Desirée L. Narango

Check out this amazing fall migration track from our female Gray Catbirds we studied this summer! This lady picked up on that big night of Sept 29th and made a nice 40 miles per hour flight from western massachusetts down to Philadelphia! We're excited to see where she is picked up next!

Honestly it’s writing more grants 🤷‍♀️

Lead bander Anna Peel with a winter wren

You can read an excellent piece about our work this summer by our lead bander Anna Peel:

vtecostudies.org/blog/2025-mo...

And of course the obligatory sunrise and mountain peak photos. This view never ever gets old

Magnolia warbler in the hand

Golden-crowned kinglet in the hand

Cape May Warbler in the hand

White throated Sparrow in the hand

We’re up on the Mt this week for Bicknell’s Thrush but the spruce-fir is buzzing with migratory birds! Surprisingly the top is very dense with migrants (mostly young) despite the low food and cold conditions. Here’s a few of our bycatch friends. (All birds captured under USGS BBL and state permits)

Sorry for the snark folks but, it’s 2025. You run mixed models just like everyone else. You are not a ‘quantitative ecologist’ with ‘deep expertise in ecological modeling’

I love how the default description for white male ecologists is ‘quantitative’ while for everyone else it’s ’so good with people!’

Resting up this #caturday with some needed naps

We were surprised they’re so abundant too! We even found a new species for the state!

Amazing what a week of full bellies and warm snuggles will do
#catlove

Not ever day that longhorn cuckoo bees (Triepeolus sp.) out number the bumblebees during surveys! Three species yesterday on one plot. All on blue vervain (verbena hastata) which appears to be heavily favored by this genus

Deep In Virginia, When The Light Hits Just Right, A "Rainbow Swamp" Appears Swamps typically bring to mind an array of mushy greens and murky browns, but in Virginia, they do things differently.

OH GREAT NOW THE SWAMP IS WOKE

www.iflscience.com/deep-in-virg...

Small, two or three week old kitten sleeping

Worked from home this week to play catch up on papers but the cat distribution system had other ideas. Needless to say I haven’t gotten anything done because snuggles took priority.

Yes, this happened to us at Urban Sustainability. Completely ghosted. We sent an email pulling the paper and submitted elsewhere.

Tree composition mitigates the negative effects of urbanization on specialist and generalist forest moth communities Urbanization alters forest ecosystems, but host tree composition can mitigate its impacts on moth communities. Using light traps in urban forest fragments, we found that interaction-rich host trees e....

Here ya go!

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Tree composition mitigates the negative effects of urbanization on specialist and generalist forest moth communities Urbanization alters forest ecosystems, but host tree composition can mitigate its impacts on moth communities. Using light traps in urban forest fragments, we found that interaction-rich host trees e....

Whoops forgot the link! Distracted by moth pictures

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Now that you’re super stoked about #moths from #mothweek, check out a paper I published this year that I’m very proud of.

Spoiler alert: the tree composition in a forest fragment predicts the abundance of specialist and generalist moths. More #keystoneplants = more moth diversity

#plantanoak

Fascinating!

Grumbling that lots of concept & opinion papers on urban sustainability/biodiversity get published all the time without real data.

We submitted a data-driven paper on plants, inverts, birds, and soil and get rejected because none of the invited reviewers agreed to review it.

Frustrating.

Fall migration has started! Techs caught a bay-breasted warbler this morning. The start of the molt migrants that don’t breed on Mt. Mansfield, but spend 2-3 weeks molting fresh plumage for the rest of their journey.
#mansfieldsongbirds

Here’s 1 year of blue vervain (verbena hastata) growth from plugs planted in our experimental #nativeplant gardens last year. Lots of activity!

#vceecotypeproject
#pollinators
#buglove
#gardensforwildlife

If you’re having the kind of day I am, you might need this.

Forest Service research survives in House spending bill Republican appropriators also set aside a White House request for a new wildfire agency at Interior.

Some actual good news for once?
www.eenews.net/articles/for...

Hey how exciting! I hope it’s going well!!

Tis the season for fun field work, awesome data collection, learning and mentorship, beautiful days on the mountain, and baaaaaabies
#vcemansfieldsongbirds
#ornithology
#pollinators
#vermont

Hi, I'm a climate journalist for the Boston Globe.

If you're a federal employee working in New England for EPA or the Forest Service (or you were, until last week..) I'd love to hear from you.

My colleagues and I at @bostonglobe.com are dedicated to protecting our sources.

Signal: erinmdouglas.23

Would like to sit in on all these talks please! 😎

Freedom from kings.
Freedom from fascism.
Power to the people forever. ♥️

Happy Independence Day 🇺🇸

No plant is completely useless. The question is does its benefits outweigh the harm? Or outweigh the natives that have been replaced? In the case of euonymus and multiflora rose, neither is true. But some shrub nesting birds do use it for nest cover.

@vtecostudies.bsky.social