Tim O'Connell

“We easily recognize the cluster of ancient rock scrapes as an owl, but were the scraper to magically appear, that person would comprehend little of our world, particularly the electronic devices by which the cave art is increasingly shared.”🧪

Middle-aged white dude with short gray beard in a hoodie and a tweed flat cap... a good 50m ahead of a bunch of lolligaggers in a beige winter landscape under blue skies striped withy the contrails of planes moving people over flyover country. I let the lolligaggers catch up and folks *mostly* got to see all the birds on the list.

Here's a list of the birds we found today: Canada Goose 1 Mourning Dove 5 Killdeer 1 Ring-billed Gull 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 4 Eastern Phoebe 1 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 1 Carolina Chickadee 1 Tufted Titmouse 1 Carolina Wren 4 European Starling 14 Northern Mockingbird 1 Eastern Bluebird 2 American Robin 2 Cedar Waxwing 4 House Sparrow 2 House Finch 6 White-crowned Sparrow 3 Harris's Sparrow 8 Song Sparrow 5 Lincoln's Sparrow 1 Swamp Sparrow 1 Western Meadowlark 1 Eastern Meadowlark 1 Red-winged Blackbird 20 Brown-headed Cowbird 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 21 Northern Cardinal 4

13 people and 33 species on a beginning #birders field trip in #Stillwater, #Oklahoma today. ; >

#birding
#ornithology
#wildlife

Tim O'Connell | Substack Ornithology, ecology, sustainability, critical thinking, higher ed, suffering no fools. Click to read Tim O'Connell, a Substack publication. Launched a few seconds ago.

Tim O'Connell
tinosaurs.substack.com?r=5vnjbc&utm...

If you're into this sort of thing. ; >

people who are forced to vote for Democrats because there aren't better options want commonsense reform: abolishing and prosecuting ICE, salting the ground from which they crawled, and draining the treasury to pay reparations to victims

By early 2025, Musk had received at least $38 billion in US contracts.

Musk (creepily with his toddler son) in the Oval Office with Trump last year, attempting to explain some rationale for the destruction of federal agencies he doesn't value. Note that Trump might never have looked more Oompa-Loompa than on this day.

Email from Musk to Epstein asking is he can come to Little St. James Island to party with "girls". Epstein forwards email to someone redacted (initial G): "deal withthis . thanyou" Reply to Musk: "I'm so sorry, Elon! You just missed J E. He actually told me he was thinking of winding down the entire Little St. James operation. Bummer! If it starts up again we'll be sure to let you know."

A story in three acts:

1) We pay this loser millions per day in gov't contracts.
2) #Trump gave him near limitless power to gut funding for federal programs he didn't like. #DOGE
3) #Musk was such a loser, even #Epstein didn't want to party with him –– he had #Ghislaine(?) reply to his email.

Dawkins is such a bellend.

"Dear Republican Senators and Representatives who have served in Congress since at least 2016, With every scrap of respect I can muster, I am calling for your resignation. In 2016, you supported your party’s endorsement for President of an obvious grifting con-man with contempt for the very concept of public service and an exceedingly problematic relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. The most charitable thing I can say about your support is that it displayed a disqualifying level of naïveté. Resign. In 2019, you voted party over country in your rejection of the articles presented for Trump’s first impeachment on obvious grounds of Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Justice. In 2021, you voted to acquit him again during a second impeachment for Incitement of Insurrection for events we watched unfold live on television during the January 6th 2021 attack on the US Capitol. There is no room for ignorance or naïveté in these votes of yours. They represent, at best, blindingly poor judgment and, perhaps more accurately, a disqualifying predilection toward demonstrating loyalty to a person instead of to the people. Resign. In 2024, and presumably continuing into the first weeks of Trump’s second presidency in 2025, you have provided your sanction –– be it tacit or full-throated –– for a man to serve as Chief Executive of the United States who you knew to be (1) an adjudicated rapist, (2) a 34-count convicted felon for illegal business practices, and (3) someone facing additional investigations for stolen US classified documents and attempts to overturn the 2020 election for which a 2024 election win would be his best chance to avoid time in prison. Your support of this man and his political agenda belies a disqualifying lack of moral character in your fitness to serve in Congress and is a clear abdication of your oath of office. RESIGN. "

Imagine one year ago, before we knew all the horrible things we've learned over the past year. That's when I wrote this in February 2025.

#TrumpEpstein

#GOP #Representatives and #Senators: if you won't defend the #Constitution, then #Resign.

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

Researchers who are confident in the robustness of their work and willing to have it scrutinized are more likely to engage in #openscience best practices. That has useful operational implications for #scholcomms

That seems like quite a lot for publishing in ecology. Thank you for your service!

