Lucy Wright

Thrilled to share my first PhD publication - gannets put more effort into diving when they are in groups 🐟🐟🐟

Out now in @meps-ir.bsky.social www.int-res.com/abstracts/me...

+Thanks to my coauthors who put a lot of effort into collecting the videos!

#seabirds #ornithology #animalbehaviour

Pennines delight as drone survey offers hope for one of UK’s rarest birds Conservationists find dunlin chicks thriving in boggy habitat created in collaboration with landowners

Dunlin needed some good news - @rspbscience.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Red-listed in UK:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/u...
Rapid decline in Iceland:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/i...
Really bad in the Baltic:
wadertales.wordpress.com/2021/06/20/d...
#ornithology

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

🚨Great #conservationjob opportunity for a #seabird #scientist here working on one of the world's best long term studies of seabirds with a really lovely team. You'll learn loads along the way. #ornithology #seabirders

Some great PhD opportunities in conservation science/ ecology here.

Postdoctoral Researcher in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology Postdoctoral Researcher in Theoretical Evolutionary Biology

📢 I'm hiring! 3-year postdoc in theoretical evolutionary ecology at University of Helsinki 🇫🇮 Apply: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki-Postdoctoral-Researcher-in-Theoretical-Evolutionary-Biology/1348955157/
#AcademicJobs #Postdoc #EvolutionaryEcology #TheoreticalEcology #ScienceJobs #AcademicChatter

BirdWatch Ireland is hiring a Marine Advocacy and Campaigns Officer. Deadline Jan 7th 2026. Details at link here:
birdwatchireland.ie/get-involved...

RSPB seasonal positions @rspbscience.bsky.social are live & we are ready for applications!

🌱🪶🌊⛰️🐣 Huge variety of posts available for 2026: seabirds, veg surveys, visitor questionnaires, upland monitoring, wader chick tracking... all listed on the attachments via the link 👇

Deadline 11th Jan 2026 📆

A great opportunity for anyone in a marine or conservation MSc!

Work with some wonderful birds, (and wonderful folks) I got to call colleagues this year 🐧

(The project timeline would fit wonderfully with a taught MSc)

@exetermarine.bsky.social @exetergses.bsky.social @cornwall.exeter.ac.uk

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts Tips for attending scientific conferences

I asked participants for tips attending scientific conferences #BES2025 youtu.be/ow_ickvkvbA?...

📢 APPLY NOW

For BOU Member Conference Attendance Grants

Now funding member attendance at any #ornithology conference

Low-carbon travel encouraged

⏰ Deadline: 5 January 2026

bou.org.uk/funding/m...

Brilliant news

Keynote nominations are now open for the BOU 2027 Spring Conference on Avian Disease Ecology!

Submit via the conference webpage: bou.org.uk/event/avian-...

Also thrilled to announce that Prof. Dana Hawley (@danahawley.bsky.social) will deliver the Alfred Newton Lecture.

Please share!

We're hiring!

Seasonal Research Assistant and Senior Research Assistant positions for 2026 🪶

Deadline: 11th Jan 26

Apply here: app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

This is the saddest day of my professional life. Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage. I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys. I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show, A show that I named and helped develop over all those years. Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry. These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenter

In a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices. Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'. • I chose the latter. It broke my heart. I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make. I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence. One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career.

I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost". James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice. Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences. I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness. Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire. I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal. I am so sorry to let you down. I hope that you can understand my reasoning. I have to accept that I am not what the current BBC expects of their freelance presenters.

Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not "just a job" I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world. From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too. The strawberry is dead. Long live the strawberry. B

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Encountering this godwit always makes me think about the changes we have both seen in the 29 years since we first met, especially the planting of non-native trees all over Iceland wadertales.wordpress.com/2022/06/18/i...

A Marsh Fritillary butterfly basks in the sun.

We're hiring 🧪🌍

Two amazing senior science opportunities in Northern Ireland

Seabird Scientist: Tagging, tracking and monitoring to inform marine policy in NI
tinyurl.com/yeuw5znd

Conservation Scientist: Restoration of key habitats and priority species
tinyurl.com/4rj43dfp

📢 BOU COMMITTEE NOMINATIONS OPEN

➡️ Awards Nominations Committee
➡️ Engagement Committee
➡️ IBIS Management Committee
➡️ Meetings Committee
➡️ Records Committee

Plus NEW Committee Shadowing Scheme

More info & to nominate: bou.org.uk/about-the...

#ornithology 🪶

Graphic displays an image of a Kittiwake by Philip Croft/BTO. The birds mouth is open and a speech bubble with the text 'Your data is important!' extends from it. On the left hand side of the image is text that reads: 'SMP DATA ENTRY DAYS REMAINING: <3', and the Seabird Monitoring Programme is in the top right hand corner. The caption reads: 'The Seabird Monitoring Programmes' breeding seabird data submission deadline is fast approaching - have you submitted your data!? #seabirds @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social'

The Seabird Monitoring Programmes' breeding seabird data submission deadline is fast approaching - have you submitted your data!? #seabirds @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social

Jane Goodall with monarch butterfly scarf

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall

💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

A group photo of the BTO and BirdWatch Ireland team together on the top of a cliff with green vegetation in the foreground and blue sea in the background.

A group photo of the BTO and SOC team together sitting on a bench and standing in front of a wood timber building.

A group photo of the BTO and WOS team together standing in front of a building with a small tree behind them.

Exciting news! We’re planning the upcoming Bird Atlas 2027-31, and have met with @birdwatchireland.bsky.social @scottishbirding.bsky.social and @birdsinwales.bsky.social to discuss how we can work together on what we hope will be the most productive Atlas yet. #Ornithology #UKBirding

I might have mentioned it 🤣

Image shows a screenshot with a question about matching the right types of chart to the right types of data, with options for bar chart, pie chart and scatter graph and data types of percentages, categoric/discrete, and continuous.

When your 11 year old asks his scientist mum for help with his science homework and gets a much more detailed explanation than he bargained for, because using the right type of graph for the right type of data is one of mum's favourite topics...

Productivity 🐣 of gannets that have survived #avianflu does not differ from those that have never been infected - BUT productivity since the 2022 HPAI outbreak is worryingly low.

New paper in IBIS @bou.org.uk 👇

#seabirds #hpai #wildlifedisease

@rspbscience.bsky.social @rspbengland.bsky.social

A breeding pair of Gannets on the Bass Rock with their chick. One of the adults clearly has a black eye, an indicator of past exposure to highly pathogenic avian influenza, while the other is normal/healthy.

Very cool new #seabird paper showing no difference in breeding success between healthy and black-eyed gannets, but a worrying overall decline in productivity following the #avianflu outbreak. 🦠🐣

Read the paper here 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #seabirds #ornithology

EARLY VIEW in IBIS

Effect of a previous high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAIV) infection on the breeding success of Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) | onlinelibrary.wiley....

Sue Lewis et al | #ornithology 🪶

🚨New paper alert
(2nd one in as many days!)

Effect of a previous high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAIV) infection on the breeding success of Northern Gannets

🚨New paper alert!
Opportunities and challenges for new technologies in seabird population monitoring