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Author Archives: Leighton Reid
Trowbridge’s shrew
Over the holiday I visited the western Cascades with old friends from Ashland. We stayed in a forest service cabin at the Fish Lake Remount Station – an historic waypoint on the Santiam Wagon Road. The wagon road was once … Continue reading
Posted in Ecology, Evolution
Tagged Cascades, Oregon, Santiam wagon road, Sorex trowbridgii
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Why not fire truck berries?
In the fall, many plants in western Oregon (and elsewhere) produce brightly-colored fruits. These attract fruit-eating animals, which eat the fruits and move their seeds to new locations, potentially better sites for germination and survival. By and large, such fruits are … Continue reading
Posted in Ecology
Tagged Dispersal syndromes, Seed dispersal, Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus, Zoochory
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Night Fliers
From September 17 through November 3, the G2 Gallery in Venice, California will feature an exhibit called Night Fliers, which will display photographs of bats, including some of my own taken during fieldwork in southern Costa Rica. I am excited to have my … Continue reading
Posted in Bats, Costa Rica, Photography, Uncategorized
Tagged Biodiversity, Disc-winged bat, Fruit bat, Myotis, Nectar bat, Vampire bat
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Artificial Bat Roosts for Tropical Forest Restoration?
Fruit bats are very good at dispersing tree and shrub seeds into disturbed tropical ecosystems. We wanted to know how we could attract more of them into everyone’s favorite disturbed ecosystem – the abandoned cow pasture. In a paper in Biological … Continue reading
Posted in Bats, Research, Restoration Ecology
Tagged Bat roosts, Ecological succession, Forest restoration, Seed dispersal
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Tallgrass prairie restoration
This week I attended the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the course of four and a half days, thousands of ecologists presented their work to one another in short talks, posters, and informal … Continue reading
Posted in Restoration Ecology
Tagged Ecological Society of America, Minnesota, Tallgrass prairie
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Big Basin still blooming
The coastal grasslands are already drying up and turning brown, but Big Basin still sports an array of wildflowers. Hiking down the Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail yesterday, Jorge Torres, Myriam Scally, and I found several populations of fairy lanterns and walked past … Continue reading
Posted in Flowers
Tagged Big Basin, Fairy lantern, Foxglove, Skyline-to-the Sea, Starflower
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Are migratory birds more likely to strike windows?
The house that I rent in Santa Cruz has several large, plate glass windows. From time to time I find a stunned bird sitting below these windows, and more often than not the bird is migratory. Although I don’t keep … Continue reading
Posted in Birds, Evolution
Tagged Migratory birds, Natural selection, Pine Siskin, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Windows
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Self amputation at Fort Ord
An influential scientist once told me that much of biology can be basically boiled down to poop and sex. In pursuit of the former, I found myself over the weekend at Fort Ord, a University of California Natural Reserve in … Continue reading
Posted in Herps, Research
Tagged Alligator lizard, Autotomy, Fort Ord, Predation, Raven, Scat, UC Natural Reserve
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Zea squamata
Walking home from school yesterday, Rachel and I stumbled upon an alligator lizard sunning herself on the trail. Her eyes were fiery orange, and her back was colored like indian corn. She held her legs close against her sides. Possibly … Continue reading
An unexpected wattle
For the past two years, I have walked through Cave Gulch and across a patch of chaparral nearly every day on my way to school. I almost always take the same route, and I generally pay attention to my surroundings … Continue reading
