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Nicole Gerlach

@ngerlach.bsky.social

440 followers 530 following 740 posts

Behavioral ecologist, evolutionary organismal biologist (birds, other verts, & critters in general), & educator. Aspiring Ms. Frizzle. Avid reader. Seeker of tiny moments of joy and magic. she/her. Comments, opinions, & photos my own.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · Aug 20

Hi, I'm Nicole. I'm a biologist and full-time teaching faculty. I'm primarily a behavioral ecologist by training, with my main research interests in mate choice / parental care behavior, especially extra-pair mating behavior in socially monogamous songbirds like the dark-eyed junco!

A female junco stands on a rock, with her head turned to the side to glare somewhat angrily at the photographer. She's mostly light grey, with a white belly and outer tail feathers. She has hot pink and black plastic bands on her legs.

Three baby juncos in a woven grass nest cup, surrounded by leaves and ferns. They are old enough that their eyes are open (about 7 days old), although they're still covered in dark grey fuzz and don't really have real feathers yet. They have yellow borders around their mouths, so that when they are begging, which two of them are, the mouth is a bright red circle outlined in yellow. The third nestling is hunkered down beside its begging siblings, barely noticeable.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 12h

I heard/saw it while on a spontaneous walk to combat the mid-afternoon drowsies, so moral of the story is: put your computer down and go outside more often.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 12h

For #Arachtober, here is a spider that's not a spider. It's Petrophila jaliscalis, a jumping-spider-mimicking moth - see the face-on spider pattern, with orange legs and sparkly dark eyes? I love finding these - I think they breed in my small goldfish pond, because the caterpillars are aquatic. 🌿🐙

A macro photo of a moth, seen from the side, on brown bark. The moth has white wings with lots of dark speckles, and a pattern of four orange vertical stripes, plus a row of dark spots above, with reflective scales in the centers. The effect creates a pattern that looks like a jumping spider seen face-on; the orange stripes mimic legs, and the dark spots mimic a jumping spider's row of large eyes.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 12h

Over four months of hearing this almost every day and I FINALLY laid eyes on one of the singers: it is in fact a bluejay. The Merlin app has never recognized it, though, despite there being multiple individuals in my neighborhood who use it. Maybe it's a very local regionalism? #birds

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · Jun 5

Birders: who is this rusty swingset of a bird (in FL)? Merlin would sometimes ID it as a bluejay, but would sometimes say “hearing a bird” then not light up any ID at all. There were also bluejays making more recognizable calls down the street, so that may have been confusing things. #birds 🦅

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 1d

#LocalVertDiversity 22. Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

Conveniently, Turkey Vultures spell out their initials for easy ID even when you can’t see their pink heads. T for the dark part of their bodies vs. wings, and V for how they hold their wings when soaring.

#bird #nature #wildlife

A small black dot soars in a sunny blue sky, with trees in the corners of the view, and some wispy clouds.

Zoomed waaaaaay in on the tiny black dot in the previous picture: it’s a vulture! The body, tail, and leading edges of the wings are black, while the feathers forming the outer and trailing edges of the wings let more light through, forming a dark “T”. In contrast, black vultures have the lighter parts only at the tips of each wing.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Claire Zagorski, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · 2d

A student on TikTok has been documenting her journey with a professor who “wrote” the anatomy textbook and it’s all a bunch of AI hallucinations.

She’s saying that, understandably, the students are doing super poorly!

Behold what we’re teaching the healthcare professionals of tomorrow:

A diagram of the bones and (some) deep muscles of the hand and forearm. AI says that we only have four digits. It’s also identified a tendon as the median nerve, another tendon as the ulnar nerve, among other issues.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the neck. It hallucinated the “ennocleidomasid” muscle, and the “anterior scalpalin muscle”.

An AI generated diagram of the muscles of the lateral thigh. It says that the gluteus Maximus (the big juicy butt muscle) is on the anterior side. It also points to the quadriceps muscle and says “attattment”. It also says that the same structure is the tibia AND the deep fascia of the leg.

An AI generated diagram of the bones of the hand and forearm. This time AI says we have 6 digits. It also says that the radius is the ulnar artery. Among other many issues.

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Wendy Miller @burrowingowl.bsky.social · 1d

Moist owlettes. 🪶

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 1d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“Mistnet full of grosbeaks.”

Darren Irwin (he / him) @darrenirwin.bsky.social · 1d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Developed new species concept"

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

SnowWolpard @snowwolpard.com · 3d

I work in an exhibit with live spiders, and I think I have lost count how often people misheard "green lynx spider" as "green link spider"...

Two illustrations of a green lynx spider (green spider with two bigger forward facing eyes and lighter colored legs) stacked on top of one another. The one on top is labeled "Green Lynx Spider (Peucetia viridans)", the actual name of the spider. The one below is wearing a green, pointy hat, carrying a blue shield and sword drawn to look like the Hylian shield and Master sword from the "Legend of Zelda", series and is labeled "Green Link Spider (Peucetia hylia)".

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 3d

In my post-class wrap-up questions, I ask students what they most want to know about the topic that's coming up next, so I can try to include it in lecture. Next week is squamates (lizards and snakes).

