Summer 2025 appears to have been a dreadful year for spruce trees in north Scotland due to a massive infestation of Green Spruce Aphid. There is scarcely a spruce that has not been affected.

My paper showing a significant decline of a Common Buzzard Buteo buteo population during an outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI)has just been published | www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1... | Bird Study | #ornithology

First visit of the 2025 breeding season to North Sutor. Good to see shag and guillemot numbers up on last year, but not many razorbills and kittiwakes mostly sitting about rather than nest building.

Just finished the first check of my 30 owlboxes in the Tain area on south side of Dornoch Firth. For the second year running both occupancy rates and clutch size are well below average.

After last year's disastrous breeding season in East Caithness, delighted to see the ledges packed with seabirds today. 🤞for a productive seabird summer.

This is the 7th dead adult buzzard found in my study area in last few weeks. One tested +ve for Bird Flu. Rest are likely victims, getting it from scavenging on infected Geese.

Bird flu is back in the Highlands. A dead Greylag at Loch Eye has tested positive for H5N1. We await the results from dead Whooper swans.