Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · 21h

Perfect—I'll let the hostess know!

David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · 22h

I don't know, but if you have a recommendation, I can pass it on. She seemed to be preferring the flowers over the sugar water.

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · 22h

This dozing Costa's Hummingbird is welcoming a little R&R after venturing from the Desert Southwest to Alberta, Canada. Here, she found a hospitable backyard still offering flowers and a feeder. But it won't serve as a refuge for long—winter is coming!

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · 16d

I took far too many photos of this confiding Ruby-crowned Kinglet. But, given how uncooperative these birds typically are, when you've got a good one, you take a life's-worth of photos, 'cause it may never happen again!

#birds #birdphotography

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · 17d

Great Egrets are rare in #Alberta, so they're always noteworthy when they turn up here. This bird, however, has earned special recognition, as it nested with a Great Blue Heron this past summer, producing four hybrid young!

#birds #birdphotography

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · 24d

I was happy to connect with a few of my favourite gulls today. I can never get enough of Sabine's Gulls' boldly patterned wings and yellow-tipped bills!

#birds #birdphotography

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 17

A Rufous Hummingbird fluffed up for a cool mountain morning.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 15

Typically, "armchair lifers" or "armchair ticks" refer to new species you can add to your list because a taxonomic authority has split a species into two or more new species, and you've seen two or more of those in the past. But getting life birds while seated works too, I suppose!

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 15

I'm enjoying that most commenters here are recalling occasions when they actually got a life bird while seated in a chair!

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 15

Last night, a north wind brought in some boreal migrants, like this sprightly Canada Warbler!

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 13

I don't often see Pine Grosbeaks during the summer months. Though, when I look this dishevelled, I try not be be seen. Perhaps grosbeaks are the same?

#birds

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 11

The fall songbird migration is on! A morning stroll in a local park turned up several birds passing through, including Western Tanager, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, and this Tennessee Warbler.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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Reposted by David Scott

Andrew Iwaniuk @evoneuro.bsky.social · Aug 8

For everyone in Canada, I will be on Daybreak Alberta this Sunday morning talking about our new book on bird brains and behaviour.

It will be available on the CBC listen app on demand too.
@mitpress.bsky.social

#birds #brains #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🇨🇦🧪

A flyer for the book Bird Brains and Behavior: A Synthesis, written by Georg F. Striedter and Andrew N. Iwaniuk and published by MIT Press.

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 8

Lots of fledgling robins out and about, learning the ropes of being a bird.

#birds #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 5

Nondescript female and young Red-winged Blackbirds are often mistaken for other birds, such as sparrows. Identification is made somewhat easier, however, when they perch on cattails in wetland habitat!

#birds #birdphotography

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 2

It's estimated that 97% of the world's White-throated Sparrows breed in Canada. Is that why they sing "Oh-Sweet-Canada-Canada"? Americans may be more likely to render their song "Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody," but they're wrong, of course. ;)

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Aug 2

I spotted a warbler ferrying insects to a thicket. Figuring I'd see a wee warbler, I peered into the vegetation, only to find this voracious behemoth—a cowbird chick. The way it spied me from its concealed perch, it was almost as if it knew it was the beneficiary of a dubious arrangement.

#birds

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 26

Alas, like the works of Ozymandias, these roots are a thing of the past across much of the prairies.

David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 22

Yesterday, I was excited to have found a new-to-me bumble bee! I didn't.

Orange-legged Drone Fly
July 21, 2025
Lethbridge, #Alberta

#bugs #insects #bugsky #photography

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 15

A White-crowned Sparrow spies me from a small spruce.

#birds #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 15

@aba.org Easily my most memorable encounter with the American Birding Association's bird of the year in 2025!

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 15

This morning, I came across a confiding Common Loon on a small mountain lake.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 11

No sooner had I sat down to snap some photos of longspurs and larks in the golden morning light than this ground squirrel scared them off. I'd have been upset at the little guy, but then he looked at me like this.

#birds #notabird #Alberta

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David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 8

Haha! I rather like that. Perhaps I'll submit a name-change proposal.

David Scott @davidrscott.bsky.social · Jul 8

A Violet-green Swallow eyes a suspicious photographer from a badlands snag. This is quite strictly a swallow of the west.

#birds #birdphotography #Alberta

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