Jamie Dunning

I am wearing Matilda's, is that allowed?

It's finally feeling like Spring at Aust after a good push of Wood pigeon and finches this week - mostly Chaffinch Linnet and Siskin with fewer Crossbill and Redpoll.

I’ve set it so your posts appear on the birding feed without needing a hashtag.

Good question. I can’t find those in my files. They probably came from a co-author, I’ll see if I can dig them up.

First vismig session of the season on the Severnside patch produced Crossbill, Redpoll, Siskin, Red Kite and 1,200 Woodpigeon with @j-dunning.net. Grounded migrants included my first LRPs of the year and a free-wheeling flock of 226 Knot on the estuary. Spring sure comes early nowadays #ukbirding

Agreed. I have deliberately not shared our most recent data, nor any view/interpretation. I think it’s important to share Derek’s opinion - that’s all it is.

Spring has begun... over the last week we have received 35 reports of Sand Martins, seven of Swallow, four each of Wheatear and House Martin, and two Red-rumped Swallows! #ukbirding

Six, wild, twite returned to a breeding site in the Pennines on Friday
(📸: M Rowell)

Apparently the amount it matters is relative !

Not yet Will, and not even fully resolved yet. We'll let you know when we've got a decent tree.

The Song of the Mountain Finch. Perhaps they sang to the mammoths, perhaps they did not, but what is certain is that from the ice-rimmed crags high above the herds, flocks of huddled twites would have overseen their migration.

This is a difficult read, considering we all want the same thing.
Here's the rewilding view on the feasibility of reintroducing pipilans Twite back to the hills of England 🪶🧪
derekgow1.substack.com/p/the-song-o...

🔊 KEYNOTE NOMINATIONS

Who would you like to see deliver a keynote at #BOU2027 ?

Avian disease ecology | 6 - 8 April 2027 | Nottingham, UK & Zoom & Bluesky

Nominate via link ⬇️

bou.org.uk/event/avi...

#ornithology 🪶

A Cuckoo perches on a post. Wording over the image reads: We're hiring. Science Manager. www.bto.org/jobs. BTO logo top right of the image. Image credit bottom left reads: Cuckoo by Edmund Fellowes / BTO.

New role! 📢 We're looking for a dynamic and experienced Science Manager to join us at BTO. Apply now ➡️ www.bto.org/jobs #Ornithology

📆 Full time, Permanent.
📝 £46,344 per annum.
📍 Hybrid working.

Deadline for applications: Monday 9 March.

Thrilled that last weekend’s @birdobscouncil.bsky.social AGM at @btobirds.bsky.social HQ in Thetford confirmed @lundybirds.bsky.social has successfully completed its 3-year probationary period and is once again a fully accredited member of the British & Irish Bird Observatory network 🥳 #ukbirding

Seemingly limited justification for reinforcement for the 'Critically low' (actually Green Listed) Long-eared Owl population: 'decreasing winter roost counts' (= Continental migrants short-stopping?) & UK breeding population apparently stable & limited by food & Tawny Owls #UKBirding #Ornithology

This year, I will submit an application for an independent fellowship.

New (competition funded) PhD opportunity with me,
@iaciac.bsky.social and @dralgernon.bsky.social
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Higher-order networks and animal communication. Suited to someone keen on network science theory/computational modeling and keen to adapt this to ecology & evolution.

This is the day it was caught and ringed - A danish ringed Goldcrest caught at the same time (!)

I guess so, central and northern European bird arriving on the East coast.

A female Blackcap, wintering at Aust, was first caught and ringed while wintering(?) at @flamboroughbird.bsky.social in 2023. 🪶

Eleanor Grover took this cool photo of some of our colour-ringed Starlings on @lundybirds.bsky.social. These birds are all colour-ringed as breeding adults (April-June), sharing space with the long-running sparrow project.
lundybirdobs.org.uk/news-and-sig...
lundybirdobs.org.uk/what-we-do/b...

BB eye: A birder’s guide to High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI, bird flu) virus infections have historically been most commonly associated with wild Eurasian waterfowl with...

Our article, a birder’s guide to HPAI, was published today in @britishbirds.bsky.social - it’s open access this month.

We explain how bird-flu infected seabirds in 2021/22 and the importance of citizen science to montoring future outbreaks in the wild. 🪶🧪

britishbirds.co.uk/journal/arti...

This whole thing was a spin-out from efforts to standardise commercial bird survey guidance -- birdsurveyguidelines.org

I wrote up this idea a few years ago for CIEEM’s InPractice magazine.

The business has gone from strength to strength since. If you’re interested, and I know a lot of you here have done surveys for us in the past, we’d love to hear from you.

Our view is that consultants shouldn’t be travelling across the country to do bird surveys when there are competent (often more competent!) people locally.

Our work is varied and our clients span commercial ecology, conservation and SNCBs.

We’re always looking to add competent birders to the Skopeo directory for ad-hoc, paid bird surveys in GB and Ireland, especially ahead of the busy breeding season — if you’re interested send us an email at contact@skopeo.co.uk

Wow, this is spectacular! Evolution of beak size in an urban population of juncos in response to the loss of supplementary food (bird feeders) during the COVID pandemic, and subsequent regression. Is the UCLA campus the new Daphne Major?
pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Appeal launched to save East Yorkshire Little Tern project A crowdfunder has been launched to help secure the award-winning Beacon Ponds [[Little Tern]] Project ahead of the 2026 breeding season.

A crowdfunding appeal has been launched to secure the future of the Beacon Ponds Little Tern Project – one of the UK's most successful seabird conservation programmes:

HPAI is having a huge impact on scavengers. Here, 84.3% of dead black vultures in the US HPAI positive. Pathology confirms that digestive tract is the initial site of viral entry during ingestion of high viral doses with strong epitheliotropism.
👉 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Hi Joel, if you follow the a feed (like UKBirding) you won’t have to see any depressing politics here.