1/ Calling UK birders! 📢 We need your vital help to fill data gaps for bird populations outside the breeding season via the Winter Bird Survey ➡️www.bto.org/winbs #Ornithology #UKBirding

Upper ocean heat content (0 to 700 m depth) also set a new record high with the latest June data update (see my earlier post). Yikes! 🌊 Graphic/data (anomalies) from www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/globa...

🌊❄️🧪 🇦🇶 Please share: We have learned that the National Science Foundation is moving ahead with plans to decommission the U.S. Research Vessel/Ice Breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer this October. If you care about Antarctic research, please read on (1/n)

The Cambs Local Nature Recovery Strategy is now open for consultation. Take a look at what is proposed our county and give your views. This strategy will influence planning & investment decisions for the county, so it is vital that we have robust plan yourvoice.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/lnrs/consult...

The #SouthWestMarineEcosystems 2024 report reveals some big shifts in marine life - from unusual #jellyfish blooms and #salp swarms, to major fish mortality events and shifts in #fisheries catches 🦞🪼 Read the highlights and access the full report here: pml.ac.uk/news/new-sou...

We went on a voyage into the depths of polar night on RRS Sir David Attenborough. The fab @itvnews.bsky.social team came with us, and made a short doc about the adventure! From hoardes of whales, to sticking a camera in a crevasse - there's something for everyone ⬇️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KbP...

Amazing to lead this science trip. With three of us from Cambridge, two we picked up from Rothera, help from a couple of doctors and a great crew as always we got a huge amount done. Mud, nutrients, CTDs, phytoplankton and whales, plus getting swath data (very) near a few glaciers. Many thanks all!

📢 New paper alert! 📢 New insight into how sea ice controls the ocean uptake of carbon dioxide around Antarctica, obtained from the unique year-round Rothera Time Series. Delighted to be part of this study, led by the very excellent Elise Droste. 🧪❄️🥼🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Goodbye Rothera Research Station, and good luck! 👋 After an unusual extra-long season, the #RRSSirDavidAttenborough has departed the UK’s largest polar research station for the winter. The station team will live and work at Rothera Research Station alone until October 💙 📽️ David ‘DJ’ Maxwell

Rothera winterers seeing us off with flares. Planes will be back in October, until then they'll be on their own for science and keeping the station running. @bas.ac.uk

Into the polar night down here on our very late visit to Rothera, but still good light for about three hours as dawn merges straight into dusk.

110 Humpbacks and a male Orca in a three hour survey through Lemaire Channel today. Amazing place and incredible amounts of wildlife still down here. @bas.ac.uk

Heading south for a winter trip to Rothera for a month. Taking the chance of a very late ship call to base to get some extra samples from the area. Stunning route out of Punta Arenas to start the trip, with several Andean Condors

Another Northstowe swan family started. An odd one, with three adults to go with the three cygnets. Same as last year, I assume the third adult is an offspring from an earlier brood. @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

Falling finch numbers, fading farmland birds, declining Dippers and vanishing Cuckoo calls in England are worrying findings from the 2024 Breeding Bird Survey report out now! Read the report ➡️ www.bto.org/bbs-results @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social #Ornithology

Our first photo, submitted 20 years ago today. Now over 7,950,000 photos of Britain and Ireland on the site - where will our eight millionth be? www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4

Commute getting you down? Try starting your day in Antarctica 🇦🇶 We're looking for boating officers, divers, chefs, generator technicians and more to work with us at British Antarctic Survey research stations. These are jobs unlike any other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. 🧵 1/2

Newest view of trends in global sea surface temperatures. The cooling trend pattern continues in the eastern Pacific, while most all other areas significantly warm. + Data from @noaa.gov OISSTv2.1 (www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/opt...). + Graphic available for download at zacklabe.com/climate-chan...

