Gabby Barnas

"a farmer brought me a toad in his hat"

-an excerpt from my field notes while doing wildlife surveys today

It does! I'm presenting on Wednesday, in one of the silent sessions 🙃

Glad I'm not the only one with those concerns and questions!

Two grey and white birds with the beginnings of black eye-masks are perched in a tangle of bare conifer branches. They have yellow mouth gapes, because they are babies.

Ba-by SHRIKES do do do-do do-do
#birds

Trans pride but make it florida birds #pridemonth #wildlifeart #birdpainting #oilpainting #floridaart

I may be studying herps, but that won't stop me from getting excited about all our other wildlife sightings in the field. Today we saw 2 badgers running around in a field and I almost cried (which has honestly been my reaction to every badger sighting I've had).

Thank you! I'm doing an inventory of reptiles and amphibians at sites we've identified as having high risk of road mortality, so just hoping to get an idea of what species are present at the site. It's one of 4 types of surveys we'll do at each site to try to get every species present.

At the center of the photo, a dark green metal post stands in the middle of a wetland filled with lush green vegetation. At the top of a post, there is a square wooden board to which an AudioMoth audio recorder is attached. Below the wooden board, there is a white placard to label the recorder. In the background of the photo, there is a treeline and blue sky.

Assuming everything worked as anticipated, the ARU I put out yesterday has collected its first night of frog call recordings. And with that, my master's research data collection has begun!

A barred owl sits on the branch of a magnolia tree at the center of the photo. Its eyes are mostly closed and its breast feathers are being gently blown by a breeze. The background is filled with blue sky and blooming pink magnolia flowers, with little bits of sunlight peeking through.

I feel obligated to share this photo I took today because, well, look at it. How could a sleepy barred owl sitting in a blooming magnolia tree on a sunny spring day not bring you some joy?

🐦 Do some birds have #PrettyPrivilege?
💫 New paper: doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.2846
We show that ~half the variation in research effort on 293 bird species in US+Canada is explained by just 3 factors: 1)visual appeal, 2)range size, & 3)# of universities w/in ranges. What we did & why it matters:🧵

The photo features a screenshot from the Spotify app. A purple, pink, and orange gradient fills the background. The text reads "daylist. beautiful thesis thursday evening. Try some: beautiful, thesis, movie soundtrack, cinematic, film composer and focus"

grad school has quite literally take over my spotify

In the background, there is a wall of reddish rock from the surrounding mountains with creosote shrubs at the base. In the foreground, a large blue sign reads "NO DRINKING WATER AVAILABLE BEYOND THIS POINT. WATER FILLING STATION AT VISITOR CENTER." A smaller red sign attached below the blue sign reads "HEAT WARNING you might die".

A similar warning 🌡

The front end of a vehicle stopped at an intersection, held up by a salamander in a tiny safety vest and stop sign. Behind it is a large group of yellow spotted salamanders crossing the road.

Amphibian migration season is coming this spring. Remember to drive slow!

yes, but solely because I was deeply obsessed with them for a long time and saw them live in 2013

A four-panel comic. In panel 1, a wood frog stands on a pink background. The text says: "Feeling unlucky in love? Did you know that male Wood Frogs have difficulty perceiving members of their species? Here are some things they’ve been documented trying to mate with." "Spotted Salamander." The wood frog looks at a large yellow-spotted salamander, with a heart over the frog's head. "Cattail." The frog looks amorously at a large cattail flower or "sausage." "Green frog." The wood frog looks at a large confused-looking green frog. "Dead fish." The wood frog stares at a large dead fish. "Live fish." The wood frog looks amorously at a large trout. "Pine cone." The wood frog looks at a large pine cone. The final text says: "Sorry, there's no moral here. I just thought you'd enjoy this fact about frogs."

While I work on this year's valentine, here's last year's.

Thanks, Bill!

Thank you!

Semester cutoffs feel less relevant in grad school because I'm still working on my research, buuuuut I just submitted my last final, so I am officially done with my first semester of classes 😁

I'm so glad you like them!!! Thank you!

This is the first time I've made templates of my snowflake designs because tomorrow I'll be leading a paper snowflake-making workshop as a community engagement project focused on the book. It took some time, but I hope everyone else will enjoy making these snowflakes, too!

Left to right, top to bottom, the species are: dancing frog, octopus, cactus wren, red-spotted newt, vampire squid, axolotl, flamingo, barreleye fish, and narwhal.

Nine paper snowflakes are displayed in a 3 by 3 grid against a black background. The snowflakes resemble different wildlife species. From left to right, top to the bottom, the species are dancing frog, octopus, cactus wren, red-spotted newt, vampire squid, axolotl, flamingo, barreleye fish, and narwhal.

This is my 5th winter making paper snowflakes based on different flora and fauna, and this year's set of designs is based on species featured in World of Wonders by @nezhukumatathil.bsky.social which I've spent the semester reading and discussing in class.

Getting your first solicitation from a predatory journal has to be some kind of milestone in this field, right?

Two GRE test preparation books sit side by side. One book is a 2019 Edition by the Princeton Review. The other book is a 2017 edition by Kaplan.

Being home with my parents for the holidays inevitably turns into going through closets and the attic to purge things we don't need anymore - I think I can finally get rid of the GRE prep books I never used for the GRE test I never took

I made one! I’ve realized when going to conferences that graduate students and early career professionals in the wildlife world are constantly communicating and will be working together later down the road. LMK if you want to be added, I def missed folks! go.bsky.app/FFFHs9U

Otters Spotted on Zoo Wildlife Cameras for the First Time in Chicagoland | Lincoln Park Zoo The zoo's Urban Wildlife Institute recently captured North American otter images on its wildlife cameras for the first time in 14 years of biodiversity monitoring. Otters are a keystone species whose ...

Well it only took 14 years or so, but our team has finally detected river otters in the Chicago suburbs. A testament to the clean-up of Chicago's waterways, and to our stubborn determination to keep putting camera traps out forever. Hoping for bobcats next! www.lpzoo.org/otters-spott...

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