Russell
@russ-owl.bsky.social
Writer, naturalist interested in oceans, coastlines, urban ecology, natural history, chowder. Writing in slate, hell gate, other places, including my extremely cool newsletter Landlubber (waterways.substack.com)
📍New York City
Also on twitter @russ_owl
📍New York City
Also on twitter @russ_owl
Pinned
Russell
@russ-owl.bsky.social
· Dec 16
I wrote about the historical persecution of seabirds, an old bullet, and the invisible threads that tie our daily lives to the natural world! This one was really fun to write
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Hello, New Yorkers! I am once again leading a ton of boat tours from Manhattan down to the wintry edges of the Atlantic Ocean to see seals and seabirds! The boat is beautiful, warm, and spacious! The food is delicious! This is basically a perfect holiday gift!
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Seal Tours are Back!
ARF! ARF! ARF!
open.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Hello, New Yorkers! I am once again leading a ton of boat tours from Manhattan down to the wintry edges of the Atlantic Ocean to see seals and seabirds! The boat is beautiful, warm, and spacious! The food is delicious! This is basically a perfect holiday gift!
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Wow, big news: I have been awarded the Nobel Prize in the miscellaneous maritime newsletter category
October 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Wow, big news: I have been awarded the Nobel Prize in the miscellaneous maritime newsletter category
Thrilled to report that I’m writing a book about the ecology and human history of herring, menhaden, anchovies, sardines, and other small fish that swim in huge schools. DM’s open for all things forage fish. Tell me your sprat and sand-lance stories!
July 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Thrilled to report that I’m writing a book about the ecology and human history of herring, menhaden, anchovies, sardines, and other small fish that swim in huge schools. DM’s open for all things forage fish. Tell me your sprat and sand-lance stories!
My newsletter turned 1 last week, and I celebrated the first ever Hudson River Fish Migration Celebration
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Fish Migration Celebration
A Floating Parade for the Hudson's Spectacular, Invisible Migrations
open.substack.com
June 23, 2025 at 6:07 PM
My newsletter turned 1 last week, and I celebrated the first ever Hudson River Fish Migration Celebration
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Check out these big goofy babies
June 3, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Check out these big goofy babies
Carl Hiaasen writes oddball detective novels about Florida and our strange relationship to the natural world. They’re easy, and fun, and everyone should read nine or ten of them this summer
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
The Screwball Detective Writer Who Chronicled the Demise of Our Coastal Environments (and our Society)
Beach Reads, No. 1: Carl Hiaasen’s Florida
open.substack.com
May 13, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Carl Hiaasen writes oddball detective novels about Florida and our strange relationship to the natural world. They’re easy, and fun, and everyone should read nine or ten of them this summer
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Reposted by Russell
Apparently before the St. Lawrence Seaway opened when they wanted to get large ships into the Great Lakes they just brought them up the Mississippi and shoved them through the Chicago River
May 12, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Apparently before the St. Lawrence Seaway opened when they wanted to get large ships into the Great Lakes they just brought them up the Mississippi and shoved them through the Chicago River
Fun new landlubber tomorrow morning! My love letter to the king of vacationland noir
May 12, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Fun new landlubber tomorrow morning! My love letter to the king of vacationland noir
Wrote about an obscure marine invertebrate that can dramatically reshape the sediment along the Atlantic coast of the United States
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
April 24, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Wrote about an obscure marine invertebrate that can dramatically reshape the sediment along the Atlantic coast of the United States
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
Soilmaxxing, in my drill era
April 17, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Soilmaxxing, in my drill era
It’s april 9th 2025 and it seems likely that the New York Mets will never lose a baseball game again
April 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
It’s april 9th 2025 and it seems likely that the New York Mets will never lose a baseball game again
Unfortunately, the New York Mets have been defeated by the cheating Houston Astros in the first game of the 2025 baseball season
March 27, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Unfortunately, the New York Mets have been defeated by the cheating Houston Astros in the first game of the 2025 baseball season
New Landlubber is called Violence of the Clams. It’s about the terrifying world that bivalves and other shellfish live in and features this absurd picture I made of Werner at the beach
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
March 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
New Landlubber is called Violence of the Clams. It’s about the terrifying world that bivalves and other shellfish live in and features this absurd picture I made of Werner at the beach
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
open.substack.com/pub/waterway...
The Mets are going to win the World Series this year I think
March 21, 2025 at 9:48 PM
The Mets are going to win the World Series this year I think
He invented “dinner 2” years ago, where he finishes his food and then bangs his bowl around like Oliver Twist, but recently he has conceived “lunch for cats” (the same thing, but at like 1PM)
March 20, 2025 at 11:01 PM
He invented “dinner 2” years ago, where he finishes his food and then bangs his bowl around like Oliver Twist, but recently he has conceived “lunch for cats” (the same thing, but at like 1PM)
I’ve been thinking about pitching a story about the “mini mysteries” posed by range maps for a while. I have about a dozen screenshots on my phone of maps I have questions about. Here’s a random orchid in the Northeast (peat bogs?) and the “Fox Sparrow Bermuda Triangle” in the Dakotas (???)
March 17, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I’ve been thinking about pitching a story about the “mini mysteries” posed by range maps for a while. I have about a dozen screenshots on my phone of maps I have questions about. Here’s a random orchid in the Northeast (peat bogs?) and the “Fox Sparrow Bermuda Triangle” in the Dakotas (???)