Just tallying my #manuscript #reviews for 2025 –– I completed 7 last year –– and decided to tally the titles for whom I've reviewed across my career. I've reviewed 122 manuscripts for ~43 different #journals in ~25 years.

I try to do 4–5 per year. Too many; too few..?

#ScientificPublishing

On a day when Hedgehogs are in the news, here's a reminder that they are effcient predators - hoovering up the eggs of ground-nesting waders.
Blog about introduced Hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides, from 20 Jan 2016, with more recent updates. 🎂🔟
wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/p...
#ornithology

SUNDAY = submission deadline proposals for workshops, symposia, etc., at the joint annual meeting of the Association of Field Ornithologists and Wilson Ornithological Society, 7–10 July, 2026, Newport, Rhode Island!
afowos2026.org

Listening to #SaschaRiley interviews today. 😳😮‍💨 #TriggerWarnings!!

Riley is matter-of-fact. He's clear about what he claims to remember and what he doesn't. He sounds sane, but *what he's saying* sounds insane. Was this shit investigated?!
open.substack.com/pub/lisevold...

#Epstein #Trump

Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64 - Fascism! : Army Orientation Branch: Information and Education Division : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive March 24, 1945. Army Talk Orientation Fact Sheet #64 Fascism! A sheet printed and distributed by the United States War Department as an educational tool for...

archive.org/details/Army...
#ArmyTalk
#Facism

Written in 1945, reads like 2025.

Jan. 6, 2021: A visual archive of the Capitol attack NPR’s Jan. 6 archive brings together reporting, video, documents and testimony to show what really happened during the Capitol riot. Explore the timeline, cases and evidence behind the attack.

For fans of #history interpreted from journalists instead of criminals and Russian bot farms, here's how #January6th 2021 actually went down.

apps.npr.org/jan-6-archive/

AFO Membership The Association of Field Ornithologists (AFO) is a membership organization dedicated to the study and conservation of birds and their natural habitats. The AFO prides itself as serving as a bridge bet...

Y'all #bird people are members of the @fieldornith.bsky.social , right?

www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticket...

Wine-red and straw-yellow wood chips from an eastern redcedar, photographed in close-up on a plate that makes them kind of look like beef jerky or pulled pork barbecue.

"Be a leader; kill a cedar."

It's a weird mantra if you're not an #ecologist living in the #GreatPlains, but one of our biggest problems is #fire #suppression that has provided an ecological release for #EasternRedcedar.

So, we chopped one down. It was a good day.

#restoration

Christmas miracle family photo!

Y’all, check out our Nellie.

Okay, well I found 65 species, but as a group we got 103 on our #Stillwater, #Oklahoma #CBC #ChristmasBirdCount!

I also met some #goats!

Deets here: paynecountyaudubonsociety.com/christmas-bi...

#biodiversity #wildlife #Audubon #population #community #science

Elephants, wildebeest and a bunch of other animals at a water hold in Tanzania. They're cute and should stay alive.

New paper! @molly-rc-brown.bsky.social1st PhD paper is out. It evaluates 55 interventions aimed at managing demand for ivory from Asian consumers, & shows that while quality has increased over time (& effectiveness?) there's still a lot to do. conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 1/5🧪🌍

🦋🧪🌎 Scientists from Point Blue & @xercessociety.bsky.social are using Bluetooth-enabled ultra-light radio tags to track butterflies! This new tech provides unprecedented data and helps scientists guide #conservation actions to support the iconic #MonarchButterfly migration. Watch: shorturl.at/UbwPI

Applications for TBS #grants are currently open - we have grants for undergrads and grad students alike to fund #research and costs associated with training, workshops and symposia! Applications are due by Jan 15 - apply here: www.torreybotanical.org/grants-awards/

🧪🌎🌿🍄🌾 #botany

Recovery map, showing the distance between ringing (12/02/2024) and encounter (08/06/2025) locations

Turnstone ringed in Southend-on-Sea in February 2024

Qikiqtaaluk Region: the administrative region of Nunavut where Alert is located. May 2025.

Epic recovery report just received! ⚠️ A Turnstone I trapped using a homemade walk-in trap has been recaptured in the 🌍 world’s 🌎 northernmost continuously inhabited settlement. Ringed on 12 February 2024 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex 🇬🇧, it was re-trapped on 08 June 2025 in Alert, Nunavut… 🇨🇦 (🧵 1/2)

We all owe it to each other to read the unhinged ramblings of the world's most powerful, and somehow also its most frail, man.

The #deterioration is well underway. This nation is sleepwalking toward a #Constitutional crisis with an increasingly #paranoid and #delusional #emperor at the helm.

The thing about the trump regime pinning the January 6 pipe bombings on an autistic Black man is Donald trump mounted a violent coup against the government, stole thousands of classified documents, is a mass murderer, a war criminal, a convicted felon, & a child-raping pedophile.