Spring bird migrants cruising through the park are headed north for the season. The Crown Point State Historic Site, under the North Atlantic flyway, hosts a scientist-led bird banding event to track the migrations. This is the 47th annual event and is open to the public until May 20.

I spotted this yellow warbler at a Saratoga Springs marsh on their way north.

What I’m paying attention to

Climate anxiety is on the rise among youth. In this episode of Seat at the Table, a YouTube original series, Jack Harries takes us around the world to learn about collective action as an antidote to despair.

The Wild Center director of climate initiatives Jen Kretser addressed the council for climate action – the advisory group responsible for overseeing plans for how New York will decarbonize – at a recent hearing in Tupper Lake hosted at the center. She advocated for more commitment from the state to support comprehensive, interdisciplinary climate education and workforce development programs for New York’s 2.6 million youth.

Many readers responded in the comments to my recent post on the lack of emphasis on the role nuclear power can play in achieving a carbon-free grid for New York state. I appreciated the respectful back and forth from readers sharing their thoughts and analysis. One reader who posts as JB shared a link to a Princeton study which models various net-zero pathways with and without investments in nuclear energy. You can find that study here, as well as an explainer by Vox News.

Clean energy infrastructure means expansive land use to host solar, wind and transmission lines to transport power from renewables including hydropower (as my colleague Zachary Matson reported in the cover story in the latest issue of Adirondack Explorer). The New York Times reported on why communities in Maine are fighting a transmission line running through their forests meant to supply Massachusetts with hydroelectric power from Quebec. This is indicative of more disputes to come over where in the country is expected to bear the industrial footprints needed for the clean energy transition.

Our Great National Parks on Netflix tells the stories of animals living in parks around the world. My favorite part is the close up of critters living in the hair of a sloth.

In fact, I’ve been studying tiny worlds from my kitchen table.

This microscopic crustacean is known as a copepod commonly found in both fresh and saltwater. This was collected from a freshwater marsh in Saratoga Springs. Scientists study microbes for clues to construct past and future climate conditions, a subject for my future reporting.

The many marvels found in a single drop of water off a mound of moss remind me of the infinitely complex, interconnected threads of life unfolding at all levels of nature.

Photo at top: Yellow warbler at a Saratoga Springs marsh. Photo taken by Alexander More. Follow @natureofalex on Instagram for more bird photography. 

Editor’s note: This first appeared in Cayte’s weekly “Climate Matters” newsletter. Click here to sign up.