Nick Littlewood

New #mammal conservation #PhD: "Understanding and Addressing Rural Hedgehog Population Declines".

@srucnews.bsky.social EastBio CASE project in partnership with (and co-supervised by) @ptes-org.bsky.social.

Details: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Act fast - applications close 15 December.
🦔🦔🦔

A Harlequin Ladybird on a gravestone

A 2-spot Ladybird on a gravestone

A 10-spot Ladybird next to an Orange Ladybird, on a gravestone

A Red Squirrel upright on the ground facing towards the camera.

This is a fantastic site for ladybird variety - we've also had 11-spot on previous visits. Red Squirrels are ever reliable here too.

Seven Orange Ladybirds clustered on a gravestone

A Cream-spot Ladybird on a gravestone.

A 7-spot Ladybird on a gravestone.

Students looking for ladybirds on a gravestone.

A highlight of the annual teaching calendar is the ladybird survey in Sleephillock Cemetery, Montrose. Orange Ladybirds dominated this week, as usual, but variety came from single figures of 2-spot, 7-spot, 10-spot, Cream-spot and Harlequin.

@ukladybirds.bsky.social
@srucnews.bsky.social

Both cracking birds (and educational), whatever they are!

A male Western Subalpine Warbler on a gorse stem

A thrush basically looking like a male Black-throated Thrush, on a lawn.

BBRC giveths and BBRC takeths away.

Latest @britishbirdsbbrc.bsky.social report includes acceptance of the 2013 Cruden Bay Subalpine Warbler as a Western.

Meanwhile, alas, the Black-throated Thrush two months earlier in @hughad.bsky.social's garden is now classed as a hybrid.

#BirdingScotland

Thanks Alan - a fairly key omission from my post!

Infographic showing predicted impacts of management and climate change on Red Grouse, Curlew and Golden Plover.

Cessation of grouse moor management and climate change scenarios are both predicted to drive declines in Red Grouse, Curlew and Golden Plover. Our paper in @jappliedecology.bsky.social, led by Tom Mason, combines these factors in modelling future population trends.

#conservationscience🌎

Very grainy side-on photo of a Black-throated Diver on the sea

A Black-throated Diver was highlight of today's @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count at Portsoy.

#birdingscotland

Scare Umber moth - an adult, on egg tray

Rush Veneer moth - an adult on green foliage.

A female adult Epirrita species (likely November Moth) on an old fence post.

Scare Umber was another NFG (and new for hectad) in the garden trap this morning among an unseasonal 6 moths of 5 species. Others were another Rush Veneer, a female 𝘌𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢 (most likely November Moth), 2 Spruce Carpets and a 𝘉. 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢.

Portsoy (VC94, Banffshire)
#teammoth

Cake in shape of a Fox's head, with fox-coloured buttercream coating and surrounded by crunchy scat-shaped morsels on a crushed-biscuit surface to represent a track.

Rectangular cake with green background (representing moss surface to bog) some bog pools in blue and a track across middle with scattered scats represented by raisins. "Well done Rob" written across cake in red icing.

PhD-themed cake for Rob McHenry's viva celebration last week in Thurso.

Both were adorned with (tasty) Fox scat - very apt with the viva including much discussion of caprophagy (eating 💩) linked to predators' use of tracks in #peatlands.

@theflowcountry.bsky.social

Dark Swordgrass adult on dead dock flower head

Rush Veneer adult on strawberry leaf

Angle Shades adult on Rowan stem

December Moth adult on wooden panel

First time setting garden trap in several weeks - 4/4 was good going for here in November. Highlight were migrants, Dark Swordgrass (NFG) and Rush Veneer, December Moth was NFY and Angle Shades joined the party too.

Portsoy (VC94, Banffshire)

#teammoth
@migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Spectrogram, showing six calls over one second with more-or-less constant frequency at around 38 kHz.

Nathusius' Pipistrelle becomes #mammal species 2️⃣6️⃣ for Red Moss of Netherly, NE Scotland.

Recorded on @openacousticdevices.info #Audiomoth during September's influx. Just a handful of detections, but this quasi-constant frequency burst looks convincing.

@scotwildlife.bsky.social
#bioacoustics

Roxane Andersen in front of screen showing conference welcome slide.

Rob Hughes in front of screen with photo of a female Common Scoter.

Slide showing trends in birds at sites in Iceland, featuring Icelandic bird names

Slide showing bog restoration in Germany, including grids of rectangular flooded cells.

