Dave Watson
@ecosystemunraveller.com
2.8K followers 320 following 1.6K posts
Professor of Ecology, educator, maker | birds, mistletoe, acoustics, conservation | updates on research, family & other beasts. Living on unceded Wiradjuri country More at https://ecosystemunraveller.com
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ecosystemunraveller.com
Oh, and welcome new followers, welcome aboard. Ecologist here, parasitic plants and birds, biogeography and acoustics, connectivity conservation and evolutionary ecology. Also Amazonia and aquaria, wood working and smoked meats. Welcome
Aboard.
View through an aquarium of unusual size (3.6 metres long) to a room full of handmade wood furniture looking through a very large window to a sun drenched lawn with big tree and sprawling pond. Aquarium has a substrate of brown leaves with a prominent stump with buttressed roots
Reposted by Dave Watson
paulawasiak.bsky.social
Our April cohort of birds have officially graduated the close monitoring phase!

Having completed 6-months of living their best wild lives means that I’ll now be mostly hands off (except for following their movements via their GPS backpacks like the creep that I am)

Thrive, birdies, thrive!
A medium sized brown mottled bird with a solar powered GPS device on its back.
ecosystemunraveller.com
Three times! Must be an arms race with the largest freshwater crayfish in the known universe. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmani...
Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Reposted by Dave Watson
jackdashby.bsky.social
A terrible video glimpsing a mountain #platypus in heavy snow. Tasmanian #platypuses are hardy little fellows (or perhaps big fellows - they can be three times heavier than their counterparts in tropical #Queensland).
#Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz
Reposted by Dave Watson
thelabandfield.bsky.social
"Did someone say.... euphausiid shrimp?" 👀

Crested Auklet to continue the #Auktober celebrations
Reposted by Dave Watson
pcronald.bsky.social
Remarkable recovery of the Klamath River salmon. Many thanks to the agencies, Tribes, and NGOs who came together to remove dams and monitor the recovery of the Klamath River salmon. And kudos, too, to the indigenous youth who paddled source to sea on the newly freed river
Colorful kayaks in a circle on the water
Reposted by Dave Watson
sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
Reposted by Dave Watson
taiapo.bsky.social
Is passive acoustic monitoring worth it for terrestrial mammals? 🎙️🐨

We find it's not the one for all solution, but for vocal species, yes! It's highly effective & saves lots of time and money, especially in the long-term.

Find out more: doi.org/10.1111/2041... 🔈🦊🧪🌎 @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social
Sensors versus surveyors: Comparing passive acoustic monitoring, camera trapping and observer‐based monitoring for terrestrial mammals
Mammals play vital roles in ecological communities, but many are in rapid decline worldwide. Comprehensive monitoring of mammal populations is crucial for effective conservation, but large-scale m...
doi.org
Reposted by Dave Watson
genomebiolevol.bsky.social
The recent GBE article on temporal genomics in Ethiopian Highland birds by @jdmanthey.bsky.social et al. is the focus of November issue's Highlight.

Highlight: A Century of Genomic Data Preserved in Museums Illuminates Bird Conservation in Ethiopia

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf175

#genome #evolution
GBE | Highlight: A Century of Genomic Data Preserved in Museums Illuminates Bird Conservation in Ethiopia
Reposted by Dave Watson
aunz.theconversation.com
Have you heard of McGraths Flat in NSW? Hidden beneath farmland lies one of Australia’s most extraordinary fossil sites that dates back between 11 million and 16 million years; a time when many of today’s familiar plants and animals evolved.
Unusual red rocks in Australia are rewriting the rules on exceptional fossil sites
theconversation.com
Reposted by Dave Watson
incnaturalist.bsky.social
Lunchtime Lizard - this Brown anole showing how astonishing the little things in nature can be. Seeing them is a choice. Really seeing them.
ecosystemunraveller.com
Glorious. With some scraps of coloured paper stuck to my finger, I’ve had a few chats with these guys. Such feisty little beasts.
Reposted by Dave Watson
wildambience.bsky.social
One of Australia's unique avian voices - the song of a male Brown Songlark. A melodic jumble of electric buzzes & scratchy metallic notes, it has been described as sounding like a wheel squeaking on a rusty axle!

#wildoz #birds #fieldrecording #birdsong
Reposted by Dave Watson
Reposted by Dave Watson
teamswiftparrot.bsky.social
Regent parrot chicks getting weighed are just so absurdly adorable and undignified 😂😭😇
Reposted by Dave Watson
steelyseabirder.bsky.social
Welcome to Super Seabird Sunday where we ask you to share photos, videos & artwork of seabirds to brighten up timelines. To get us started here are thousands of Puffins on the Isle of May #SuperSeabirdSunday
Reposted by Dave Watson
ecosystemunraveller.com
Time for another #AwesomeBirds #WildOz edition. This distinctive jobbie is found throughout mainland Australia, but rarely sits still. Often in pairs, these dim sim sized champions can be tricky to spot, but once you key in on their sharp notes, you’ll notice them all over.
Reposted by Dave Watson
urocklive1.bsky.social
Just a reminder that Wikipedia is the only remaining reliable source of information that right wing billionaires can't control. (Although they'll never stop trying.)

Please donate to them whenever you can. Even a little bit helps.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page