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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚

@earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social
553 followers 1.8K following 74 posts

#ornithology #ecology, bird nerd, Mothra, she/they, looking for work!, banner by James Smith 📸, @erlynerdgetbird from twitter

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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
back on my BS (bluesky) ✨
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Neil Gilbert @gilbert-lab.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
recruiting a couple new grad students to start in january, please share! www.gilbertecology.com/opportunities
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gavin jones @ecologyofgavin.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
I’m looking to recruit a postdoc to join my research group at University of Iowa to work on disturbance ecology and biodiversity! Start date flexible, lots of opportunity for skill development, collaboration, and mentorship. Will review applicants in mid-August! Link: gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
gavinmjones.com
Opportunities
BIG NEWS! The Jones Lab will be relocating to the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability (SEES) at the University of Iowa in Fall 2026. Our work on disturbance ecology and conservation sc…
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iNaturalist @inaturalist.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Here, have some birds perched on appropriate/delightful signage. You're welcome. 🧵 ⤵️ 1. Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) by tysmith on iNaturalist
A black vulture sits on a sign that says "black vulture notice."
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
sound up for a rainy waterfall
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
OKAY good morning everyone, let's talk about the ostensible katydid testicles on display here and their horrifying evolution
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Pretty sure I accidentally posted a pic of a katydid ballsack tonight so SORRY about that everybody I thought it was EGGS I didn’t think insects had fuckin ballz like that good lord.
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Juliane Gaviraghi Mussoi @jgmussoi.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
New article out: The effects of sleep disturbance on a songbird’s vocal performance royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #science #birds #sleep #birdsong #urbanecology
illustrations of an awake common myna with lights of a city in the background, and of a sleeping common myna with trees and a dark sky in the background.
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
PhDone
Two people standing under a colorful banner that reads “Dr. Kit Straley congratulations!” The banner has a bird with a graduation style cap.
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 25/07/2025
Bird sounds.
A four panel comic titled Bird Sounds. In panel 1, labeled thrush, a wood thrush sings its beautiful eeohlay song against a forest background. In panel 2, labeled wren, a winter wren delicately sings tweedly tweedly tweedly. In panel 3, labeled warbler, a yellow warbler delicately sings sweet sweet. In panel 4, labeled heron in a death metal font, a heron screams KRAAGH against a background of fire.
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Jenny Coomes @jaycee161.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
New publication! 🚨 If you're looking for a paper on what great tits eat then this is for you! 🦋🐛🐞🪲🐦 We looked at variation in diet using DNA metabarcoding and found lots of differences between adult and young birds and between habitat types. @ucc.ie onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Schematic of the structure of the paper. We looked at dietary differences between ages and sexes, seasons and habitat types. We looked at the identity of prey in the diet and the number of dietary items.
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
we learn about the food web early on in school, but it’s another thing to witness the spectacular growth of herbivores, all through the power of native plants! insects are declining, and one way we can help is by providing them with their native host plants. 🐛🌿💚
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
I know almost everyone hates their dissertation at the end, and I don’t hate mine, but wow is it hard to focus on writing this thing very few people will ever read or care about so I can earn my piece of paper while we freefall into fascism 🤦🏻‍♀️
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
caterpillars will never cease to amaze me. this is happening every day all around us. in the woods. in the parks. in your yard, especially if you have native plants!
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Madeline Bodin @madelinebodin.newsie.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/07/2025
Will habitat loss, insecticides and light pollution bring us another silent spring? Birds need insects. (By me, with photos by Melissa Groo.) www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu… #birds #conservation #insects #animals
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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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
🚨😷🧪 NEW: A growing body of evidence shows that pandemics, biodiversity loss, and climate change are part of a broader polycrisis - but there are no simple solutions. A sweeping overview of "Pathogens and planetary change" for the first issue of @natrevbiodiv.bsky.social, out now 🔓 rdcu.be/d6lHl
Top panels: graphs showing increases in spillover events, extinction rates, and temperature anomalies over the last few centuries. Bottom panel: a map of 10 pandemics since the year 1900. Four were linked to agriculture, two to wildlife use, and one to climate change.
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
my results might by negative in not so exciting ways, but at least I can still make a nice color coded ggplot 🤷🏻‍♀️
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Emily PhD 🎓 @ejwillingham.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Nothing abt this is quiet&people have been talking&posting& calling their electeds about it all week. It's been widely covered in the press, esp in the West. The Wilderness Society has an entire interactive built for people to see the lands affected in their area. www.wilderness.org/articles/med...
wilderness.org
250+ million acres of public lands eligible for sale in SENR bill
The bill mandates disposal of over 2 million acres of BLM and National Forest lands; public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 250 million acres, including local recreation areas, wild...
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Nature Ecology & Evolution @natecoevo.nature.com · 10/06/2025
Our June issue is now live! www.nature.com/natecolevol/... Featuring research on: 🧬Airborne eDNA 💰Costs of biological invasions 🌡️Genomic predictions of temperature adaptation Cover illustration by Marco Lawrence, based on Bradfer-Lawrence et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cover image of the June issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution showing an illustration of a woodpecker flying into woodland at the edge of a typical UK farmland landscape. The cover line reads "Land-use legacies"
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
for your consideration - another moth! this is a female Promethea moth who is getting released today. 🍃🐛🦋
A female Promethea moth rests with her wings open. She is standing on the green fabric bottom of a mesh cube. Her body is dark raspberry red and fluffy. Her antennae are feathery and dark yellow. Her wings have complex patterns and many colors - dark red, burnt orange, raspberry pinks, tan, black, and cream. Her forewings have a dramatic black spot near the tips. All of her wings have a thick tan border, and the hindwings have extra raspberry splotches in the border. There is a scallop-edged white line in the middle of her wings, and on the side of that line closest to her body her wings have more contrasting and vibrant colors.
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Joshua Wilson @oshuwilson.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
bluecorridors.org is live! Watch whales doing their thing as they mooch and migrate throughout the year. It is an honour to be involved in processing the data for this amazing living initiative. Looking forward to expanding it further!
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Rosy Christopher @envirosyment.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Hi everyone, I am launching a community science scheme "Spider Spies" where we are asking you, to send us pictures and if you're keen and able samples of Misumena vatia, the Flower Crab Spider to investigate their interactions with their host flowers and the invertebrate community around them.
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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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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Oh and here's one with my handle on there if you're sharing as your own post instead of reposting one of my posts. (good looking out @danielb1609.bsky.social)
An infographic labeled "Should I buy this plant? a bug-approved guide" 

