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Lauren Harter

@lbharter.bsky.social
170 followers 177 following 166 posts

(Mostly) desert #bird biologist and all-around bird nerd. ⚽️ fan, gardener, organism enthusiast, houseplant mom, cat mom, actual human mom. Not in that order. Opinions my own 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈💙

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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My husband’s doctoral defense is coming up on Friday! Come learn about altitudinal migration in Slate-throated Whitestarts #science 🪶
Flyer announcing David Vander Pluym’s doctoral dissertation defense on Friday, October 2 at 11am Central Time. The title is “The Role of Altitudinal Migration in Tropical Diversification” and the Zoom link is tinyurl.com/DVPdefense password miniatus
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Today's #BirdoftheDay theme is #StrikeAPose. Nothing does it quite like a (Tropical) Royal Flycatcher 🪶
A medium-sized songbird being held just before release from bird banding operations. Its plumage overall is olive and brown, but it sports a dazzling fan of vermilion feathers tipped in black and blue on its crown. It is looking towards the camera in dramatic fashion
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BirdGuides @birdguides.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
An Avocet seen in the West Midlands recently has been confirmed as the oldest of its kind ever seen in Britain:
bit.ly
Old-aged Avocet smashes longevity record
A ringed Avocet seen recently at Middleton Lakes RSPB has been confirmed as almost 36 years old.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Happy #WorldAlbatrossDay! 🪶
A Black-browed Albatross sits on the water with its wings raised, poised to strike, facing the camera directly
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Happy #WorldOceanDay! To celebrate, here's a White-chinned Petrel chilling off New South Wales, Australia #seabirds 🪶
An all-black seabird swims comfortably on bright blue water
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Andy McGlashen @amcglashen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
I had a great time chatting with @dmennill.bsky.social and his students Madison Bygrove and Natalie Emerick, of whom I am not at all envious, thank you very much. www.audubon.org/magazine/mee...
audubon.org
Meet the Students Roadtripping Across Canada to Install a New Generation of Bird-Tracking Tech
Since April, Madison Bygrove and Natalie Emerick have been setting up a cutting-edge, continent-wide Motus Audio network to record migrating birds—and having a grand adventure.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
This Bendire’s Thrasher was one of two we equipped with satellite tags at Avi Kwa Ame Ntl Monument in NV. It will transmit data showing us how it moves around its territory and informing management like buffer sizes. During migration, we’ll see where it goes and when! @greatbasinbirds.bsky.social
A fierce-looking brown bird sporting an antenna coming from a tag on its back
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
The #wildflowers at Avi Kwa Ame National Monument are putting on a show! Pictured: a blanket of Wallace’s woollydaisy, a Mojave yucca inflorescence, and a tiny Nama bloom
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Jeremy Yoder says no war @jbyoder.org · 10/12/2025
I started getting reports of an unseasonal Joshua tree bloom in the last few weeks, and looking over records on @inaturalist.bsky.social it's pretty widespread! So we're putting out the call for folks to record this "bonus bloom" and help us study it 🌿 lab.jbyoder.org/2025/12/10/w...
lab.jbyoder.org
Weird wet weather has Joshua trees flowering early — or late? Help the Yoder Lab map this “bonus bloom” to understand why
A flowering tree in Yucca Valley, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor wanderingmojave on December 9. A tree with lots of flowers in Tehachapi, CA, observed by iNaturalist contributor tina9294 o…
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Emily in the Blue 💙 Delta @ezwez.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
#NoKingsProtest: Baton Rouge, LA @indivisbatonrouge.bsky.social @indivisible.org @velshimsnbc.bsky.social @msnbc.com @theweekendprime.bsky.social @maddow.msnbc.com @lawrenceodonnell.msnbc.com @jenpsaki.msnbc.com @democratswin.bsky.social @occupydemocrats.bsky.social @theguardian.com @theatlantic.com
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Because who doesn't like pancakes? Pancake pricklypear, Opuntia chlorotica, from central Arizona #bloomscrolling #cactus
Close-up photo of a brilliant yellow cactus flower
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HulloThere @jethroreading32.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Why is it so difficult to trust Typhlachirus? Well, for one thing, eyes are usually the window to the sole.
A brown, ethanol-preserved specimen of the eyeless flatfish Typhlachirus. The fish is broadly speaking a featureless, slightly tapered oval, sans eyes, sans teeth, sans pectoral fins, sans everything.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Post a bug that looks like AI but is actually real. Saddleback caterpillar moth #bugs
Photo of a bizarre caterpillar, short and thick lined with intimidating bristly hairs. It features two bristly pokers jutting up from each end. It is dark brown on the ends and lime green in the middle, with a dark brown saddle spot on its back.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
This giant walkingstick looked like a zoo exhibit, just chilling on a dwarf palmetto outside Baton Rouge Louisiana. According to Wikipedia, the largest #insect in North America!