Another brilliant Flow Country Research Conference.

Big 🏆 for Roxane and team at UHI Thurso.

Great to see @rob-hughes-birder.bsky.social's PhD crammed into 30 mins. Loved the Icelandic word for Meadow Pipit and check out those German bog restoration lagoons.

@theflowcountry.bsky.social

Top priority research need! Just literally been discussing issue of conifer spread and regen onto bogs this afternoon.

Wild bees drive increased weight and seed set in apples. Increased Honeybee visitation has -ve affect on fruit weight.

Another reminder (as if needed) of importance of prioritising 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙙 bee conservation.

@jappliedecology.bsky.social
#pollinator

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Wasn't even the strongest of winds but a northerly blast does make for a lumpy sea.

Adult Arctic Tern flying left just above horizon over stormy sea.

Little Auks were limited to a couple of millisecond blurs of probables but a late Arctic Tern was interesting and a Bonxie powered through.

#BirdingScotland
@patchbirding.bsky.social

Seawatching in a northerly at Portsoy is hampered by lack of elevated shelter. I've been cowering next to a shipping container just above sea level, so would've missed flocks of albatrosses if they stayed low.

@patchbirding.bsky.social

Many thanks to @countrysidejobs.bsky.social for highlighting distance learning opportunities.

Really grateful for opportunity to shout about our (award-winning) @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management MSc course in the process.

Eastern Nightingale on top of a fence post, facing mostly towards camera and with tail cocked.

Eastern Nightingale, side-on, on concrete ground with grass growing around edges and stone wall behind.

Eastern Nightingale on pointy-topped fence panel, with out-of-focus scrub behind.

Work committments prevented a visit to the Rattray Head Eastern Nightingale until today. Fantastic bird - a real shower and very strange looking, reminding at times of a babbler. Think I'd have been bamboozled had I found it.

My first NE Scotland nightingale of any flavour.

#BirdingScotland

Three figures in the mist lumbering across a heather moor

Three figures in the mist, around a vegetation quadrat on a heather moor.

Four people visible forming a six-person chain around a large Sitka Source.

An "atmospheric" day for year-2 @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management students to collect moorland plant data at @hutton.ac.uk Glensaugh.

Ended with obligatory human chain to measure the giant Sitka Spruce in Drumtochty Glen - and it's still a 6-student circumference.

Distant pic of two Velvet Scoters flying left just above horizon of a choppy sea.

Two westbound Velvet Scoters off Portsoy this morning. Just seen one other since moving here two years ago. Now on 123 for the year - one off last year's total.

@patchbirding.bsky.social #BirdingScotland

Five species from a #smallmammal #cameratrap at Portsoy, Aberdeenshire - a mouse, two voles and two shrew species - including Water Shrew 😀

#mammal #trailcamera @nesmammals.bsky.social

Wey-hey - grand achievement. That's about as many as ever recorded in NE Scotland!

Distant pic of a Spoonbill at edge of mud out across an estuary.

And there was a bonus Spoonbill (distantly) in a channel off Kinneil Nature Reserve.
#birdingscotland

Big thanks to David of @savebutterflies.bsky.social and Bronwen of West Lothian Council Ranger Service, for enthusing us about their sites.

12 students and 2 lecturers posing for group photo in the sun on a woodland ride

Two people lifting peat roads out of a bog, showing depth of 5 or more metres. Three people looking on.

Lecturer, Colin Hardacre, about to catch by hand a drone that is returning to base.

Thermal imaging photo of 12 students, with faces showing red and more insulated areas a darker blue.

Fantastic Study Weekend with @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management MSc students. We visited sites from West Lothian through to the Trossachs, discussing site management and playing with ecology/wildlife monitoring toys!

#thermalimaging #drone #peatprobe

Congratulations @laurasharp.bsky.social on being a poster prize winner at yesterday's North East Scotland Ecology Network science day. 🏆

Top patch bird. The Black-throated Diver of the finch world!

Six Barnacle Geese flying right to left against grey sky

Six Barnacle Geese flying right to left against a grey sky

Into first week of our third year in Portsoy and still some "easy" patch ticks to be had; Barnacle Geese, yeserday, among post-Amy movement into Moray Firth. Also 10 Whoopers and an A𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘺𝘢 (that would've been #patchtick if ID nailed).

@patchbirding.bsky.social
#BirdingScotland