Not much in the moth trap last night. First outing this year. Did get my first Lime hawk moth and the invasive Australian orange tip (also a first for the garden).

Reform won 2 seats in my district 😭. Shocking turnout 40%. Yes everyone moaning about the state of town on local Facebook groups.

Happy 100th Birthday Sir David! Short clip from a film with Sir David Attenborough featuring @ellafcole.bsky.social explaining research in @wythamwoods.bsky.social into how Great Tits adjust behaviour during incubation to fine-tune hatching date: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGjL...

Happy 100th Birthday to David Attenborough. They say never meet your heroes. He was as awesome as you'd imagine. Made everyone feel special the day he came to Wytham Woods to film the birds and their eggs.

Also to hell with audible and Spotify for audiobooks, get the British library app, Libby. Loads of stuff there to listen to

Lesser white throat singing in my back garden this morning. A first. Lots of them about so far.

Planning a nestbox temperature manipulation experiment in birds? We’ve just published a preprint that may be useful! 🪺🪶 We review 46 studies and also share our own blue tit pilot experiment from Wytham Woods, highlighting some very real practical challenges doi.org/10.32942/X25387

We’d really love it if you came! It’s an incredible program but we struggle to advertise for reasons. So if you’re interested in saving the planet please join us! www.nhm.ac.uk/events/gener...

St.Marks flies out in their thousands today, never seen so many.

First sight of a new generation... The first Great Tit eggs have hatched in Wytham Woods this morning.

bUt wHy sHOulD we dO nEt zERo wHeN INdIa aNd CHiNa dONT

Couple of woodland inhabitants spotted while checking nest boxes yesterday. A shiny pill millipede and a common Morel. Have never seen a morel in the woods before.

The bluebells are peaking in Wytham Woods already. About 15-20 days earlier than normal.

1/🧵My first preprint!🐛🌡️ We examine how environmental effects experienced during one life-history stage persist and modulate environmental responses in later life-history stages. With Lea Beaupere, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @rona-learmonth.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Yes, David!! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

🚨🚨 Breaking news from Wytham Woods: The 80th year of data collection of the long-term tit study officially started today with this nest with 3 Blue Tit eggs (pic: @mcmahok.bsky.social). First egg inferred 23 March which is our earliest EVER nest - beating the previous record of 26 March by 3 days!🚨🚨

My second DPhil paper is out! A nice example of how continuous long-term monitoring of natural populations can be so valuable for understanding impacts of climate change on wild animals 🪶 📍Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire 🌳🪺

A no brainer at this stage, if it wasn't already.

#rugby 😂

Pretty sure this guy isn't anywhere near this tanker.

Spring has sprung in Wytham woods today. Chiffchaffs singing (first I've heard here this year), and a surprise firecrest in the mist net.

Great pre-print led by @davididiaquez.bsky.social discussing possible causes of declines in adult and nestling mass. I suggested it be titled "Weapons of mass reduction"

We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Vote Wesley, in the leadership election to come, for More Of The Same. www.thenational.scot/news/2545164...

Someone make it happen.

Still time to apply for our spring field assistant roles on the Wytham tit project. Deadline this Sunday. Wonderful work in a wonderful setting (but I'm biased). egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/event/short-...

New preprint! 🐥🦠🏝️ We study a great speciator, the silvereye, to test whether parasites follow island biogeography rules, and find that parasite diversity and isolation effects depend strongly on transmission strategy. Led by PhD student Sarah Nichols. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

RFK Jr. Demonstrates How To Remove Tapeworm By Scooting Ass Across Carpet https://theonion.com/rfk-jr-demonstrates-how-to-remove-tapeworm-by-scooting-ass-across-carpet/

@tntsports.zpravobot.news.ap.brid.gy Can someone tell Matterface how to say Wirtz properly.

How Human Behavior Is Driving Evolution In Wild Birds #SciComm🧪 by @grrlscientist.bsky.social #ornithology🪶 #evolution #BirdFeeding #Birding #birds🦉 grrlscientist.medium.com/how-human-be...

This week's EGI seminar will be given by Prof Jon Slate @jon-slate.bsky.social of @sheffielduni.bsky.social at 3.30 on Fri 30 Jan in LT1 in LaMB @biology.ox.ac.uk. OK, it's not quite birds, but our colleagues' work on @soaysheep.bsky.social has much in common with what we do. All welcome: details ⬇️

We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing

New paper published! 🧬🐥🦠 Host WGS data can be repurposed to uncover endoparasite diversity at low cost, without destructive sampling, and outperform 18S metabarcoding. We test it in silvereyes. This work was led by PhD student Sarah Nichols @biology.ox.ac.uk www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

If you work on corvid ecology, behaviour, cognition, or conservation, this might be useful for you 👇 I’ve just published CORVIDATA in Scientific Data 🐦 doi.org/10.1038/s415... (1/4)

A very early drumming great spotted woodpecker. Not sure I've heard one as early as this before. #ukbirds

This week’s seminar will be given by Prof Daniel Field of @zoologymuseum.bsky.social & @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social on the origins of modern birds. 3.30pm Friday 28 Nov in LT1 in the Life & Mind Building @biology.ox.ac.uk - all welcome & see below for live streaming joining information

MSc internship / Field Assistant position available in our group! Impact of urbanisation on avian reproduction 🐦🏙️ 🌳 Deadline: 7 Nov 2025 All details 👉 www.uni-bielefeld.de/fakultaeten/... Please share it around!

More Mapping the UK's Flat Flies Project results published today with Adrian Smith & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social 212 host-parasite interactions, including 70 not previously reported, & a recent switch to gulls by some Louse Flies, Hippoboscidae. @btobirds.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The last things I want to be doing is talking to tech. It's so frustrating.

Has there been an irruption of Red Crossbills this year? Second time in a week I've found a small flock in Wytham Woods, having previously seen none in 12 years here. #ukbirding

📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch

Good to know that at least some of scarcities that pitch up on godforsaken migration headlands thrive after they arrive: this Wryneck just retrapped in the Crown Estate Field has increased its weight by 12% in just two days

Quick walk around the woods just now, noticed a commotion at the big old beech. A flock of tits were jumping in and out of the water filled crotch (I believe thats the technical term)

"Fight the pain" Pay close attention to this kind of language because normalising and/or belittling women's pain is rank misogyny

NEW on the #BOUdiversityBlog from Emily Piccinini-Edelsten On being a bird: A woman’s experience of training to ring bou.org.uk/blog-picc...#BOUdiversityBlog #ornithology 🪶

Interested in animal welfare, education policy & social research? Fully funded PhD (UK home) on dog welfare in schools. Get in touch & apply: www.cam-dtp.ac.uk/students/cur... (Dog photo purely for attention and moral support) #PhDopportunity #AnimalWelfare #DogsInSchools #CamDTP #SocialResearch