Several hundred heavily-fuelled Pink-footed Geese gaining height slowly as they flew over Balmullo (Fife) beween 0645 amd 0720, this morning. Three big flocks. And one sad individual 'anking' pitifully as it flew back alone. Sounded like a juvenile. Confused? Under-fed? #BirdingScotland

Lots of Oystercatchers have arrived in Iceland in the last 24 hours. It's time to find last year's mate - or a replacement! Are migrants at a disadvantage? Will residents nest earlier? What happens when a migrant pairs up with a resident? wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/08/07/w... #ornithology

Great illustration 👇 of #birds making use of 'messy' tidewrack. Blog from 1 April 2021 🎂5️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/04/01/i...

An #Easter question ... 🐰Four eggs or five? wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f... #birds

An #Easter question ... 🐰Four eggs or five? wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f... #birds

Cows have big feet! Creating the right habitat, by using cattle to graze saltmarsh, is a balancing act: wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/b... Blog from 4 April 2016 🎂🔟 #ConservationScience🌍

Every colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit can tell a story. wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/04/04/j... Blog from 4 April 2018 🎂8️⃣ #ornithology

Black-tailed Godwits (that breed in Iceland) are on earlier schedules than Knot (which will fly further north, to Greenland and NE Canada). More about wader migration: wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/w... #birds

Signed up for this today & found a local cemetery on @btobirds.bsky.social's Birds in Greenspaces map which I haven't visited before. I sat on a bench for 20 minutes and saw/heard 14 different species of bird, including Blackcap, Bullfinch, Starling & Greenfinch! Off to log them now. Link below 👇

🔊 WE'RE RECRUITING Would you like to play a central role in delivering our journal IBIS and engaging with the #ornithology community? Join us as our Journal and Engagement Manager! ⏰ Apply by 14 April bou.org.uk/vacancy-j...#ornithology 🪶

2/6 WaderTales blog, based on paper by Kentie et al, was published on 27 Mar 2017 🎂9️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/s... The use of stopover sites means that Black-tailed Godwits that cross the Sahara get back to the Netherlands a couple of days earlier than birds that winter in Spain/Portugal.

At #BOU2026, Will Cresswell reminds us that young shorebirds can be naive - good news for Sparrowhawks. His research is mentioned in this blog 'Learning from their elders" wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/l... #ornithology

Great illustration 👇 of #birds making use of 'messy' tidewrack. Blog from 1 April 2021 🎂5️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/04/01/i...

4/6 In Greenlandic Sanderling, wintering site affects survival, migration date etc. BUT birds travelling the furthest (from Namibia) do as well as ones that travel much less far (England & France). wadertales.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/t... Paper by @jeroen-reneerkens.bsky.social et al #birds

Today's #BOU2026 day starts with 'Responses to Human Disturbance & Risk'. See also this Turnstone blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/02/03/d... Paper by Whittingham et al: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #ornithology

5/6 A Semipalmated sandpiper study in Peru - at the wintering limit for the species - showed that birds travelling further were more likely to opt not to breed every year. Migration distance can be important. wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/12/09/g... Paper: Eveling Tavera et al #ConservationScience🌎

Good to have questions coming in online for #BOU2026 conference. In-room questioners get wee Easter eggs for making a contribution but on-line folk miss out. 😞

BOU conference. Ornithologists don't know everything about birds! Andy Gosler reminds us to respect people who live alongside birds and don't write papers. See also: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/s... #ornithology

Great illustration 👇 of birds making use of 'messy' tidewrack. Blog from 1 April 2021 🎂5️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/04/01/i...

6/6 A recent paper by Méndez et al, showed that long-distance migrants may have less flexibility, when it comes to taking advantage of a warmer Icelandic climate: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/02/28/m... End of thread #ornithology

3/6 In Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits, stop-overs in the Netherlands constitute a sneaky overtaking manouevre, allowing southern winterers to get back to Iceland early. wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/o... Paper by Alves et al. #ornithology

Pacific Golden Plovers wintering in Europe? And Slender-billed Curlews? WaderTales blog #157: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/s... #ornithology

Migratory distance - a thread 1/6 Birds that don't have to fly as far between wintering grounds and breeding areas must be at an advantage, surely? Not always! Five wader/shorebird blogs follow. #ornithology

Status of the Snowy Plover in Canada NEW RESEARCH PAPER by Goossen www.waderstudygroup.org/article/20083/ #shorebirds #waders #ornithology #research

Frequent and prolonged incubation recesses across European Black-tailed Godwit populations NEW RESEARCH PAPER by Silva-Monteiro and colleagues www.waderstudygroup.org/article/20095/ #research #shorebirds #waders #ornithology

