Stephen Baillie

Skokholm Annual Report 2024 2024 was a cracking year on Skokholm, full of surprises. Our FREE report chronicles everything from bird numbers to a ship wreck, from new ...

pembsbirds.blogspot.com/2026/03/skok...

Sand Martins have continued to arrive into Britain and Ireland in recent days, with 420 records now received. Numbers should continue to rise over the coming weeks, ahead of the peak reporting rate in April. They are often seen hawking for insects over wetlands #ukbirding

New paper 📖

Comparing acoustic and visual monitoring methods for assessing biodiversity and distributions of Arctic-breeding shorebirds 🌊 🐦️

Read more: buff.ly/NewbFCU

This is a shocking report. Staff at food banks have told GMB that some users are now so desperate, they're ripping open food parcels to eat as soon as they get them.

In the last year, Trussell has distributed more than 2.5 million emergency packages

The power of Bayesian reasoning | The Royal Society YouTube video by The Royal Society

What is Bayesian reasoning and why is it so powerful? Sir David Spiegelhalter, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge, explains all.

Made in partnership with #BBCIdeas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pnlExzbNqE

Iranians living in UK tell Starmer that war will only strengthen Tehran regime Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe among more than 100 signatories to letter urging PM not to get drawn further into the conflict

The UK Government would do well to listen to these people, who probably understand the situation in Iran much better than they do.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

While people feel the foundations of their lives are shaking, this deep crisis will continue | Clive Lewis The partisan debate since the Gorton and Denton byelection risks blinding us to the truth. People are rejecting wholesale the way our politics has developed, says Labour MP Clive Lewis

Excellent piece by @labourlewis.bsky.social in today’s @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently

When the US govt terminated the National Nature Asst, @phillevin.bsky.social + the author team were determined not to let that stop them.

They re-organized, set up an advisory committee, found funding…and now the brand new Nature Record is open for public comment. 👏🌳👏🌲

Check it out (link below)!

Ship assistance in North American landbirds in the Western Palearctic To the end of 2023, a total of 3,084 individual North American landbirds of 94 taxa had been recorded in the Western Palearctic. The most frequent of these...

End of 2023, a total of 3,084 North American landbirds of 94 taxa had been recorded in the Western Palearctic. The most frequent of these species include Red-eyed Vireo, American Pipit & Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Read more: britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...

📸 Mike Durkalec
🥇Subscriber Content

Our oldest Monks Wood Marsh Tit has survived his 11th winter, and is singing again on his territory, 40 m from where he was colour-ringed in 2015. He's been widowed again so is advertising for a new female. He's probably in the top 5 oldest Marsh Tits recorded in Britain. #ukbirding #ornithology

New WaderTales blog features a neat experimental study by Oddvar Heggøy and colleagues on the costs to waders of incubating five eggs: wadertales.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/f...

Over 1000 civilians dead, and we're letting Trump use UK bases to further his war.

Britain should stand firm against Trump's illegal warmongering, and stop these bombers landing on UK soil.

vs wild Rock Doves from our study population in Uist, Outer Hebrides - with 'blue' colour, 'bar' pattern, 'white' rump, and 'wildtype' eye. In most feral populations, only a minority of individuals have this combination of phenotypes. @jezierskimt.bsky.social @uniofnottingham.bsky.social

A century of care: Wildlife Trusts mark 100th birthday with woodland project First of the trusts, formed with 12 people in a Norfolk pub in 1926, buys swath of farmland to restore to nature

A century of care: Wildlife Trusts mark 100th birthday with woodland project

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), such as this mother and 7-month-old joey from Queensland, Australia, embody a genetic paradox. Populations rich in diversity are declining, whereas those with little variation are expanding and rapidly reshuffling their genomes. These findings reveal that diversity alone does not determine resilience. Instead, a population’s fate depends on several evolutionary processes unfolding across generations.

According to a new study of Australia’s koala populations, rapid demographic rebound may be able to restore once-lost genetic variation and drive recombination in ways that re-establish long-term evolutionary potential in previously bottlenecked populations.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/4b6hLaE

BirdWatch Ireland CEO Andrew Kelly & BTO CEO Juliet Vickery are sitting at a table outside smiling as they get ready to sign a partnership agreement for the Bird Atlas 2027–31.

RSPB Chief Executive Beccy Speight & BTO CEO Juliet Vickery are sitting together at a table in the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge holding pens ready to sign a partnership agreement for the Bird Atlas 2027–31.

