Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS

In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...

pnas.org

A Long-tailed Weasel found in a Gunnison's Prairie Dog colony. I very much like how long they are

Coastal Sequoia with a Brown Creeper for scale 🪶

You may have heard about the OMB rule change that will put politics over federal grants. However bad you think it is? It's probably worse. Thanks to @theverge.com for letting me report this one out. There is still time to comment. bit.ly/4v2X4nQ

The war against ‘woke’ could end US science as we know it

“Everyone will be affected, not just scientists. Every community in the country.“

bit.ly

We had a close encounter with an American Badger a couple days ago

Saw a Northern Bobwhite today quite close to the road. If you zoom in, you can see the truck in the eye's reflection. 🪶

My first time seeing a Black-throated Blue Warbler today 🪶

🚨New paper alert!🚨 (only slightly delayed). I'm proud to have been a part of this cool work led by Dr. Marco Rego. Marco assembled a massive dataset of bird distributional information to test long-standing ideas about how rivers serve as taxon boundaries in the Amazon Basin. Check out those maps!

Portrait of a kite 🪶

A very fabulous Northern Waterthrush from today 🪶

Another bright warbler that is somewhat rare here seen this afternoon in West Texas 🪶

Found this bright guy in West Texas this morning 🪶

An inquisitive Red-faced Warbler in New Mexico 🪶

A bit of self reflection 🪶

This morning I managed to get both a Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs in the same frame for the first time. 🪶

The Purple Martins are back in West Texas. I wonder what this female (right) is thinking in this moment. 🪶

The US Forest Service. This is madness. Illegal, obviously. But madness even if it weren’t. WTAF morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

BREAKING: Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service

The headquarters is going to Utah. Every regional office is being shuttered. The research program is being destroyed.

morethanjustparks.substack.com

This thief stole a piece of cheese from my breakfast burrito while I made my coffee. Watch out for them in Hill Country! 🪶

A Black-throated Sparrow, uncommon for our area in west Texas 🪶

Not the usual view you get of a Brown Creeper 🪶

This time of year the Northern Shovelers are some of the most common ducks here in West Texas, giving plenty of photo opportunities. 🪶

Watched this pocket gopher for a bit today moving in and out of its hole to grab and chew on plant material. They seem to be mostly nocturnal, so it is always nice getting a good view of one.

A Ferruginous Hawk with its lunch. A Red-Tailed Hawk later stole the remaining food from it. 🪶

And a nice picture of the kingfisher 🪶

A Belted Kingfisher telling me what it thinks about me hiking near its fishing spot 🪶

Saw a bunch of eagles this morning, including this one landing on a frozen lake in Kansas 🪶

An acrobatic Northern Cardinal 🪶

Northern Shoveler on West Texas ice 🪶

A very fabulous looking Great Blue Heron, with a snowy backdrop 🪶

Lincoln's Sparrow in the snow 🪶