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Great opportunity to join BTO as Director of Country Operations! Apply online ➡️ www.bto.org/jobs 📝 £68,199 📆 Full time, Permanent. 📍 Stirling, Scotland, but we would consider BTO Cymru or Northern Ireland offices for the right candidate. 🖥️ Hybrid. Closing date: Tuesday 14 April. #Ornithology

Migratory distance - a thread 1/6 Birds that don't have to fly as far between wintering grounds and breeding areas must be at an advantage, surely? Not always! Five wader/shorebird blogs follow. #ornithology

2/4 Estuarine counts only capture what is happening to just over half of our #Curlew. In estuaries and along coasts, Curlew numbers declined between 1997/98 and 2015/16. Coasts - 42%⬇️ Estuaries - 26% ⬇️ #ornithology

4/4 It's not all bad news! The number of coastal Sanderling is rocketting, especially in Scotland and Wales! How many will we count in the 2026/27 winter? More about the survey results here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/w... #BirdingScotland #BirdingWales

I wonder whether the wind helped this speedy WMRG Jack Snipe 👇? Tags and tracking are revealing more about Jack Snipe migration. Hope to be able to update blog about Jack Snipe and Snipe, when papers have been published. wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/s... #ornithology

Many Scottish Greenshank will have left English estuaries now, soon to be replaced by a pulse of passage birds heading further north. See @birdtrack.bsky.social graph below and this blog about Greenshank migration: wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/m... 🎂6️⃣ #BirdingScotland

3/4 One of the species highlighted in the last survey was Redshank. wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/w... Numbers dropped twice as fast on the coast. #birds

Thousands of Black-tailed Godwits will fly back to #Iceland in the next two months. If they encounter strong northerly winds, flocks can turn up anywhere in Scotland. More here in blog from 21 March 2017 🎂 wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/w... #BirdingScotland

1/4 Estuarine waders are counted monthly (@webs-gsmp.bsky.social) but open coast birds are only surveyed occasionally. The next NEWS will be in winter 2026/7. In 2015/16, most Turnstones were on the open coast (but fewer than previously). wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/w... #ornithology

Shorebird scientist are working together to make the most of tracking information collected by waders, as discussed here: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m... Latest news update from the Global Wader team: www.globalwader.org/news Map "Over 100 million locations" #ornithology

Guardian today. "Shooting restricted for six British wild birds to halt population decline. Woodcocks and pochard, pintail and goldeneye ducks among threatened species protected by proposals" Voluntary restraint to become legal protection? Background: wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/c... #birds

Many Scottish Greenshank will have left English estuaries now, soon to be replaced by a pulse of passage birds heading further north. See @birdtrack.bsky.social graph below and this blog about Greenshank migration: wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/m... 🎂6️⃣ #BirdingScotland

1/4 Estuarine waders are counted monthly (@webs-gsmp.bsky.social) but open coast birds are only surveyed occasionally. The next NEWS will be in winter 2026/7. In 2015/16, most Turnstones were on the open coast (but fewer than previously). wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/w... #ornithology

Learning from hunters. Fascinating information from one hundred years ago. Blog about Pacific Golden Plover and Slender-billed Curlew: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/s... #ornithology

Between February and May, vast numbers of birds cross the Atlantic. Updated blog about wader migration from Ireland to Iceland. wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/f... #ornithology @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @rspbni.bsky.social @bto-ni.bsky.social

Thousands of Black-tailed Godwits will fly back to #Iceland in the next two months. If they encounter strong northerly winds, flocks can turn up anywhere in Scotland. More here in blog from 21 March 2017 🎂 wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/w... #BirdingScotland

What's all the squeaking about? Did you read this blog about the calls that waders/shorebirds chicks make? wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/c... There's a new paper about interpreting the calls of Kentish Plover chicks in @bou.org.uk journal: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... #ornithology

What's all the squeaking about? Did you read this blog about the calls that waders/shorebirds chicks make? wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/c... There's a new paper about interpreting the calls of Kentish Plover chicks in @bou.org.uk journal: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... #ornithology

Ethno-ornithology? "the study of birds and human culture" Learning more about what happened to Slender-billed Curlews and Pacific Golden Plovers: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/09/s... #ornithology

The East Asian coast provides important wintering and fattening sites for waders/shorebirds. Problems in the Yellow Sea: wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/05/01/w... New paper highlights poor survival in South China Sea and on Japanese coast: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1... #ornithology

Where's best to nest? Out in the open, like an Oystercatcher? Hidden in a clump of grass, like a Redshank? wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/w... 🎂6️⃣ #birds

Portugues rice-fields two weeks ago. A melting pot of 'limosa' and 'islandica' Black-tailed Godwits. Most 'limosa' will be heading to the Netherlands: wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/01/27/d... Some 'islandica' will take the same route to Iceland: wadertales.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/o... #ornithology

Where's best to nest? Out in the open, like an Oystercatcher? Hidden in a clump of grass, like a Snipe? wadertales.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/w... 🎂6️⃣ #ornithology