Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
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cbdawson.bsky.social
Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
@cbdawson.bsky.social
• San Francisco Bay Area • Queer • Too many nature pix • FAIR and open gov science in the public interest • Geoscience • Water Resources • Birds! • Public Lands • Burrowing Owl & Pupfish stan acct •

This is a personal account, obviously 🙄
Pinned
Sure, doom scrolling is great, but have you tried bird scrolling? Crank up the volume and enjoy a few seconds of noisy nature calm!

Sacramento NWR, December 2024.
#birds #birding
Those soccer fields are so busy, real restrooms are important!

But I'm very concerned about new sports facilities even closer to the water, specifically impact of lights on birds -- the north basin is significant winter bird habitat. The soccer lights are so excessive, bright from > half mile away.
November 26, 2025 at 3:31 PM
🤣🦃🚲

The locals definitely are happy to block car traffic here in Berkeley.
I thought turkeys were our allies in The War on Cars!
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
We got volcano time! (New eruption just started at Kīlauea): www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0t...
November 26, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
I presented our latest research on groundwater recharge yesterday to the NSW government water planners for groundwater and coastal syatems. And then led tours to show the team our recharge monitoring sites at Harrie Wood Cave, Yarrangobilly.
November 25, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Not a fan of the AI-first-and-for-everything approach. But hopefully this initiative will fastrack the DOE Office of Science's integrated research infrastructure efforts, to better connect the globally distributed experiments, data, computing, and people.
content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USD...
November 25, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Was in a scicomm workshop about video, took me awhile to realize why it was such a turnoff. They kept highlighting movie clips from a clint eastwood western (including someone getting shot!), good fellas, the godfather, wolf of wallstreet, etc.

Just a non-stop selection of violent & offensive men.
November 25, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
November 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
Kind of lousy air quality in the SF Bay Area right now if you’re headed out to exercise…
November 25, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Proposal: If you can't attend a meeting, you don't get to send your "AI notetaker". Hosts should start kicking out AI notetakers.
a blue bird with glasses and a beard is looking out a window .
Alt: a blue muppet with glasses and a beak is looking out a door and then closes the door .
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:42 PM
😍😍😍
More Greenland photos, featuring some geology. Scoresbysund has some fantastic exposures of columnar basalts, which are ~55 million years old (young for Greenland rocks!) related to flood basalts when the Atlantic was opening up. Fantastical shapes and fall tundra colors
November 25, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Battery fires are serious hazards.
CPSC Warns Consumers to Immediately Stop Using Batteries for E-Bikes from Rad Power Bikes Due to Fire Hazard; Risk of Serious Injury or Death www.cpsc.gov/Warnings/202...
November 25, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
Beautiful great horned owl spotted on the Butler Hill South camera near Oxnard over the weekend.
November 24, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
But the story of Allensworth is also a Central Valley groundwater story! Originally, there were multiple flowing wells. Residents formed the Allensworth Rural Water Company to take over from another company. Within a few years, water levels dropped and the wells went dry. #CAwater
November 23, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Thick fog this morning in the delta.

I feel like I want to make a joke about the second photo, but given the apparent lack of understanding of this current admin, I'll refrain.
November 24, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Decided to check out Stone Lakes NWR because I had never been but was nearby. Almost eerie lack of birds, and instead I saw this.

Enough with the 🤬 balloons. Stop buying 🤬 balloons.

(Sound up for full effect)
November 24, 2025 at 2:48 AM
It was a road trippin' week!

Camped at Salton Sea State Recreation Area. I walked out of my tent to the water & saw a raft of ~1k redheads one morning. Cactus wrens were a great alarm clock. The harbor at the visitor center no longer reaches the shoreline. Saw hundreds of blue-winged teals!
November 23, 2025 at 3:47 AM
This week I visited Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, looking for camping. I thought it was military related, but it's not. Founded in 1908, it was the only "town in California founded, financed, and governed by Black Americans".

There's a good audio tour w/photos;
allensworth.stqry.app/en/
November 23, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Why the heck does a California STATE public lands kiosk have this federal garbage posted?

And they couldn't even get the name right, it's SS State Recreation Area, not SS State Park.

(Rant, but also genuine question, if anyone knows -- has anyone seen these at other STATE facilities?)
November 21, 2025 at 4:48 AM
This isn't a great owl photo, but I feel like it really captures how I think of this part of the Imperial Valley -- ag, geothermal, and birds.

Also: It would really be much easier if all birds put out little flags to identify themselves! 🚩
November 21, 2025 at 3:01 AM
If folks haven't read it, I recommend @annaleen.bsky.social's Stories are Weapons, which is unfortunately more and more relevant during this administration. When I started it, I thought, "yeah yeah, I know this." But each chapter was 🤯; well researched analysis of these tactics, recent & historical.
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
Postdoctoral Position in Groundwater Flow and Transport Modeling at Yale University. See also: csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Jobs
November 17, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Going to print this out and keep it in my wallet, in case I ever have a moment of doubt 😆📚📚📚
NEWS JUST IN! A new book will in fact solve all your problems
November 17, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
Diving through the purple sulfur bacteria layer of Fayetteville Green Lake with our ROV last month. This is the most intense density of PSB that I've seen in many years!
November 8, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Cian 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (he/him)
U.S. Army did bomb Mauna Loa in 1935.

“A total of 20 of the 600-pound bombs were dropped on the lava channels. Fifteen struck the margins, while five others made direct hits, spraying molten rock in all directions.”

airandspace.si.edu/air-and-spac...
That Time We Bombed a Volcano
In 1935, a squad of U.S. bombers dropped a total of 20 of the 600-pound bombs on the lava channels in the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
airandspace.si.edu
November 16, 2025 at 5:03 AM
New contender for the worst ever disaster TV show! I'm only on S1E1, but it's about Mauna Kea, located in Oahu, erupting. They figured it out from ground observations in the tropical forest ~80 miles north. The complex topography looks similar to the Alps, complicating where to drop the bombs. 🌋
November 16, 2025 at 4:27 AM