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ecosystemunraveller.com
Dr Dave
@ecosystemunraveller.com
3.1K followers 340 following 2K posts
Professor of Ecology, educator, maker | birds, mistletoe, acoustics, conservation | updates on research, family & other beasts. Living on unceded Wiradjuri country
More at https://ecosystemunraveller.com
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Dr Dave @ecosystemunraveller.com · Jan 24
Oh, and welcome new followers, welcome aboard. Ecologist here, parasitic plants and birds, biogeography and acoustics, connectivity conservation and evolutionary ecology. Also Amazonia and aquaria, wood working and smoked meats. Welcome
Aboard.
View through an aquarium of unusual size (3.6 metres long) to a room full of handmade wood furniture looking through a very large window to a sun drenched lawn with big tree and sprawling pond. Aquarium has a substrate of brown leaves with a prominent stump with buttressed roots
Reposted by Dr Dave
junkboxjim.bsky.social
What is that? 🤔 It's a chimney swift tower and is a really well conceived, designed, and executed joint project at the
Lichterman Nature Center in the Memphis, TN area.
Jan 11, 2019
A chimney and fireplace *shaped* structure that solely exists as a place built for chimney swifts to nest and roost within. There are more than a few sites online with instructions on how to go about building more towers to help their declining populations to rebound. It seems as though chimney swift towers often turn into community projects and this one is no exception. I think it's partly an expense thing--they're not super expensive but they're definitely more of an undertaking than what people typically think of for artificial bird habitat like, eg, those for bluebirds, chickadees, swallows, or wood ducks. I think another part is that they're something fun and constructive where more people can participate. Another thing is that there is follow up participation in terms of upkeep and ornithological research via banding and record keeping to contribute to useful data bases. Anyways, the plaque on this one says, "This Chimney Swift Tower celebrates the work of Ben and Lula Coffey who directed members of the Tennessee Ornithological Society, Boy Scouts, and others in banding 113,000 swifts from 1932 to 1959. Recovery of six of the bands in Peru helped to discover the birds winter home. TOS Memphis Chapter 2005."
January 11, 2026 at 6:42 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
pauldufour80.bsky.social
Happy to share our new paper published in @cp-iscience.bsky.social We deployed 300+ multi-sensor loggers across 17 species to investigate how different species adapt their flight strategies when crossing deserts and marine areas during migration. tinyurl.com/2c8y8xvf #ornithology #birds
January 10, 2026 at 1:25 PM
ecosystemunraveller.com
True wild type Angelfish are hard to find but geez, in sunlight they rival all of the other colour types I’ve seen.
Three angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) in an aquarium, swimming past roots and looking glorious in the direct sun. One has the blue labyrinth pattern of a discus, all three with two prominent black vertical stripes.
January 11, 2026 at 4:34 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
alexwild.bsky.social
How many photos of this bird can sate our curiosity? Two can.
A second, very similar photo to the first, but the toucan’s bill is closed.
January 11, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
alexwild.bsky.social
Who can enjoy this toucan? You can.
Close-in photo of the head and upper body of a keel billed toucan in side view, its enormous colorful bill wide open, against a soft forested backdrop.
January 11, 2026 at 2:24 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
ecoinvasions.bsky.social
Populations of endangered animals on an island have increased by 90-100% in five years, after effectively controlling non-native predators.
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...
'Predator-free' fence project praised for restoring Kangaroo Island's native wildlife
Five years after feral cats were removed from inside the Western River Refuge on Kangaroo Island, populations of endangered species have boomed.
www.abc.net.au
January 10, 2026 at 11:19 PM
ecosystemunraveller.com
Next mission—sort out some steps between the workshop and the new wing. First step, remove excess soil.
Dodgy looking arrangement of large timbers and a doormat next to the edge of a concrete slab. The lower level is incongruously carpeted Front on view of same scene, extra orange morning light from bushfire smoke Timbers and door mat removed, exposing lip of old bricks tucked under the edge of the slab. Genius! Same scene with four (4) wheel barrow loads of soil removed. Exposed ground is rich in clay. Long handled shovel for scale—whole area is just over 2 m long.
January 10, 2026 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Dr Dave
abcnewsbot.bsky.social
In a remote and isolated part of NSW, nature is enjoying a deluge of water still around from floods in Queensland last year.
Wetland teeming with life in this remote Corner Country of NSW
In a remote and isolated part of NSW, nature is enjoying a deluge of water still around from floods in Queensland last year.
www.abc.net.au
January 10, 2026 at 9:18 PM
ecosystemunraveller.com
Morning all.
January 10, 2026 at 7:52 PM
ecosystemunraveller.com
Currently.
Chopping board made of spalted sassafras in the shape of a Cape Barren Goose with chopped up parsley and a honking Japanese chef’s knife on a redgum table inlaid with granite.
January 10, 2026 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
wolfcat.bsky.social
Here are the Walwa and Longwood line scans (as of 3:30pm 10 Jan) to give you an idea of the scale of the fires when overlaid on the base Melbourne map.

Yikes!

