Oct 5 - the juncos return
With fall migration underway, many species of birds are passing down the Pacific flyway to winter further south – some as far as Central or even South America.
It struck me earlier this week how poor my knowledge of both Central and South America is, so I spent a little time studying their geography. Political borders aside, what I really wanted to learn about were the ecoregions… the ecosystems that support these birds.
I also couldn’t help going back in time – deep time and evolutionary biology are two intertwined obsessions of mine – to learn more about the Great American Biotic Interchange.
Reading
- From gentle giants to ghostly hunters, sharks face an unseen peril
- Wind turbines and their risks to animals
- The Billion-Year Reign of Fungi That Predated Plants and Made Earth Livable
- This Tiny Butterfly Has the Most Chromosomes of Any Animal on Earth
Listening
A short (~18 minute) podcast from The Guardian Science about the crisis in science publishing: Fraud, AI slop and huge profits: is science publishing broken?
