Fantastic news from Beacon Ponds! Well done to the 2026 Tern Team! 👏👏👏

Grasshopper Warbler ringed at @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social this morning and then refound sunning itself in the Crown Fields this evening. Top birds! @dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social #DorsetBirding

Government "of the people, by the people, and for the people"? Not according to Trump. Yesterday, a thousand protesters in 5 Utah cities voiced opposition to the 90% cut of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Utah's Rep Maloy, Sen Lee, and Gov Cox supported those cuts.

I love the ethereal light on these Black-tailed Godwits that gives the shot a watercolour look, but no filters were used to create this. Its a regular spring & autumn migrant to Kenfig Pool in small numbers with 14 seen since the end of last week with others earlier in July.

Read more at www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Two nice scarcities amongst an otherwise slightly reduced catch of migrants/dispersers in the Obs garden moth-traps last night: Marbled Clover and Toadflax Brocade were the fourth and fifth records respectively for Portland.

Wacky and very unexpected addition to the Portland ringing tally - a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull lured in with stale bread rolls from last weekend's Obs AGM and caught in our giant drop-door trap (constructed years ago in a futile attempt to catch Ravens but now repurposed for gull catching)

"In the 35 years before privatisation almost 100 reservoirs were built; in the 35 years since privatisation, not one major English reservoir has been built. It gets worse, because in that same period private water companies have sold off 25 reservoirs without replacing one." bsky.app/profile/labo...

Fantastic to celebrate 20yrs of #Lundy being rat free last month. Manx Shearwater no's have increased 7500%, there are lots of fluffy chicks being monitored now. #Biosecurity is essential for continued success - e.g. checking #island supplies before loading & having rodenticide onboard MS Oldenburg

Not sure enough attention has been paid to the fact our DESNZ secretary is a refugee who escaped a brutal civil war to be welcomed and to excel, in the UK. A very real symbol of what Britain can be when it welcomes people - and how refugees can contribution hugely to our nation.

Revealed: how Europe’s most powerful farming lobby killed EU’s #pesticides law - High-level documents show how Copa Cogeca worked to weaken legislation to protect climate and wildlife By @zdboren.bsky.social @grilledmedia.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Lovey to watch this BASKING SHARK off St. Ninian's Isle. Shetland yesterday evening. Estimated to be around 6 metres in length using Fulmar wing spans in pics and video as measuring aids! 🦈 #MarineLife #UKWildlife #Shark

@maddyhine.bsky.social with the 200th Tystie ringed this season! #OrkneyBirding #BTO #Ringing

Here is Supplementary Figure 18, which better showcases the beautiful illustrations we commissioned from @umich.edu undergrad Olivia Stein. These illustrated species represent clades where our method identifies significant increases in the rate of body-shape evolution. Also see Supp Table 7.

Sister Rose Kuhn, who accompanies children forced to go to immigration court alone, “has seen 14-year-olds told they are mature enough to handle their case by themselves and file their own paperwork.” www.globalsistersreport.org/migration/mi...

Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1

Press release: news.umich.edu/ai-tool-reve... This was a huge project, requiring imaging of ~15,000 individual skeletons that were collected and deposited in collections such as @ummnh.bsky.social over > 150 years. Museum collections make this type of work possible and must be supported.

Almost 100 troops injured in recent weeks, Pentagon admits, as Iran launches reprisals on US allies

Ferrybridge this morning 48 Dunlin, 19 Ringed Plover, 3 Sanderling, 2 Turnstone, all put up by a juvenile Peregrine

A new study from the Met Office and @uniofreading.bsky.social has revealed that a prolonged heatwave in the North Sea intensified impacts of Storm Babet by 9-20%. Get the details in our news release 👇 bit.ly/4fOk84j

Brilliant news. Miatta Fahnbulleh is by far the best person Andy Burnham could’ve appointed to this role. The energy transition will accelerate. bsky.app/profile/poli...

"No normal political conference features the spectacle of a former UK prime minister proudly introducing a former spokeswoman for Andrew and Tristan Tate – brothers accused of orchestrating a global sex trafficking and grooming operation – onto its main stage, to polite applause."

Two photos that make us very happy this morning – story below. :-)

20th July: An underwhelming migrant selection at the Bill incl 8 Sedge W, 5 Yellow Wags, 5 WW & a GSWoodpecker on the ground; 61 Sandwich Terns, 7 Dunlin, a Balearic, a Curlew & a YLGull thru on the sea. Ferrybridge waders incl 33 Dunlin, 10 Sanderling, 3 Black t Godwits, 2 Redshank, 1 Whimbrel.

Look out for our @hilbrebirdobs colour ringed Rock Pipits as they disperse away from the island this autumn. Another 9 ringed today! #birdringing #birdbanding

Now online in Journal of #Ornithology Laser-based isotope profiling in avian tissues: a high-resolution method for ecological reconstruction Methods Paper, Open Access link.springer.com/article/10.1...