It takes you through the following line of questioning "1. Is it native: Look at the name of the plant here and see if it's native to your region, with a QR to look that up) If no, Is it good at feeding bugs? Some non-native make lots of nectar. You can google if unsure. If yes, Are there better options available? if yes, don't buy it. If no, buy it. Ok, let's go back to the top. If it IS native, is it a cultivar? Does it have a goofy name like "Daisies jubilee" or "Pink Flamingo Hibiscus" It's a cultivar. If it's a cultivar, it'll send you to are there better options available? If it's not, on to question 3, which is "Was it grown with pesticides? This can be hard to tell. Check with the origin nursery. If yes, are there better options. If no, "Hell yeah". 

There are little flowers on a bunch of the boxes. The Hell Yeah box has a swallowtail butterfly with sunglasses giving a thumbs up. The no has a sassy bee looking over its sunglasses at you judgementally with its hand on its hips.

On the bottom is says "Need help? Text questions to 9-RUNG-SQUID, the handle @SarahMackAttack is also on there
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
so much is stressful right now, and coping is really hard. I’m trying to find joy where I can, so look at this moth I raised I am obsessed.
A male Polyphemus moth rests with its wings open upon my hand. In the background there is white fabric and a pile of giant silk moth cocoons. The moth’s wings are a beautiful red-brown. There are 2 dramatic “eyespots” on the hindwings that are black with yellow centers and blue edging. The leading edge of the front wings is a thick salt and pepper gray line. The antennae are large and feathery. Each wing has a very special small oval “window” that you can see through, in those sections they are missing the scales that give them gorgeous colors everywhere else.
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Rebecca Heisman @rheisman.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
This essay by a recently-fired Forest Service employee is worth a read. www.hcn.org/issues/57-5/...
hcn.org
Losing more than a Forest Service job - High Country News
Trail work, though underappreciated, made for a life well-lived in the woods.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
When warnings of Insectageddon were issued a few years ago, there was widespread denial. Less so now. It's devastating. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects
A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Ok what’s your go-to website for looking up a plant to figure out if the plant in front of you is native or not? It cannot be an app for this purpose. This needs to be useful to people who are extremely fly-by. Website that lets you plop in a name and tells you where that plant is native to 🙏🏻
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
This is incredibly cool work, and a gorgeous cover! 🪺
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
a brief moment of serenity with the moths
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 22/05/2025
Found a baby songbird? Here's a newly updated chart!
A chart that explains what to do If You Find A Baby Songbird Out Of The Nest. Is it hurt or did a cat get it? (Cat bites & scratches cause deadly infections.) or, Has a person kept it for over a day, given it food or water, or gotten it wet? If yes, Contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator 
or wildlife care center near you. An online search can help. If no, what does it look like? Eyes not yet open. You have a hatchling. It's very young. Eyes open; feathers few & may be in tube-like sheaths. You have a nestling. Feathered; awkwardly hops or flutters; tail & wings short. You have a fledgling. Many sharp teeth; large claw on second toe. You have a velociraptor. If a hatchling or nestling, can you see the nest? If yes, Return it to its nest. The parents won’t care if they can smell you. If no, Make a nest from a basket & dried grass. Wire it to a tree. (Note: A few species, like Juncos, need a nest on the ground.) If a fledgling, is it in immediate danger? If yes, carefully move it to a safer spot nearby. If no, DO NOT INTERVENE! Though the bird looks awkward, it’s in a natural stage & the parents are still feeding it. If a velociraptor, has it seen you? If yes, back away slowly. Do not show fear. If no, run. Watch for others that may attack from the sides. FYI: Some babies (eg. swifts, most woodpeckers) only sit on the ground if in trouble. When in doubt, keep watch & contact a wildlife rehabilitator if needed!
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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...
Two Promethea moth caterpillars
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 19/05/2025
Last day to send comments for this. Please do it. www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
federalregister.gov
Rescinding the Definition of “Harm” Under the Endangered Species Act
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively referred to as the Services or we) are proposing to rescind the regulatory definition of "harm" ...
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Neil Gilbert @gilbert-lab.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
I'm looking for a postdoc in quantitative ecology / macroecology to start in summer/fall 2025 in my lab at Oklahoma State University. Please spread the word www.gilbertecology.com/opportunities
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
they’re backkkkkkk
A female luna moth hanging upside down and slowing expanding her wings. She has a white fluffy body, dark magenta legs, yellow antennae, and spring green wings. She is surrounded by shiny silver metal in a criss cross pattern because I overwinter my cocoons in minnow traps. There are a few small droplets of rain on her wings.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 14/05/2025
I talked about all of the costs in class, ecological and intellectual, and my students were really great and I wish I could teach them again
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Alex Tomlinson @alextomlinson.com · 07/05/2025
Flat illustration of four birds marching with various flowers and plants in their beaks for Audubon's Plants for Birds initiative (2022)

