1/🧵 New BTO-led research sheds light on the number and range of Little Egrets with population estimates higher than previously thought – likely exceeding 2,000 pairs in the UK! 🙌 #Ornithology @britishbirds.bsky.social 📖 www.bto.org/little-egret...

Was watching two Humpback Whales cruise up the coast from our house, when a pod of Orca went through between the Whales and land this morning @ninaohanlon.bsky.social

64 species on our 25 km cycle around NE Cairthness yesterday, with Great-spotted Woodpecker and Tree Sparrow good additions to the 10 km #PWC2026 list. The only photo I took was @rob-hughes-birder.bsky.social admiring his cake! #CaithnessBirds

A very enjoyable @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count at Dunnet Bay this morning with my first Glaucous Gulls of the year - plus a smart Water Pipit was a great bonus! #CaithnessBirds

📢 NOMINATE FOR BOU COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP ➡️ Awards Nominations Committee ➡️ Engagement Committee ➡️ IBIS Management Committee ➡️ Meetings Committee ➡️ Records Committee Plus NEW Committee Shadowing Scheme Full details: bou.org.uk/about-the... #ornithology 🪶

As well as Training Grants, we've also opened up our latest round of Research Grants 📷👛 ❓: To fund #seabird research (eg. camera monitoring, ringing/tracking studies, counts/productivity assessments) 👥: All welcome to apply 💲: Up to £500 📅: Deadline 28 Feb Details ▶️ www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/grants

2026 Training Grants are now open! 📢🕊️ Are you: 📏 Hoping to gain experience with #seabirds via unpaid work? 🧑 From a BAME background? (though others may apply too) 💸 A grant of up to £250 could help! (to cover travel, accommodation or food) Info: www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/grant Apply by 28 Feb 💌

THE PATCHWORK CHALLENGE 2025 ROUND-UP IS NOW LIVE ON THE BLOG! Go head over and see where you finished #PWC2025 and sign up for #PWC2026! The link for the blog is: patchworkchallenge.blogspot.com

After an absence last year, White-tailed Eagle flying past our house was a welcome #PWC2026 tick #CaithnessBirds with @ninaohanlon.bsky.social

Looking for a new birding challenge for 2026? Why not take up patch birding and participate in Patchwork Challenge? Find out more about this fun birding competition in our guest blog from @patchbirding.bsky.social: www.the-soc.org.uk/blogs/blog/p... #PatchBirding #PWC2026 #LowCarbonBirding

Can we communicate our reaserch in more fun and accessible ways? I loved working with Anna @btobirds.bsky.social on her fantastic comic illustrating our recent work using seabird poo to look at their diet! Find out more at www.bto.org/our-work/new... #ornithology #seabirds #SciArt

Grab a cuppa and read our Seabird Poo comic! ➡️ http://www.bto.org/S... ☕📖 Discover how seabird scientists collected bird poo and analysed its DNA contents to determine the types of prey consumed by Shags and Kittiwakes! 😮 #Ornithology ✏️ Illustrations by Anna Dupont-Crabtree

📢 NOMINATE FOR BOU COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP ➡️ Awards Nominations Committee ➡️ Engagement Committee ➡️ IBIS Management Committee ➡️ Meetings Committee ➡️ Records Committee Plus NEW Committee Shadowing Scheme Full details: bou.org.uk/about-the... #ornithology 🪶

The first drone census of the St Kilda gannet colony is now published in Scottish Birds! We counted 59,205 AOS in 2023 - similar to previous years. The overall impact of #HPAI appears less than at some other colonies, with notable declines in flatter areas 🧮 #ornithology #seabirds #NTSseabirds

The Taiga Bean Goose at Loch Heilen was ringed in E. Finland in July 2020. Usually wintering in S. Sweden, it was sighted in Norway (26th Sept) before Caithness. Full details can be found here submit.cr-birding.org/animals/1417... #CaithnessBirds

🎉The good news just keeps coming! Late last night, MSPs voted in favour of using the Natural Environment Bill to close an unintended loophole in legislation to licence grouse moor shooting. This is a major step forward in protecting Scotland’s wildlife. Full quote in image 👇 📷: Andy Hay

📢 REGISTRATION OPEN #BOU2026 | Birds and people | 31 March - 2 April 2026 University of Nottingham & Zoom & Bluesky Check out the programme and book your place today! bou.org.uk/event/bir...#BOU2026 #ornithology 🪶

New large-scale study based on SEAPOP data shows that #ocean #warming threatens #seabirds in the North Atlantic @ninanatureresearch.bsky.social

Seasonal field staff needed for @rspbscience.bsky.social projects in 2026 - advert live, closing date 11 Jan. Lots of #seabird (& non-seabird) opportunities! Get in touch if you’d like to know more about any of the #seabird roles 🌊🐦 app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... #seabirds #ornithology

We can now announce our panel of #Seabird Career experts for this Friday's online panel session 📣 👩‍🔬 Laura Shearer @seabirdshearer.bsky.social 👩‍🔬 Helen Wade 👩‍🔬 Jenny Coomes @jaycee161.bsky.social 👨‍🔬 Rob Thomas @robthomasbirds.bsky.social Sign up here by Weds to attend! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This table from the new UK Biodiversity Indicators is particularly stark, bleak, and awful. Almost every major group of UK birds is doing badly in the long- and/or short-term. None are showing sustained recovery, most have been declining for 50 years. Awful. #ukbirding #ornithology

