I need every journalist to point out that even if steen got the finger out and got on the ballot (she didn't), and even if all the spoiled votes would have gone to her (they wouldn't), she would have still come last

Heather Humphreys was a disaster as minister in charge of heritage and nature. She didn't meet nature groups and seemed to have no interest in her job expect for when it came to weaking wildlife laws to allow more burning and hedge-cutting. www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...?

BirdWatch Ireland is recruiting a Communications Officer, a 2-year position partially funded through the Heritage Council's Heritage Organisations Support Fund 2025. For full details and to apply, visit birdwatchireland.ie/get-involved...

BirdLife International has issued a firm warning against proposals to cull Great Cormorant across Europe, arguing that the measures would fail to address pressures on fish stocks and could damage years of conservation progress:

Studying breeding waders sometimes involves catching chicks multiple times. Do these intensive studies have negative effects on chick growth? Blog about reassuring paper by Camilo Carneiro et al from 5 Oct 2024 🎂 wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/10/05/h...

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

Unfortunately I think Fundamentalist Barbie would appeal to a lot of voters because I think a lot of voters who are only semi engaged are fairly easily fooled by well-tailored sheep’s clothing on a polished well-spoken wolf

1/2 Back in 2008, we transferred an oiled 🪶 Guillemot that was found in Margate to our friends & oiled bird specialists at RSPCA Mallydams. Their team washed it & fitted a @btobirds.bsky.social metal ring before sending it back to a life at sea 2 months later. Yesterday they were…

There's plenty of blame to go around, incl. the failing EPA licensing system which failed to prevent the repeated pollution events which would undoubtedly have weakened the resilience of any wildlife in the river,making them more vulnerable to whatever pollutant ultimately caused the huge fish kill.

The latest issue of Irish Birds has just been published and is available from the BirdWatch Ireland shop: shorturl.at/qUTBe. @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @npwsireland.bsky.social @bto-ni.bsky.social @rspbni.bsky.social

A fantastic resource for anyone interested in wader monitoring and conservation in Ireland/UK/Europe. I find myself referring back to it anytime I'm writing something wader-y!

This month, WaderTales will be ten years old. I'm going to create a thread that highlights some of the research findings that have surprised me. Plenty of "Wow!" & "I didn't know that!" moments. Here's a link to the catalogue of 150 blogs wadertales.wordpress.com/about/ #ornithology

23 of 24 of Ireland's breeding seabird species are under threat yet the places they breed, feed & socialise are largely unprotected. Major work by @birdwatchireland.bsky.social identifies 73 coastal & marine sites needing legal safeguards @naturenymph.bsky.social www.independent.ie/irish-news/m...

A map identifying the 73 most important areas for Ireland's seabirds is being launched by BirdWatch Ireland

1/ 📢 New research from ‪@btobirds.bsky.social‬ reveals how #AvianInfluenza has decimated bird populations. 20 studies in ‪@birdstudy.bsky.social‬ journal highlight the scale, spread and impact of this disease.‬‬ 📖 bit.ly/3Gmji0C #ornithology #BirdFlu #OpenAccess #HPAI 🌍

Very successful Black-headed Gull ringing trip to Lough Ree today with @npwsireland.bsky.social Roscommon staff. 200 BH chicks colour-ringed and a bonus Med Gull chick too! Fantastic site and NPWS doing amazing work for a whole range of breeding waterbirds!

New paper in EJWR led by newly minted Dr Paule-Emelie Ruy (passed PhD viva this week!) shows that avian influenza is circulating amongst Irish mesocarnivores link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Yesterday our amazing volunteers made & installed a bird roosting raft on the Borrow Dyke. We hope that this will be used by as a safe place for our wetland birds to rest up. We used oyster cages with insulation board inserts topped with artificial grass and mud.🤞 it will get the seal of approval.

Ground nesting red listed species of conservation. Ireland's National Bird. Nesting sites deemed as appropriate to be eradicated by BNM. The hidden reality being left to communities to prevent yet again.

Can ring/band recoveries be an indicator of HPAI impacts? Excessive ring recoveries detected in 14 species: one raptor, eight seabirds and five waterbirds. Striking increases in seabirds = aligning with HPAI monitoring 👉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Even with sun rising over the Derryadd bog this morning, a somber sight is to behold on this Lapwing nesting site, exposing nests to predators due to needless, outdated pumping practices reducing water levels across the bog throughout. Good job there's no #biodiversity crisis! #biodiversityloss

I also apologise wholeheartedly to @philipoconnor.bsky.social for citing him w/ wrong name - it is being amended as we speak - I usually prefer to blame everyone by myself but this was just a total brainfart by me. His piece on Garron is a must read! ourmaninstockholm.substack.com/p/an-open-le...

This week I wrote about vigilance, and how I'm less interested in litigating whether Garron Noone is a racist, than in whether what he said was true or not. It wasn't. And people are right to be alarmed that he said it, and to wonder why he did. www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...

