Max M.
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ambystomax.bsky.social
Max M.
@ambystomax.bsky.social
PNW Ecologist | community ecology 🦉🦌🐸 | bioacoustics 🦇🐦 | forest systems 🌲🗻🌱 | refusing to submit to despair | B.Sc. from UF WEC | views my own | 🏳️‍🌈 he/him
Reposted by Max M.
It’s really demoralizing how many colleagues are using AI.

Your job is literally to use your brain- your extremely unique, highly trained brain 😭
December 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Photos from the snowy winter wonderland here in North Carolina
December 11, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Max M.
#MSH45 | Watercolors
One of the most powerful “before and afters” of Mount St. Helens isn’t a photo at all, it’s this watercolor.

Legendary PNW mountaineer Dee Molenaar painted the graceful pre-1980 cone and Spirit Lake basin alongside the torn-open crater and devastated landscape that followed.
December 9, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Max M.
This is absolutely awful. This was one of the best resources for climate indicators data, and my go-to share for help answering public questions.

Luckily I captured some of them on my new U.S. climate page a few months ago: zacklabe.com/united-state...
Additionally, it appears that all of EPA's previously extensive "indicators of climate change" pages have been scrubbed entirely. The pages no longer exist; there are numerous dead links on the current/live EPA site, and no indication they have been moved to a new URL.
December 8, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Max M.
if courts have no authority to block Trump from firing anyone, that means Trump can fire anybody for literally any reason, including y'know, race, sex, religion, etc.

and I'm just like...are we not gonna talk about Trump basically saying he has the constitutional power to resegregate government?
December 8, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Haven't been east of the Rockies in two years. Enjoying some WNC nature and family for a few days!
December 7, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Max M.
I’m recruiting a PhD and MSC student for fall 2026 working on the movement ecology and conservation of Mexican spotted owls in SW forests and rocky canyonlands. Exciting partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Great vibrant lab group, high impact research! 🦉

gavinmjones.com/opportunities/
Opportunities
***PhD and MSc openings – Movement ecology and conservation*** I will periodically support graduate students, postdocs, and other staff through the Biology Department at the University of New…
gavinmjones.com
December 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Reposted by Max M.
On the lookout for intruders who might want to steal the last of his pokeberries.

Eastern Bluebird

#BlueSkyMonday #ArtAdventCalendar #birds #birding #nature #photography #NativePlants
December 1, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Reposted by Max M.
Rabbit rabbit! December 1st came early, thanks insomnia! Here's a White-spotted Salamander (Plethodon cylindraecus) from central North Carolina this fall. #herps #salamanders #NaturePhotography 🌿
December 1, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Spent yesterday morning at my local wildlife refuge
November 28, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Max M.
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Really good thread. Recent articles have felt very dismissive of what fed workers experienced this year (and are still experiencing) and this is a helpful reflection exercise of "oh yeah, this was really fucked up wasn't it?"
Being among the first interrogated and ultimately fired by DOGE, I certainly felt we were facing the business end of a right-wing conspiracy theory 🧵
DOGE was not a money-saving effort. It was an effort to chase down and prove right-wing conspiracy theories. They went after USAID to prove conspiracy theories about foreign aid. Then they went after SSA to, again, pursue conspiracy theories about Dems paying "illegals" to vote. 1/2
November 26, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Max M.
National parks have SO MANY people from other countries (since they get real vacations!)

And they spend a lot of money on hotels, food, souvenirs, etc.

This is unbelievably dumb, it will destroy entire tourist towns
November 26, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Reposted by Max M.
asking the doge guy to send me 5 bullet points on what he accomplished this week
November 23, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Morning walk in the drizzly foggy mossy forest.
November 16, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Max M.
Federal science
1. is better when its work force is diverse and
2. is worth saving.
"my least woke opinion is---"

That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.

Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Max M.
Tiny Golden-crowned Kinglet showing us all the field signs (for one nanosecond) #birds 🌿
November 13, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Dude it's almost 9pm and it definitely sounds like someone is leafblowing outside. We might truly be cooked as a society.
November 13, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Welp, no chance of seeing the aurora in my overcast corner of the PNW, so here's some photos of the one I got to see in May of 2024 instead
November 12, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Max M.
Significant cave nomination form.

cc: @democrats.senate.gov
November 10, 2025 at 2:44 AM
An assortment of waterfalls
November 10, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Max M.
Eastern Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis)!

At first I thought I found a big, fuzzy gall. But it was a wonderful little snoozing bat! (May 2021)
November 27, 2024 at 3:56 PM
In case you didn't think these a-holes could stoop any lower.
Senate update: Republicans are now trying to sneak a backdoor national abortion ban into their government funding bill. Republicans will stop at nothing to control women's health care decisions.
November 8, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Max M.
Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time
November 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM