"Perun Tyynenmeren rannikon keskiosassa merilintujen määrä on kolmessa vuodessa vähentynyt kahdeksasosaan, kertovat paikalliset ympäristöviranomaiset." 😱 #linnut yle.fi/a/74-2017442...

5/5 In addition, a huge effort is made to protect the #critically #endangered southern #dunlin. With expertise of Vroni Rohr-Bender and others, 26 chicks got an advantage be growing up in our aviary, before they got released back in the meadows, hopefully successfully #boosting the #population.

4/5 Most time of the field season was spent searching for nests and to ringing the #chick and #adult ruffs. We found 65 nests in total which is an excellent result. Adult birds also got a radio or #GPStag to investigate #habitat use and behaviour. Aren't the chicks cute?

2/5: Fieldseason started in early May when the #ruffs arrived in the coastal meadows of the #BothnianBay. Male ruffs are known for their fascinating #lekking #behavior! A true spectacle! The existence of the different male morphs is unique.

3/5 Independent males have striking colours and are #aggressive. #Satellite males are mostly white coloured and have more #sneaky behavior. Female-looking faeders are extremely rare. Here an independent male is pecking a satellite to show its dominance. More: simonvandepitte.com/i-am-sexy-an...

1/5 - What.an.increadible.fieldseason! Together with @koivulakari.bsky.social , @jelenasubotic.bsky.social , @chorlnev.bsky.social , @vmpakanen.bsky.social, Kristzi Kupan, Vroni Rohr-Bender and others we managed to find plenty of ruff nests (65!) and headstarted a bunch of Southern Dunlins (26!).

Shorebird chicks are hatching here in Greenland! This year, egg predation has been intense, especially on Turnstone clutches, so every successful hatch feels extra special. This Turnstone male brooded its four chicks right next to my phone. A bit too close maybe...

There are now 148 blogs about waders/shorebirds in the WaderTales catalogue. Here's the list of what's available, with a short descriptor of each blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/about/ There are 14 blogs about (Eurasian) #Curlew, just to name one species. #ornithology

Oletko sinäkin kuullut sen valheen, että metsien ojittaminen olisi loppunut? Se on ajanpeluuta. Niin kauan kun ojitus on sallittua, se jatkuu koska aina löytyy joku joka hyötyy rahallisesti. Ojitus pitää kieltää lailla. Upea Ylen juttu aiheesta. yle.fi/a/74-20166276

Plenty of time to apply for this #postdoc in my group :) #genetics #microbiome #ecophysiology #evolution #avian #ECR

Intraclutch egg color variation in #ruffs is striking. Pale to strongly pigmented, speckled and not speckeled and even blue eggs within a single clutch 💙

Dunlin face major challenges - climate-change-related flooding is just one. Blog from 20 Jun 2021 🎂4️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d... Focus is on research by @vmpakanen.bsky.social & @koivulakari.bsky.social in the Baltic. #ConservationScience🌍

Dunlin - literally 'brown and small' But not boring! Blog from 20 Jun 2021 🎂4️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d... Focus is on research by @vmpakanen.bsky.social & @koivulakari.bsky.social in the Baltic. #ornithology

Capture season at Liminganlahti. When we ring the #ruff chicks, we can often also catch their mums. Reeves (female ruffs) lead a very secret life. Thanks to our long term monitoring we learned that many return to breed in the next year to the same meadow.

Southern dunlin, endangered living dinosaur. #theropods, #ornithology, #waders

Ruff lekking: The co-display of a pale satellite and a court-defending independent morph increases male attractiveness. Lekking began here (65°N) in the first week of May and continues, even though most females are already incubating and the first chicks are expected to hatch any day now.

Yesterday, we found the nest of this blonde female. Three of her eggs were also exceptionally pale. #ornithology #waders

Hieno esimerkkki että täydellisiä listoja voidaan käyttää myös opetustarkoituksessa! Ping @panuhalme.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social @marjosaastamoinen.bsky.social @annaliisalaine.bsky.social

A female Ruff enters her nest — a tent-like shelter hiding her precious eggs. She’s unringed for now, but she’ll receive her bands once the chicks hatch. #waders #ornithology

Important Ruff research. Flooding is becoming an increasing problem for Ruff & Dunlin: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Blog about Dunlin-focused research @vmpakanen.bsky.social & @koivulakari.bsky.social wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d... #ornithology

Ruff clutches are expertly hidden, the eggs are camouflaged and very difficult to find. But this year’s field crew with @jellybb.bsky.social @simonvandepitte.bsky.social @koivulakari.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social is on 🔥 and found already plenty of them.

The Finnish Dunlins are getting a Headstart. Over the next days we are expecting more than 20 🐣. Raising 🐥🐥is a huge effort, helped by our experiences we made with our captive ruff flock @mpiforbi.bsky.social

Shout out to Vroni Rohr-Bender for being an exceptional chick mum 🐣

It's a year of #headstarting for #BalticDunlins! First chicks are hatching and many more are on the way. We're trying to recover the almost extinct population breeding in coastal meadows around the #BothnianBay. Pics by Gerrit Wehrenberg @koivulakari.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social

@chorlnev.bsky.social @simonvandepitte.bsky.social

Opera buffa? No, actually ruff male is dead serious in attracting females flying by to land at his lek. #waders #ornithology

Preumably the 'ladies' don't think this Ruff looks ridiculous! 😉 Flooding is becoming an increasing problem for Ruff & Dunlin: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Blog about Dunlin-focused research by @koivulakari.bsky.social & @vmpakanen.bsky.social: wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d...

Please ask #EU to ban #BottomTrawling! It destroys the sea bottom and also kills huge amount of non-targeted fish and marine life. #fishing #oceans act.for-the-ocean.org/act/protect-...

FAO all those involved in tracking shorebirds. Please see this new Wadertales blog on the value of making these data (provided to us by the birds) available for current and future research: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m... www.globalwader.org #ornithology

Latest WaderTales blog reviews what we are learning from tracked waders/shorebirds: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/05/06/m... But are researchers making full use of the data that birds collect for them? #ConservationScience🌍

Schinzii Dunlin are returning to Iceland (from W Africa). Species is in rapid decline: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/i... Also disappearing from the Baltic: wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d... Recently red-listed in the UK: wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/u... #ornithology

Yesterday's news that an Oystercatcher had broken the British/Irish longevity record for a wader (now 43 years from ringing to latest capture) is eye-catching but using ring reports to generate survival estimates is more important. wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/w... #ConservationScience🌍

Therefore it's great to see that there is now published evidence of heavy rainfall becoming more extreme in Finland. Utriainen et al. (2025): Less frequent but more intense summertime precipitation in Finland: results from a convection-permitting climate model PDF: www.borenv.net/BER/archive/...

Assessing the 'Small Population' Paradigm: The Effects of Stochasticity on Evolutionary Change and Population Growth in a Bird Metapopulation | doi.org/10.1111/ele.... | Ecology Letters | #ornithology 🪶

Metsähallitus on hakannut n. 40 hehtaarin avohakkuun metsäpeurakankaalle. Kyseinen alue sijaitsee suoraan metsäpeurojen vaellusreitillä Sotkamon talvilaitumilta itään ja peurat kulkevat usein tästä ruokaillen samalla. Mahdollisuudet heikkenivät rajusti. Kuhmo, Hanhikangas 30.3.2025.

Valikoiva hakkuu eli metsien #jatkuvakasvatus on ilmastollisesti järkevää turvepohjaisissa kuusimetsissä.

#TIMBER! Finnish PM #petteriorpo government committed to protect the state's #natural & #OldGrowth forests. He broke the promise. The Orpo gov. tuned the criteria so strict, that most of the valuable old & natural forests are left without #protection! #Finnish #forestry #scam yle.fi/a/74-20150836

Epäuskottavaa suojelua. Sitä hallitus tarjoili tänään, kun se hyväksyi viimein vanhojen metsien suojelun kriteerit. Ne jättävät ison osan suojelemattomista arvometsistä hakkuiden armoille – hallituksen päätöksellä. #metsät #vanhatmetsät #luonnonsuojelu www.sll.fi/ajankohtaist...

1. Petteri Orpo petti lupauksensa. Piti laatia riippumattomat kriteerit, joiden nojalla loputkin valtion vanhat metsät saadaan turvaan. Ei tullut riippumattomia. Tuli kriteerit, jotka SYKE:n mukaan ovat "tieteellisen tiedon tarkoitushakuista vääristelyä". 2/

🪺 🐣 Where do birds end up building their nests? A new study by the Küpper group & colleagues at the University of Oulu shows that in ruffs, this is driven by both social and environmental factors: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @chorlnev.bsky.social

"Survival rates are important" WaderTales blog from 8 March 2018 🎂7️⃣ wadertales.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/m... #ConservationScience🌏

Nests, Threats, and Leks: Nonrandom Distributions of Nests in Ruffs (Calidris pugnax) | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶

@koivulakari.bsky.social I have updafted the WaderTales blog to include a wee paragraph about the new Dunlin/Ruff paper. Please let me know if anything needs changing. wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d... #ConservationScience🌍

To hide their eggs and themselves, females need grassy vegetation away from forest edges with high nest predator activity.

Male ruffs seek attention and prioritize areas of the meadow with slightly elevated spots and broad visibility.

In large meadows, female ruffs prefer to place their nests close to male leks, even though these are not necessarily the safest locations available #ornithology (Hanna Algora, @chorlnev.bsky.social, @jellybb.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social et al: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

How do female ruffs choose their nest location? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @koivulakari.bsky.social #ornithology

If you read the WaderTales blog about the rapid decline of Baltic Sea Dunlin wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d... You may well be interested in the latest work by the same team ⬇️ #ConservationScience🌍

A large part of these meadows is under intensive management. We recommend that managers preferably choose areas with the potential to create attractive short-growth habitats in elevated meadow sections that are safe from flooding. Narrow, elongated areas along shorelines should be avoided.

Our study species are critically endangered. That is why we sometimes made desperate attempts to lift dunlin nests onto the tops of earth piles or move ruff eggs to artificial incubators until the water receded. Some nests were saved by these measures, while others were not.