Our new open access study on human-nature connectedness is now online. We show that engaging in outdoor environmental activities increases human-nature connectedness, with mindfulness and encounters with wildlife showing the largest increases. Full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.pe... 🌍 🧪 🦤

🦢The International Swan Census involves counters to carry out a one-off count on the weekend of 17th-18th January 2026. This involves counting Whooper and Bewick’s Swans, as well as recording age assessments and habitat. Visit the vacant site map⬇️ app.bto.org/gsmp/public/... #Ornithology

Our Whooper Swan expedition has been a blur of hauling zodiacs over tundra, coaxing engines through salt spray & dancing with Iceland’s untamed waves. While our waterproofs are still drying, we’ve gathered the stories data & moments that made this trip 👇🦢 www.linkedin.com/pulse/icelan...

A successful few days deploying GPS tags on Whooper Swans in the highlands of Iceland to check whether the wetlands they depend on in Britain & Ireland are still doing the job in a changing climate. #Iceland #Wetlands #ProtectedSites #Ornithology

22 papers across two issues document the impact of #AvianInfluenza and assess effectiveness of management responses. They show the unprecedented scale of the outbreak, decimating populations across Europe, Africa, North and South America to the South Atlantic. 📚 bit.ly/bird-study-h... #Ornithology

Lovely day yesterday catching up with staff. A day of assessing recruitment of Curlews to the Dartmoor breeding population, discussing headstart post release monitoring & of course seeing the 2025 cohort of headstarts! 😊

Interesting few days working on behalf of Natural England in advising the UK Great Bustard Group on developing & trialling a protocol to monitor great bustard productivity. The trip also facilitated knowledge transfer between national experts in species monitoring. #SpeciesRecoveryProgramme

Slimbridge Greylags currently starting to appear at Strathclyde Loch and Hogganfield for their annual moult migration, among them, unusually, this one ringed at Windermere @kanebrides.bsky.social #clydebirding

📢 Calling PhD students 📢 we want to hear from you! Help shape the future of PhD education. Take our survey to tell us all about your experiences https://go.nature.com/42ZB3vq

Rather satisfying loading up to @movebank.bsky.social 1,679,731 Bewick's Swan tracking data points ✨️👌🏻 #Ornithology

Annual paddle in the Lake District for Barnacle Goose nest counting & monitoring. Lots of nests found, GPS'd, colour-marked adults identified & lots of eggs counted, measured, and weighed. Fun day with @cateden91.bsky.social #monitoring

Do UK hatched Whooper Swans go to Iceland? These two hatched at WWT Welney last year & today were in Northumberland with other migrating Whoopers. Hopefully, we'll get sightings of them in Iceland 🤞

Obituary in IBIS Mike Harris (1939 - 2023) doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... One of the world's best known, most loved and most outstanding seabird biologists #ornithology

Lovely day at Matsalu Bay in Estonia watching thousands of Barnacle & White-fronted geese. Decent numbers of Bewick's swans, too. Smaller numbers of Whooper swans & Bean geese. Wildfowl heaven 😍

Listen up anyone working in the Irish Sea this summer! We tagged a bunch of kitts in Liverpool Bay and want to gather as many resightings as we can. If you spot these yellow colour rings please give me a shout ([email protected]) 🐦💍💛 (Modelled by our very own VIP 😌👑) #Seabirds #IrishSea

Lovely day in the Severn & Avon Vales for Curlew tagging. Several birds caught and data already being uploaded 👌🏻

The 106th time of running out onto the balcony to check for migrating Osprey...

Several meetings this week regarding new species & habitat restoration projects on/around the Severn estuary! Excited to work on these & happy to call the estuary (& this view) home. Looking forward to deploying species monitoring, capture & tagging skills on WWT's new Saltmarsh Solutions project!

🧵1/7 What do massive insect crashes mean for insectivorous birds? And can aquatic habitats help? Today at #BOU2025 I'm exploring how aquatic habitats might help to buffer declining insectivore populations, using the Spotted Flycatcher as an example. #ornithology

Any day now, ducklings will begin to appear, and we need your help to monitor them. We are asking for records of mallard broods anywhere in the UK this year to help us understand how many ducklings make it to adulthood. Submit your sightings here: citsci.org/projects/ducklingwatch Please share!

Do any UK sugar beet farmers follow me on here?! Or do you know a sugar beet farmer who'd be up for spending 30 mins or so chatting to me? 😊

Since crossing back from the Netherlands en route to Iceland & since being picked up by #nocmic by @wheatear9.bsky.social in Suffolk, this bird is now in Dumfries & Galloway. Wonder how many other of our GPS tagged Whoopers have been picked up by #nocmic?! @simongillings.bsky.social

Love that not only did GPS tracking allow us to document this Whooper Swan's crossing back from the Netherlands to England, but @wheatear9.bsky.social picked it up by #nocmig just minutes before it's tag took a GPS fix near to his location. #Migration #Bioacoustics #Gold 💫

She'll be home within the hour! That time of year, as Whoopers crisscross the country heading home to Iceland. Always leaves me happy with a hint of sadness! Watching AAF's migration playing out on my laptop, a glimpse into her life, is such a privilege, she's got 30km to go 💛

Interesting new report from @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social and partners on the benefits and costs of natural flood management. "Wildlife Trust natural flood management schemes deliver £10 of benefits for every £1 invested" www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/new-res... 🌍 🧪 🦤

Home time for the Whoopers 🥲 Beautiful cross country track under the cover of darkness for this one last night! Nene Washes to Keilder Water, Northumberland in 4 hours. #Ornithology

Back home in Manchester for #BTOConference25, yesterday. Was such a privilege to speak about @waterbirdcm.bsky.social & to meet/chat to so many people! Best talk was John Callion's on his work on Dotterel in Cumbria - totally inspirational & such a lovely man. Thx you John & @btobirds.bsky.social !

