The achievable carbon uptake from planting trees is much lower than previous estimates, and even lower than many nations have committed to. New paper by Wang et al. in Science. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪🌏🌳🌲🌐
Birds, science, politics. Reader Man Met Uni, Associate Cornell Lab of #Ornithology, Chair BOURC. Usually found in the #PeakDistrict or #Amazonia, RAS Network, he/him. Views own.
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The achievable carbon uptake from planting trees is much lower than previous estimates, and even lower than many nations have committed to. New paper by Wang et al. in Science. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪🌏🌳🌲🌐
Human-driven extinction event not yet the "sixth mass extinction", but is very likely the largest extinction event of the last 66 million yrs. 🌏 🧪 Read about it in our new paper led by @jackhhatfield.bsky.social and Katie Davis @anthropocenebio.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/gcb....
woah this is genuinely, utterly WILD Ant queens of one species produce males of another species, so she can then mate with them and produce hybrid workers! This is so gloriously weird I can't quite compute it 🤯🧪🐜 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
❄️ Common shrews shrink their brains in winter. 🧠 The process is reversible and occurs because brain cells shrink, rather than die off. As a result, neuronal numbers stay constant and preserve brain function. I can defo relate to seasonal brain shrinkage. 🧪🦊🌍 Paper: www.cell.com/current-biol...
🐦🔬 Recruiting PhD students! 🌎🧬 I’m looking for 1–2 PhD students to join our team starting Fall 2026 at the Sam Noble Museum & University of Oklahoma. Our research: 🐦 birds • 🌍 biogeography • 🌴 Neotropics • 🧬 population genomics • 🌱 speciation 👉 Learn more: www.moncriefflab.org Please share!
I really wish I was a super-villan who could beam this onto every television screen in the land.
LM: 232 organizations in 40 countries were affiliated with authors of a suspicious set of papers; 76 institutions were not matched to our database, such as the "Novel Global Community Educational Foundation"; many of these had addresses that were residential homes. arxiv.org/abs/2401.04022 #PRC10
Attempted breeding between an ‘American Black Tern’ and an Arctic Tern in Northumberland Katie Baird, James Porteus, Gary Woodburn and Chris Redfern Read more: britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti... 🥇Subscriber Content 📸 Gary Woodburn
Now online in Journal of #Ornithology First genetically confirmed record of a wild Marsh Tit × Willow Tit hybrid (Poecile palustris × P. montanus) Open access link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Frankly this is complete bs. I dare say that no one in Finland thinks that Ukraine should be forced to follow our example. If Stubb tries to push for this it’s not going to be popular. I personally find the whole idea highly insulting. Both to Ukraine and to Finland.
I often think about this letter to the New Statesman. It's from a 1960s Tory, and neatly summarises how British politics has shifted massively to the right, and taken Starmer's Labour party with it. #PoliticsLive
The SECOND bird conference at the Natural History Museum this year is the @bou.org.uk annual science meeting. A really diverse set of talks on how collections support ornithology research & conservation, plus an option for behind-the-scenes collections tour!
Very clever. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
We need your help again. Coul Links is an extraordinary coastal dune habitat, home to rare and remarkable wildlife. But it is now threatened for a second time by plans for an 18-hole golf course that would cause irreparable damage. Your voice could help save it. 👇
Population growth + range expansion www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Mind-blowing stats from Oxfam on the impacts from clothes that are bought and rarely, if ever, worn. www.businessgreen.com/news/4518290...
Andean forests are one of the last great frontiers of botanical exploration. This new analysis by Peruvian colleagues shows six new species have been collected each year since 1980 in the wet mountain forests of the Oxapampa Asháninka Yánesha Biosphere Reserve. revistas.unsaac.edu.pe/index.php/RQ...
Dispersal seems to be quite short distance - ebird.org/map/pygcor2?... few examples of long-range movements so perhaps not a surprise.
Pygmy Cormorant is probably the most overdue Category A first for Britain and future colonist britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti... and currently sits on Category F on the basis of a fossil which *might* signal historic breeding here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #UKbirding #Ornithology
What to eat when far from home? A vagrant seabird selects novel but analogous prey | http://www.marineorn... | Marine Ornithology | #ornithology #seabirds 🪶
"Birds showed increased meridional airspeeds and stronger selection for tailwinds when crossing the Corn Belt compared with forested landscapes."