Dark-Eyed Junco with Witch Hazel
Chipping Sparrow with Oak Leaf
Yellow-Rumped Warbler with Showy Milkweed
Goldfinch with Purple Coneflower
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Michael Parks @jurassicparks.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Alarming to see populations celebrated as stable (waterfowl) now also declining. Last year I wrote about the most dire of all, grassland birds www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2024-...
sierraclub.org
America's Disappearing Grasslands—and Grassland Birds
For prairie birds, flyover country is an increasingly hostile place
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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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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
toof
A close up on a black cat’s upside down face with a single little white tooth peeking out of its mouth
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
the thought that haunts me every time a new terrible memo or policy or cut or whatever gets announced, every time I learn about another decades-long effort to make other peoples’ lives worse - “It doesn’t have to be like this.” It doesn’t have to be like this.
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
I wake up in the morning and I am blasted by bird song and I love it so much. 🐦🎶 but I had a thought today about shifting baseline syndrome and I just have to wonder…how loud did dawn chorus used to be, exactly? 😱🔉
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
🚨 Cool new project alert 🚨 WE- you, me, everyone- need to work together to get important science messages out to people. 4 artists & 3 scientists collab'd on these posters. We hope YOU will put them out in your community. Each poster comes w/info about each topic. Get 'em Squidfacts.bigcartel.com
4 12x18 inch posters on a brick and concrete wall. The top left is pink and says funding science saves lives, written in microbes, next to a microscope. The one on the right says Biology is bigger than binaries, with a fish, a lily, and a bee. The bottom left says Protecting wildlife starts wtih you, with a bunch of adiorable woodland creatues in yellow, white and black, including an owl, fungi, a... um. weasel? salamanders, butterflies, slugs, and a rotting log. The bottom right says Will our oceans thrive or nosedive the choice is yours, with the ocean represented in a circle, half of which is dead and half of which is alive, including kelp and a mackerel
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Important thread
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Patrick Lynch @patrlynch1.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Life in emergent freshwater marshes. For my forthcoming book "PONDS: An Illustrated Guide," Yale University Press, 2026. 🧪🌿🌎 #sciart #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #iNat #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #marshes #freshwater #wetlands
Photo-diagram and illustrations depicting the many forms of life in emergent freshwater marshes.
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
there is something really comforting that even amid all of the human terribleness going on nature still follows its patterns. leaf out and spring migrants and peepers were giving me so much life today 💚 many foys including Wood Thrush, Gray Catbirds, Common Nighthawks, and many warblers!
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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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Birds of the World | The Cornell Lab @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
New study finds where birds are declining most. High trend resolution data reveals complexity of bird population changes. “This is the first time we’ve had fine-scale information on population changes across such broad spatial extents and across entire ranges of species,” said Dr. Amanda Rodewald.
birdsoftheworld.org
Birds of the World - New study finds where birds are declining most; some locales with positive trends
“This is the first time we’ve had fine-scale information on population changes across such broad spatial extents and across entire ranges of species. And that provides us a better lens to understand t...
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Kit Straley, PhD 🐦🤓💚 @earlynerdgetbird.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
😂😂😂😭
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 30/04/2025
I could be wrong about this but I really think most Americans do not want to be forced to “do their own research” about food & drug & product safety and would rather that the government agencies that have been sorting that all out for them for decades not be obliterated in the name of “efficiency.”
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