Want to #BringScienceToPolitics? Scientists can support the National Emergency Briefing on Climate & Nature by signing this Open Letter: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Worrying reports of bird flu (avian influenza) are coming in, including an outbreak in Whooper Swans in the Fens. Other waterbirds are also being affected, and cases are rising. 📷 Sick Whooper Swan by Kane Brides #UKBirding #BirdingWales #BirdingScotland

It took me about three months to get here but... Here's a 🪶 for (nearly) every species of bird, with colors extracted from wikipedia descriptions. 10,151 species. #dataviz #birds #data

How are movement patterns affected by energy expenditure & gain, and what does it mean for fitness? This @iapetusdtp.bsky.social PhD opportunity will use data on movement & demography of kittiwakes & spatio-temporal food abundance across their range iapetus.ac.uk/studentships... #ornithology

Spotted a fin whilst making a cup of tea from our house this afternoon. They made a kill too! @ninaohanlon.bsky.social

Vacancy on BOU Records Committee. Are you up for it? I found it a really interesting and educational experience. Happy to share my experience if you are interested. #RarebirdsUK #UKBirding

Another brilliant Flow Country Research Conference. Big 🏆 for Roxane and team at UHI Thurso. Great to see @rob-hughes-birder.bsky.social's PhD crammed into 30 mins. Loved the Icelandic word for Meadow Pipit and check out those German bog restoration lagoons. @theflowcountry.bsky.social

📢 BOU COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS OPEN ➡️ Awards Nominations Committee ➡️ Engagement Committee ➡️ IBIS Management Committee ➡️ Meetings Committee ➡️ Records Committee Plus NEW Committee Shadowing Scheme More info & to nominate: bou.org.uk/about-the... #ornithology 🪶

Still time to apply for this great opportunity with @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social Get in touch if you have any questions! Dealine tomorrow 🐧 #ornithology #seabirds

📣Help nature today.🐦🌱 We’ve a once-in-a-generation chance to turn things around for Scotland's wildlife and wild places. On Thursday MSPs will debate the Natural Environment Bill. Let them know you want a safe future for Red Squirrels, Puffins, Swifts and more 👉 action.rspb.org.uk/page/177329/...

And then another on the local patch this afternoon 😍 #PWC2025

Gorgeous Firecrest at John O'Groats this morning 🧡 🔥 #CaithnessBirds 📸 @rob-hughes-birder.bsky.social

New Ecologist and Research Support roles for a project in Northern Ireland! @bto-ni.bsky.social Discover more and apply at www.bto.org/jobs These positions are supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). #Ornithology #Ecology

On the importance of incorporating behavioural-state differentiation when identifying key spatial areas for seabirds. #seabirds animalbiotelemetry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

⏰ DEADLINE APPROACHING ⏰ BOU Small Research Grants & Career Development Bursaries Application deadline: 31 Oct 2025 Full details via links ⬇️ Grants: bou.org.uk/funding/s... Bursaries: bou.org.uk/funding/c... #ornithology 🪶

Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised

Was worth spending more time in Dunnet Bay after today's @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count 😅

Amazing numbers of seabirds off the coast today!

It's also not "just another" extinction, it's the first from mainland Europe in centuries. CENTURIES. And there will be others within our lifetime. That's biodiversity loss. We'll never hear this sound, ever again xeno-canto.org/398794

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today. Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Breeding and foraging habitat are important in determining foraging ranges of sympatric generalist species | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Chris B. Thaxter et al | #ornithology 🪶

Important date for your diaries ‼️ Our AGM is Wed 12 Nov - 12 midday (online) 📔👩‍💻 ALL our members are welcome & we'd love you to join us if you can. A number of roles have also come up within the committee - details on how to apply to follow. Not yet signed up? www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/membership

Exciting news! We’re planning the upcoming Bird Atlas 2027-31, and have met with @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social and @birdsinwales.bsky.social to discuss how we can work together on what we hope will be the most productive Atlas yet. #Ornithology #UKBirding

Snow Bunting on Dunnet beach early afternoon #CaithnessBirds

Very cool new #seabird paper showing no difference in breeding success between healthy and black-eyed gannets, but a worrying overall decline in productivity following the #avianflu outbreak. 🦠🐣 Read the paper here 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #seabirds #ornithology

I loved this course - so much fun thinking about, exploring and visualising bird data in creative ways - and learning a new coding language! #ornithology

1/ The Wild Bird Indicators, using BTO data, have been updated today by Defra! ⬇️ Sadly, the ‘all bird species’ index, comprising the population trends of 130 species, has been in a slow continuous decline in the UK since the 1970s, down by 18% and by 4% in the last five years. 📉 #Ornithology

🚨 New #seabirds paper 🚨 Following a workshop at the International Seabird Group Conference 2024 & led by @seabirdmortenf.bsky.social, we review opportunities & challenges for new technologies in seabird monitoring 🎥💻🐣 Link below! ⬇️ #ornithology doi.org/10.1093/ices...

Today we are attending the Gull Summit in Inverness because gulls are in trouble and need help. You can read more about how we can learn to live with gulls here: www.rspb.org.uk/scotland/new... 📷: Ben Andrew (rspb-images.com)