A childhood dream fulfilled for me last night with a short feature on Springwatch! Thanks to Jo and Josh for making it such a cracking segment! And everyone who came along on the night @finleyhutchins2.bsky.social @sibthorpia.bsky.social @jamesdrage.bsky.social @leelachanner.bsky.social #teammoth

Finally found my first nudibranch yesterday after 7 years of abject failure in the rock pools of Falmouth. This Orange-clubbed Sea Slug (Limacia clavigera) was hiding beneath some kelp. With @leelachanner.bsky.social

Polycera quadrilineata in Falmouth yesterday, with @humphrey-keeper.bsky.social. Spotted floating on the surface at the edge of the rocks, and seemed to be using the tide to move between different areas of seaweed. Time for some research...

So many moths last night! Over 20 Bordered Straw at Pendennis and on the walk up, Ni Moth, Portland Ribbon Wave, and of course Small Mottled Willow and Diamondback in the dozens

A fantastic puffin and seabird cruise with @harbourbirds.bsky.social! Plenty of auks, including the sought-after puffins; common and sandwich terns hunting; a couple of gannets; and a beautiful sunset by the Old Harry Rocks. Thanks for the suggestion @humphrey-keeper.bsky.social

Manx shearwater playback, rat eradication talk, and thrush FID trials some highlights of the @uniexecec.bsky.social Isles of Scilly field course. Great to see the students so engaged with pollinator counts, especially after a rainy start! Plenty of mothing and a turtle dove as well.

An ant that behaves like a cleaner fish? With awesome photos. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

‪Very exciting to have been able to at last witness mongoose-warthog cleaning in a new population! Much less frequent than in Mweya and an interesting new context.

Emerging parasitoid larva from what I believe is an Eastern Dotted Border caterpillar (Mylothris agathina) – Botswana

So pleased to find a prehistoric-looking shoebill in Mabamba Swamp on our second attempt! Couldn't leave the country without finding one. With @humphrey-keeper.bsky.social

Was incredible to see this movement of spotless policemen skipper butterflies on the Mweya Peninsula in Uganda yesterday evening! Fortunately @leelachanner.bsky.social had seen it before, and shared this paper about the phenomenon doi.org/10.4314/met....

Great to get in another field visit to Mweya, likely the last of my PhD – a lot of desk-based work, but where better to do it! Excited to be heading onwards to Botswana in a couple of weeks to investigate mongoose-warthog interactions in another population.

See below for an excellent birding blog (unbiased perspective from a potentially biased individual)

A trip to the Grotte de l'Hortus in Hérault this morning provided a long awaited lifer in the form of a wallcreeper. It was joined on the crags by a supporting cast of three blue rock thrush, peregrine, and crag martins. With @leelachanner.bsky.social

Been working on a little video looking at IDing Aythya ducks over the past month. Feel free to give it a watch here as a little early Christmas present (if you're a fan of niche ducks): youtu.be/f4aF7_zONIM?...

What a week! So many interesting talks at the 2025 @britishecologicalsociety.org conference and great to talk to lots of people about my own research. Had a lovely time exploring Edinburgh as well, including a cold dip at the beach and a lifer long-tailed duck.

Bonkers day-trip to St Agnes yesterday provided two lifers. The mourning dove didn't move much but the spotted sandpiper, american pipit, and hoopoe all put on a show to make up for it. With @leelachanner.bsky.social @liamlangley1.bsky.social and quite a few others!

Impressive showing from the Arctic Tern that's been about at Argal Res for the past few days @cbwps.org.uk @leelachanner.bsky.social

Bonelli's warbler on St Mary's, Scillies, from a day trip in mid August

Living in the bush often means finding weird solutions to problems faced by animals living near humans. Huge thanks to aquaphor for a truly multipurpose balm that helped us grease this Nile monitor out of the grate he was trapped in! @laurarlabarge.bsky.social @leelachanner.bsky.social

Two new sightings for me in Mweya, QENP; glossy ibis and a lovely pair of white-faced whistling ducks.

Out in the field again with all the highs and lows that brings, from having to cook 22 tiny omelettes every other night to elephants sparring with a lion.

#conferencegoals #ASABSpring2025 What an amazing bunch 🦤

Great to have had the opportunity to present my research into individual variation in interspecific cooperative behaviour at #ASAB2025 in Liverpool today. Very lucky to be in the company of so many fantastic talks! @asab-spring-2025.bsky.social

Day 2 of #ASABSpring2025 has begun! 🦤

Our #ASABSpring2025 conference kicked off with a blast (from the past) today🔥 We had an incredible talk by Dr. Tom Fletcher and Tom Land from Silverback Films 🦍, accompanied by Camilla Affleck from Liverpool Screen School 📽️ and Prof. Peter Falkingham from LJMU 🦖

Lots of butterflies out despite the overcast skies! Orange-tip, green hairstreak, green-veined white, southern festoon, small heath, grizzled skipper, wall brown, baton blue and >15 painted ladies. Plus yellow and woodcock orchids.

Some nice birds from the train through Occitanie, on my way to visit my family for Easter – egrets and grey herons, black kite and black-winged stilt. Looking forward to seeing what insects are about.

I've recently moved to Bristol and have been trying to explore the surrounding area. A trip to Ubley Warren on Saturday in search of reptiles didn't disappoint with adder, grass snake, and plenty of common lizards seen! @leelachanner.bsky.social

Super exciting to stumble across 4 early adders basking on Tregonning Hill in the weekend's lovely weather

Back in Cornwall and good to get out birding quickly! Lifer in the form of a ring-billed gull, and nice to see the glaucous gull and goosanders.

A couple of days in Samburu to round off the EBE field trip, with white-rumped shrike, secretary bird, white-headed buffalo weaver, and red-and-yellow barbet. @uniexecec.bsky.social

From Nakuru NP – great white pelicans and grey hooded gulls, ruff, little stint, and augur buzzard.

Continuing with the @uniexecec.bsky.social MSc EBE field course sightings, here are some from Ol Pejeta: crowned hornbill, red-cheeked cordon bleu, golden-breasted bunting, and black-headed oriole. The bunting is my favourite of the trip, one I've wanted to see for ages and which didn't disappoint!

Some of the bird species on the @uniexecec.bsky.social MSc EBE Kenya field course. White eye, purple grenadier, Eastern grey woodpecker and African paradise flycatcher.

A first for the year! Found this silly hummingbird hawk-moth awake and flying around the house last night. Released it once the temperature had warmed up today, hopefully it finds somewhere more suitable to overwinter.

Didn't expect to spot a hawfinch from the kitchen window!

Cirl and reed buntings on our Boxing Day walk, on the edge of the garrigue

A great turn-out for our Science Storytelling for Change event! Lovely to see so many engaged people in the audience. Thanks so much to everyone at @another-way.bsky.social who helped organise, and to our fantastic panelists, @radapandeva.bsky.social, Anna Roberts and Gillian Burke.

Some fascinating talks at Exbase yesterday, from termite conflict to dolphin communication via squirrel caching! Nerves aside, I was also happy to present some background to my own research on terrestrial cleaning symbioses.

Hello! A quick intro as I begin on this new platform. I'm Leela, interests include behavioural and sensory ecology, conservation and environmental change. Keen on insects and herps, cat person, photographer, currently researching mongoose behaviour.