That is a wrap today for the 2026 seabird breeding season research team after 3.5 months on the Isle of May. 515 people days from staff, collaborators and volunteers resulting in a wealth of data to process and analyse over the coming months.Huge thanks to all, you have been immense

now on the cover @esajournals.bsky.social Front. Ecol. Env. with @ejgnam2.bsky.social beautiful photo from world's coolest site by Francesco Ventura Young seabirds are mysterious - but we need to keep learning about them! They matter for biology, and for conservation! doi.org/10.1002/fee....

Agent-based models in applied ecology: Designing data-informed simulations for wildlife conservation and management 🌎🌐🧪 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Agent‐based models in applied ecology: Designing data‐informed simulations for wildlife conservation and management

Agent-based models (ABMs) are increasingly recognized as valuable tools in applied ecology for simulating species behavior, ecological interactions, and responses to management. However, their adopti...

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Delighted to see this paper finally out after a long time in the making. Huge thanks to everyone involved—and to all those long nights spent on the cliffs catching these incredible little birds. 🥳🎉 @stephen8vickers.bsky.social #seabirds #ornithology

RSPB Science@rspbscience.bsky.social · 3w ago

New research reveals a substantial decline in the number of European Storm-petrels caught by researchers over the course of a 27-year study Read on for a summary Full paper: doi.org/10.1080/0006... @one-cardiffuni.bsky.social @robthomasbirds.bsky.social @kirstyfranklin.bsky.social #seabird 🪶🧪

📖 Published📖 Magnetic geolocation is a viable complementary tool for tracking small avian species, particularly in contexts where pressure-based methods cannot be used🐦️ 🌏️ 🧪 buff.ly/qjJvgZt

📖 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

🚨 APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED 🚨 We've extended the application deadline for this vacancy until 26th July, so there's a couple more weeks to get your application in! ✍ Please share with your contacts and networks. #AnimalMovement #StatisticalEcology #StatisticsJobs #Vacancy #Statistics

BioSS@bioss.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨 We’re recruiting! 🚨 12‑month fixed‑term post for a senior ecological statistician with movement‑modelling expertise. The post is to build movement models for unique seabird + fish datasets, and contribute to major applied & methodological research on offshore renewable energy impacts.

New paper! We simulated foraging trips of Northern gannets at Bass Rock to decipher what information individuals use to keep returning to the same foraging patches. Memory was the strongest driver, but it wasn't the whole story. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1186/s404... 1/5

Some impressive figures here from an audit of the benefits generated by UKCEH, an independent environmental research institute/charity (and my employer). Approaching half a £billion of economic & social value per year.

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)@ukceh.bsky.social · last mo.

💷 ✅ Far-reaching economic, environmental and societal benefits: The value of UKCEH's environmental science has been independently assessed. Analysis by London Economics Ltd estimates that UKCEH generated £440 million+ in economic and social value in 2024, a representative year. 🧪 1/

Two of the world’s largest Gannet colonies may not recover from the impact of bird flu until 2041 at the earliest, study finds Read a summary: www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... Full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111887 #seabirds #hpai 🪶 🧪

Lesser black-backed gulls avoid offshore wind farms - but not because they are attracted by the fishing boats outside of those windfarms New article on #seabirds #ornithology besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social, @judyshamounb.bsky.social

Offshore wind farm avoidance by a discard‐feeding seabird is independent of local fishing activity

Fishing is not allowed within wind farms; therefore, discard-feeding seabirds may appear to avoid wind farm areas. We found that most Lesser Black-backed Gulls avoided the wind farm area, but not eac....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Been dodging a few showers today. Looks like we have a pot of gold on one of our guillemot monitoring plots

new diamond open-access Journal of Statistical Ecology launched 🎉🎉🎉 jse.centre-mersenne.org @fredbarraquand.bsky.social @oaggimenez.bsky.social @marieaugermethe.bsky.social @vianeylb.bsky.social (apologies to any Bsky editors I missed)

Little auks are small Arctic #seabirds that need to find enough food to raise their chicks in a rapidly changing ocean. This #RSOS paper studied their feeding behaviour over seven breeding seasons in Svalbard using GPS tracking, ocean data, and diet samples: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Our new research shows that HPAI increased Northern Gannet mortality by a factor of ~6 and ~4 at two of the world’s largest colonies. We predict this impact will take almost two decades to recover from. #biologicalconservation #seabirds #hpai Full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111887

Puffins are counted! The entire Puffin population has been counted on the Isle of May although it will be some time before we know the final result as the blog explains: isleofmaynnr.wordpress.com

How do we know our research results are REAL? We replicate them! Most folks agree but lament on how hard it is to publish these replications. My dearest gentle reader, lament no more! Delighted to unveil: Replication Studies, a new section of Behavioral Ecology 1/ academic.oup.com/beheco/artic...