Photo of a gray-brown stick that, upon further inspection, has legs and eyes
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Violet-toothed polypore, because purple #mushrooms
Photo of a tree trunk bedecked in medium-sized shelf fungi, most colored in concentric rings with orangey inner bits and purple outer rings
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Louisiana turned out today! #NoKings Baton Rouge
View down a city street with the Louisiana State Capitol at the end. Protestors line both sides of the street.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
A regal Mississippi Kite, daring dragonflies to fly above the treeline 🪶
Photo of a small gray bird of prey perched on a dead branch. It is peering back over its shoulder with its dark red eyes
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Sketchcraft - Rob Duenas @sketchcraft.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Fight the Empire.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
My Epiphyllum cactus is blooming 😍 what a beauty to wake up to #cactus #flower
Photo of a flower with many long thin white petals extending from a cactus with many long, arching, smooth green stems. The flower has extra-long pale green bracts, and the reproductive parts are long and pale yellow
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Our shipment from the Princeton University Press 50% off sale came! 😍 This turned into a reading party, me with ferns, hubby with velvet ants, and child with fossil birds, all sharing interesting stuff every ~1.4 seconds #books #nature
Photo of 16 books in a box: Terns of North America; Gulls of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East; Habitats of the World; Into the Great Wide Ocean; Velvet Ants of North America; Ferns, Spikemosses, Clubmosses, and Quillworts of Eastern North America; Birds of the Mesozoic; Insects of North America; Dragonflies of North America; and Birds of China
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Fewflower milkweed Asclepias lanceolata, a real stunner. #NativePlants #Louisiana #milkweed
Photo of a cluster of milkweed flowers in shades of vibrant orange
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
I saw a cecropia moth caterpillar for the first time and it was 100% Heimlich from A Bug’s Life #insects #pixar
Photo of a large, mostly green caterpillar, its massive size not adequately conveyed as it demolishes a swamp titi branch with audible chewing
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Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com · 04/06/2025
Gov. Tim Walz is doubling down on trans rights — and criticizing members of his party who are retreating — at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and back home in Minnesota.
startribune.com
Gov. Tim Walz backs transgender kids as Democrats grapple with debate over sports bans
The Minnesota Democrat has been critical of other members of his party who are retreating at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and in Minnesota.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Spent a lovely morning botanizing at Abita Creek Flatwoods Preserve and especially enjoyed the carnivorous plants. Here are two sundew species! #plants #naturalist
Spoon-leafed sundew Drosera intermedia; a very small plant with dew-covered spatulas for leaves reaching a mighty 2 inches off the groundPink sundew Drosera capillaris, a tiny plant barely larger than the fallen oak leaves on the ground. Its several round-tipped leaves are studded with reddish spikes each ending in a drop of dew
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
The aftermath of finding every chigger in Louisiana
GIF of Veruca Salt from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory singing “I’m going to scream” while laying waste to the factory under the judgmental eyes of the Oompa Loompas
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Went for a hike at a local park yesterday, in part searching for dwarf sundew. It wasn’t easy but we found them! Hands and knees botanizing 🌱 #plants #naturalist
Photo of a tiny sundew plant with spatulate leaves covered in dewy spikes
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Gretchen Goldman, PhD @gretchentg.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
The Trump administration just dropped an executive order, "Restoring Gold Standard Science" and there's lots to unpack. This EO reveals more about how the Administration will approach scientific integrity and science in regulatory contexts. Some initial thoughts. 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
whitehouse.gov
Restoring Gold Standard Science
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7301 of title 5, United
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
My supervisor is really keeping a close eye on me today #frog #WorkBuddy
Photo of a green tree frog sleeping pressed up against a window
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
I don’t know why it’s called a beggar moth, but it sure is pretty. #moths
A small orange moth clings to a dewy window. Its wings have two bands of silver spots, like stained glass
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 19/05/2025
Insights from a decade of using the Motus network to track boreal bird species from Observatoire d'oiseaux de Tadoussac, Québec to temperate and tropical wintering grounds | journal.afonet.org/v... | Journal of Field Ornithology | #ornithology 🪶
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Great Basin Bird Observatory @greatbasinbirds.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Through decades of monitoring we have learned that the upper El Dorado and Piute valleys in far southern #Nevada are a stronghold for Bendire’s Thrashers in NV and LeConte’s Thrashers in the world. #desertthrashers #conservation #birds 1/2
Avi Kwa Ame National Monument sign with Mojave shrublands, mountains, and partly cloudy skies in background.
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Gnomie 🌼🌿 @gnomieshobbycorner.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
I rescued a toad and a baby snapping turtle from the pool. I'm not sure they appreciate their new home down by the creek. 🐢🙂🐸 #toads #turtles #critters #nature #photography
A brown American toad and a baby snapping turtle sitting on a large roach in the creek.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Fergie advises you to sleep in today #cats
Photo of a tortoiseshell-marked tabby curled up in max relaxation
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
While tagging thrashers at a soon-to-be-developed solar site in Arizona, we came across a good number of northbound migrants using the mesquite washes, like this Orange-crowned Warbler. 🪶 Handled with all appropriate state and federal permits.
