Nicholas Sly

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🦅 The new unified global #avian #taxonomy #AviList has just been released at www.avilist.org! Xmas for anyone interested in #birds & checklists... The first version will be followed by annual updates, with decisions and processes aimed to be more transparent than its predecessors'. 🪶🧪

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If your genAI tool will create content that must be double-checked by experts in order to be usable, safe & accurate ... it's probably easier & cheaper to just hire the experts to create the damn content in the first place.

Nation Can't Believe It On Harvard's Side

you might think N American species are getting common at their north range limit and rare at their south range limit as temps get warmer

but you would be wrong

new paper in GEB w/ @eliotmiller.bsky.social & Matt Strimas-Mackey, eBird Status & Trends ftw

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

An old tree stumps with plates marking the age of various rings. The plates read from center out: germination of this tree. 66 million years ago: last triceratops. 385 BCE: Diotima’s ladder. [missing]. 3020: third trans president. Felling of this tree.

I found this tree stump in an Ithaca park with year markers for the various tree ring ages. Who knows what the missing year is?

Two red efts, one large and one small, crawl across forest litter

A tiny orange red eft walking on leaf litter

I found many little orange friends in the woods today. I love them so much.

The cover of the book “Orchid Growing for Wimps” featuring a balding man with a thin mustache and plaid shirt posing with two potted lady’s slipper orchids.

Used book store find of the day: when this cheerful man posed for a photo with his orchids, do you think they told him what the book title would be?

North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant Efforts to address declines of North American birds have been constrained by limited availability of fine-scale information about population change. By using participatory science data from eBird, we ...

"North American bird declines are greatest where species are most abundant"--a stark, timely reminder of just how important conservation measures are. We need to save birds before it's too late. New research out by Cornell Lab of Ornithology & @abcbirds.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

BHL is essential for my work. I hope it finds a good new home! #ILoveBHL

It’s still wild to me how some Paphs are so shiny waxy they don’t even look real. I’m going to have to try one at some point.

No flowers yet, but I got Oncidium Sharry Baby ‘Sweet Fragrance’, Tolumnia Jairak Rainbow ‘Strawberry’, and a Psychopsis for my growing office collection. Super happy to have these again.

Epidendrum Miura Valley, sprays of many smaller pink flowers.

No name but one of the pansy type orchids, flat and maroon with cream and dark purple centers

No name on this one. Crinkled orange and yellow flowers.

Brassolaelia Petite Star. Yellow narrow petals and a broad yellow lip with small maroon spots.

Alright last one for now.

Forgot the name of this one. Yellowish flowers with dense fine dark purple spotting.

Purplish flowers with yellow centers and white reticulations

Tolumnia Jairak Firm ‘Pink Lady’. A wide pink and white lip with complex yellow, maroon and white patterning on the rest.

Paph. farianum

More fun orchids (forgot some of the names)

Psygmorchis pusilla. A miniature orchid with a leaf rosette mounted on bark and a yellow flower.

Cattleya intermedia var. orlata ‘The Bob’. A bright array of many light lavender and darker purple flowers.

Paphiopedilum hybrid, glossy lady slipper flower with reddish and yellow and some darker spots and white fringe.

Phrag. Naukana Kealoha, a delicate pinkish lady slipper

Minis, cattleyas, lady slippers

Orchid display with many fancy flowers of various colors

Orchid display with many fancy flowers of various colors

Orchid display with many fancy flowers of various colors

Orchid display with many fancy flowers of various colors

The award winning displays are always worth drooling over

Paphiopedilum hybrid, glossy reddish with yellow and white fringing

Orchid time! I just got back from the spring show by the Genesee Region Orchid Society in Rochester. I only bought three new ones and that was showing restraint. I didn’t take as many pics as I should have but here’s some highlights.

A river otter swimming

An otter arching its back in mid dive

The tail of a diving otter flipping above the surface

An otter head raising a mouthful of prey (a big fish?) above the waters surface

River Otters make any morning better.

Congrats!!

Calling all researchers, conservationists, & habitat biologists! We’re collecting insights from users for grants/reports. How does Birds of the World impact your work? That is, what do you use BOW for, and what does it provide that other resources cannot? DM or email birds@birdsoftheworld.org - TIA!

A gray Jeffersons Salamander crossing wet grass and ice

A Jefferson’s Salamander crawling across grass and ice towards the camera

50 degrees and raining? It’s salamander time

That’s my favorite hoodie! I haven’t had the occasion to wear it while gulling in quite a while. Maybe I better go look for the local “Iceland Gulls” before they leave.

ML629934887 - Red-legged Seriema - Macaulay Library Macaulay Library ML629934887; © Mauricio Silvera; Rivera, Uruguay

America right now: macaulaylibrary.org/asset/629934...

A black chicken-like bird drawn from an 1880s manuscript.

If you have access to Birds of the World, my first chapter on a bird there was just published after a good deal of work.

The Tristan Moorhen was a flightless rail that lived only on Tristan in Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic.

1/n

Last bird of 2024: Wild Turkey
First bird of 2025: Carolina Wren

A screenshot of weather radar full of rain and snow

Starting off 2025 right: walking for miles in rain and snow for a CBC

Part of making BlueSky a better place includes not bringing bird-related Elf of the Shelf puns over here thanks!

I don’t speak for eBird/ML, but my understanding is that video storage costs would balloon too much, so video uploading has never been a publicly released feature.

Finch would rather be napping than posting on bluesky

Two side by side selfies of me, one holding my Tortie cat as a young kitten and one as an 8 year old cat

Happy 8th Gotcha Day to my Finch 😻