BTO CEO Juliet Vickery & Scottish Ornithologists Club President Ruth Briggs are sitting at a table smiling and holding pens ready to sign a partnership agreement for the Bird Atlas 2027–31.

BTO CEO Juliet Vickery & Welsh Ornithological Society Chair Anne Brenchley are sitting at a table together looking down and holding pens as they get ready to sign a partnership agreement for the Bird Atlas 2027–31. Wildlife and nature themed artwork hangs on the wall behind them.

1/ Five leading charities forge partnership for bird conservation for the Bird Atlas 2027–31! 🐦 But what is the Bird Atlas? ⬇️🧵 #Ornithology

@btobirds.bsky.social @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @rspbscience.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social @birdsinwales.bsky.social

The World’s Most Important Sites for Nature: The First Global Review of Key Biodiversity Areas | Key Biodiversity Areas | Key Biodiversity Areas Key Biodiversity Areas

#ornithology
www.keybiodiversityareas.org/post/worlds-...

Trump has launched a war in the Middle East without a plan, without a strategy, and without any clear idea about where it leads or how it ends.

He has no clue what he’s doing in Iran. [Cartoon by Brendan Loper]

Today we begin a new chapter: Cymru Wyllt / Wild Cymru.

We believe Wales can be wilder — in its landscapes, its wildlife and its spirit. This isn’t just a new name. It’s our vision for nature recovery.

What does a wilder Wales mean to you?

#CymruWyllt #NatureRecovery

"A dog was seen by a member of staff at Old Sulehay in Northamptonshire attacking and killing a woodcock."

The White House wants an extra $50 billion to fund Trump’s illegal war.

That’s on top of the Pentagon’s $1T budget — which Trump is trying to boost to $1.5T.

Remember that over half of defense spending flows to private corporations and the Pentagon has failed eight financial audits in a row.

Loose dog incidents force temporary closure of historic nature reserve to the public | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants Conservationists have taken the difficult decision to temporarily close a nature reserve in Cambridgeshire to the public after repeated instances of dogs off leads.

This should not be a "difficult decision".
The clue's in the name - 'Nature Reserve'. They are not places that dogs should be allowed to access.

Loose dog incidents force temporary closure of historic nature reserve to the public www.wildlifebcn.org/news/loose-d...

Btw, this info is all down to the @btobirds.bsky.social Atlas projects and the volunteers who collected the data. The new Atlas is starting next year, 2027-2031, and it's well worth taking part to give us updates on the incredible level of information we have in the maps below. #ukbirding

Letter to the editor concerning the paper “Attraction points: A new sampling design method to quantify common finches' populations” published by Marazuela Pinela et al. in Ecological Indicators, 171, ...

New 'letter to the editor' criticising a previous paper published in Ecological Indicators is well worth a read: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Includes this quote 'At least two of them (Marazuela Pinela and López Espí) are self-proclaimed silvestristas—the Spanish term for songbird trappers'

Waders rely on networks of migrations sites.
Blog about important paper by Martin Beal (@amigodeaves.bsky.social) that combines ringing, colour-ringing and tracking data for Black-tailed Godwits.
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
Good to finally meet Martin last week!
#ConservationScience🌍

New Western research reveals how rainfall shapes bird populations New study shows rainfall patterns play a powerful role in shaping bird populations and which species are most vulnerable as precipitation becomes more erratic.

@westernu.ca did a write up on our new paper! Forgive me for being proud of this contribution. ☺️
news.westernu.ca/2026/03/rain...

#ornithology #birds #meta-analysis #rain

How does natural selection vary in time & space? @jorgensoraker.bsky.social et al's new preprint (thread ⬇️) decomposes variation in selection on reproductive traits in Blue & Great Tits from 19,463 breeding attempts over 44 yrs. Selection dominated by temporal & spatio-temporal scale, but also...1/2

🧑‍🌾🚜Two farmers growing the same crop in the same region can have different emission footprints. Why?

It comes down to a variety of factors, including fertilizer use, water management, and local soil conditions.

Satellite data suggest Doñana wetlands could vanish within 60 years New satellite analysis indicates that the iconic Doñana marshland in southern Spain could disappear within decades unless current hydrological trends change, posing a stark warning for biodiversity an...

#ornithology
www.birdguides.com/articles/con...

‪Tell me the truth...I'm ready.

New IPBES report finds that $220 billion were directed to conservation & restoration of biodiversity in 2023...

yet $7.3 trillion flowed toward subsidies that directly harm nature.

IPBES Business & Biodiversity Assessment www.ipbes.net/business-imp...
@ipbes.net