Jen Gill

National Emergency Briefing An unfiltered assessment of the latest threats to UK food supply, health and national security from eight leading experts to an invitation-only audience - also covering positive solutions. Westminster...

Open letter from over 1,000 UK scientists urging all MPs to attend the National Emergency Briefing. A huge list full of highly respected names.

"Without much more urgent and decisive action, we risk seeing these impacts overwhelm our capacity to respond."

Please share with your MP. #NEB2025

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at its nest in New Forest, photo by Steve Laycock

Six Lesser Spot young in a Quantocks nest, photo Gus Robin

Something to celebrate - our 2025 Lesser Spotted Woodpecker report - successful breeding season, the most nests monitored & highest number of chicks fledged per nest since we started in 2015. Acoustic monitoring giving amazing results too, download here www.woodpecker-network.org.uk/images/L_S_W...

Which wader, when and why? This is a quick summary of wader migration, for British and Irish birdwatchers. The maps are taken from the migration book Time to Fly by Jim Flegg, published by the British Trust for Ornithology, …

@wadertales.bsky.social has reminded me of his super blog which provides an overview of the migration pathways for our #waders ▶️ wadertales.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/w...

Are you an MSc student based at a UK university? Or do you know one?
RSPB @rspbscience.bsky.social have just released their list of research projects for 2026:
www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu...
#ornithology #conservationscience 🌍

The two extraordinary young activists making me feel optimistic at Cop30 In today’s newsletter: Despite valid criticisms, the summits are filled with smart, passionate people dedicating their lives to fighting the climate crisis

The two extraordinary young activists making me feel optimistic at Cop30 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Research Fellow in Global Conservation Salary: Grade 7 (£41,064 – £48,822 p.a. depending on experience) This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for it to be undertaken in a hybrid manner. We are also open to discussing...

📣Job vacancy!📣

Research Fellow in Global Conservation at Leeds, working with Dave Williams (and me, a bit) to assess the impact of conservation initiatives on biodiversity, carbon, and people: jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

#ConservationScience 🌍

a couple of individually marked godwits. Photo by J. Seenstra

Want your modelling to save birds? PhD with me at UvA (Amsterdam): build spatial integrated population model for black-tailed godwits with world-class dataset and strong team here & @birdeyes-gfn.bsky.social/RUG). werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies... Apply by 1 Dec 2025: #Ecology #Bayesian #Conservation

The real BBC bias story, narrated by Anna Ford

More work linking irregular iris pigmentation in gannets to prior HPAI infections: likelihood of NP antibody increased with iris pigment irregularity. Moderate correlations for H5 antibodies.
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Join the BOU Join the BOU today Go To Your Account

Did you enjoy #BOUasm25?

Consider joining us at the BOU, you could:
📗 Publish in IBIS
⌨️ Write for #theBOUblog
💡 Come to our conferences
💸 Apply for our grants
🧑‍💻 Sit on our committees
🕊️ Join the BOU’s international membership

Join today! https://bou.org.uk/join
#BOUasm25 #ornithology

That’s a wrap for #BOUasm25, but don’t go just yet! 👋

You can go back through our #BOUasm25 feed to review all the presentations and connect with our speakers. If you enjoyed someone’s presentation, please do engage with them. 🧵1/5

Fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD Opportunity - *Understanding The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance by Migratory Birds*

Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🚨Caribbean mammal PhD opportunity🚨

🧪🌿Reconstructing the trophic ecology of Caribbean mammals: new baselines to understand island evolution, extinction & conservation🐀🌴

@uor-research.bsky.social, @zslofficial.bsky.social, @nhm.org, and with me at Durrell!

blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c...

Welcome to #BOUasm25 “A day at the museum: collections-based ornithological research in a changing world” the BOU’s autumn conference.

Today we’ll be in-person at the Natural History Museum (London) and online on Teams
Follow the #BOUasm25 feed to stay updated.
#ornithology 🪶

Nominations for #WSC4 Keynote Speakers are open! ✨🌊

Early-career voices encouraged!
📍WSC4 In-person & Hybrid: 7–11 Sept 2026, Hobart, Tasmania

🔗 bit.ly/3Jv71c9
#seabirds #ornithology

Historical genomics of the declining red squirrel in Britain | Aries Dr Anders Bergström, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia Professor Cock van Oosterhout, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Selina Brace…

A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...

