Last year I posted the photo on the left, showing how our Banter See terns are perhaps not so scared of the neighbour's scarecrow. This year I can add the photo on the right, showing how the scarecrows have lots of company. Bird shit all around showing how well everyone is fed. It's a good season. ❤️

Lachstern jong T86 had geluk. Hij slikte de kikker die hij van z’n ouder kreeg op tijd in. De kokmeeuw was te laat. Gull-billed tern chick T86 is lucky. He swallowed the frog he got from his parent quickly enough. The gull was too late.

Lachstern - Gull-billed tern L37 jaagt een kokmeeuw weg die de net gevangen sprinkhaan van zijn jong wilde stelen. L37 chases a black-headed gull away, who wanted to steal a cricket from his chick. @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social

A Review in Nature Reviews Biodiversity discusses population trends of migratory birds, dominant threats in different regions and existing conservation initiatives. It also recommends integrative conservation approaches for the future. go.nature.com/4z0KWae 🌎🧪

We branched out a little and contributed mercury measurements to this study on Arctic barnacle geese by Matteo Schiavinato et al, published in Environmental Pollution: doi.org/10.1016/j.en...

The Banter See season is slowly drawing to a close. The first day of August ended with 717 birds being registered. Last year this time that number was 477.

Listen up to what L04 has to say! Lachstern - Gull-billed tern

Lachstern - Gull-billed Tern 😍 @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social

It looks like the first logger bird of the project we share with @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social has left the continent. L38, after short stopovers in the Netherlands and France, was last recorded in Andalusia on the 25th of July. No more data points until next spring, I suppose.

A very strong El Niño is under way, strengthening through 2026 and into 2027. This presents a unique opportunity to observe and document how seabirds are responding to a warming ocean. Researchers, monitoring programmes and citizen scientists worldwide are warmly invited. Register: bit.ly/45hEsWz

Excited to launch the first call for proposals focusing on policy and/or societal impact of evolutionary biology research. Activities might include: ✅ local meetings on policy and/or societal impact ✅ actions to influence policy 💰€500-2K available Read more here and apply: shorturl.at/ixlby

Although the GPS loggers are teaching us lots of really cool things about the members of Central Europe's last gull-billed tern colony, sometimes the news is just the saddest:

The good news just keeps coming and coming today. Look at these sensational data provided by the tracking project we have with @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social!

Abstracts are open for the BOU Avian Disease Ecology conference (6-8th April 2027, Nottingham, UK). Submit here (deadline July 31st): tinyurl.com/hf2hzf4p Reg fees to be released soon - but you can get an idea of rough costs from the BOU 2026 conference: tinyurl.com/3udbz3c5 Fab line up! 🦠🦜🦠🐦‍⬛🦠

Two photos that make us very happy this morning – story below. :-)

See that cute gull-billed tern chick thinking of leaving the safety of the frog- and electric fence that allowed it to grow up behind? Well, it did, and with a logger, so that you can also see its first trip away from the colony on the right. ❤️

📖 Published📖 Between-species contagion drives HPAI transmission and mass mortality in seabirds 🦠 'This study demonstrates that carcass data can provide epidemiological insights but also act as an early warning system for continent-wide patterns of spread'🕊️ 👇️ buff.ly/Zo6d8WH

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 detected in a greater crested tern at Robe, Limestone Coast, South Australia. All previous detections in Australia were in migratory birds that had likely brought the disease from the subantarctic, but the greater crested tern is a resident seabird in Australia.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4w ago

Deadly H5 bird flu found in local Australian seabird for first time

Out now & open access in Avian Pathology - a collaborative paper showing how highly pathogenic avian influenza (clade 2.3.4.4b euBB) was introduced, and led to high mortality, in breeding colonies of black-headed gulls and common terns in Germany in 2023: doi.org/10.1080/0307...

Some happiness for your feeds: Kamala with the two fledglings she reared with Bismarck this season. ❤️

This graph is getting funkier and funkier every day: 39% of the ringed population is now made up by 2-yr-olds! And the current cohort is also still doing really well.

The last continent: how deadly bird flu travelled the world before landing on a remote Australian beach

The last continent: how deadly bird flu travelled the world before landing on a remote Australian beach

The H5N1 virus has now reached every continent on the planet. What does it mean for some of the world’s unique species?

theguardian.com

Register now: 159th DOG Annual Meeting 2026 in Mainz The 159th Annual Meeting of the German Ornithologists' Society will take place from 16th to 20th September 2026 at the University of Mainz. Registration for participation in the conference is possible until 14 August. www.do-g.de/veranstalten...

Until Friday, Australia was the only continent free from HPAI H5N1. Sadly, this is not the case - a 2344b confirmation in a Brown Skua, and a suspected case in a Northern Giant Petrel which turned up in WA. 👉 www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06... (1/x)

After last year’s successful pilot study, GPS-tracking @gullbilledterns-de.bsky.social's birds, we’re back at it this year. The lovely bird @harrykuipers.bsky.social photographed is L39, a 5-yr old female, breeding with 4-yr old R75 on nest 8. She laid two eggs that both hatched successfully.

Talking about the chicks... they are doing amazing! There is plenty of food around, so they are growing up fast, with the first ones having fledged this week and many more getting ready to follow that example.

Chick sampling was closely supervised by Ariella, this weekend. Ariella hatched in 2022, prospected in 2024, then started breeding with Vedran in 2025. Last year they fledged 1 chick, and this year things are looking good for fledging 2. 🥰

Lachstern - Gull-billed Tern 😍 Zo benieuwd welke geheimen de gps-zender van deze dame ons gaat vertellen!

Hosted 25 kids at the museum this morning. 10 interviews are in the pocket, and the next event is planned too. One of the kids drew me this card as a thank-you. Mission accomplished. :-)

Huge congratulations to @matteobeccardi.bsky.social on successfully defending his PhD thesis "Intrinsic and extrinsic factors shaping individual quality in birds"!!!🐦🥚🐣🤔🎓 🎉 Cheers to the next chapter!!!🍾🍾🍾