Jamie Dunning

Cool t-shirt too Phil

Book-shopping with my son today, we found a book with an illustration of a micro-discovery I made as a MRes student.

The paper wasn’t breaking any ground, but I am proud of this particular exploration.

There is nothing more humbling than applying for independent fellowships.

There are direct and indirect interactions with sheep, but data on there presence/density/breed is pretty much none existent at landscape scale.

Yes, NEs position is that climate is a driver but not a mechanism, and that there is the possibility of resilience if habitat is right. Agree it will be good to have some answer, even if horse has bolted.

Sure, and the research has been much easier to do in the context of reintroduction feasibility (I feel the same and you and Alex on this).
I’d rather we had started it ten years ago, but I am glad to see there is interest now.

Drivers are clear, but mechanisms less so.

Imminent extinction and rewilding are trendy and so bring research time/money, but it’s frustratingly reactive. There are probably only six pairs in England this year, we’re possibly too late for the English genes anyway.

There’s a whole package of feasibility works for twite, including climate (alex’s project) habitat and genetic compatibility. I’m not convinced by a reintroduction and agree with Alex at this stage, but we’ve also never had more resource to study them.

The current position of Natural England is that (re)introduction of White Storks should not be supported. Evidence for their historical presence here is sketchy and it is difficult to rule out historical remains as not pertaining to regular vagrancy. Cultural evidence is weak at best #UKbirding 1/2

Porthgwarra(Gwennap Hd) 0630 - 1530hrs 19 Wilson's Petrel, 14 Corys Shearwater, Great Shearwater, 12 Balearic Shearwater, 150 Storm Petrel, Puffin, Sandwich Tern, 12 Sooty Shearwater, Whimbrel (with M Mckee, M Elliot, J Overfield) #UKBirding

Added ages ago Steve!

Thanks Alex.

Thanks Nelly - Matilda really helped me get these thoughts in order too. I’m very lucky on all fronts.
Sandwich accepted!

Thanks Tom, I enjoyed writing it.

(I wrote the bio myself)

My first ‘careers’ style blog post.

Lesser Whitethroat seem to always be an early season migrant at Aust - two caught this morning with first tennis ball Willow Warbler of the autumn.

Otherwise, two more crossbill overhead and a site first ring-necked parakeet. 🎾🎾

Skopeo Ecology Competent, local resourcing for sustainable bird surveys and ecological field support.

There is no need to ship ecological consultants hundreds of miles when there are qualified people locally.
Skopeo has just paid a surveyor £3.60 in mileage for travel to four bird survey visits - less than a mile each way.

Join the directory here - skopeo.co.uk

#lowcarbonbirding

This is an important datapoint for HPAI studies and a great use of ringing data.

Common Scoter

Plus a distant flock of ducks heading NE from the Services impressively picked up and snapped by @j-dunning.net have subsequently resolved into 25 Common Scoter! Turned up later at Slimbridge and Sharpness

The Bird Flu Story No One Is Telling Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. But wild animals are threatened, too—at scales no one fully understands

Bird flu has mostly been out of the news lately—but this excellent story from Scientific American sums up the devastating toll it's had on wild bird populations. #ornithology

Patch mega!

It’s picked up even tonight @stevedudley.bsky.social. We just needed some movement!

Autumnal passage this morning at Aust, with five groups of eleven crossbill and a yellowhammer over the services. Wood sandpiper still on the wetland below. 🍂🪶

It's birding blues for me, although July is the start of autumn birding!

I don’t, but they should be listed on cr-birding ?
cr-birding.org

It’s great to see RSPB Science posting here now. I have added them as an automatic contributor to the UKBirding feed. 🪶🧪

The spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus is a social network problem Despite identification of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza viruses nearly 75 years ago, the transmission pathways among wild animals remain incompletely described. We propose the use of social networ...

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Reposted, cheers!

Thanks Alice. We have an empirical paper coming later I hope.

[now with link] Our opinion, on how animal social research can be applied to the problem of highly pathogenic avian influenza spread, has been published ! 🪶🧪

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...