Meredith Swett Walker

I had never heard of it! Very cool! Hope you heal quickly.

Wild Kratts was my kids favorite show (and my favorite kids show.) My kids are in high school now & their mascot is wildcats so I sing the theme song with wildcats subbed in to drive them nuts.

Photo of an Oregon form Dark-eyed junco sitting on a small maple branch. they are in profile facing left with their head turned and tilted just slightly toward the camera.

Oh come ON little Oregon Junco!

If they didn't eat so much seed I'd think they were just fey creatures surviving on joy and rainbows.

Absolutely perfect birds!

#birds #becurious

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Graphic with a photo of the header of IBP's 2025 Annual Report which features a photo of a Mountain Bluebird taking flight by Nigel/Flick. Text says Our 2025 Annual Report is out now! The Institute for Bird Populations 2025 Annual Report.

🪶🌎🧪 2025 was a challenging year for many, including IBP. Read all about it and the great work we did despite the chaos in our newly released 2025 Annual Report → storymaps.arcgis.com...

I've had a missile blow up next to my airplane, been shot at dozens of times by anti-aircraft fire, and launched into orbit — all for my country. I never thought I'd see a President call for my execution.

Trump doesn’t understand the Constitution, and we're all less safe for it.

Earlier this morning, President Trump threatened me and a group of service and veteran Members of Congress with arrest, trial, and death by hanging.

Here’s my response:

Halted NIH Clinical Trials List Reveals Slashed Treatments for Cancer, COVID and Minority Health The National Institutes of Health has canceled funding for at least 383 clinical trials in the last year, affecting some 74,000 participants

Halted NIH Clinical Trials List Reveals Slashed Treatments for Cancer, COVID and Minority Health

www.scientificamerican.com/article/halt...

Sickle cell disease, sleep disorders and lung cancer & much more

A dive into the list of NIH's 383 shelved clinical trials, obtained by Scientific American

Portrait of Dr. Gladys West, the mathematician whose decades of geodetic work made GPS possible. Pictured here in 2018 at age 88, she is smiling warmly at the camera. She is wearing glasses, a navy blazer, a colorful floral scarf in pinks and purples, and a stylish black hat. She holds a wooden cane with a light grip. The soft indoor background is blurred, keeping all focus on her dignified, joyful expression — the face behind the precise Earth modeling that powers every navigation app today.

On #GISDay, we honor Dr. Gladys West, the genius mathematician whose 1970s–80s geodetic modeling of the Earth laid the foundation for GPS. Her work on SEASAT & GEOSAT gave us the precise geoid that makes every #geospatial app reliable today. #wow 😮 #WomenInSTEM

hiddenheroes.netguru.com/gladys-west

#Wisdom is back!
The world’s oldest known living banded bird, Mōlī (Laysan albatross) queen, has returned to Kuailhelani (Midway Atoll). #Birds

@rosemarymosco.com

This is the first story I ever did that got more than a million views

How do you apply that to your nails? It looks really cool!

the best sparrow

This is my 1st time catching my pet archer fish, Legolas, spitting on camera. Archerfish use modified jaw and tongue bones to fire a jet of water to knock down bugs from over hanging vegetation. Here Legolas is shooting down a fruit fly 🪰 🐠🧪

Wombat architecture critics. Two wombats see a cube-shaped house and one comments: Well that looks like shit.

For the Aussies, the zoologists and the architects out there.

💩🧊🧪

By @chazhutton.com

Graphic showing the paper title “Monk parakeets ‘test the waters’ when forming new relationships” in the journal Biology Letters. Also features photos of the co-authors (Claire, Annemarie, Gerry, and Liz) as well as the issue cover photo of two marked monk parakeets from Claire’s work grooming each other. Also shown are some of the main plots of the paper showing how the parakeets escalate their behaviors from low risk/low investment (like proximity) to higher risk/higher investment interactions (like preening/grooming)

In an increasingly divided world, how do strangers become friends? Parakeets might have something to teach us! New paper on formation of affiliative relationships, led by Dr. Claire O’Connell doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Photo of red and orange northern lights with grass lit by headlights behind a sign that says North Desert.

Why Colorado River negotiations are so difficult - High Country News Basin states have had 2 years to figure out how to share the shrinking river. Will they get there before the feds step in?

“Previous negotiations did not address core issues. They either delayed them or worked around them, making do based on the circumstances of the time.” Good piece from Caitlin Ochs on the legal questions behind the Colorado River talks: www.hcn.org/articles/why...

A six-panel comic. In panel 1, text says "People often wonder, why don't I see baby pigeons? Here's where they're hiding:" and there's an egg with an arrow pointing to a question mark, then an arrow pointing to an adult pigeon. Panel 2 says "Pigeons don't nest in trees. They nest in sheltered spaces on or in buildings. This keeps their babies safe from weather and predators." There's a pigeon nesting in a sheltered cavity in the side of a building. Panel 3 says "The hidden babies look like this: like moldy potatoes, but cute" and there are two baby pigeons looking, well, like moldy pink and gray potatoes with yellow fuzz. Panel 4 says "Older baby pigeons hide in plain sight. When they leave the nest, they're adult-sized, but they're still young and learning" and a fledgling pigeon is flying out of a building saying "aaaaaa". Panel 5 says "Here's how to identify these young pigeons" and shows a fledgling pigeon with arrows pointing to these features: eyes may be gray-brown, pale-edged feathers, smaller "nose" (cere), subdued hues, and looks worried. Panel 6 says "Scientifically speaking, though, all pigeons are sweet babies" and there are three very cute round pigeons, a gray, white, and red one, with arrows pointing to them to make things look scientific.

Baby pigeon mystery.
My pigeon book is here: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rosem...

Photo of a Brown Booby flying just overhead against a blue sky by Asch Nighthawk. Caption on photo says "Brown Booby by Asch Nighthawk 2025 Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands"

Each year IBP holds a photo contest for our seasonal employees. This photo of a Brown Booby by Asch Nighthawk took 3rd place this year. Asch was a member of our Tropical MAPS crew, monitoring birds on the island of Rota, CNMI in the western Pacific. 🪶🌎🧪

Red-winged blackbird mobbing a turkey vulture as they are both passing a red-tailed hawk. It looks like the turkey vulture's head is on the hawk.

What do you get when you cross a red-tailed hawk with a turkey vulture? 🪶

Northern harrier flying by with a look of complete disdain.

Seriously? 🪶

Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage

Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back From Brink Of Courage

Word of the Day is ‘catchfart’ (17th century): an obsequious individual who sucks up to the boss and always follows the political wind.

Woodpeckers grunt like tennis players ‘They take the pecking that we see all birds doing and take it to the extreme.’

I was excited to share a write-up about my friend @nickantonson.bsky.social’s recent paper regardless, but especially once I saw this title! www.popsci.com/environment/...

Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time

Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time

Meet our newest patient here at the Alaska Raptor Center, a Northern Pygmy Owl named King Owlbert by his rescuers. Owlbert arrived with a drooping wing, making flight difficult. We’ve given him a supportive wing wrap, plenty of tasty mice, and time to heal. #small #owls #adorable

“I am very tired and I just got out of the bath but if you post this picture on the internet, I swear to Christ, I will find the strength to fuckin’ END you.”

Share an angry bird and the curse you think it embodies.