You know those live wildlife cameras we've got? Well, they've captured footage of something we didn't expect to see... A rare black-crowned night heron – a scarce visitor to the UK – so rare in the UK its distribution can’t be mapped. And we spotted it on our beaver cam.

If your new academic year resolution is to improve your statistical knowledge and coding skills in “R” in a friendly and supportive online learning environment, check out our forthcoming courses for autumn and winter 2026-27. #rstats #RStats www.ecoexplore.co.uk/ourcourses

Data Analysis Courses — Eco-Explore

ecoexplore.co.uk

Disability Pride Month felt quieter this year. A few years ago, organizations regularly reached out to highlight disabled scientists and talk about accessibility in STEM. This year, many of those conversations seemed to disappear. But disabled scientists and accessibility barriers didn't disappear.

Finally, my first Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly of 2026! This species used to be one of the commonest butterflies 50 years ago with their caterpillars in every nettle patch near where I lived.

I compiled a list of 350 #funding opportunities for #postdoctoral research #fellowships: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J2M_tQgoqV4ivpfEClh9qs9f2KQN2O1G3Jpda2aoHfQ/edit?usp=sharing I realized I should share this again after mentioning it to some folks at the #EFP2026

Important for anyone who verifies records on citizenship science websites, not just the ornithologists. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social

Alexander Lees@alexanderlees.bsky.social · 3w ago

Our new commentary rdcu.be/ftx6h in @natecoevo.nature.com written with folks from @inaturalist.bsky.social and @cornellbirds.bsky.social shows that use of AI to manipulate existing or create new wildlife images undermines the huge value of vast citizen science databases. 🌍🪰🪶 #Ornithology 🧵 1/10

"By unpacking who can actually detect and report these infections, the authors reveal that what we count as "disease risk" often says as much about societies as it does about microbes." Thanks for the write up of this work led by @samsambado.bsky.social www.clearskyscience.com/en/10.1038/s...

A recording of our most recent talk is up on YouTube from our excellent speaker George Candelin, Keeper of the Swifts at Oxford University Natural History Museum, on 30 Years in the Tower recording swifts. youtu.be/2n7p4s3LUSI?...

30 Years in the Tower: George Candelin, Keeper of the Swifts at Oxford University

YouTube video by British Ornithologists' Club

youtu.be

Dipterist Forum are running a new series of online training courses with those nice people @biologicalrecording.co.uk We're kicking off with 'Surveying for Flies' ideal for beginners or if you want to tighten up your field craft skills. More information in the link: dipterists.org.uk/events/surve...

We post a weekly diary on the swifts in the tower. This week have 43 occupied nest boxes, with 3 more showing signs of use. The swifts have started hatching! 23 young and 36 eggs were counted, but more were being sheltered from the weather by sitting parents. We may have 68 more eggs to hatch!

🪶 Mapping the UK's Flat Flies Dr @denisewawman.bsky.social explores flat flies (Hippoboscidae) blood-sucking parasites of birds. Discover on 23 Jun which species are in the UK, their host birds, and ongoing research into disease transmission 🌎 🧪 Reserve now: 🔗 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1981718540...

First paper, first post 🥳 Many congrats to Liliana Silva and everyone involved! Every behavioural ecologist who’s stared at hours of video footage should check this out 👀 Very proud that the Wytham Tits are part of this!! 🐥🐣 @egioxford.bsky.social

Sociable Weaver Project@sociableweaver.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Very proud to share the cool methodological development led by Liliana Silva that greatly facilitates video-based behaviour analyses! 🙌 Tested on sociable weavers, blue and great tits! Great performance and 8x faster than manual analyses! 🤩 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A bit of serious fun patthomson.net/2026/06/01/h...

How to be Reviewer 2

Everyone in academia knows Reviewer 2. You ‘ve probably received their comments. You may even in a dark moment, have been them. This post is a practical guide to achieving full Reviewer 2 status. I…

patthomson.net

Oxford, the longest running continuous weather station in UK history, with temperature observations stretching back to 1815, has preliminarily broken its maximum temperature record for May yesterday by OVER 3ºC with a temperature of 33.7ºC. Unprecedented in its 211-year history.