4/ 🌊🐣 First breeding record in 38 years for Little Tern! 🌊🐣 A pair attempted to breed on the Outer Ards Peninsula last year. 🙌 This charismatic and dainty tern was last recorded breeding in Northern Ireland in 1986, making this a very exciting record!

1/ How did Northern Ireland’s breeding #seabirds fare in 2024? Thanks to mammoth monitoring efforts of volunteers, researchers, & organisations, we report annually on our current knowledge of NI's breeding seabirds. #BTONISeabirdReport #Ornithology Report here bit.ly/NISeabirdRep... Highlights⬇️🧵

🌊The Northern Ireland Seabird Report 2024 is out now! Published by @bto-ni.bsky.social, this report provides a comprehensive overview of the state of #seabirds in #NorthernIreland long-term.🐣 @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social #Ornithology #BTONISeabirdReport 🧵⬇️

**JOB VACANCIES** - We have two project officer jobs available at BirdWatch Ireland, working with everything from wintering waterbirds, breeding terns, countryside birds and garden birds across some of our biggest projects. Deadline is Monday 7th April birdwatchireland.ie/get-involved...

**JOB VACANCIES** - We have two project officer jobs available at BirdWatch Ireland, working with everything from wintering waterbirds, breeding terns, countryside birds and garden birds across some of our biggest projects. Deadline is Monday 7th April birdwatchireland.ie/get-involved...

1/2 Hi, Please report all sightings of dead birds for possible testing for Avian Influenza. 📌In England, Wales & Scotland: www.gov.uk/guidance/rep... 📌In Northern Ireland: www.daera-ni.gov.uk/services/dae... 📌In Republic of Ireland: www.aviancheck.apps.services.agriculture.gov.ie/report and...

The #BTONISeabirdReport is a fantastic publication every year. A credit to everyone involved in the surveying, writing and compiling. Looking forward to reading this one soon!

We spend/invest tens (hundreds?) of thousand of £/$/€ on people who spend most of their time doing tasks other than what they were trained to do. Imagine hiring a plumber and asking him to spend 50% of his time doing flooring surveys. Or a chef who will be in the kitchen maybe 25% of the day.

My #punkscience manifesto (1-8) 🧪 Feel free to share if this resonates #science

Fully funded PhD on puffins at UCC. www.ucc.ie/en/hr/vacanc.... Application deadline 14th March.

New in #BirdStudy Black-headed Gulls brought bird flu to a mixed colony, where 40-75% of Common Terns died. Case study of the impact of an outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) on a seabird colony in Flintshire, Wales, United Kingdom doi.org/10.1080/0006... #ornithology #ukbirding

That's a wrap! Completed the Irish Garden Bird Survey. Very enjoyable and very interesting to record the birds & their numbers visiting our urban garden. 26 species during the 13 weeks. Highlights for me were the Blackcap, Bullfinch, Coal Tit & Long-tailed Tits 💚 @birdwatchireland.bsky.social #Birds

All is not well in the Southern Lowlands of Iceland - one of the most important wader breeding areas in Europe. WaderTales blog: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/i... Paper by Aldís Pálsdóttir et al in 'Bird Study': www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #ornithology

Seen a bird with a ring? 🤔 Report it via the Euring portal ➡️ https://bit.ly/_euring You can report rings and tags found on live or dead birds. Doing this contributes valuable data to our research, helping researchers determine bird population trends. #Winterwatch #UKBirding

To the best of my knowledge, we broke the 🚨 world longevity record 🚨 for Mediterranean Gull on Saturday, with this bird re-trapped at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. Ringed at Folkestone, Kent, as an adult in February 2001, it’s now in at least its 28th calendar year, with no sightings since 2001! (🧵 1/2)

Another White Tailed Eagle shot dead in the midlands. I hope whoever is responsible is brought to justice. www.offalyindependent.ie/2025/01/14/i...

@bburke88.bsky.social Young first year Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) with white ring with 209A in black writing photographed on 30/12/2024 on rock in the Castletown River beside the Dundalk bridge in Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland. #birds #seabirds #gulls #BirdsSeenIn2024

As more people arrive to Bluesky, a reminder to use the Seabirds feed for posts relating to seabird research, conservation, pelagics, seawatching, expeditions, identification & photography. Like & pin the feed, and contribute to it by using #seabirds in your posts! 🌊🐦🙌 bsky.app/profile/did:...

An overview of the impact of HPAI H5N1 on the breeding Terns on the east coast of ROI in 2023 and 2024. Full case study published in #BirdStudy In short, very bad for Common Terns, bad for Arctics and Sandwich, surprisingly minimal impact on Roseates overall. birdwatchireland.ie/devastating-...

An overview of the impact of HPAI H5N1 on the breeding Terns on the east coast of ROI in 2023 and 2024. Full case study published in #BirdStudy In short, very bad for Common Terns, bad for Arctics and Sandwich, surprisingly minimal impact on Roseates overall. birdwatchireland.ie/devastating-...