Follow me on Substack! A new edition of the Turning to Birds Newsletter comes out tomorrow morning. See you all there!
06.03.2026 22:37
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Follow me on Substack! A new edition of the Turning to Birds Newsletter comes out tomorrow morning. See you all there!
@birdhistory.bsky.social have there been other campaign bird logos in the past (that aren’t eagles)?
The restoration of the Goose Pond area in Indiana by removing drain tiles and bringing back the birds was maybe what inspired me most to get into avian conservation.
The sight of huge flocks of cranes and pelicans, and shorebirds, waterbirds, and songbirds everywhere was incredible.
It’s amazing how quickly nature can respond when we give it a chance.
Birds are good politics
Your life will change once you start orienting your sense of time by when the juncos come and go, when the cicadas are loudest, when the warblers are in bright plumage and when they're drab again
Scientists and other experts were preparing an assessment of the health of nature in the US when Trump returned to the White House. He canceled the report. The researchers went ahead and compiled it on their own. This week, they released a 868-p draft for public comment and scientific review.
It implies that we are visitors in someone else’s country.
Only Congress has the authority to declare war.
The bipartisan War Powers Resolution would have enforced that power + required Trump to seek our approval for further action in Iran.
Instead, Congress has basically given him a free pass and set a terrible precedent for future war powers disputes.
Oof, come on.
BREAKING: 1.25% for #Wildlife in #ORLeg #ORPol has PASSED THE #OREGON LEGISLATURE through ENORMOUS EFFORT by AMAZING ADVOCATES! On to Gov. Kotek!
Press release here:
One of the most important places for birds in the country, if not the hemisphere.
Big announcement from us: we are fully funded, we met our goal. I cannot thank everyone who supported us enough. We are putting the pedal on the gas to put out work worthy of your trust.
Some quiet wisdom for a bloody day:
The living world also sustains us in ways we hardly recognize until we have been deprived of it for too long. The feel of turned soil in our hands, the scent of flowers on a breeze ... this is the world we were born for."
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/o...
DHS is rapidly pushing to wall off Big Bend National Park.
Big Bend's former NPS superintendent says:
“This is the biggest incursion on the integrity of national parks since the construction of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite more than a century ago.”
www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
“Died during strikes”. Interesting passive voice for one of the most unprecedented assassinations of a head of state by other nations in modern history.
The tree swallows arrived the day the bombs dropped
But medium term (i.e. in 2029) we need to make DC a state, expand and rebalance the Supreme Court, and pass sweeping national voting rights protections—and that’s just table stakes.
Long term, we need parliamentary government.
The executive should be chosen by and easily removable by a simple majority of parliament. Less incentive to act lawlessly and more accountability it it happens.
And that parliament should be elected through mixed-member proportional representation.
Decades of observations collected from all corners of the continent show that many of North America’s birds are in a state of accelerating decline.
Of 122 species with declining populations, more than half were dying out at an ever-faster rate. https://wapo.st/4tY6T76
One of the most imperiled birds in the country. An incredible, endemic bird that our government should be celebrating and saving, not making it easier to wipe out.
It's time to move past this. Hope other states follow.
🪶 We've been seeing a lot of ❌ misinformation ❌ surrounding the proposed legislation in New England. Here are the facts ✔️
We need YOU to write to your legislators NOW in support of Massachusetts Bill H.5137, which will end pet store bird sales in MA and support overwhelmed rescue organizations.
The US government has long been one of the world's biggest funders of biodiversity protection. @nijhuism.bsky.social looks into what we lost when USAID and other agencies got slashed, and how people and organizations are trying to rebuild from the rubble.
www.biographic.com/the-future-o...
Over the past 12 months, the global conservation landscape has undergone a seismic shift—one that will impact how conservation is funded, what it looks like, and the stories we tell about it for decades to come.
Check out our special issue on this new era in global conservation via the link below:
“Not only are we losing birds, we are losing them faster and faster from year to year.” @borenbears.bsky.social
apnews.com/article/bird...
And here is some of the amazing news coverage of our paper. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/c... by @catrineinhorn.bsky.social
tropical lowland birds aren't doing well -- this is an excellent article on what's happening featuring a slew of fantastic research projects
www.science.org/content/arti...
A border wall through Big Bend is particularly gutting given the long history of efforts - first initiated by FDR in 1944 - to make the area an international peace park.
Instead of this wall, we could have an inspiring example of binational cooperation to ensure thriving ecosystems and communities.
Birds are disappearing from our country, and they are vanishing at an accelerating rate.
Take a few minutes and read this gift article about a new study on the reality of our nature crisis.
wapo.st/4bch6FB