An ant that behaves like a cleaner fish? With awesome photos. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

‪Very exciting to have been able to at last witness mongoose-warthog cleaning in a new population! Much less frequent than in Mweya and an interesting new context.

Emerging parasitoid larva from what I believe is an Eastern Dotted Border caterpillar (Mylothris agathina) – Botswana

So pleased to find a prehistoric-looking shoebill in Mabamba Swamp on our second attempt! Couldn't leave the country without finding one. With @humphrey-keeper.bsky.social

Was incredible to see this movement of spotless policemen skipper butterflies on the Mweya Peninsula in Uganda yesterday evening! Fortunately @leelachanner.bsky.social had seen it before, and shared this paper about the phenomenon doi.org/10.4314/met....

Great to get in another field visit to Mweya, likely the last of my PhD – a lot of desk-based work, but where better to do it! Excited to be heading onwards to Botswana in a couple of weeks to investigate mongoose-warthog interactions in another population.

See below for an excellent birding blog (unbiased perspective from a potentially biased individual)

A huge cliff surrounded by woodland, foregrounded by an empty winter vineyard and set against a blue sky with wispy clouds

A trip to the Grotte de l'Hortus in Hérault this morning provided a long awaited lifer in the form of a wallcreeper. It was joined on the crags by a supporting cast of three blue rock thrush, peregrine, and crag martins. With @leelachanner.bsky.social

A Deep Dive into Aythyism YouTube video by Humphrey Keeper

Been working on a little video looking at IDing Aythya ducks over the past month. Feel free to give it a watch here as a little early Christmas present (if you're a fan of niche ducks): youtu.be/f4aF7_zONIM?...

What a week! So many interesting talks at the 2025 @britishecologicalsociety.org conference and great to talk to lots of people about my own research. Had a lovely time exploring Edinburgh as well, including a cold dip at the beach and a lifer long-tailed duck.

A sandpiper amongst rotting seaweed

A pipit in the grass

A hoopoe poses on a white sandy beach

A very tired mourning dove, perched on a blue pallet

Bonkers day-trip to St Agnes yesterday provided two lifers. The mourning dove didn't move much but the spotted sandpiper, american pipit, and hoopoe all put on a show to make up for it. With @leelachanner.bsky.social @liamlangley1.bsky.social and quite a few others!

A small bird sits in the evening light at the water's edge

Impressive showing from the Arctic Tern that's been about at Argal Res for the past few days @cbwps.org.uk @leelachanner.bsky.social

Bonelli's warbler on St Mary's, Scillies, from a day trip in mid August

Living in the bush often means finding weird solutions to problems faced by animals living near humans.

Huge thanks to aquaphor for a truly multipurpose balm that helped us grease this Nile monitor out of the grate he was trapped in!

@laurarlabarge.bsky.social @leelachanner.bsky.social

Two new sightings for me in Mweya, QENP; glossy ibis and a lovely pair of white-faced whistling ducks.

Out in the field again with all the highs and lows that brings, from having to cook 22 tiny omelettes every other night to elephants sparring with a lion.

#conferencegoals #ASABSpring2025

What an amazing bunch 🦤

Great to have had the opportunity to present my research into individual variation in interspecific cooperative behaviour at #ASAB2025 in Liverpool today. Very lucky to be in the company of so many fantastic talks!
@asab-spring-2025.bsky.social

Day 2 of #ASABSpring2025 has begun! 🦤

Our #ASABSpring2025 conference kicked off with a blast (from the past) today🔥

We had an incredible talk by Dr. Tom Fletcher and Tom Land from Silverback Films 🦍, accompanied by Camilla Affleck from Liverpool Screen School 📽️ and Prof. Peter Falkingham from LJMU 🦖

Woodcock orchid

Orange-tip butterfly

Painted lady butterfly

Baton blue butterfly

Lots of butterflies out despite the overcast skies! Orange-tip, green hairstreak, green-veined white, southern festoon, small heath, grizzled skipper, wall brown, baton blue and >15 painted ladies. Plus yellow and woodcock orchids.

Some nice birds from the train through Occitanie, on my way to visit my family for Easter – egrets and grey herons, black kite and black-winged stilt. Looking forward to seeing what insects are about.

A grass snake resting in the grass

A male adder sunning itself

A male and a female adder making the most of a warming patch of sun in the gorse

A friend and I approaching the adder in image 2

I've recently moved to Bristol and have been trying to explore the surrounding area. A trip to Ubley Warren on Saturday in search of reptiles didn't disappoint with adder, grass snake, and plenty of common lizards seen! @leelachanner.bsky.social

Tregonning Hill, Cornwall

Adder in bracken

Adder in bracken

Super exciting to stumble across 4 early adders basking on Tregonning Hill in the weekend's lovely weather

Back in Cornwall and good to get out birding quickly! Lifer in the form of a ring-billed gull, and nice to see the glaucous gull and goosanders.

A couple of days in Samburu to round off the EBE field trip, with white-rumped shrike, secretary bird, white-headed buffalo weaver, and red-and-yellow barbet. @uniexecec.bsky.social

From Nakuru NP – great white pelicans and grey hooded gulls, ruff, little stint, and augur buzzard.

Continuing with the @uniexecec.bsky.social MSc EBE field course sightings, here are some from Ol Pejeta: crowned hornbill, red-cheeked cordon bleu, golden-breasted bunting, and black-headed oriole. The bunting is my favourite of the trip, one I've wanted to see for ages and which didn't disappoint!

Some of the bird species on the @uniexecec.bsky.social
MSc EBE Kenya field course. White eye, purple grenadier, Eastern grey woodpecker and African paradise flycatcher.

A first for the year! Found this silly hummingbird hawk-moth awake and flying around the house last night. Released it once the temperature had warmed up today, hopefully it finds somewhere more suitable to overwinter.