The Whoopers are starting to move and will soon be back on their Icelandic breeding grounds! Since @waterbirdcm.bsky.social started ringing Whooper Swans in 2023, we've tagged >600 inds. and gathered >750 sightings. Please keep an eye out and continue to report any sightings to us as they leave!

Important editorial in @britishwildlife.bsky.social by @wwtworldwide.bsky.social Research Fellow Ruth Cromie, as @welshgovernment.bsky.social, Scottish Government and Defra could finally end the poisoning of wildlife with lead ammo. See Alt Text Help make lead history act.wwt.org.uk/page/160992/...

5 months ago I shared the Lake Sofia appeal for donations (after the lake collapse). Thanks to the hard work of our team in Madagascar, contractors, local communities and all who donated, a dam is almost complete! An essential lifeline for the wildlife&communities: www.wwt.org.uk/news-and-sto...

Starting to hear reports of Avian Influenza hitting Whooper Swans. Please report all sightings of dead birds for possible testing. In 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 contact DefraGovUK, in N Ireland Daera & in Republic of Ireland Dept of agriculture. Please also report to @birdtrack.bsky.social for monitoring

Impacts of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) on a Barnacle Goose Branta leucopsis population wintering on the Solway Firth, UK | www.tandfonline.com/... | Bird Study | #ornithology 🪶

First PhD paper out now, revealing co-circulation of high and low pathogenicity subtypes of avian influenza virus via antibody testing in a range of co-occuring seabird species. Huge thanks to all involved! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In Feb 23 we undertook a census of the UK naturalised Barnacle Goose population. The aim to produce an updated population estimate & report on winter distribution. Results have now been published in @britishbirds.bsky.social, with our thinking on future monitoring needs #Ornithology 1/7 ⬇️

⚠️ A reminder to please report all sightings of dead birds for possible testing for Avian Influenza. In England, Wales & Scotland, contact Defra, in Northern Ireland contact @daera-ni.gov.uk & in Republic of Ireland gov.ie. Please ALSO report them to @birdtrack.bsky.social. Thank you. #UKBirding

The Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) and Goose & Swan Monitoring Programme (GSMP) are now on Bluesky! 🦢 We'll be sharing our latest research findings, how to get involved & vacant survey sites. We’d love to know what you’ve seen on your surveys too, so tag us in your posts. 🦆 #Ornithology #UKBirding

I’m recruiting for a reserve warden to join the team at WWT Welney Wetland Centre. If you have practical experience of working on wet grassland habitats with adaptability and initiative I’d love to hear from you vacancies.wwt.org.uk/vacancies/41...

Back home from the final fieldwork trip of the winter to the Ouse Washes, to work on Whooper Swans. Always a pleasure, never a chore! (Sound on!) See you back in Iceland 👋

Enjoying the @btobirds.bsky.social back-cover feature on monitoring Lesser black backed gulls. We have a diet metabarcoding project on large gulls ATM so if you are ringing gull chicks and would be interested in submitting faecal/regurg samples for DNA analysis then get in contact!

Please follow us and repost to grow our followers :-) @samanthafranks.bsky.social @kanebrides.bsky.social @tangrigg.bsky.social @paulnoyes.bsky.social @washwader.bsky.social @wadertales.bsky.social @floblackbourn.bsky.social @naturalengland.bsky.social

Exciting to see our new paper published in @britishbirds.bsky.social detailing all the latest on numbers, distribution & breeding success of the UK naturalised Barnacle Goose population. It brings about our thinking on monitoring requirements for this population & sets out our new programme of work

Excited to be leading the next International Swan Census again for the Iceland Whooper population! Ensuring coordination across Britain, Ireland & Iceland. Working w @btobirds.bsky.social, @birdwatchireland.bsky.social & Iceland. Stay tuned over the coming months on how to get involved! #Ornithology

A great few days with Eileen Rees & Prof Cao Lei, visiting from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, as we caught up on multiple waterbird research projects, papers & planning new work. Exciting times! 🦆

Happy World Wetlands Day 2025! From Tiaozini on the Yellow Sea, the Russian Perchora Delta, the UK's Solway Firth & Dubai's Ras Al Khor - all so special for their very own reasons & so important for the species & people who depend on them. #WorldWetlandsDay

To celebrate World Wetlands Day we welcomed BBC Counteyfile to WWT Welney Wetland Centre. Watch the episode on Sunday 2 February, 18.05 on BBC1. The Ouse Washes has its challenges but I hope the stories we showcase provide some optimism. 📷 @kanebrides.bsky.social

Be sure to tune into Countryfile on #WorldWetlandsDay (Sunday 2nd February) to learn about Whooper Swan monitoring in the UK 🦢 @wwtworldwide.bsky.social #UKBirding

Nice!! Thanks @birdergirl.bsky.social 🙌

ICYMI: Our new open access paper on swans and lead fishing weights in Europe - a systematic review of deposition, impacts, and regulations. wildfowl.wwt.org.uk/index.php/wi... 🌍 🧪 🦤 #ornithology

On World Wetlands Day, be sure to watch BBC Countryfile on Sunday 2nd at 18:05 on BBC One as we bring one of the UK's very best wetlands, WWT Welney, to the nation's television screens! See @lizziebruce.bsky.social counting swans & me chatting to Matt Baker about the increase in Whoopers!

Many of these birds were back in the UK the day after being sighted in France 🇫🇷 Thanks to everyone who is reporting these birds to us, you're helping us to piece together the interesting movements of our naturalised Barnacle Goose population! @stephen8vickers.bsky.social