iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 06/07/2026

Heat waves. Thanks to @climateadam.bsky.social's most recent video, which helped inform this comic and gave me the kick I needed to make it.

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

🇨🇦JOY 🇨🇦 @joycomes.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

The Jackdaw plucking fur off a moulting deer the bird gather soft warm nesting material, and the deer gets a free, highly appreciated, grooming that removes itchy, loose winter hair and ticks

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 09/04/2026

Emperor penguins have joined the list of wildlife endangered by global warming, the International Union for Conservation of Nature announced on Thursday.

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I.U.C.N. Red List Moves Emperor Penguins to “Endangered”

Populations are declining as climate change causes the sea ice the birds need for survival to retreat, according to researchers.

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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

The BBS is a phenomenal achievement. But trends for 'my' main study species are all very bleak for 1995-2024 population change: Marsh Tit: 53% decline Willow Tit: 92% decline(!!) Wood Warbler: 82% decline Wood Warbler is already generally considered irrecoverable in England. #ornithology

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

My most recent dissertation chapter was published in Ornithology! Using fecal DNA metabarcoding and independent arthropod sampling, we compared chickadee nestling diet composition between years and elevations and identified patterns of prey selection. 🪶 url: academic.oup.com/auk/article-...

academic.oup.com

Fecal metabarcoding reveals differences in nestling diet across years with extreme variation in climate and arthropod availability in a montane songbird

Abstract. Animal diets are shaped both by the availability of resources and preferences for certain food items over others. Environmental conditions can af

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Snowpack around the Lake Tahoe Basin is receding quickly and is now confined to only the highest elevations. It is not even April yet. Looking like we are going to have a very water-limited summer. Will be interesting to see how the insects and birds respond.

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Season of Scaryanne Denton 🧡🎃 @mariannedenton.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I’m overjoyed it’s bug season!! I’m desperate because the Sierra Snow Lab is predicting on-site snow melt-out occurring five weeks early.

A drone fly AKA flower fly, probably male with those big eyes, on the pink blooms of a landscaping plum tree.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

American Wigeon (Mareca americana) male spending his winter with us in Reno. He even smiled for the camera 🦆😃 Soon he’ll be on his way to his breeding grounds, probably north of us - possibly all the way in Alaska. Always love seeing these guys, and equally as much, hearing their cute squeaks #birds

Small duck with green over eye, creamy crown, rosy breast, and a light blue bill with a black tip swimming in the water.

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Devi Satarkar @devisatarkar.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

My second DPhil paper is out! A nice example of how continuous long-term monitoring of natural populations can be so valuable for understanding impacts of climate change on wild animals 🪶 📍Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire 🌳🪺

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

I think my worldview can be summarized by the following three points: ____ people are people too, and should be treated as such ❤️ Earth is our only home and is worth saving 🌍 Diversity is essential for a healthy ecosystem/society 🌈 It’s really that simple.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Today, in my town of Reno, NV, students from nearly all high schools and even some of the middle schools participated in a walkout to protest ICE. I’m so proud of them ❤️ We should listen to them - they read the history books most recently so they know what’s at stake.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Everywhere I look I see women leaving academia for one reason or another, and many of these reasons are less relevant to male counterparts. Obstacles like longer review times are certainly not helping, especially in a career where success and progress are measured in publications!

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Mountain bluebird (Siala currucoides) perching on a Russian olive tree. A beautiful end to the year. I hope all your birdy dreams come true in 2026! #birds

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Vladimir Pravosudov @cognitiveecol.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

chickadeecognition.com

POSITIONS

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Streaked Flycatchers (Myiodynastes maculatus) are large flycatchers native to Central and S. America. On first glance they appear rather drab, but they have beautiful cinnamon tails and stunning facial markings. While they mostly eat insects, they are also known to eat fruit and even small lizards 🪶

A brownish bird with a streaked belly, reddish tail, and dark mask over eye perches on a small branch of a guanabana fruit tree.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Birding is for everyone! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ We had such an incredible time representing the Northwest Nevada Bird Alliance (formerly Lahontan Audubon Society) at Reno's Pride celebration this year! Huge shout out to our incredibly talented artist Lauren Estrada for creating our banner!

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

An intense look from a very tiny northern pygmy-owl (Glaucidium gnoma). These owls weigh less than an American robin (~70g)! They are unusual among the owls because they are diurnal, meaning they hunt and are most active during the daytime. They prey mainly on small songbirds and mammals. #birds

A small owl perched on a broken tree limb glaring down with bright yellow eyes.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) males shoveling around in the mud at a wetland in Reno, NV. Many ducks' bills contain small comb-like structures called lamellae, allowing them to sift out mud or non-food particles and eat the larger invertebrate food items such as crustaceans or molluscs.

Two reddish-brown ducks wading in deep mud, using their bills to sift food items out of the muck.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

A bright male prothonotary warbler (Protonotaria citrea) peaking out at the end of a branch in Chatham, NC. This species is one of only 2 warbler (Parulidae) species that nest in tree cavities (the other is Lucy's warbler). They primarily use holes excavated by downy woodpeckers! #birds #photography

A bright yellow warbler peaks out from beneath the leaves of a tree branch.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) from the Las Vegas area. One of the most stunning and brightly-colored of the New World flycatchers (Tyrannidae), this species is found from the southern United States down to Argentina. In Vegas, the males stand out like a ruby in the desert landscape 🪶

A bright red bird with a black stripe through the eye and dark brown wings sitting on a fence.

