1/🧵 Our 2026 Spring field season data is in! Here are some highlights from our long-term monitoring of blue tits, invertebrates & trees across 44 sites in Scotland👇🏼

As the good weather continues, nest boxes are filling up quickly here in Scotland, with around 70% occupancy across the transect. Many nests are now at the incubation stage, and today (5th May) we recorded the first chicks of 2026 to hatch!

Resource abundance can buffer trophic mismatch in a caterpillar-passerine food-chain doi.org/10.32942/X2K...

Spring is gaining momentum across Scotland. 🌱 Cumulative budburst across the transect has now passed 40%, driven by a surge of activity at our northern sites in recent days. While the North is waking up, the South continues to lead the way in terms of first leaf emergence. #Phenology #Spring2026

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🪺🌳

The first week of the 2026 field season is underway, and Storm Dave has provided a chilly – but atmospheric – start. ❄️🏔 63 blue tit nests initiated, so far, with 4 lined. Looking like a later start for us compared to elsewhere in the UK/Western Europe. #phenology

Ahead of this year’s field season, we’ve been busy installing SOPRANO devices at several of our sites. These devices automatically monitor biodiversity and climate, continuously recording birds and bats and sending real-time species identifications back to Edinburgh!🔈🐦‍⬛🦇

This week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk will be given by Dr Kirsty MacPhie from @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social on the contrasting insights to be drawn from studies of phenology in @phenoweb.bsky.social and @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social. Usual time and place - details below with streaming info ⬇️

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The first of our blue tits successfully fledged last week! And, many more nestlings are ready to go — won’t be long now! #ukbirding #phenology #ornithology #birds

Freeze frame. Record scratch. You might but wondering how I got here. The eagled eyed among you might notice that there are 2 blue tits in amongst this brood of great tits. Mini 🧵

✨ New study ✨ 📍 Phenoweb, United Kingdom 👷 Ally Phillimore (@phenoweb.bsky.social) 🏦 University of Edinburgh 🐦 Blue tit 🔗 nioo.knaw.nl/en/projects/... 📑 metadata only

Although we're still collecting this year's data, 2025 is shaping up to be a record-early year for first leaf emergence among many of our studied tree species — including oaks! 🌳 #phenology 🍃

Happy Easter weekend to all who celebrate! While you're out hunting for chocolate eggs, our team is busy monitoring the breeding progress of our blue tits. 🪺 As of today, we have eggs in 73 nests, with several females already incubating. In contrast, on this day last year, only 2 nests had eggs!

Last year I posted too early and had to retract my post 🫣, but now that all @niooknaw.bsky.social @animalecol-nioo.bsky.social nest boxes on #Vlieland have been checked, we know for sure that it is - yet again - a very early start of the breeding season! @uniexecec.bsky.social @sevans.bsky.social

They're back! The first three terns arrived yesterday morning. The very first one was 18-year old Calimero. He was followed by 7-year old Severina and 13-year old Fabrice. All arived between 10:29 and 10:54. ♥️ #phenology #seabirds

Proud mum to 936 hungry winter moth caterpillars 🐛 with 500 more on the way! Wish me luck

First Blue tit egg at East Dartmoor was April 4 2025. There are 3 earlier lay dates since mid-1950s, all in 2019. Probably about 1 in 8 pairs have started laying - much the same pattern as in 2019. Suggests we can expect first Pied Flycatcher eggs 2 weeks from now. #phenology

Phenoweb project@phenoweb.bsky.social · last yr.

And we're off! Our first blue tit egg was laid on 3 April 2025 - making this, by some margin, the earliest start to a season in the 12 years of our project! 🪺 #phenology #ukbirding #ornithology 🪶

It's an incredible honour to be awarded the John C. Marsden medal from the @linneansociety.bsky.social for my PhD research on phenology, moths... and some very hungry caterpillars 🌳🐛 Thanks to all my friends and mentors at @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social, but especially @allyphillimore.bsky.social!

The Linnean Society of London@linneansociety.bsky.social · last yr.

We’re thrilled to announce the recipients of our 2025 Medals and Awards. We’ll be spotlighting each of our amazing awardees from across science, conservation and the arts over the coming days. www.linnean.org/news... Please like, share and join us in congratulating them all!

And we're off! Our first blue tit egg was laid on 3 April 2025 - making this, by some margin, the earliest start to a season in the 12 years of our project! 🪺 #phenology #ukbirding #ornithology 🪶

The first eggs have been laid in this, the 79th year of data collection in the Wytham Tit Project! First Blue Tit egg laid 2 April, first Great Tit 3 April. Looks like an early spring, with first oak leaves out, though the observed first egg dates fit the long-term pattern well wythamtits.com#intro

Looks like being a very early spring for us. We already have over 60 blue tit nests and didn’t reach similar numbers ‘til around April 10th last year. This sycamore is already in leaf, and last year it didn’t reach a similar stage for another three weeks. When will we get our first eggs?