Job Alert! I am recruiting for a post doc in my group. The position will focus on establishing how changes in climate cause population change in birds and mammals. @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social

SPI-Birds

SPI-Birds, or the Studies of Populations of Individuals – Birds, is a grassroots initiative connecting people working on populations of individually-marked breeding birds. SPI-Birds offers a number of...

spibirds.org

I’m excited to share a PhD opportunity in my group, focussed on ecological forecasting of blue tit population responses to climate change as part of the e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk @edinburghbiology.bsky.social.

We are excited to advertise two phenoweb PhDs through the e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk @edinburghbiology.bsky.social. Both projects focus on better understanding the impacts of climate change on birds and involve fieldwork on nestbox populations of blue tits across Scottish woodlands #phenology #ornithology

1/🧵 Today I am giving a talk at the #BOUasm26 Avian Futures conference in York about the progress I've made so far on the first chapter of my PhD @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social which examines the drivers of variation in phenological shifts across trophic levels in Scottish woodlands🪺 🐛 🌳

Excited to share this joint first-author paper with @andreaestandia.bsky.social, now out in @royalsocietypublishing.org! We combined translocations, common garden experiments and genomic analyses to test for local adaptation to individual tree phenology in winter moths 🌳🐛 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

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👇🏼

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/...

Planning a nestbox temperature manipulation experiment in birds? We’ve just published a preprint that may be useful! 🪺🪶 We review 46 studies and also share our own blue tit pilot experiment from Wytham Woods, highlighting some very real practical challenges doi.org/10.32942/X25387

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🪺🌳

New preprint (part of a programme to understand resilience of the tritrophic tree-insect-bird system to varying climate). We (led by @siennarattigan.bsky.social - her MBiol project) show how temperature in development can carry-over to affect timing at later stages www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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

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...

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!🔈🐦‍⬛🦇

📑📊We have just uploaded a new pre-print where we decompose spatial, temporal and spatial-temporal variation in natural selection on reproductive traits for great tits and blue tits. With Yimen Araya-Ajoy, @ellafcole.bsky.social and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper out! Great tits face distinct challenges from extreme weather during development, based on 60 years data from >83k nestlings in Wytham Woods 🐣 Cold snaps & heavy rain can stunt growth, but earlier breeding may help buffer this! By @devisatarkar.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70794

Developmental Stage‐Specific Responses to Extreme Climatic Events and Environmental Variability in Great Tit Nestlings

Extreme climatic events (ECEs) impact great tit nestlings in a developmental stage-specific and context-dependent manner. Using 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tit nestlings from Wytham Woods, UK, ...

doi.org

We have published a new pre-print showing a decline in great tit adult and nestling mass of around 1 gram in 47 y. [rate of approx. -0.040 Hadanes] With @ellafcole.bsky.social, @devisatarkar.bsky.social, Sam. Crofts, @mcmahok.bsky.social & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨🚨🚨 Field Assistant positions - four of them!! - working with the long-term Wytham project this coming spring. Details below. Previous year's field team - come and join us! Details below ⬇️

Keith McMahon@mcmahok.bsky.social · 10mo ago

We are hiring at the Wytham Woods for the upcoming field season. 4 roles available. Please share with anyone who might be interested. #UKbirds #birdringing

Very excited to be giving a talk at #BES2025 where I’ll be presenting my Masters research that I carried out @biology.ox.ac.uk supervised by @sheldonbirds.bsky.social and @rona-learmonth.bsky.social 🐛🌡️

Second PhD alert: Advertising a second PhD alongside Amanda Lenzi (lead) and Finn Lindgren on: 'Forecasting nature’s calendar: Joint probabilistic models of phenology in space and time'. Also competition funded through the E5 DTP at Uni of Edinburgh. e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

Project | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership

The project advertisement

e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk

PhD advert alert! Come work with me at Edinburgh. I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both. e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

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...

New preprint! 🌳🐛 We combined experimental and genomic methods to study local adaptation of winter moths to variation in oak budburst timing in Wytham Woods, UK. With @andreaestandia.bsky.social, Lea Beaupere, Ella Cole, and @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Integrative analysis of fine-scale local adaptation of winter moths to variable oak phenology

For herbivorous insects whose fitness depends on tight phenological synchrony with host plants, spatial variation in plant phenology can impose strong selective pressures and promote local adaptation ...

biorxiv.org

New preprint! 🪶 We analysed 60 years of data on 83,000+ great tits to show how extreme climate impacts on nestling growth and survival are stage-specific and context-dependent 🐣 🌍🔥❄️ With @davididiaquez.bsky.social @iremsepil.bsky.social @sheldonbirds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

My first time attending this conference, but certainly not the last! Left me feeling super excited to started my PhD in October after hearing so many incredible talks in the field🪺

Ben Sheldon@sheldonbirds.bsky.social · last yr.

We had a fabulous time at the 10th Hole-nesting Birds meeting in Oloumouc, Czechia this week with six members of the group attending hnbirds2025.bsky.social

🔭🐑 Our summer field team have been busy beavering away and have completed their 10 censuses of the village bay population (picured). Over ten days a team of three will go out and count all the sheep in this area, tagged and untagged, so we know who is where and who they are grouping with.

Happy to share our last work just published in @animalecology.bsky.social. With @claire-doutrelant.bsky.social and Peter Pearman. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @cnrs.fr @biology.ox.ac.uk

Global patterns of colouration complexity in the Paridae: Effects of climate and species characteristics across body regions

Variation in colour complexity in the Paridae is linked to climate, climate variability and several biotic factors. The strength of the associations is patch specific. Variables related to resource c...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Feel incredibly lucky to have been a tiny cog in this amazing team for a second year now. I don’t think i’ll ever get tired of seeing spring unfold right before my eyes! Excited to do it all again next year when I’ll be a bit further north… @phenoweb.bsky.social 🪺

Edward Grey Institute@egioxford.bsky.social · last yr.

As the Wytham tit (and drone, tree and winter moth) field season winds down (the end, like the start, gets earlier each year!) we posed for the traditional field team photo followed by an excellent lunch. A great team again. Some quantitative updates to follow next week... #suspense

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