Bearded Reedling in Northstowe, 154th species for the new town. Have been hoping for them a while now. Ouse Fen being 5 miles away helps, and seems to be a lot around this winter. In a ditch I can see part of from the house, before sensibly moving to the lake @cambsbirdclub.bsky.social

I'm guessing the visibility depends on whether you're at the top of a wave or at the bottom

Fancy a year diving and doing oceanogrpahy in Antarctica, or know someone who might? Job advert out for wintering Ocean Scientist post (job previously known as Marine Assistant) and many others. Please apply, or share. bas.ciphr-irecruit.com/applicants/v...

Some favourite penguins for #penguinawarenessday though I think some are more aware than others. Looking forward to getting back south to the penguins soon.

ICYMI - 2024 was also the hottest year on record for our oceans. Unfortunately, we now say this every year. 🥹🌊 + Data: www.ocean.iap.ac.cn + Study: doi.org/10.1007/s003... + Summary: www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the...

We go again with the rechargeable glider at Rothera, for another month looking at the phytoplankton bloom, glacier melt and the warm water melting the glacier. Many thanks to those on base for the launch (and photos, I was in my home office) @biopole.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk

It's certainly cold outside! ❄️ If you’re out exploring this weekend, please be mindful of #birds that will be under extra pressure in these severe conditions and give them the space they need to remain undisturbed. Thank you. 🙂🐦 #UKBirding

Our planet's history recorded in ice just got about 50% longer! Beyond EPICA: Oldest Ice have reached the Antarctic bedrock and what is probably the planet's oldest ice - the trapped ancient air bubbles could help us better understand climate change. My story here www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There are a lot of King Penguin photos out there labelled as Emperor, so unsurprising AI then struggles. GIGO.

Think #stormpetrels just wing it to find a meal? 🍽️ Think again! Finally, our study is out: these tiny #seabirds use ocean dynamics to find #foraging grounds in the #WestMed. And guess what? Well-placed #MPAs help keep their ‘favorite restaurants’ open.🧑‍🍳 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🌊 Ocean currents around Antarctica from our high-resolution (3 km) ocean model. 🧪 #FESOM #SciArt

Great to have some time with the Whoopers in the Fens. Late on, 40+ Cranes seen very distantly heading towards Welney, and a large Starling murmuration north of the railway

To introduce ourselves here, we are a website collecting geographically interesting photos of Britain and Ireland, all geolocated and CC licensed for reuse. Still some grid squares with no photos, others with many, recording different details and changes over seasons and years. www.geograph.org.uk

Lingering juv Common Tern in Northstowe, been around three weeks, now very late for Cambridgeshire

Fen Drayton Lakes all merged into one big flood. Only accessible by bus and then most paths flooded, though some with useful depth gauges. 1W Scaup, juv Arctic Tern, 4 Brambling, 2 juv Hobbies and some Redwing in what was viewable

Black Darter mating 890m up Beinn Sgulaird on Friday in unusually warm conditions (about 18C). Tomorrow, same area has a wind chill forecast of -10C

More evidence that the Southern Ocean ridge system is a key source of iron and manganese 🌊 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Frosty start to the BTO Breeding Bird Survey this morning in SE Cambridgeshire. Plenty of Yellowhammer and Lesser Whitethroat as normal, a Wheatear passing through and a Curlew singing and probably hanging around the stud fields. 10th year of covering the square @btobirds.bsky.social

Variable Damselfly at Fen Drayton RSPB, always good to see them out again

Three Little Gull in Northstowe this morning on the southernmost of the new lakes

Want to dive and do science in Antarctica for a year? Jobs open for Ocean Scientist (time series oceanography + diving), Marine Biologist (dive-based science project) + Dive & Boating Officers and Marine Operator (dive and boat support) bas.ac.uk/jobs/vacanci... (plus a Cambridge lab tech position)

Sending the ocean glider towards the glacier front near Rothera, Antarctic Peninsula. All going well, but sobering to plot the surfacing positions on an old chart of the area

Oh look, another absurd climate graph from this summer - sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic for every August since 1854... 🥴 Data available from NOAA ERSSTv5: psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded... 🧪⚒️

Introduction post: birds, whales, dragonflies, oceanography covers most of it. Birds and cetaceans a good fit as a hobby to go with me on Southern Ocean research cruises and northward spread of dragonflies in England becoming one of the clearer effects of warming.