Replication studies: a win-win for early-career training and behavioral ecology

Replicating previous research builds confidence that results are real and meaningful. But close replications are rare due to limitations in resources and d

academic.oup.com

Just released mori 0.1.0 on CRAN — a new R package for shared memory across processes. Parallel R no longer has to mean duplicating your dataset in every worker's RAM. opensource.posit.co/blog/2026-04... 🧵 1/3

mori: Shared memory for R objects

mori is a new R package for sharing R objects across processes via OS-level shared memory. Parallel workers get zero-copy, lazy ALTREP access to the same physical pages — share once, read anywhere.

opensource.posit.co

📃New paper in Ecology letters 🐦 I’m delighted to share the publication of the first paper from my #postdoc with @samanthacpatrick.bsky.social looking at life-history trade-offs and #senescence in black-browed #albatrosses from Kerguelen and Bird Island doi.org/10.1111/ele.70384

Environmental Variability Shapes Life‐History Trade‐Offs Within and Between Populations of a Long‐Lived Seabird

Life-history theory predicts a trade-off between allocation of resources to reproduction or self-maintenance, yet how environmental variability shapes this trade-off remains poorly understood. We sho...

doi.org

🎺 Roll-up, roll-up! Another new paper has just been published in Seabird #38! 🎺 Hunter et al. (2026) explore the wintering-site fidelity of Brünnich's guillemots in Greenland. 👇 Read all about it here 👇 seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-38-2

‼️🚨New Paper Alert! 🚨‼️ Using a decades-long dataset on puffins in the Faroe Islands, we show a change in population age structure and relate the increase in older birds/decrease in cohort sizes to (pre-)hatch year food availability. doi.org/10.1002/wlb3... @kasiawojczulanis.bsky.social

Variation in food availability affects the population age structure of Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica in the Faroe Islands

Across their entire Atlantic breeding range, Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica have experienced decreases in food availability, often leading to population declines. The species is one of the most ....

doi.org

🚨 In press: Seasonal variation in trophic niche and resource use in Great Black-backed Gulls by Langlois-Lopez et al. #seabirds #TeamGull #OpenAccess www.marineornithology.org/PDF/54_1/54_...

Join me & @olliepadget.bsky.social at @livuninews.bsky.social! #postdoc #seabird movement & navigation in response to environmental cues @ukri.org. Developing new loggers w/ micro-engineers & computer scientists @yorkuniversity.bsky.social. Job tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5 Press release tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5

Last but not least in our 2025 Isle of May breeding summary: Puffins nest in burrows, raising a single chick each summer before spending winter at sea. They take ~3 years to mature & can live for >30 years. 📊Breeding success: 0.75, above average 📉Adult survival: 82%, average #IsleOfMay #Seabirds

🌍 Find out about the surprising movements of Lesser Black-backed Gulls! BTO’s Senior Research Ecologist Daniel Johnston will talk about GPS tagging Lesser Black-backed Gulls on Lough Neagh at the Seabird Report Launch on 26th March Registration closes 19th March! 👇 bit.ly/NI-SeabirdReport-2025

Delighted to see our paper out today in Proceedings B @royalsocietypublishing.org! We investigated how kittiwakes adapt their activity patterns across latitudes in response to the changing day-night cycle ☀️🌃 In short - we find that Arctic kittiwakes don't have bedtimes.. doi.org/10.1098/rspb... 🧵1/4

This survey is looking for more participants outside of France and honestly looking at photos of forests for 10 minutes is a great way to procrastinate 🌳

Nicolas Mouquet@nmouquet.bsky.social · 5mo ago

‪ 🌳 Do you want to contribute to research on how humans perceive forests? Take this quick, anonymous 10-min survey 🌲 👉 www.biodiful.org#/forest This will help us explore how people experience forest biodiversity! Please share on 🦋 & tag @biodiful.bsky.social to reach more participants 🙏💚 🌐🌍🦤🦑🪴🍁🧪

🚨 new research! 🪽 "environmentally induced stress affects fitness of bold and shy alike: A long-term study of personality and feather corticosterone in Arctic-breeding kittiwakes" 🔍️ read it here: buff.ly/Zj9b7z0

Puffins and Shags seem to have been hit hardest by recent storms, with many reports of birds washed ashore. This includes one Isle of May Puffin that was ringed as an adult in 1995, making it at least 34 years old! #stormChandra #seabirds #winterstorms www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Puffin aged 34 dies after being washed up in stormy weather

Staff at an Aberdeenshire rescue centre were able to trace its history thanks to a ring on its foot.

bbc.co.uk

UKCEHseabirds@ukcehseabirds.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Lots of reports of dead seabirds in the aftermath of recent storms. Please keep an eye out for any dead colour ringed Shags and send details to shags@ceh.ac.uk #seabirds #ornithology #winterstorm

A lovely article about our research on Gannets featuring interviews with #seabirders @heyjooode.bsky.social and @sue-lewis.bsky.social #ornithology

Rebecca Heisman@rheisman.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New by me! I spoke to Northern Gannet researchers in the UK about what it was like to see HPAI rip through seabird colonies there and how things have gone since. 🪶🌎🧪 www.biographic.com/after-the-ou...