Aurora Borealis, from the middle of Amsterdam. Visible with the naked eye. Truly exceptional from this light polluted part of the Netherlands. Go outside if you can! #auroraborealis #noorderlicht

I research dictatorships for a living and have spend a non-negligible amount of time reading the words of madmen like Gaddafi, Hitler, and the Kims of North Korea. Even to me this is fucking bunkers.

The ICC is under U.S. siege, the majority of Dutch journalists don’t seem te care. The new MAGA world order is here.

Happy New Year! 🎆 As expected, sadly, the radars once again lit up with MILLIONS of birds fleeing from #fireworks. GIF of the @knmi.nl Herwijnen radar See other years: horizon.science.uva.nl/fireworks/ Thread and more science below 🧪🪶

Another NYE, another night of terror for millions of birds across the Netherlands (and around the world). Last year we published in @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Frontiers 🧪 about the massive impact of fireworks on birds 🦅. Paper: doi.org/10.1002/fee.... Thread below 🧵👇

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

The @nytimes.com Lost Science series continues. Here's my Q&A with a scientist who was studying how wildfire smoke threatens human health when the EPA decided that her research was no longer a funding priority. Gift link: nyti.ms/4jhpw14

Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out! As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people! 👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025

Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!

How should the discipline of ecology and the community of ecologists respond to the ecological crisis? Is it time that these were put on something more akin to an emergency footing? www.cell.com/action/showP...

The future of transportation isn’t the #Hyperloop* or self-driving cars. It’s the bus, the bike and the elevator. Via @slate.com. AND it’s better land-use & infrastructure decisions, reprioritizing space & budgets, accessible streets, & smart pricing mechanisms. *hyperloop was always a distraction

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

Apparently it can always get worse. The full version of the new U.S. National Security Strategy, aptly named “NSC-1488” by the wags, calls for actively pulling Poland, Austria, Hungary and Italy from the #EU. And supporting far right. US sides with Putin. notesfrompoland.com/2025/12/10/f...

A few thoughts on the new US national security strategy that was released today. 🧵 www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

I am very excited to share that we have a new paper out today in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com In it, we summarize the state of knowledge on the Circular Seabird Economy! 1/n 🧪 Link to paper here: rdcu.be/eMOUd

Take three minutes to look at pretty birds, explore radar data, and see how we connect the structure of skies to MacArthur's ideas of niche partitioning. 📡🐦☁️🎧

So proud of this cover that features @barthoekstra.bsky.social amazing photo!

For the airplane + red aurora + big dipper fans. 😍

I legit choked on my coffee fr 💀

Schrijver Jac. P. Thijsse telde ooit duizenden vinken langs deze laan. Waar zijn ze nu? Leuk artikel van Addie Schulte in @nrc.nl. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

To reduce negative impacts of #renewables (eg #windenergy) on migrating birds, we need to know *where* and how *high* they fly. Using weather radar, we mapped 6yrs of nocturnal migration over the Netherlands, revealing patterns we can use to avoid and minimize impacts: doi.org/10.1016/j.je... 🧪🪶

Dispersal, maturation and recruitment in a long-lived, intercontinental migrant bird | www.sciencedirect.co... | Animal Behaviour | #ornithology 🪶

🧪 Opinion piece on needs and why to improve on subseasonal-2-seasonal modeling i.e. the forecasting range that is in between short-term forecast (e.g local weather next week) and the seasonal ("will this winter be wet?").

This photo accompanying a news story about the heist at the Louvre is perfection.

This graph says it all: instead of starting to go down, the *annual increase* of atmospheric CO2 is setting new records. We're making climate change worse at a record rate. Turning this around should be our top priority, and it's not. From: www.carbonbrief.org/met-office-a...

"Charismatic species increased negative workplace experiences..." No freakin' kidding. Link: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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

170K raptors! 🤯 8 yrs in the making, but I’ve finally witnessed a 100k+ raptors day while on the station actually counting the bulk of it. Incredible experience. Still feeling cross-eyed from staring through the scope non-stop for almost 10hrs. 📸: the Shuamta team at the end of this incredible day

Some rare and remarkable processes are taking place this week, that we are not likely to observe for a long time! These 2 Atlantic hurricanes are closer than any since at least the 1960s. They are now connected - in each other’s orbit, pivoting. Follow along 1/

"We studied more than 70 different elections that took place in 12 western European countries over several decades, and found that when mainstream parties take more anti-immigration positions, it leads to more support for the radical right, not less."