A solid 50% of their answers can be boiled down to "Why are snakes?" #vertz

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 3d

#LocalVertDiversity 21. Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)

When I was in grade school, we got to vote for the state #fish, and the Bluegill wound up winning. (I don’t remember whether or not I voted for it, though.) And now it’s the only ID-able fish I’ve managed to photograph this semester.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Karen R. Lips @karenrlips.bsky.social · 4d

Greater noctule #bats use echolocation to track migrating #birds and consume them on the wing! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Greater noctule bats prey on and consume passerines in flight

Despite billions of passerines seasonally migrating during the night at high altitudes, only three bat species have been found to consistently tap into this rich prey resource. However, it remains unk...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Kim Rosvall @rosvall-lab.bsky.social · 4d

I do want to take a minute to share the backstory of our paper on the total solar eclipse that triggered dawn behavior in birds. This was SUCH a fun paper to work on, a major light in a lot of different tunnels over the past 18 months. doi.org/10.1126/scie... < ☀️ Let the light puns begin ☀️ > (1/x)

two men are fighting with lightsabers in front of a doorway

ALT: two men are fighting with lightsabers in front of a doorway

media.tenor.com

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 4d

I got further behind schedule for my lectures in #Vertz today, but I couldn't just NOT show this video when we were covering frog reproduction.

I try to limit my anthropomorphizing of wild animals, but... that poor snake's expression! Definitely got a good reaction in class.

Parrot snake attack and induced hatching of red-eyed treefrog eggs

YouTube video by Warkentin Lab

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 4d

When I saw a beanie baby owl in a shrub in the urban park behind my house I wondered if someone was trolling me, but then I saw the "Please don't touch, doing science" note an noticed the owl was above a tray of peanuts, with a predator-model-free (owl-less) tray nearby haha

Fluffy white beanie baby owl with large eyes and tiny colorful wings, tucked in the crook of a small sapling so it is over a tray of peanuts.

Half a sheet of notebook paper taped to a tree trunk. In very small, almost unreadable handwriting it says "Please don't touch doing sciences" in blue ink. Definitely could be written larger on the sheet; I had to use binoculars to read it from the path.

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Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Dustin Reichard @juncowren.bsky.social · 4d

So excited to finally share our work on how birds responded to the 2024 Great American Eclipse! Thanks to @rosvall-lab.bsky.social for inviting me on this journey! I never expected any of my research to show up in @science.org, let alone on the cover. Surreal. I hope you enjoy it!

Science Magazine @science.org · 4d

As the Moon eclipsed the Sun on 8 April 2024, birds took note.

Leveraging nature’s own experiment, scientists and the public joined forces to show how different species responded to sudden midafternoon darkness followed by a new “dawn.” Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/48WbhLL

As the Moon eclipsed the Sun on 8 April 2024, birds like these rock pigeons (Columba livia) took note.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 4d

#LocalVertDiversity 20. American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

I can’t believe it took until species #20 (and 09 Sept) to find my 1st alligator of the semester. The spot where I used to see them has been empty so far, probably because Aug and Sept were really dry so the creek’s been low.

An alligator laying in the shallow water of a creek, facing away from the camera. Only its eyes and nostrils are above the surface, but the water is shallow and clear enough to see the rest of its body too.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Erol Akcay @akcay.theoretical.bio · 6d

Most chromosomes of any animal on Earth so far!

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

I jumped ship to Libro.fm over the summer and I keep finding - or they keep giving me - new reasons to be glad I did.

lindsey adler @lindseyadler.bsky.social · 7d

...

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

“Can you pass the gravy, please?”

Me: “Sure!” *proceeds to roll the little wheelie boat at top speed down the length of the table*

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 6d

Nefs or ship-shaped table adornment first half of 17th century, Augsburg (Abraham Werner, Schloss Ambras Innsbruck)

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.

A small alligator lays on the sandy bottom of a very shallow creek; most of its head and back are out of the water.

Reposted by Nicole Gerlach

Dr. Heather Hinam 🍁 🇨🇦 @secondnaturemb.bsky.social · 6d

When someone reaches for the last bread stick 😉

Photographed from my kayak. #mammals 🌿

One coyote snarls at another one which rears back with a look of 'dude! chill!' against the backdrop of limestone cliffs. A black-billed magpie ignores the scene.

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

I mean, I like Calexico well enough, but I do not understand what that song has to do with salamander sex. I guess I'm just uncultured?

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

Today was Amphibian Diversity day in #Vertz, which includes a video of salamander mating with the weirdest soundtrack choice ever.

The good bit starts at ~2:15, when the male releases a spermatophore and the female walks over to pick it up with her cloaca, so she can fertilize her eggs internally.

Alpine Newt Breeding/spermatophore Galore

YouTube video by Verticalground100

www.youtube.com

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Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 6d

Congratulations! Well deserved.

Nicole Gerlach @ngerlach.bsky.social · 7d

These two photos are 10 minutes apart; this Asian Lady Beetle laid three eggs in that time. Good job mama!

#insect #ladybug

A two-panel picture of a ladybug laying eggs on some shaggy tree bark. The ladybug is bright red with lots of black spots, and her head is white and black. The eggs are yellow and ovoid, standing up on their ends. There are nine eggs in the first panel, organized in a rough triangle, and twelve eggs in the second panel.