#VicFires
The Line scan outline of the two major fires in Victoria overlaid over the base map of Melbourne at the same scale to show the scale of the fires.
January 10, 2026 at 4:49 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
ecosystemunraveller.com
Found this Eastern Brown Snake snarled in bird netting last night. Returned this morning with some poly pipe for safe handling and sharp scissors. Released beside dam where it had a big drink. Timely reminder that bird netting is nasty stuff for wildlife—if you must use it, keep it off the ground!
Tail of a snake emerging from gathered plastic bird netting beside a garden bed. Pic by Maggie Watson Hand holding snake showing body caught in the mesh. Pic—Maggie Watson A man in t-shirt and shorts holding snake, head end safely ensconced in a length of poly pipe. Pic—Maggie Watson
January 9, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Dr Dave
jamesheathers.bsky.social
First MEP report.

Medical research often uses non-parametric tests. We looked, and noticed that small-sample rank-based tests (i.e. M-W, Wilcoxon) have significant granularity... like p-values!

So, here's GRIM for U values -- GRIM-U.

Enjoy.

medicalevidenceproject.org/grim-u-obser...
GRIM-U: A GRIM-like observation to establish impossible p values from ranked tests - Medical Evidence Project
The Medical Evidence Project uses forensic metascientific methods to examine medical research publications that have a disproportionately high impact on human health. Our aim is to determine where pro...
https://medicalevidenceproject.org/grim-u-observation-establish-impossible-p-values-ranked-tests/"
January 7, 2026 at 2:53 PM
ecosystemunraveller.com
#MistletoeMunchersFromWayBack
January 10, 2026 at 3:29 AM
ecosystemunraveller.com
Found this Eastern Brown Snake snarled in bird netting last night. Returned this morning with some poly pipe for safe handling and sharp scissors. Released beside dam where it had a big drink. Timely reminder that bird netting is nasty stuff for wildlife—if you must use it, keep it off the ground!
Tail of a snake emerging from gathered plastic bird netting beside a garden bed. Pic by Maggie Watson Hand holding snake showing body caught in the mesh. Pic—Maggie Watson A man in t-shirt and shorts holding snake, head end safely ensconced in a length of poly pipe. Pic—Maggie Watson
January 9, 2026 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Dr Dave
witmerlab.bsky.social
T. rex is more closely related to this little dinosaur (a hummingbird) than T. rex is to Allosaurus. Also, a hummingbird's humerus is way smaller than it's eyeball. Go home, evolution, you're drunk! 🦖
The tiny skull of a ruby-throated hummingbird (OUVC 10851) sits on the tip of a finger. The even tinier humerus of this bird sits in front of the skull.
January 9, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Dr Dave
bobpmleung.bsky.social
In this week’s @science.org cover article, we discover tree bark is a hidden habitat for abundant, diverse, and specialized microbial life that actively regulate our climate 🦠. Bark isn't just an inert armor of tree but an active interface for climate and biodiversity
www.science.org/eprint/7H9PX...
Bark microbiota modulate climate-active gas fluxes in Australian forests
Recent studies suggest that microbes inhabit tree bark, yet little is known about their identities, functions, and environmental roles. Here we reveal, through gene-centric and genome-resolved metagen...
www.science.org
January 8, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Dr Dave
julisoto.bsky.social
🚨Paper alert🚨
We studied the permanent chewing louse genus Myrsidea to revisit the long-debated evolutionary and biogeographic history of Sapayoa aenigma, finding signals consistent with an extra-Neotropical origin of the parasite lineage.

📄 royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...
January 8, 2026 at 5:05 AM
ecosystemunraveller.com
Good morning.
January 9, 2026 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Dr Dave
ferransayol.bsky.social
New paper out! 🐦📊

We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources.

Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....
January 8, 2026 at 11:09 AM
ecosystemunraveller.com
Surely, the quintessential trumped-up budgie… #WildOz
digs.bsky.social Andrew Digby @digs.bsky.social · 2d
For our first and only artificial insemination of the #kakapo breeding season, we matched Pearl with Ralph (a founder who has no offspring) and Hurihuri - who was in excellent condition. #conservation #parrots #birds
An adult male kākāpō being held by a person. Credit: Andrew Digby
January 9, 2026 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
susiewalsh.bsky.social
Hi, bushfire survivor here and NSW RFS volunteer.

If you think you are going to stay and defend your property...Don't.
You are not prepared for the intense radiant heat, the ember showers, the smoke, the collapse of all of your energy.

If you have been instructed to leave.
Leave early.
#Bushfire
January 8, 2026 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
asherwolf.bsky.social
The VicEmergency website has been overloaded, causing intermittent outages. Use radio for official emergency updates www.abc.net.au/emergency/ho... #VicFires
How to listen to ABC Radio in an emergency - ABC Emergency
Stay informed in an emergency, set your local ABC radio station in the ABC listen app, and find the frequency on your battery-powered radio.
www.abc.net.au
January 9, 2026 at 3:45 AM
ecosystemunraveller.com
43 in the shade at Burrumbuttock and the wind is violently gusting. Checked on animals and wildlife waterers—everyone’s edgy.
Parched backyard with big gum tree and scungy dam.
January 9, 2026 at 4:48 AM
Reposted by Dr Dave
christianelliott.me
Found my new favorite NASA acronym
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | BADASS Instrument Testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA’s Black and Diffuse Aurora Science Surveyor (BADASS) sounding rocket mission has completed its testing campaign at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, ahead of its launch. ...
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
January 7, 2026 at 6:31 PM