We are hiring a new PhD candidate 🎉as part of the No-REGRETS (NOrth Sea Renewable Energy: Gaining the Required Ecological Knowledge for the TranSition) consortium. If you are excited too, have what we are looking for and interested in joining us please apply. #ornithology #animalmovement

Two more nights of plenty in the Obs gdn moth-traps - probably nothing that's a great surprise these days but maxima of 210 Small Mottled Willow, 107 amplana, 10 Small Marbled and scares incl Big Snout, Vestal, Gem, Striped Hawk, Ni, Eastern Bordered Straw etc. The new normal!

🚨 #MUSEUMJOBS KLAXON🚨 We're looking for a Senior Digitiser and two Digitisers to work across @zoologymuseum.bsky.social & @camplantsci.bsky.social to help create biodiversity data for the researchers who need it, through #DiSSCoUK. 1. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/senior-... 2. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/digitis...

Great write-up by @pgreenfielduk.bsky.social on our paper in @natecoevo.nature.com www.theguardian.com/environment/... on the impact of generative AI on biological recording #Ornithology #UKBirding 🪶🌍 1/2

The Beautiful Game... #ESPARG #SPAARG

Also at Berrow during @dipteristsforum.bsky.social week with @lancefly.bsky.social a notable fly, the very smart Rhagoletis batava, found by eagle eyed Steve Falk earlier in the week perhaps new to Britain! It's on fruiting Sea Buckthorn and actually proved easy to find here. #ukwildlife #Diptera

“The three areas are culturally important for Indigenous Peoples & safeguard watersheds, ecosystems & wildlife, including many species at risk of extinction…conservation areas total 1,270 square kilometers, an area 11 times the size of the city of Vancouver.” - @thetyee.ca 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Beachy Head: My first Willow Warblers of autumn, 4+ flitting around in nettles behind Cadence Cafe, Yellow Wagtail over, a few Swift thro east and Sand Martin. Bob had a Whinchat at Birling Gap y'day.

"the 2 Sisters Food Group factory used the same amount of water in one day that 2,000 people used in a week" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Celebrating 20yrs Rat free this year! One of the biggest successes on the island is the seabirds, but for Manx Shearwaters it has been phenomenal. One of our box birds from today, the fact we have 15,000 and they breed successfully was unthinkable 30yrs ago!

www.nytimes.com/video/world/... Very good NYT explanation of the illegal construction in Albania's Vjosa-Narta ecosystem and of the damage done. #HandsOffVjosaNarta

Super Sunday! Today was a perfect day for fledging in the Glaslyn Valley, with no less than four fledges in the space of three hours!

Seems to have been a big arrival and/or hatch of Painted Ladies and Hummingbird Hawks around the island today - the mint-fresh Painted Ladies are perhaps most likely locally-bred but the four Hummingbird Hawks trapped overnight in the Obs moth-traps suggests some of them might be new migrants

The first cloud in a couple of weeks and 18 more new Willow Warblers plus a retrap from 2025 and one from Friday. A scattered number across the plateau so roughly 40 on island so far. Our breeding adult and juvenile Spotted Flycatchers ringed and census found a Sedge Warb in a grass field!

Lovely juv Med Gull in Cardiff Bay on 17/07 and, as it turns out, a fast mover. Ringed as chick in colony near Leipzig 16/06, seen in colony on 07/07 then the 1059km to Cardiff in 11 days #BirdingWales #SuperSeabirdSunday

High Court ruling on BASC's legal challenge against gamebird licensing on protected sites - some important clarifications ⚖️ Read the full judgement, and some commentary by me, on the blog ⬇️ raptorpersecutionuk.org/2026/07/18/h...

Lots of grandstanding from BASC on this ruling, which is odd, because the ruling isn't really that significant. No licence required to keep gamebirds "imprisoned" in pens prior to release on protected sites, BUT A LICENCE IS STILL REQUIRED TO ACTUALLY RELEASE THEM ON PROTECTED SITES!

18th July: Little bit of migrant interest at the Bill incl 26 Sand Martin, 10 WW, 5 Sedge W, 4 Yellow Wag & a Cuckoo; 150 Med Gulls, 44 Sandwich Terns & 2 Balearics on the sea. Waders at Ferrybridge incl 36 Dunlin, 9 Sanderling, 8 Redshank, 2 Knot, Whimbrel & Little Stint.

Congrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...

Willow Warbler's another bird that in comparison with points not too far away has been a tad slow to make it to this part of the South Coast - this is our first autumn youngster today from the CEF mist-nets. A final far from special migrant tally from the nets of 3 Sedge W, 1 Grasshopper W & 1 WW.

Only 27? That's close to net zero... 😶 www.theguardian.com/business/202...

I had a pair of Linnets in this view at ~600 m on Bleaklow in the Peak District 2 weeks ago - where Twites roamed 30 years ago. Remarkably in 20 km I saw Hobby on more occasions than Red Grouse. Doubtless the Dartford Warblers will arrive in the next decade #UKBirding #Ornithology #ClimateChange 1/2

28 Willow Warblers processed this morning. @birdguides.bsky.social