A/Vian Eco

Oh no! European/Common Starlings are underappreciated again. Maybe next year! :)

A snowy photograph showing mountains, a river, and many snow-covered evergreen trees. The photo was taken out of a window at the Banff Fairmont, so there are portions of the building in the photo as well.

A close up shot of Tyne smiling in a bright pink coat in a snowy environment. There is a lot of frost on her burgundy toque and face.

A small fluffy american coot chick standing on top of a rock next to a wetland.

A building located next to rolling prairie hills. There are large windows through which we can see bird biologists socializing.

Oh, the places we’ve been! 🌍 🦌🌱

Huge thanks to the hosts who welcomed Tyne for public talks, workshops, and technical presentations this year. We are eternally grateful to our wonderful clients for inspiring such varied and meaningful work.

Wishing you all a happy holiday season and a great 2026!🥳

Three deer in long grass and between some small trees. Each animal has a red box around it. At the top right of the box is a label of "animal" followed by a machine-learned model confidence value (i.e. 0.9, 0.8, 0.7).

Are you AI-curious, biologists? 🤖

Check out the most recent College Matter's edition from BC College of Applied Biologists for some excellent advice:

cab-bc.org/college-matt...

Tyne was privileged to contribute an article to this edition.

#AI #Ecology #Tools #BCCAB

Many insects communicate through vibration, stomping to say hello. To capture these signals they have extremely sensitive hairs and sometimes vibration sensing organs in their ankles and antenna. Jiminy, like other crickets and katydids, also has sound sensing organs in his front knees. #Howloweek

A bronze winged helmet sits in a dark forest. Out from under the helmet is coming a prairie rattlesnake. The snake is flicking it's forked black tongue.

Snakes have directional smelling. Flicking their tongue tips in the air they collect 2 separate smell samples. When they bring their tongue back into the mouth it rubs against the jacobson's smelling organ, telling them which direction a smell is strongest. #howloweek

In a dark forest a black cat with bright yellow eyes is curled up around a black witches hat. The hat has a red band around the base and a pentagram star stitched on in red.

A cat’s piano would have many more keys to the right side. They can hear much higher-pitched sounds than humans, up to 85kHz. They do this without sacrificing low-frequency hearing giving them a broad repertoire of listening experiences, bassy beats to bat calls. #howloweek

A drawn image of a brown rat standing to sniff on it's hind legs. It is in a forest with mushrooms at night. It is standing in front of a chef's hat.

Rats smell an incredible diversity of scents, even at low concentration. They can follow a scent trail closely (within ~1cm), guiding them towards good scents (food, mates) and away from danger. Very important for an animal that cannot vomit to save themselves from dangerous eats. #howloweek

A drawing of a great horned owl in flight in a darkened forest. The owl is swooping towards 3 lollipops. Off to the side of the image is a mortarboard cap and folded golden glasses, very round in shape.

Owls may seem studious but don’t be fooled. That head contains enormous barrel shaped eyes for truly sharp vision, and asymmetric ears for highly accurate sound localization. There’s not much space left for brains. #howloweek #spoopy #critters #superpowers #halloween #wildlife #owls

A witches hat sits in a darkened forest, the hat is crinkled and covered in patches. There's flowers stuck in the buckled strap around the base of the hat. In the foreground is fairy-tale red and white mushrooms. A spider hangs off the tip of the hat, and frog peaks around the other side. In the background a gap in the trees reveals the silhouette of two flying bats.

Join avianeco’s resident witch next week for some true facts about animals associated with the occult. Check in everyday in the week for A/Vian’s annual creepy crawly critter celebration: #howloweek !

🚨 1-day Workshop Announcement! 🚨

Join Tyne Baker of A/Vian Eco for a full-day workshop on Machine-Powered Bird Species ID at #SCO2025.

📅 August 13, 2025 |📍Saskatoon, SK

Let’s tackle big data with smart tools.🔗 Details & registration: conferences.usask.ca/sco-2025/sch...

#AIinEcology

Are you heading out to the woods this summer? 🏕️ 🥾

Join me for a wildlife safety talk at Cochrane Public Library this Saturday, May 7th at 2 PM. Enjoy the outdoors, and protect your lunch.

www.cochranepubliclibrary.ca/Events/Coexi...

#OutdoorSafety #CochraneAlberta #Library #ProtectOurWildlife

The biological data is in, #diversity makes systems more resilient and robust. We’re happy to support all the beautiful iterations of us.

🌈 Happy Pride Humans! 🏳️‍⚧️

❤️🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

#LGBTQ #PrideMonth #Biologist #Natureisqueer #loveislove