Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Day 34 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: house swift Saw this one out of the window of a tour bus in Japan 050
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Day 33 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: alpine swift I’m only kind of sure I saw this one. It was really high up and I didn’t have binoculars 030
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Day 32 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common swift Beautiful sign of summer. It’ll be time to say goodbye to them for the year soon. 040
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Day 31 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common cuckoo This one looks a little haunted but they can’t all be winners 040
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Day 30 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: oriental turtle dove It’s lovely how common these are in Japan when the European turtle dove is so elusive in the UK 020
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Day 29 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: mourning dove Growing up in America, these birds have one of the most beautiful haunting calls of my childhood 010
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Day 28 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: collared dove For being pretty plain I really think these are beautiful birds 140
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Day 27 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common wood pigeon A bird so fat and plump that when I see one I become a medieval peasant and think to myself that that would be good eating if I shot it with an arrow 041
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Day 26 of drawing every #bird ive ever seen: stock dove One of my proudest birding moments when I first started was spotting one of these before my professor did 030
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 19/07/2026Day 25 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: feral pigeon Most misunderstood guys ever 1212
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Day 23 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: it’s just a chicken. It counts ok, I’ve seen feral ones 061
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Day 22 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: wild Turkey My first American bird! It’s always so impressive to see these big guys wandering in the woods 030
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 06/07/2026Day 21 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: Red legged partridge Saw these guys while driving up in the highlands 051
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Day 20 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: ring necked pheasant. Can we stop releasing them, there’s enough already 050
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Day 19 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: grey partridge I always accidentally surprise these guys when walking in fields and don’t notice them until they fly off 040
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 09/06/2026Day 18 of drawing every #bird I have ever seen: black grouse. I have finally made it through my ducks for now 030
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 08/06/2026Day 17 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: red breasted merganser 050
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 06/06/2026Day 16 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: goosander 040
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Day 15 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common goldeneye 050
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 03/06/2026Day 14 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: long tailed duck 060
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 02/06/2026Day 13 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common scoter 050
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 30/05/2026Day 12 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: velvet scoter 040
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 27/05/2026Day 11 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common eider 060
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 25/05/2026Day 10 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: teal 040
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 24/05/2026Day 9 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: mallard 030
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 21/05/2026Day 8 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: common shelduck. I should’ve drawn the knob bigger (lol) but oh well 071
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Day 7 of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: whooper swan 0101
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 19/05/2026Day six of drawing every #bird I’ve ever seen: mute swan 051
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Day five of drawing every bird I’ve ever seen: Canada goose 020
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 17/05/2026Day four of drawing every bird I’ve ever seen: barnacle goose 020
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 12/04/2026Realizing that just a full list of birds would be pretty boring, I think I’ll highlight a species a week! This week I saw 58 bird species. Species of the week is the Eurasian whimbrel! They only pass by where I live, so I was lucky to see one 🪶 060
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 03/04/2026Not really sure what to use this account for, I was just kinda excited to get the username. I think I might post a weekly bird list #addbirder 110
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026While this paper by no means originated the idea of trophic cascades or the importance of carnivores, it is still a foundational read for understanding the role of apex predators in ecosystems and in rewilding ecology 🦈🐆🦡12/12 000
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026These concepts have also become part of the foundation of conservation solutions. Rewilding uses the “3Cs” model: cores, corridors, and carnivores; to restore self-regulating ecosystems. The hope is to get ahead of extinctions by addressing ecosystem function loss (Carver et al. 2021) 11/12 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026This paper clearly made a strong argument, because now, trophic cascades are recognized as core concept of ecology. It has been cited thousands of times, including by those trying to show the devastating consequences of this mass extinction (Ceballos et al. 2017) 10/12 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026They claim we failed to predict many ecological surprises because we didn’t account for trophic cascades as a cause. While physical processes are fundamental to understand, they don’t account for all ecosystem change, and we have to recognize the importance of apex predators 9/12 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026When this paper was written, many ecologists still thought large predators didn’t have large effect on those below them. The authors call for a paradigm shift where it should be assumed that they do, and studies should be done to prove otherwise, instead of the other way around 8/12 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026For example, reduced predators can mean higher population density of prey which leads to more interaction with humans and more spread of disease. This happened in sub-Saharan Africa with the baboon population after the loss of lions and leopards. 7/12media.tenor.combaboon cough is written above a baboon in a parkALT: baboon cough is written above a baboon in a park 110
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026As well as effects on other organisms in the food chain, losing apex predators causes indirect effects on the environment, including on wildfires; disease; soil, water, and air quality; and biodiversity. 6/12 110
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Still, trophic cascades have been observed in all biomes. Strength and type of effects vary because food chains naturally vary in length between ecosystems. Sometimes, predators reduce herbivores which increases plant abundance, but sometimes predators reduce plant abundance. 5/12 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Trophic cascades are also difficult to observe because conditions must be disturbed to see interactions that are usually invisible; effects may take years to decades to appear; and effects occur at scales larger than most empirical experiments are being conducted on 4/12 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026These impacts can be complex and nonlinear. Ecosystems can have “alternative stable states” where disturbances can push them past tipping points from one state to another. When it’s easier to turn into one state than it is to turn back, its known as “hysteresis” 3/12 110
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026The authors start by explaining that the Earth is in its sixth mass extinction, this one caused by humans. This extinction is characterized by the loss of large animals, especially apex predators. This loss has cascading consequences known as trophic cascades 2/12media.tenor.coma coyote is running through a grassy fieldALT: a coyote is running through a grassy field 100
Parker @ecoconservation.bsky.social · 11/03/2026Let’s look at a paper that explores the many pervasive effects of losing apex predators on ecosystems. 🐺🦊🐯🦁The full paper can be found here: www.science.org/doi/full/10.... 1/12 120
![Landscape-level effects of trophic cascades from five selected freshwater and marine ecosystems. (A) Shallow seafloor community at Amchitka Island (Aleutian archipelago) before (1971; photo credit: P. K. Dayton) and after (2009) the collapse of sea otter populations. Sea otters enhance kelp abundance (right) by limiting herbivorous sea urchins (left). (B) A plot in the rocky intertidal zone of central California before (September 2001, right) and after (August 2003, left) seastar (Pisaster ochraceous) exclusion. Pisaster increases species diversity by preventing competitive dominance of mussels. [Photo credits: D. Hart] (C) Long Lake (Michigan) with largemouth bass present (right) and experimentally removed (left). Bass indirectly reduce phytoplankton (thereby increasing water clarity) by limiting smaller zooplanktivorous fishes, thus causing zooplankton to increase and phytoplankton to decline. (D) Coral reef ecosystems of uninhabited Jarvis Island (right, unfished) and neighboring Kiritimati Island (left, with an active reef fishery). Fishing alters the patterns of predation and herbivory, leading to shifted benthic dynamics, with the competitive advantage of reef-building corals and coralline algae diminished in concert with removal of large fish. (E) Pools in Brier Creek, a prairie margin stream in south-central Oklahoma with (right) and lacking (left) largemouth and spotted bass. The predatory bass extirpate herbivorous minnows, promoting the growth of benthic algae.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qrfsgkzpsekqmjgoydskikzl/bafkreic5pxmurehvvsq3rseb4htneczb6if4au52ih4sqtxvw7qk5j3ana)
