@phenoweb.bsky.social
The www.phenoweb.org project examines the effects of climate on phenology and trophic interactions across woodland food webs. The study encompasses 44 field sites across Scotland and has been run since 2014 by researchers at Edinburgh University
This week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk will be given by Dr Kirsty MacPhie from @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social on the contrasting insights to be drawn from studies of phenology in @phenoweb.bsky.social and @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social. Usual time and place - details below with streaming info β¬οΈ
02.02.2026 16:21 β π 13 π 7 π¬ 0 π 0
Examples of some recent papers from graduate students in my group - a full list of recent papers and preprints can be found here (https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=pTdxVdIAAAAJ) and profile of the group here: https://egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/members
The annual Wytham Field Team Photo!
Celebrating a successful field season with great food & good company - May 2025
Front view of the Life & Mind Building, which opened in Oct 2025: The new home of Biology at Oxford
Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
The first of our blue tits successfully fledged last week! And, many more nestlings are ready to go β wonβt be long now!
#ukbirding #phenology #ornithology #birds
Great - thank you. Hope your season is going well in Wytham.
18.05.2025 19:50 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
2 photos of a tit nest The first picture is of some great tits and two blue tits in a nest box. One blue tit is far left with head down, the other top right corner looking at the camera. The rest of the birds are great tits. The second picture is a close of the blue tit chick looking sheepish
Freeze frame. Record scratch. You might but wondering how I got here.
The eagled eyed among you might notice that there are 2 blue tits in amongst this brood of great tits.
Mini π§΅
Do you know how much heavier they tend to be around fledging compared to blue tits reared by blue tit parents?
18.05.2025 14:46 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0β¨ New study β¨
π Phenoweb, United Kingdom
π· Ally Phillimore (@phenoweb.bsky.social)
π¦ University of Edinburgh
π¦ Blue tit
π nioo.knaw.nl/en/projects/...
π metadata only
The change in date of the first oak leaf. Black points represent the mean (+/- SE) first oak leaf date in each year, across all oak trees studied on our transect across Scotland (with day 1 equal to the 1 April). The light grey points represent the first oak leaf date for individual trees. The regression line represents the estimated mean (+/- 95% CI).
Although we're still collecting this year's data, 2025 is shaping up to be a record-early year for first leaf emergence among many of our studied tree species β including oaks! π³
#phenology π
One of our Field Assistants, Charlotte, checking on the progress of a blue tit nest inside of a woodcrete nest box that is attached to a tree. Photo: Megan Thompson
A clutch of 7 blue tit eggs in a nest in a woodcrete nest box. Photo: Ally Phillimore
Happy Easter weekend to all who celebrate!
While you're out hunting for chocolate eggs, our team is busy monitoring the breeding progress of our blue tits. πͺΊ
As of today, we have eggs in 73 nests, with several females already incubating. In contrast, on this day last year, only 2 nests had eggs!
A plot the date of the first great tit egg on Vlieland against year showing 2025 is the third-earliest year since 1955.
Last year I posted too early and had to retract my post π«£, but now that all @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social nest boxes on #Vlieland have been checked, we know for sure that it is - yet again - a very early start of the breeding season! @uniexecec.bsky.social @sevans.bsky.social
15.04.2025 17:57 β π 46 π 9 π¬ 1 π 0
They're back! The first three terns arrived yesterday morning. The very first one was 18-year old Calimero. He was followed by 7-year old Severina and 13-year old Fabrice. All arived between 10:29 and 10:54. β₯οΈ #phenology #seabirds
12.04.2025 18:41 β π 87 π 14 π¬ 0 π 2
Proud mum to 936 hungry winter moth caterpillars π with 500 more on the way! Wish me luck
11.04.2025 15:58 β π 22 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0First Blue tit egg at East Dartmoor was April 4 2025. There are 3 earlier lay dates since mid-1950s, all in 2019. Probably about 1 in 8 pairs have started laying - much the same pattern as in 2019. Suggests we can expect first Pied Flycatcher eggs 2 weeks from now. #phenology
09.04.2025 20:42 β π 9 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Yeah, March 4th is incredible. Was it an outlier, or were other birds soon after?
09.04.2025 20:31 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0It's an incredible honour to be awarded the John C. Marsden medal from the @linneansociety.bsky.social for my PhD research on phenology, moths... and some very hungry caterpillars π³π
Thanks to all my friends and mentors at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social, but especially @allyphillimore.bsky.social!
@egioxford.bsky.social in this instance, the nest box is just next to a horse paddock!
09.04.2025 16:30 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
A single blue tit egg in a nest inside a woodcrete nest box.
The change in date of the first blue tit egg in the Phenoweb project population. Black points represent the mean (+/- SE) first egg date in each year, across all sites on our transect (with day 1 equal to the 1 April). The light grey points represent the first egg date at each individual site. The regression line represents the estimated mean (+/- 95% CI) and is fitted through data from 2014-2024. The red point represents the date of our first egg found in the current 2025 season.
And we're off! Our first blue tit egg was laid on 3 April 2025 - making this, by some margin, the earliest start to a season in the 12 years of our project! πͺΊ
#phenology #ukbirding #ornithology πͺΆ
A single Blue Tit egg in a complete nest inside a woodcrete nestbox in Wytham Woods, 3 April 2025
Early developing Oak in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, April 2025
Newly emerged Oak leaves, Wytham Woods, near Oxford, 3 April 2025
Figures showing the change in the date of the first egg in the Great Tit and Blue Tit populations at Wytham Woods, near Oxford 1960-2025, and the relationship between average March daily maximum temperature and date of the first egg in the population for each species. In each figure the line fitted is for the data for the 65 years from 1960-2024, with the value for 2025 shown as a green (Great Tit) or blue (Blue Tit) star. The two right hand panels compare the change over time and the response to March temperature in the two species; Great Tits show a slightly steeper response to temperature than Blue Tits, and are advancing the population first egg date slightly more quickly.
The first eggs have been laid in this, the 79th year of data collection in the Wytham Tit Project! First Blue Tit egg laid 2 April, first Great Tit 3 April. Looks like an early spring, with first oak leaves out, though the observed first egg dates fit the long-term pattern well
wythamtits.com#intro
Looks like being a very early spring for us. We already have over 60 blue tit nests and didnβt reach similar numbers βtil around April 10th last year. This sycamore is already in leaf, and last year it didnβt reach a similar stage for another three weeks. When will we get our first eggs?
02.04.2025 18:46 β π 13 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0