I honestly don't think everyone talks enough about how amazing it was when the world came together to fix the hole in the ozone layer, so I wrote this: everythingisamazing.substack.com/p/lets-all-r... It's a good reminder of what we're capable of.

A vagrant juvenile Sanderling turned up in Israel—likely after a single non-stop flight from the Dutch Wadden Sea. Here’s thread explaining why that’s remarkable and interesting. @wadertales.bsky.social @globalflyway.bsky.social #Birds #Migration

Are animals randomly distributed in the air, or is there a structure to where and when we find them? In our new paper we outline factors that shape habitat use in the air, from abiotic structure to biotic interactions. A lot of fun discussions behind this one! 🦅🦋🦇🌬 www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...

Jon Stewart's Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Era youtu.be/_GXNJ3V9lzg

ONE MILLION RAPTORS! The wait is over... Today #BRC17 hit the earliest 1-million mark in BRC history! Usually, this happens around end-September, but this year the raptors clearly had other plans. And with still over a month to go, we expect plenty more to come! 1/2 #ornithology #RaptorResearch

A good day to read about #aeroecology—and to appreciate the work being done by the good people at @nycbirdalliance.org and @cornellbirds.bsky.social to protect migratory birds. The #TributeinLight monitoring they do is so important (and respectful). 🌎 🐦 #ornithology #conservation

A new study led by @moveandconserve.bsky.social used GPS tracking to test the monitoring potential of Eilat and Batumi. An invaluable step toward linking counted birds to their origins, but we found it needed some elaboration from a migration count perspective! Our commentary: tinyurl.com/nnbzu7kc

Tomorrow at #CWW2025 I’ll present new work on using weather radars (the ones you check for 🌧️) to map nocturnal bird migration to support wind energy planning. Join my talk at 11:30 (Auditorium Pasteur) to see how this can improve impact assessments and enable a more nature-inclusive energy future.

Some asked if we had a ‘beef’ with Efrat et al. — quite the contrary! Their elegant work merited a proper response, so we wrote a letter to share our view on their work and long-standing Qs about migration counts. If the khachapuri doesn't get to us first, we still fit together through one door! 😁

Science as a conversation: In January, we published a paper about migratory bird counts www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... For different reasons, we did not include the managers of the bird counts. But the @batumiraptorcount.org people had some important comments #conservation #ornithology 🧪🐾🌎

HALF A MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅 After a few slower days (~30K+), #BRC17 hit the absolute jackpot yesterday! Around 11 am, the floodgates opened — massive streams of Honey Buzzards & Black Kites pushed us past 100K raptors in a single day! Bringing the season total to 540K😍 🧵1/3 Video by Zülfü Farajli

Things are really kicking off now at #BRC17. Although by no means the most diverse period for raptor migration in Batumi, there is little as humbling as standing below a sky filled with thousands, tens of thousands, or even over a hundred thousand Honey Buzzards ‘marching’ onwards to Africa.

This is an INSANE decision by the E.U. “By signing up to mutual recognition of vehicle standards with the U.S., the E.U. has waved the white flag on road safety. This is not a technical detail – it is a political choice that puts trade convenience ahead of saving lives.” This will kill people.

I already regret removing a suggestive ‘weaponisation of birds for anti-wind litigation’ from a paper I submitted, which has since been desk-rejected 4 times. Journal editors, are you paying attention?

Scoop: The Trump administration appears to be considering a move to label wind farms as intentionally harming migratory birds, a classification that would in the eyes of some legal experts label *any* project illegal. It would definitely be fought in court if pursued. @heatmap.news

"The findings confirm that, while Twitter was once the platform of choice for a majority of science communicators, those same people have since abandoned it in droves. And of the alternatives available, Bluesky seems to be their new platform of choice." arstechnica.com/science/2025...

A return of sea ice to the North Sea, 80-100 nights with sub-zero temperatures a year, an accelerated sea-level rise and less precipitation. Dramatic changes for just about any aspect of life in Western Europe. Paper: doi.org/10.1029/2025... 🧪 Visualisation/interactive map 👇

A return of sea ice to the North Sea, 80-100 nights with sub-zero temperatures a year, an accelerated sea-level rise and less precipitation. Dramatic changes for just about any aspect of life in Western Europe. Paper: doi.org/10.1029/2025... 🧪 Visualisation/interactive map 👇

I was sometimes puzzled how many parts of 1930s Europe could descend so quickly into fascism. Now I know. I wish I didn't.