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Gates Dupont

@gates.bsky.social

1.8K followers 2.6K following 39 posts

PhD Candidate 📚 Princeton University 🐅 Ecology & Evolutionary Biology 🦋 Patterns & processes of macro scale biodiversity loss 🪺🪹

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

📊 Very much looking forward to #ESA2025!! I'll be presenting my work on North American bird declines 📉 Session: COS 153 - Biodiversity 4 Time: Thursday, August 14, 1:30 PM – 1:45 PM EDT Room: BCC 322 See you there!! 🦉🦉

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

A peaceful owl amid a chaotic week. Have a good weekend, everyone.

A photo of a Barred Owl. The owl is facing the camera. The owl is sitting on a dead branch that extends at about a 35 degree angle. There are various twigs in the frame, mostly in the background. The distant background is blurry with white clouds and blue sky. The owl has a slight golden-hour glow.

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

Reported this banded Ring-billed Gull in Massachusetts. Just heard back from USGS—he hatched in 2019 and was banded in the summer of 2021 on a small island outside Montreal! Bands can be reported to: www.reportband.gov

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

🚨 My first Substack post! 🦅 substack.com/home/post/p-...

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Snowy Owl today at Buffalo NY’s outer harbor! 15x digi zoom on a 60x scope for an owl 550 feet away (safe viewing recs: 150-300 ft min.). Luckily this one is on a private doc that’s fenced off — making for one happy owl! Can’t get closer than 500 ft. Best part of the winter season to me.

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

🟣 A summer 2024 highlight for me: re-finding this rare orchid that was first documented at this exact location by Henry David Thoreau in the 1850s. Only a single plant. The Greater Purple Fringed Orchid (Platanthera grandiflora). Incredible to see the species persisting here over 170 years later.

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Weekend work break! Check out the tiny hook on the bill of this Slaty Flowerpiercer. They pierce the corolla of flowers, robbing the flower of its nectar without pollinating. A cheater in a coevolutionary system!

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Working from the coffee shop today, finishing some Breeding Bird Survey analyses so I can resubmit a paper... and dreaming of far away places! This was from the closest I got to a scarlet macaw in western Costa Rica. Good times! Really excited about Bluesky, feels like a breath of fresh air.

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

👋 Hi, I’m Gates! 🐅 PhD Candidate at Princeton University 📉 Studying emergent patterns of biodiversity loss 🦢 Currently working on birds, previously on snow leopards! I especially love talking stats, rare orchids, complex systems, photography, & big cats! Say hi if you’re into nature or numbers! 😊

Anna's hummingbird looking at the camera. Its gorget is well-lit, reflecting deep pinks toward to viewer. The bird is perched on a tiny twig with some small leaves on the bottom of the image. The background is a smooth tan color, blurred out by a bokeh effect.

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 11/07/2023

I visited Glacier National Park in June and I’m working through my photos! This is from Logan Pass, one of the highest points on the aptly named Going-to-the-Sun Road. Luckily, I saw a quick drop-in from a glacial-specialist Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, before it continued to other snowy peaks.

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Gates Dupont @gates.bsky.social · 10/07/2023

The first orchid species I ever purchased (a seedling, over 10 years ago!) bloomed for the first time last week! This is Prosthechea cochleata, found from Venezuela to Florida. It’s coveted for its unique, upside-down flower, which afforded it the colloquial name: "the clamshell orchid".

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