ParasiteSquad

Don't forget to recycle your credit card receipts or tree swallows will try to steal your information. 🦹💳 Receipt found in a tree swallow nest. 🐣

So proud of the @Parasite_Squad, including @sydbiosis who led the charge! @uconneeb @UConnOUR @UConnResearch

After I finished my PhD ('14), I started managing 30 old boxes at @ItascaBio! After 9 years of adding, removing, fixing, & moving boxes, I'm now at 193 boxes😱 I realized today how special this work has been to me over the years💚 Here's to another 10 years at my happy place!

Start your lunch right with beautiful pictures of blowfly larvae (Protocalliphora sialia). 📸: @sydbiosis

Also a big shout out to @NSF DEB & amazing PO @EvolutionPirate for funding the Research Experience for Post-Bacc Students (REPS) Fellowship for @gabbysolomon3! This paper would not have been possible without her fellowship & she’s now in a Master’s program with @Bob_Curry!

🌟New Preprint🌟 Effect of urbanization 🏙️ & parasitism 🪰 on the gut microbiota 🦠 of Darwin's finch nestlings 🐣 in the #Galapagos Spearheaded by @gabbysolomon3, @ashley_c_love & many other amazing co-authors! authorea.com/users/635627/a…

Happy Turtle Tuesday! I know you were looking forward to Tree Swallow Tuesday but we saw TWO turtles this week, so we had to make an exception. We returned the first one to its home but we chose not to mess with the snapper! Photo credits to Heather Bjerke and Hannah Brewer

@sarahmhird Spotted a massive monarch butterfly caterpillar! 🐛😍 @ItascaBio

@sarahmhird Good morning baby tree swallows! 🐣 Can you spot the parasitic nest fly larva?? 🪰

Collecting feces from swallow nestlings for future microbiome-immune work with the fab @sarahmhird All appropriate permits have been approved for all work described in these tweets.

Releasing a mama tree swallow after banding!

Releasing a mama bluebird after banding. 🪺💙

A fun few days with @uconneeb undergrad & @Parasite_Squad member 🌟Hannah Brewer🌟 at @ItascaBio! 🌲 We collected so many nest fly parasites (for @XingYaZha0) & banded lots of bluebirds and swallows! 🐣🪰

Happy Field Work Wednesday! Not only do our nest boxes house birds, but they also serve as perfect scratching posts for UConn dairy cows! However, the nestlings typically disapprove of all the commotion, so if anyone has any Nest Box Cow Repellent, let us know. 📸Heather Bjerke

It's always a good day in Storrs, CT, especially when there are tree swallow (left) and eastern bluebird (right) eggs in our boxes!

Our birds aren't the only fauna we see while checking nest boxes! Photo creds: NPCS crew member Hannah Brewer

Lab Pride Party 2023! Thanks to Tessa for the amazing cake! 🌈instagram.com/tessaspastries/

Slide show for my lab's Pride Lunch today featuring local events + queer scientists who ask relevant questions to our lab! 🏳️‍🌈🦠🐦 @PrideWeHa: westhartfordpride.org @UConnRainbowCtr: rainbowcenter.uconn.edu @500QueerSci: 500queerscientists.com

Is it Field Work Wednesday already? Pictured here, NPCS crew member Hannah Brewer is (skillfully) banding a tree swallow nestling out in the field. Picture credits to Sila Inanoglu!

It's Tree Swallow Tuesday! These tree swallow nestlings are snug in their nest, but one seems to be a little hungrier than the others! These Tree Swallows live on Jamie + Christine Fischer's property in Lindstrom, Minnesota.