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Dr. K. Lotterhos @drk-lo.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Today 14 scientific societies in #ecology #evolution and #marineScience are publishing the results of a survey that finds negative impacts of federal policies on food security, flood mitigation, infectious disease preparedness, and wildlife conservation: 🧪👩‍🔬 www.firsthandaccounts.org/impacts/2025...

This infographic describes the main results from a survey of members of 14 scientific societies. There is a pie chart showing that both academic (58%) and non-academic (42%) responded to the survey. It lists statistics: 85% of respondents reported uncertainty about the future; 71% reported federal training programs were "very" or "extremely important"; 83% reported negative impacts or irreparable harm on their field of science. There is a word cloud summarizing open-ended responses with the largest words "student research fund federal grant". Eight major themes in the responses are listed: disruption of research with societal important; concerns of closure of the USGS Bird Banding Lab; Early Career Bottleneck; Restricted Freedoms including travel and speech; Decline in Government Efficiency and Expertise; Concerns about Biased/Removed Data and Data Gaps; Concerns about the Ability to Meet Legal Mandates; and From Positive Impact to Irreparable Harm. There are icons for each participating society and a QR code for website and data availability.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Have you ever been judged this harshly by a bird? Curve-billed thrasher (Toxostoma curvirostre) from southern Nevada. Rare to the area but a couple individuals are regularly spotted. The thrasher diversity in the North American Southwest is incredible. #birds

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

The collared aracari (Pteroglossus torquatus) is a small toucan from Central and South America. Like other species of toucans, collared aracaris nest in tree cavities excavated by large woodpeckers. They eat fruit and insects, but are also known to eat the eggs and young from other birds’ nests. 🪶

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Monterey Bay Aquarium @montereybayaquarium.org · 20/08/2025

We’re deeply disappointed negotiations for a global plastics treaty have ended without a final agreement. Over the past 3 years, the momentum has been undeniable. The world now understands, plastic is a full lifecycle problem that demands systemic solutions, & that its health impacts are profound.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

🚨 DEI BANS - Sent to me by a colleague in Ohio at an orientation. As a graduate TA, it’s that time of year where I’m participating in and facilitating orientations for various university courses and initiatives. DEI hasn’t been banned at my institution yet but this NEEDS to be a wake up call. SPREAD

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola) from the Darién province of #panama. A unique species from the neotropical tanager family (Thraupidae), this bird has a sharp, decurved bill adapted for drinking nectar from flowers. #birds 🌺

Small bird with yellow belly, dark grey head, and back and white eyebrow perched on a branch. The bird has a distinct slender decurved bill.

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

My 4th chapter was published today! Using 11 years of data on mountain chickadees, we showed that lay dates and clutch sizes were repeatable. We found variation among individual females in how much they shifted their lay dates year to year based on climate. 🪶 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Individual repeatability and plasticity of reproductive phenology in a resident montane bird - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Phenological plasticity involves the ability of organisms to adjust the timing of life history events such as reproduction in response to different environmental conditions. Global climate change can ...

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Jack Maynard(he/him) @jhmsparky.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I have a semi-leucistic Black-capped Chickadee that comes to my backyard fountain once or so a year, and I saw that one a few weeks ago, but this BCCH that appeared yesterday is the real deal for Leucism. #birding

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

Gorgeous male blue-chested hummingbird (Polyerata amabilis) from Gamboa, Panamá 🇵🇦 #birds #panamabirds

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Reposted by Lauren Whitenack

Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 17/08/2025

100 years of July temperature anomalies over land areas through 2025... Data from NOAAGlobalTemp v6.0.0: www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/lan...

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 16/08/2025

I had the privilege of visiting the St Louis Zoo while in town for the #AOS25 conference and…THEY HAVE KING PENGUINS!!! They are so much SMALLER than I thought they were! What incredible creatures perfectly suited for their rapidly vanishing Antarctic habitat. Protect them now while we can! #birds

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Tomorrow I’ll be speaking at #AOS2025 about individual plasticity in breeding timing in mountain chickadees using 12 years of data on individually marked birds! Find me in the Behavioral Responses to Climate session at 4:15PM. Come for the baby bird pictures, leave with knowledge about plasticity!

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Mountain chickadees are resident birds found in montane conifer forests of Western North America. They are known for their exceptional spatial memory, which allows them to recover tens of thousands of seeds they have hidden throughout the forest in order to survive winter. ❄️🌲🏔️ #addBirder #birds

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Lauren Whitenack @laurenwhitenack.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Hey everyone 👋 I’m new to Bluesky so here’s a bit about me! I am an ecology PhD student studying mountain chickadee breeding ecology 🐦 My current research is focused on how insect food availability affects bird reproductive success 🪲 In my free time, I love hiking and birding in the mountains 🏔️

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UNR Biology Buzz @unr-biologybuzz.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Throwback Wednesday to this article from a recent New Yorker, highlighting the work of Biology's own Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov and his team! www.newyorker.com/science/elem...

newyorker.com

The Elephantine Memories of Food-Caching Birds

Some animals can remember where they’ve buried hundreds of thousands of seeds. Why can’t we remember where we’ve put our eyeglasses?

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