Black Redstart Woodhead Reservoir 1910 this evening @derbyshirebirds.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social the first for me at this site #UKBirding
Migration shapes senescence in a long-lived bird | doi.org/10.1073/pnas... | PNAS | #ornithology 🪶
Apologies in advance if you know but if you add " -ai" to the end of any Google search it doesn't do that standard ai summary. Saves on the rubbish and a tiny wee bit "greener" on the energy use front
fantastic, I didn't know and it should be default
It is as much Xenopsaris as anything else - a bird close to my heart onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Sad times that the lead image for Willow Tit on one prominent search engine is hideously inaccurate AI slop #UKBirding #Ornithology @richardkbroughton.bsky.social
Next time you tell your boss all their micromanagement is killing you, would you like to back that with studies? Job stress, esp. if you already have a cardiometabolic disease, is shortening one's life expectancy (men having it much worse). 🧪 Link: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Energy costs of ubiquitous and unnecessary generative AI are already vast. I'm all for much less of it, but see its footprint constantly....
Sure, but 1000 km error is as vague as it gets....
Sharing this again as I'm so tired of this bullshit.
Amazing, although a bit more effort on the location would have been good
Current and former members of the NIH community have valuable personal perspectives to share about the devastation that is happening to US biomedical research, our federal agencies, and our democracy. This starter pack is a great way to hear what they have to say and what you can do about it. 🧪🧬🧠🥼🇺🇸
Super disappointed to read a new paper on HPAI this week which contained 50% hallucinated references. These references were used to support wildly inaccurate conclusions. Other than write to editors and hope something will be done, not much else one can do.
Congrats!
Quite shocked by this Common Buzzard yesterday at Falsterbo - dark chocolate bib & pale underparts almost like a Swainson’s Hawk. Anybody else seen this plumage variant?
EARLY VIEW in IBIS Seasonal, environmental and individual determinants of double-brooding in the White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Noelia D. Álvarez, Peter J. Mawby, Stuart P. Sharp | #ornithology 🪶
I haven't heard a WW at all around Oxford this year. There was one spot where I'd always hear them while out on a run, but they were silent this year.
Not quite so simple! www.ceh.ac.uk/press/invert...
I think it is now lost from the 5km radius of my Baldock house, while there were 5-10 pairs in 2020. But some in 2020 were 'mixed singers', already growing up with more chiff friends than other willows. Now scarce passage (one zipped through the garden this morning).
And untreated sewage
Willow Warbler conceivably absent as a breeder in SE England in a couple of decades #UKBirding
@cateden91.bsky.social is doing great work in her PhD on the links between aquatic invertebrates and Spotted Flycatchers in NW England, and the role of aquatic subsidies in buffering bird declines. #EOU2025 #ornithology
Double-spurred Spurfowl recorded at Oued Korifla, Western Morocco, for the first time since decades magornitho.org/2025/08/doub... #MoroccanBirds #birding #ornithology
New #ornithology paper out in Journal of Biogeography: Phylogenomics Supports Island Contribution to Metapopulation Dynamics in a Predominantly Continental Bird Species doi.org/10.1111/jbi.... Using the world´s smallest rail as study species 😍 Many thanks to Daisuke Aoki and all collaborators!
Liberal world order etc etc www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...
Big drop off in Willow Warbler nos in lowland Durham, whereas Chiff all over in widespread habitat - even 6 pairs in Albert Park in central Middlesbrough where I work! Complete contrast to 80s when Chiff relatively scarce breeder restricted to woodlands.
“The study authors asked GPT 4o-mini to evaluate the quality of 217 papers. The tool didn’t mention in any of the reports that the papers being analyzed had been retracted or had validity issues. In 190 cases, GPT described the papers as world leading, internationally excellent, or close to that”
Yes, loss, fragmentation, degradation all make things worse but climate alone is enough to make ranges contract nor expand depending on the species and the direction of change.
