performance on local and nonlocal ecotypes! (Plant genotypes adapted to other ecoregions). Stay tuned for more caterpillar pictures this summer! 🐛

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Check out this amazing fall migration track from our female Gray Catbirds we studied this summer! This lady picked up on that big night of Sept 29th and made a nice 40 miles per hour flight from western massachusetts down to Philadelphia! We're excited to see where she is picked up next!

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Honestly it’s writing more grants 🤷‍♀️

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

We’re up on the Mt this week for Bicknell’s Thrush but the spruce-fir is buzzing with migratory birds! Surprisingly the top is very dense with migrants (mostly young) despite the low food and cold conditions. Here’s a few of our bycatch friends. (All birds captured under USGS BBL and state permits)

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

I love how the default description for white male ecologists is ‘quantitative’ while for everyone else it’s ’so good with people!’

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Amazing what a week of full bellies and warm snuggles will do #catlove

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Not ever day that longhorn cuckoo bees (Triepeolus sp.) out number the bumblebees during surveys! Three species yesterday on one plot. All on blue vervain (verbena hastata) which appears to be heavily favored by this genus

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Worked from home this week to play catch up on papers but the cat distribution system had other ideas. Needless to say I haven’t gotten anything done because snuggles took priority.

Small, two or three week old kitten sleeping

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Now that you’re super stoked about #moths from #mothweek, check out a paper I published this year that I’m very proud of. Spoiler alert: the tree composition in a forest fragment predicts the abundance of specialist and generalist moths. More #keystoneplants = more moth diversity #plantanoak

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Grumbling that lots of concept & opinion papers on urban sustainability/biodiversity get published all the time without real data. We submitted a data-driven paper on plants, inverts, birds, and soil and get rejected because none of the invited reviewers agreed to review it. Frustrating.

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Fall migration has started! Techs caught a bay-breasted warbler this morning. The start of the molt migrants that don’t breed on Mt. Mansfield, but spend 2-3 weeks molting fresh plumage for the rest of their journey. #mansfieldsongbirds

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Here’s 1 year of blue vervain (verbena hastata) growth from plugs planted in our experimental #nativeplant gardens last year. Lots of activity! #vceecotypeproject #pollinators #buglove #gardensforwildlife

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

If you’re having the kind of day I am, you might need this.

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Tis the season for fun field work, awesome data collection, learning and mentorship, beautiful days on the mountain, and baaaaaabies #vcemansfieldsongbirds #ornithology #pollinators #vermont

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Erin Douglas 📝 climate reporter @erinmdouglas23.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Hi, I'm a climate journalist for the Boston Globe. If you're a federal employee working in New England for EPA or the Forest Service (or you were, until last week..) I'd love to hear from you. My colleagues and I at @bostonglobe.com are dedicated to protecting our sources. Signal: erinmdouglas.23

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Freedom from kings. Freedom from fascism. Power to the people forever. ♥️ Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

You can’t understand bird declines without also understanding insect declines. Grateful our work on insect-bird interactions was highlighted by Smithsonian Mag. If you love birds, think about whether your actions are helping the insects they need to survive. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

smithsonianmag.com

Scientists Are Tracking Worrying Declines in Insects—and the Birds That Feast on Them. Here's What's Being Done to Save Them Both

In Vermont, researchers have investigated the types of creepy, crawly bugs that their avian predators consume and may have found the answers to keeping them both alive

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

The pollinators we’re seeing in the garden plots are good and all, but dang was I excited to see this gorgeous creature 💚💚💚 Black swallowtail caterpillar on Zizia aurea

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Fun day of Saturday field work! Helped my mentee Kevin band and find gray catbird nests. Getting around the habitat is no joke, but the weather was gorgeous! #femalebirds #ornithology #vceinthefield

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Heck ya white river junction @dunkindonutscoffee.bsky.social . Love the native plant landscaping! Way to go supporting biodiversity! Take my money! 🌱🐛🐦

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

A right-winger -- a registered Republican, a Trump voter, an evangelical anti-abortion activist -- assassinates a Democratic official. Republicans respond by blaming the left. Democrats respond by blaming ... no one.

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

I’ve never had a photo selected for a journal cover before 💜 So glad my first was a caterpillar! 🐛 many thanks to @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social for her beautiful photography!

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

ESA Journals @esajournals.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

The June issue cover of "Ecosphere" is here! With a shot from @dlnarango.bsky.social & Straley's study of the value of native vs near-native vs non-native plants for insect wildlife Browse the issue: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21508925...

Cover of the June 2025 issue of Ecosphere

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NBC News @nbcnews.com · 30/05/2025

Harvard president receives standing ovation during commencement.

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Dexter Patterson aka Wisco Birder @wiscobirder.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

New episode of the Bird Joy Podcast with Corina Newsome! open.spotify.com/episode/4OdV... 🪶🎙️🖤

open.spotify.com

Joy, Justice & Birding with Corina Newsome

The Bird Joy Podcast · Episode

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Johan Kjellberg Jensen @johankjensen.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Very happy that our new paper in TREE is out today! We call for a paradigm shift in how we build our cities toward evidence-based urban greening. Cities are key battlegrounds in the fight against biodiversity loss but current planning often falls short. We outline the scientific case & a way forward

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Back on the mountain, saying hello to old friends #mansfieldbirdresearch

Bicknell’s thrush being held by a field researcher

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

New paper! If trees are closely related, does it matter where they are from to plant-eating insects? We raised >950 Promethea moth caterpillars on 14 Prunus species to answer that question. Turns out, it matters a lot! Non-native trees = Lower performance OA paper here: doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Beautiful but chilly day on the lakeshore for Birdathon+! I’m up to 40 species so far. What’s your guess for how many I get? All winged things count that are id’d to species.

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Spent some time out in the field yesterday to enjoy some birdy bycatch. Nothing is better than bird banding in the morning and pancakes for brunch. 💜 Baltimore Oriole, American Redstart, Mourning Warbler, and Least Flycatcher

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Alex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · 16/05/2025

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first.

One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.

Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points.

We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.

Anelise Feldman
Freshman, Yarmouth High School
Yarmouth

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Reposted by Desirée L. Narango

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit. This cannot be allowed to happen.

science.org

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

New Paper! We tested the effectiveness of keystone plants by examining moth communities along both an urbanization gradient & forest composition gradient. Spoiler alert: tree species matters! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Pic: Kit Straley

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

A student of mine is starting a new project on catbirds this summer and I am weirdly excited to learn more about these goobers

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Desirée L. Narango @dlnarango.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

This blackpoll project is SUPER cool. Cutting edge tech and migratory modeling. And you get to work with a stellar multi-org team! Apply!

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Ryan Norris @ryannorrissci.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

New PhD position available on blackpoll warblers with fieldwork in the boreal forest and tropics. @audubon.org @birdscanada.bsky.social @vtecostudies.bsky.social

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Vermont Center for Ecostudies @vtecostudies.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Do you know a kid age 8-14 who has bird nerd potential? VCE is helping launch an Upper Valley Youth Birding Club, and it meets for the first time this Sunday! Only five spots left, register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Upper Valley Youth Birding Club

The Upper Valley Birding Club is an informal initiative aimed at fostering apperception and passion for birds in young people aged 8-14. We look to build confidence in young birders by teaching birdin...

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