This is a brilliant initiative. Woodpecker Network is working with BTO to develop a passive acoustic monitoring module for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Trials have proved successful in reliably detecting their drums and calls, revealing many new locations.

NEW on #theBOUblog from Anya Shackleton-Jones

A Seabird Success Story? Temporal Monitoring of Kittiwakes and Fulmars in East Iceland

bou.org.uk/blog-shac...

#ornithology 🪶

The Natural History Museum Denmark is seeking a new Head of Conservation Unit! The conservation team here works on a wide array of incredible specimens, and are hard at work preparing for the new museum opening in spring 2027! candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

Nature not a blocker to housing growth, inquiry finds Commons committee report challenges ‘lazy narrative’ used by ministers that scapegoats wildlife and the environment Nature is not a blocker to housing growth, an inquiry by MPs has found, in direct conflict with claims made by ministers. Toby Perkins, the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, said nature was being scapegoated, and that rather than being a block to growth, it was necessary for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods. Continue reading...

Nature not a blocker to housing growth, inquiry finds

Eco-Explore

Our latest introductory and advanced courses on Data Analysis with R Statistical Software are now live -all welcome, whatever your current level of skills or experience :) www.ecoexplore.co.uk

The BBC must stop attacking trans people | Good Law Project The right wing accusations of ‘pro-trans’ bias are back to front. It’s time for the BBC to live up to its duty to be impartial on trans issues.

The BBC, quite consciously, sets out to demean and belittle trans people. This is both morally contemptible and in breach of its Charter obligations. We've made it super easy for you to write to the BBC and tell it to stop.

Please use - and share with your networks.
goodlaw.social/2j5q

Petition: Fund a National Climate Resilience Plan: protect communities from climate impact From floods to extreme temperatures, climate impacts risk damaging homes, health, businesses, services, and the economy. We want Government to prioritise adaptation; fund a new Resilience Plan that…

We need your help to get the Government to respond to our petition calling for a National Resilience Plan to protect communities from climate change impacts. Sign now (and share with your family, friends and colleagues).

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

Meet Caleb Stradling (and a curlew.) Caleb is the winner of this year's Bishop of Norwich Ecology Prize. His research into nesting curlews, while at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social is already helping the endangered birds. @dioceseofnorwich.bsky.social www.dioceseofnorwich.org/curlews-help...

We saw a colour-ringed Oystercatcher on West Sands, St Andrews, yesterday. @jengill.bsky.social
She nests on the 9th green at Selfoss Golf Club (Iceland).
St Andrews seems an appropriate winter home!
A blog abou c.r. project:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/o...
#BirdingScotland

New blog post.

This week, @marycolwell1 gave the eulogy to the Slender-billed Curlew at the AEWA meeting of parties in Bonn.

You can now read the eulogy on our new blog post.

www.curlewaction.org/the-bird-wit...

There’s one month left to apply for the PhD position on interactions between contaminants and parasites in common terns, co-supervised by @alicecarravieri.bsky.social, Bernd Sures from @unidue.bsky.social and myself. You can do so here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/380142

f you have ever reported a colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit, you have helped to establish connections that cross national and continental boundaries.
Here's how the Wash links to other sites.
Draw your local map using a ShinyApp:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/01/09/h...
#UKbirding

Avian flu taking a severe toll on Iceland’s falcon population The Icelandic gyrfalcon population has been hit hard by the ongoing wave of avian influenza in recent years. Once numbering around 2,000 birds, the population has now collapsed to roughly 500 individu...

The impacts of avian influenza are profound and far reaching. Hopefully 🇮🇸 Gyrfalcons will recover in time but this is near catastrophic #RaptorResearch 🌎 🪶

Avian flu taking a severe toll on Iceland’s falcon population
icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/20...

NEW JOB in #ornithology and #conservation promoting the amazing work of @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social across global #flyways: buff.ly/NNQNpRs