🙁
Climate niches reflect local environmental conditions www.nature.com/articles/s41... so rising temps drive changes in habitat structure which may make locations unsuitable or favour competitors. We don't know if there are competition effects between e.g. Linnet and Twite or CC and WW but plausible.
Upland areas may be currently suboptimal for Whinchat, or at least unclear why ongoing declines despite if anything increased habitat suitability..you should hold on to those sp in the Dales for a while but RO basically gone from e.g. Dartmoor.
I only see/hear Willow Warblers on passage here in South Essex, pretty much Chiffchaff only zone now. Similar situation with dragonflies - new species come in but White-faced Darter no longer in the South, and Azure Hawker + Northern Damsel seem to be facing competition as other species spread north
@phoebeweston.bsky.social
Don’t get played by false information. Learn how to spot and stop it before it spreads 👇
Vaccine deniers bringing back contagious diseases and causing everyone to drive instead of taking public transportation thereby making us miss our climate goals is a link I hadn’t made before.
In 25 years, every business school in the country will be doing case studies about how a long defunct company known as “Google” once had an unbeatable lock on online information retrieval and then started doing shit like this.
Whilst we welcome Zitting Cisticola as a long-predicted colonist in the wake of climate change, we must also recognise that the arrival of such northern range edge species means that we are condemned to lose the likes of Willow Warbler, Ring Ouzel and Twite from the south ebba2.info/maps/species...
While trying to see if two populations of the Antarctic longfin icedevil fish Aethotaxis mitopteryx were genetically differentiated, we uncovered a clear sex signal demonstrating that in this rarely encountered species males are the heterogametic sex! 🧪🐟🌎🐧🧊🧬 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Breaking News: The Trump administration ordered construction to stop on a $4 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that has already mostly been built.
Reminder: check the affiliation of author of Comments in Nature.
Not all heroes wear capes. But they might wear size 11 boots. "Nothing is safe from humans or Instagram."
For the first time, catastrophic levels of hunger have been confirmed in the strip
Witnessing the rapid and extensive thawing of permafrost in Svalbard is truly impressive but deeply concerning
New meta-analysis underlines that Grey Squirrels are really a very minor nest predator in UK, despite once considered probably very important in woodland bird declines. Good example of evidence overturning dogma, allowing focus on real issues. #ornithology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
So much cool avian vagrancy research presented and discussed at our #EOU2025 symposium today. Thanks to everyone who presented and attended @pauldufour80.bsky.social @joewynnbirds.bsky.social #Ornithology
Wonderful to see a few more BOU Conference Attendance Grant recipients in action at #EOU2025 yesterday Joshua Wilson, Soladoye Iwajomo & Susan Ellen McKinlay Look out for Malin Klumpp on Friday! #ornithology
Big thanks to @alex-penn.bsky.social for his nice picture!
Great to see some of our BOU Conference Attendance Grant recipients presenting at #EOU2025 this week Yesterday Daniel Bloche & Ioannis Kalaitzakis Look out for Joshua Wilson, Soladoye Iwajomo & Susan Ellen McKinlay today, and Malin Klumpp on Friday! #ornithology
Introducing "The SORTEE Guidelines for Data and Code Quality Control in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology" The first standardised set of data editor guidelines. Led by SORTEE with input from numerous data editors across ecology and evolution. 🔗 doi.org/10.32942/X24...
In the loft - this 1933 JAnimEcol edited by Elton with paper by David Lack on Breckland birds. Not sure how I got it & it will pain me to dump in recycling bin… Ideas? Boxes to sort. Mostly 70s/80s @alexanderlees.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social @bou.org.uk
Labour's king over the water – today's Morning Call on why more and more MPs are looking to Andy Burnham. www.newstatesman.com/politics/lab...
Interesting job with Forestry England as Species Recovery Officer working on Beavers and Pine Martens in Yorkshire www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...
Very proud of @meixu-cm.bsky.social who just released a pre-print of her MSc research, showing how Eleonora's falcons negotiate prevailing winds and use islands to cross the Indian Ocean. A neat collaboration with Laura Gangoso et al from @ebdonana.bsky.social. #ornithology doi.org/10.1101/2025...