The Hudson River is Londonpilled and “ThamesMaxxing. It is in its Bleak House Era
March 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM
The Hudson River is Londonpilled and “ThamesMaxxing. It is in its Bleak House Era
Are there actually “flat earth people” or is it a “birds aren’t real” type epic bacon meme? I just briefly tried to find this out and I can’t quite tell
March 13, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Are there actually “flat earth people” or is it a “birds aren’t real” type epic bacon meme? I just briefly tried to find this out and I can’t quite tell
Reposted by Russell
Reminder: Every ecological victory is a human victory. Every ecological loss is a human loss.
"Scientists have reported fish species like alewives, shad, and even the endangered Atlantic sturgeon surging upstream to return in numbers unseen for generations."
"Scientists have reported fish species like alewives, shad, and even the endangered Atlantic sturgeon surging upstream to return in numbers unseen for generations."
WPA, but remove the dams.
Rivers that were once blocked by outdated dams are now running freely again, w astonishing results—long-lost ecosystems are returning, fish are migrating in record numbers, and local residents are reconnecting with revitalized waterways. www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/dam...
Rivers that were once blocked by outdated dams are now running freely again, w astonishing results—long-lost ecosystems are returning, fish are migrating in record numbers, and local residents are reconnecting with revitalized waterways. www.thecooldown.com/outdoors/dam...
Scientists witness unexpected changes in rivers after knocking down dams: 'We didn't even know there was [one] there'
Rivers that were once blocked by outdated dams are now running freely again, and the results are nothing short of astonishing.
www.thecooldown.com
March 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reminder: Every ecological victory is a human victory. Every ecological loss is a human loss.
"Scientists have reported fish species like alewives, shad, and even the endangered Atlantic sturgeon surging upstream to return in numbers unseen for generations."
"Scientists have reported fish species like alewives, shad, and even the endangered Atlantic sturgeon surging upstream to return in numbers unseen for generations."
A little bit of this and that in this week’s Landlubber.
If you knew Eric Angel Ramos, I included my memories of him in here. We weren’t super close or anything, but he was kind to the high school kids I worked with and shared his octopus with them, and that meant the world to them 💙
If you knew Eric Angel Ramos, I included my memories of him in here. We weren’t super close or anything, but he was kind to the high school kids I worked with and shared his octopus with them, and that meant the world to them 💙
Harbor Mysteries, a Nature Writing Course, and more Seal Science
Hi there!
open.substack.com
March 10, 2025 at 3:38 PM
A little bit of this and that in this week’s Landlubber.
If you knew Eric Angel Ramos, I included my memories of him in here. We weren’t super close or anything, but he was kind to the high school kids I worked with and shared his octopus with them, and that meant the world to them 💙
If you knew Eric Angel Ramos, I included my memories of him in here. We weren’t super close or anything, but he was kind to the high school kids I worked with and shared his octopus with them, and that meant the world to them 💙
This is from 2016 when Cuomo’s closest associates got recorded on a wiretap discussing bribes, which they called “boxes of ziti” as a joke (the joke was their own behavior was similar to the organized crime depicted on The Sopranos)
March 1, 2025 at 11:16 PM
This is from 2016 when Cuomo’s closest associates got recorded on a wiretap discussing bribes, which they called “boxes of ziti” as a joke (the joke was their own behavior was similar to the organized crime depicted on The Sopranos)
I am spite-voting in the mayoral primary in New York City: my vote will go to the candidate who says the meanest thing about Andrew Cuomo. Zohran currently winning, but it’s just day 1 of this sweepstakes. Anyone could pull ahead by calling Cuomo a crook, or a worm
March 1, 2025 at 8:46 PM
I am spite-voting in the mayoral primary in New York City: my vote will go to the candidate who says the meanest thing about Andrew Cuomo. Zohran currently winning, but it’s just day 1 of this sweepstakes. Anyone could pull ahead by calling Cuomo a crook, or a worm
Reposted by Russell
The folks at Audubon interviewed me about my little bird blog. Give it a read!
"Clashes over birds throughout US history often cut straight to the country’s deepest wounds and oldest struggles. Bird History is his effort to share what he’s learned and to ponder what we’ve lost."
"Clashes over birds throughout US history often cut straight to the country’s deepest wounds and oldest struggles. Bird History is his effort to share what he’s learned and to ponder what we’ve lost."
When People Dined On Robins and Other Avian Oddities From America's Past
In his richly researched newsletter, amateur historian Robert Francis takes deep dives into the country's complicated and ever-changing relationship with birds.
www.audubon.org
February 28, 2025 at 12:26 AM
The folks at Audubon interviewed me about my little bird blog. Give it a read!
"Clashes over birds throughout US history often cut straight to the country’s deepest wounds and oldest struggles. Bird History is his effort to share what he’s learned and to ponder what we’ve lost."
"Clashes over birds throughout US history often cut straight to the country’s deepest wounds and oldest struggles. Bird History is his effort to share what he’s learned and to ponder what we’ve lost."
Cardinal and carolina wren singing out my window all morning, we are so fucking back
February 28, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Cardinal and carolina wren singing out my window all morning, we are so fucking back
You can only have so many of these awful moments in politics before you kinda shrug and say “huh I guess this is just how things are” but Andrew Cuomo being elected mayor of New York City would be such a depressing development
February 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
You can only have so many of these awful moments in politics before you kinda shrug and say “huh I guess this is just how things are” but Andrew Cuomo being elected mayor of New York City would be such a depressing development