Photo of a very small yellow bird being held safely by the legs
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
On a rainy day in a drought-addled desert, I got to watch this darkling beetle sip raindrops from a rock. #desert #insects #naturalist
Photo of a large black beetle, dotted with water droplets, face-down on a large red rock
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Black-throated Sparrows are probably the most common bird of the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, and I’ll never get tired of looking at them. 🪶 Handled with all appropriate state and federal permits.
Photo of a small bird being held safely by the legs. It is mostly gray with a brown back, black bill, throat, and face, and bold white lines above and below the eye.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
I am in love with this teeny bee
Photo of a silvery bee perched on a stem. The tip of the photographer’s finger provides scale, revealing that the bee is less than the size of a fingernail
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Joshua tree forest between rain showers Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, Nevada, May 2025 #PublicLands
Photo of a desert scene under a cloudy sky, mountains in the distance. The small shrubs dotting the sandy soil look dead, but Mojave yuccas and Joshua trees gleam in the dim light
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
My trip to the #desert took place during an unusual cold snap, and we were even rained out of thrasher surveys on a few occasions. The desert responded to the rain with a green-up and some blooms, although it is heavily stressed from long-term drought. The creosote smell was amazing.
Photo of a blooming creosote bush - peppered with small yellow flowers
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American Birding Association @aba.org · 07/05/2025
After decades of mystery, the enigma of the Nechisar Nightjar may finally be solved. Read about the latest discovery in this fascinating saga here: www.aba.org/has-the-nech... Special thanks to Mathieu Wald for sharing the preprint referenced in the article with the author.
aba.org
Has the Nechisar Nightjar Mystery Been Solved? - American Birding Association
The authors of a new study believe they have solved one of the world’s great rare bird mysteries: the case of the Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Just wrapped up a whirlwind 2-week work trip to Arizona and Nevada. From a great bioblitz to surprisingly rainy thrasher surveys, it was all thrashers all the time. Highlights were successfully tagging three LeConte’s Thrashers, and all the friends and colleagues I got to see! 🪶#ornithology
A LeConte’s Thrasher being held safely by the legs. It is a pale gray medium-sized songbird, with a long, curved bill. A transmitter with a long antenna is just visible on its back.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
While target netting for Bendire’s Thrashers today, this accommodating and unseasonal Sage Thrasher found the nets instead. #BirdBanding 🪶
Photo of a medium-sized songbird being held safely by the legs. It has bold spots on the underside and a bright yellow eye. In the background are mist nets set around desert shrubs
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Success! We tagged one LeConte’s Thrasher today. It will be so interesting to see where he goes over the next few weeks, months, and hopefully years. 🪶#ornithology @greatbasinbirds.bsky.social All handling and marking is being conducted with all appropriate state and federal permits.
A woman (me) smiling as she holds a pale grah songbird with a long, curved bill.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
So excited to get started with thrasher tagging today! We are partnering with Bureau of Land Management and Arizona Game and Fish to study Bendire’s and LeConte’s thrasher movements following solar development 🪶 #ornithology @greatbasinbirds.bsky.social
A desert landscape dotted with creosote bushes and small mesquites. A person stands next to a 12-meter long mist net, and another person crouches behind the shrubbery
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Prosanta Chakrabarty @prosanta.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Very proud of this paper led by @lsu.bsky.social students where we examine what ‘Unexplored’ means in a natural history context - we recommend ‘biodiversity blindspots’ instead for places that lack digitized public data Paper here peerj.com/articles/185... Video abstract youtu.be/QZ8wUrgJEao
youtu.be
What ‘unexplored’ means: Mapping regions with digitized natural history records
YouTube video by PeerJ
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
I am “Nalgene will always be the cool water bottle” years old.
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Copper iris, maybe my favorite local native wildflower #NativePlants
A dew-covered iris bloom, deep reddish in color
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Great Basin Bird Observatory @greatbasinbirds.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Interested in Pinyon Jays & conservation? Of course you are! :) Carl Lundblad will be presenting his work on Pinyon Jay habitat selection & holistic conifer management in the eastern Sierras. Join us Thursday, April 17, 6pm, at Rosewood Nature Study Area. Learn more: www.gbbo.org/calenda...
gbbo.org
Hybrid presentation: Multi-scale Pinyon Jay habitat selection and holistic conifer management along a dynamic ecotone in the eastern Sierra Nevada — Great Basin Bird Observatory
Carl Lundblad, currently a researcher with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), will be presenting on his work with Pinyon Jays, habitat selection, and conifer treatments. The talk will start at 6:00 PM at Rosewood Nature Study Area. If you can’t make it in person, register for the Zoom Webin
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Lauren Harter @lbharter.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Feeling extra nostalgic for Arizona today after revisiting the music of Jared & the Mill, a former Phoenix band that evokes the desert with lines like “She’s the kind best enjoyed like a pool under cottonwoods and stones” #Arizona #music
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