We are recruiting 🌟2 postdoctoral researchers🌟 for a NERC Large Grant project on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of badger - bovine tuberculosis (bTB) interactions.

A rather tattered butterfly, Large Tortoiseshell? @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @wlangdon12.bsky.social

In our new paper, published yesterday, we use the long-term data set of Wytham Woods to show that great tits have maintained stable temperature at breeding despite the almost 2ºC increase in Spring temperature. w. E. Cole, C. Regan & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social Link -> www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

www.northwestinvertebrates.org.uk/event/muscid... North West Invertebrates host @entmikeashworth.bsky.social coordinator of Dipterists Forum's Muscidae & Fanniidae Study Group describing each of 40 genera & providing hints for identification. Webinar presentation 27th April 19:30 book in link below.

More than Just House Flies - An Introduction to British Muscidae Webinar - North West Invertebrates

Book here. The fly family Muscidae are generally known as House Flies and everyone knows Musca domestica which flies around our kitchens and confounds scientists by landing upside down on the ceiling....

northwestinvertebrates.org.uk

Great video of a Dunnock

Ian Denton@iand777.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Hidden in plain sight - 10s of a Dunnock's day slowed down. It's easy to think that this bird is busy doing nothing when you throw it a casual glance. But it was interesting to see how deftly & efficiently the bird was finding & consuming invertebrates when I slowed the clip down by x10. #Birds

Our new Atlas of UK spider, harvestmen and pseudoscorpion records is now online at britishspiders.org.uk/atlas. It gives access to 1.6 million records and is constantly updated with data submitted and verified via irecord.org.uk/enter-srs-records.

The first egg for the 13th year of data collection along the Phenoweb Transect was laid on 12th April 2026! Looking like we’re in for a fairly ‘average‘ year up here in Scotland, with nest building and budburst progressing slightly slower than in 2025, especially in the North of the transect🪺🌳

NEW PAPER: We obtained a COXI sequence from a specimen of the parasitic louse/flat fly Pseudolynchia garzettae (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) collected in the UK & provide a full morphological description of the specimen to aid future researchers in case of future taxonomic issues.

1/🧵My first preprint!🐛🌡️ We examine how environmental effects experienced during one life-history stage persist and modulate environmental responses in later life-history stages. With Lea Beaupere, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social, @rona-learmonth.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

... 2/2 Finding Buff-tailed Villa (Villa hottentotta) in UK meant the Villa ID guide needed updating! See dipterists.org.uk/soldierflies.... Convincing photos of the new Villa were taken in 2025, but we need a specimen to fully confirm it. If anyone finds more next summer please let me know!

The latest recording scheme newsletter (no. 12) was sent out to members of @dipteristsforum.bsky.social recently, and is also available from the recording scheme web page dipterists.org.uk/soldierflies... - includes exciting news of a possible new Villa bee-fly species in the UK 🤩 1/2 ...

Looks like I need to head to the woods.

PiedFly.Net@piedflynet.bsky.social · 4mo ago

First Pied flycatcher at East Dartmoor today continuing the trend for earlier arrival. Another present at Dunsford Woods today. Also have the earliest ever first tit egg recorded (data starts in 1955) by two days - a Coal tit egg laid yesterday. Discovered with @drroskennerley.bsky.social

Dandelion clocks in an Exmoor hedgerow this morning before the strong wind and rain started. #wildflowerhour

Does genetic diversity help species keep up with, or tolerate, climate change? 🌡️🌍 Our new BioShifts paper shows that high genetic diversity 🧬: 1) Reduces range contractions under fast warming 2) Accelerates range expansion under moderate warming onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Genetic Diversity Impacts Climate‐Induced Species Range Shifts

Genetic diversity may buffer species against climate-driven range contractions and facilitate expansions, but its role at a global scale remains unclear. Using 4673 range shift estimates for 1888 spe....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🚨🚨Job Alert 🦇🚨🚨 Come to join my group! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in population genomics and bioinformatics to work on the UK serotine bats and Lyssavirus transmission project with APHA. 18 months project based @exeter.ac.uk 🦇🧪🌍🌐🧬 jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...