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Dave Watson

@ecosystemunraveller.com

2.7K followers 320 following 1.6K 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

ecosystemunraveller.com

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Dave Watson @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

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 4h

Impending Clements alignment with AviList
ebird.org/news/2025-ta... #Ornithology #SplitsLumps&Shuffles

2025 Taxonomy Update—COMING SOON - eBird

The 2025 eBird Taxonomy Update will begin on 28 October and big changes are already underway as we prepare the eBird database for this year's revisions. Follow this page for updates throughout the pro...

ebird.org

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 4h

Evening all.

Reposted by Dave Watson

Schmidt Ocean Institute @schmidtocean.bsky.social · 14h

In celebration of World Octopus Day, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite cephalopod sightings, the glass octopus — Vitreledonella richardi filmed during a month-long #PhoenixIslandsCoral expedition in 2021.

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Chris Simms @chrisnsimms.bsky.social · 6h

Naked mole-rat workers may have specific roles, such as cleaning the toilet chamber or transporting waste, rather than being generalist helpers. The findings suggest their colonies are even more complex than we thought. 🧪 #animals #zoology #nature

www.livescience.com/animals/land...

Some naked mole rats are designated toilet cleaners, study suggests

Naked mole rats may have specific roles, such as cleaning the toilet chamber or transporting waste, rather than being generalist helpers. The findings suggest naked-mole-rat colonies are even more com...

www.livescience.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Guardian Environment @environment.theguardian.com · 3d

Going extinct ‘right under our noses’: the quiet plight of Australia’s rarest bird of prey

Restricted now to the tropical north, the mysterious red goshawk is fast disappearing as a result of climate change and habitat loss

www.theguardian.com

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Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 20h

Proud to share a new piece in Scientific American co-authored with the brilliant @lnwilson.bsky.social , edited by @katewong.bsky.social, and featuring this spectacular depiction of the endless daylight of the Cretaceous summer in Alaska by Chase Stone!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin

Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

WA Orchids @wa-orchids.bsky.social · 13h

Research into orchid seed germination shows the importance of deadwood and wood-decaying fungi: 🪵🪾🍄🍄‍🟫

“For conservation, our results mean that protecting orchids in the wild is inseparable from protecting deadwood and its fungi”
#orchids #fungi #nativeplants #germination

John Holmes @jhaue.bsky.social · 13h

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life: Study uncovers important carbon flux in the ecosystem phys.org/news/2025-10... via @physorg_com

Deadwood brings wild orchids to life: Study uncovers important carbon flux in the ecosystem

Orchid seeds are as small as dust and do not provide any nutrients for the young plant to grow. The adult plants are known to rely on a certain type of fungi that develop structures within the plant's...

phys.org

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Dr Perry Beasley-Hall @pbeasleyhall.bsky.social · 13h

Calling #ICZN people: we had a #taxonomy paper come out w/ literally dozens of publisher errors. Told it can’t be fixed online as that’s against the Code & needs a lengthy correction notice. 😤 imo that would make it even less accessible - is it really our only option?

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Leo @leo-in-merimbula.bsky.social · 3d

Pied Honeyeater feeding on an Eremophila longifolia (from the archives) #birds #WildOz

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WA Orchids @wa-orchids.bsky.social · 21h

When art and nature merge 🪵🪚🍃🥀

A few of the numerous sculptures on display at the Chainsaw Sculpture Drive in Albany on the south coast of Western Australia.

It’s amazing to think these sculptures were all created from wood using a chainsaw!
#sculpture #wood #birds #octopus #WesternAustralia

Sculpture of a kookaburra and tawny frogmouth

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 16h

Good morning.

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Marc Gilles @marcgilles.bsky.social · 1d

Want to know everything about bird smell?
I wrote an "Ornithological masterclass" on Avian Olfaction for BTO News @btobirds.bsky.social #ornithology
Link to the article 👉 www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Margaret Stanley @ecostanley.bsky.social · 1d

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project
theconversation.com/the-remarkab...

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project

In 2002, an online database was set up allowing birdwatchers to record their species observations. It is now a vast resource, shaping scientific research.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Dave Watson

Janet Hill @saskajanet.bsky.social · 1d

Look at her go!
#invertebrates 🌿

Screen shot of Project Monarch app map of progress of a monarch butterfly from southern Ontario to Oklahoma.

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Margarita Lopez-Uribe @mmlopezu.bsky.social · 1d

🌼 New paper showing that it's not just pollinators shaping flowers—abiotic factors like humidity and temperature also influence floral form and function. Check out this new paper on a more complex picture of floral evolution. 🌬️🐝
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Bluesky Wagtail @angrywagtails.bsky.social · 1d

Australian orchids suffer rapid pollination decline since the 1970s, study suggests

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

One hundred years of Australian flower data reveals pollination drop

Researchers behind a new study examining thousands of flower specimens collected over the past century say temperature increases could be behind a pollination decline in native orchids.

www.abc.net.au

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 1d

I've been working on a book proposal and alternating between "this is meaningful" and "this is pointless," and a friend recently shared this quote that she stumble on in a Goodreads review: "Every book is a grand gesture of optimism on the part of both the reader and writer." Keep creating, friends.

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🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 2d

In the 1980s, E. Stiles hypothesized that plants advertise fruit with a contrasting foliar “flag.” I’ve seen this phenomenon in cultivated Berberis, like this B. aquifolium (📷: Alicia CCBYNC4). Some experiments support the hypothesis; some don’t. 🤷‍♂️ #dispersal #Berberidaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of leafy shoots bearing blue berries. A leaf subtending a cluster of berries has turned bright coppery red.

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 1d

Good morning good people.

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 3d

I’m especially keen to showcase purpletufts, one of the grooviest and most underrated mistletoe specialist frugivores (sister to Tityras and becards)
(pic by Jesus Alferez)