1/ 🧵 How to protect declining forest birds? Studies from near-pristine habitats can help us answer this question. My keynote talk #BOUatEOU presents findings from our long-term bird studies in the primeval Białowieża Forest (BF) 🇵🇱 #openaccess paper👉 doi.org/10.3161/0001... #ornithology
Substantial fact-checking fail with the opening line there....
Yikes - the land surrounding the Cerne Abbas Giant is up for sale! Lot 1 is top-quality chalk downland bursting with wildflowers & butterflies - orchids, skippers… going for £950k. It absolutely needs to be preserved. Hope the NT or similar can buy wdcdn.co/media/pdf/0f... wdcdn.co/media/pdf/0f...
Attention wildlife artists! 🎨 🪶 Last chance to submit your work for the Society of Wildlife Artists 62nd Annual Exhibition: The Natural Eye 2025! Sign up➡️ www.mallgalleries.or... 🎨 Gannets around the Bass by Kittie Jones.
Maybe, just maybe, we need better rail services.
For those attending the #EOU2025 in Bangor, this starter pack might help stay on top of the conversation ;) Ping me to be included go.bsky.app/TmuEgMA
Just a reminder to anyone who may need to hear it, that the world doesn't revolve around you and your stupid looking dog, and the latter is no reason to blitz, sterilise or bubblewrap the local wildlife habitat to within an inch of its life. It's your problem. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
AUDENSHAW RES, Gtr Manchester - A bit of passage this morning, 1 RUFF, 1 B t Godwit, 1 Common Sand, 1 LRP, 1 Green Sand, 2 Little Egret, 22 R N Parakeet, 1 Yellow Wagtail, LESSER SCAUP still present with @simonghilks.bsky.social @alexanderlees.bsky.social #ukbirding
He sounds legit but that doesn't make it a better reintroduction candidate than Spotted Sandpiper.
My new @science.org editorial on the role of scientists in defending democracy is out today. As authoritarianism takes hold in the US, we must fight for the democratic principles that enable a free society and scientists have a key role. I hope you'll join us. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Same thing happened here 100 years ago, Linnet absent from Longdendale then and Twite lost 25 years ago.
As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview. cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...
We have redefined Dolphin Taxonomy 🐬 5 former Lagenorhynchus species have been reassigned to the new/revived and redefined genera: Aethalodelphis, Leucopleurus & Cephalorhynchus #marinemammalresearch #globalecology #marineecology #cetaceans #research #genetics #science 🐋🌱🧪🌐🌏
A teensy bit of good news in all the gloom: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
It’s Rocky Point’s best-ever year for Olive-sided Flycatchers ringed, with 6 in the first 2 weeks of autumn migration monitoring! All 3 identifiable age classes are pictured. 🇨🇦🪶🧪🌎
🥳 New paper out in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society! Manakin’s moving melody: the interplay between courtship dance display and vocalization as a predictor of hybridization in manakins (Aves: Pipridae) academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a... #ornithology
Will add this to correspondence on recent decisions.
With the Longdendale Pass closed from 8pm 5 nights a week since late May, I have been enjoying the relative peace for evening botanising runs up the A628 serenaded by Nightjars.
Rarity finders: Southern Small White in Cleveland Careful scrutiny during a major influx of Large and Small Whites paid off for Martyn Sidwell with what may prove to be a first British record:
Two decisions relating to the #BritishList 🧵 1/2 Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus has been moved from Category D to Category AE bou.org.uk/british-l... #ornithology 🪶
REGISTRATION OPEN for #BOUasm2025 🪶 A DAY at the MUSEUM: Collections-based ornithological research in a changing world 📅 18th October 2025 📍Natural History Museum, London Programme & registration ⬇️ In-person & online bou.org.uk/event/a-d... #ornithology #events #london
🔊 VACANCY Could you be our next Conference Support Officer? Help us to deliver our exciting conference programme You'll receive an annual honorarium + free place at BOU conferences Check out the details & apply: bou.org.uk/about-the... ⏰ Deadline: 29 August #ornithology 🪶
Steve Darrell 
