and northing to do with farmers!

Experts call for restrictions on pet flea treatments that harm UK songbirds Chemicals known to affect brains of common garden birds, and to kill unborn chicks, found in most feather samples Conservationists have called for restrictions on pet flea treatments after research found songbird feathers widely contaminated with substances that can damage the birds’ brains and kill unborn chicks. Almost every feather sample tested from five common species of UK garden birds contained either permethrin, imidacloprid or fipronil – all insecticides that are banned for agricultural use but still common in pet tick and flea treatments. Continue reading...

Experts call for restrictions on pet flea treatments that harm UK songbirds

Figure 1. Hypothesised drivers and movements of Nearctic landbirds associated with the passage of Hurricane Lee in autumn 2023. NAO, North Atlantic Oscillation. Image credits: Eastern Spruce Budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) used with permission from Lucas Benaiche, wildfires and solar eruption by Gerd Altmann/geralt (Pixabay), Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata) by Lucas Lombardo, Wilson’s Warbler (Cardellina pusilla) by Ian Davies, and Magnolia Warbler (Setophaga magnolia) by Sam Viles.

New paper on the pattern, process and implications of trans-Atlantic vagrancy for ecology and evolutionary biology, written with @pauldufour80.bsky.social and Andrew Farnsworth read free at: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mzPI3QW8S... #Ornithology #Ecology #UKBirding 🪶🦋🌱🌎🌍🧪

“The current $29,595 price tag for the commercially available units is an obstacle.”

How does anyone who has any contact with software developers ever think this would work?

Stowaway raccoon put down after arriving at Southampton port A stowaway raccoon that managed to board a cargo ship which arrived in Southampton has been put down.

Bad news for the Raccoon, but this is a good example of the efficiency of the APHA rapid removal process for animals on the 'Species Alerts' list, to prevent those forming the greatest ecological/economic threats from getting established.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Resource abundance can buffer trophic mismatch in a caterpillar-passerine food-chain

doi.org/10.32942/X2K...

1 yr ago I wrote a massive thread on @iea.org huge AI / energy report.

WELL it's one year later and they've released an update, but notably, there is no chatbot. Well....I'm going to read it anyway, and you're all going to get spammed with notes :)

that's means a NEW ULTRATHREAD 🧵

If biocide usage and non-native plants mean that your garden is bereft of colourful Lepidoptera then capitalism has your back @georgemonbiot.bsky.social - seen at a garden centre today
#ExtremeCivilisation

Conservation Intern (12-month placement) Join us for a full year at Spurn Bird Observatory. Our 12-month Conservation Internship offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in bird monitoring, conservation and observatory life…

🚨 FINAL DAY

Applications close today for our 12-month Conservation Internship at Spurn.

Don’t miss out 👇
spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/news/conserv...

Statement by UNICEF on the killing of two water truck drivers in the Gaza Strip

UNICEF is outraged by the killing of two drivers of trucks contracted by UNICEF to provide clean water to families in the Gaza Strip.

Full statement: https://unicef.link/4cVCyP9

Massive devastation following the Israeli strikes across Lebanon.

Homes destroyed. Communities shattered. Many lives lost.

Children reported among the victims.

Civilians, in particular children, must be protected at all times, and international humanitarian law must be fully respected.

This Monks Wood #rewilding (natural colonisation) plot is 30 years old this year. It's taken that long for this single Bluebell to migrate 20m from adjacent ancient woodland to colonise the plot. But now it's here, joining the growing trees & shrubs: future ancient woodland in the making.

What AI Can’t Do AI may replace narrow technical skills, but the liberal arts equip students with the critical thinking employers increasingly demand.

@wildavsky.bsky.social, author of The Career Arts, shared a piece in @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social about the value of liberal arts, now more than ever:

Great Reed Warbler caught & released in Sykes Field at 8am

BoC 📸 Harry Appleyard

BTO data show a huge decline in Yellow Wagtails. We’ve certainly noticed this in spring passage in East Norfolk over the last 20+ years. It’s almost non-existent now.

This is the reality.
#ukbirding

Our new paper on the cover of PNAS, led by Anderson Bueno and Chase Mendenhall, shows that that terrestrial matrices and higher nearby tree cover reduce bird extirpations and boost species richness in forest remnants #ornithology www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🪶🌍

📢 APPLY NOW

For BOU Member Conference Attendance Grants

Funding member attendance at any #ornithology conference

Low-carbon travel encouraged

⏰ Deadline: 29 May 2026 🪶

bou.org.uk/funding/m...

Great tit perched on a branch, with beak slightly open. Photo credit: Alizée Vernouillet

📢Fully-funded #PhD opportunity with us:

🐦 Quantifying (social) learning and social behaviour in an urbanised world 🐦

Position at @ceec-research.bsky.social

📆29th May deadline
More info: tinyurl.com/yz28s96x
Apply: tinyurl.com/2wpkb64y

#cognition #socialbehaviour #fieldwork #birds

🙏Please Share

Israeli demolitions levelling towns in south Lebanon, satellite images show BBC Verify analysis found more than 1,400 buildings had been destroyed since 2 March.

Today's war crime news:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rat eradication sparks record-breaking seabird breeding in Hawai’i A multi-agency effort to remove invasive rodents has let native species thrive in Hawai’i, including seabirds and entire forest ecosystems

One of Aotearoa New Zealand's greatest gifts to the world has been pioneering rodent eradication technology on islands.

The brodifacoum used for this project was manufactured in Whanganui.

Conservation can be an export industry! Fund it!

🌏

oceanographicmagazine.com/news/rat-era...

Anyone fancy this role with our friends at SOC?

I can't see it either!

Oystercatchers winning the Anthropocene

No evidence that increased Eagle Owl numbers contributed to declines of Northern Goshawk in this elegant long-term Dutch-German study of Intraguild Predation. #Ornithology

❗️New PhD position in our lab ❗️

Nest defence in passerines: parental quality, investment and fitness 🐦

➡️ 4 years, fully funded position
🗓️ Start: July 2026
⏳ Application deadline: May 10, 2026

✉️ veselp03@jcu.cz, krausl07@jcu.cz

#PhD #PhDjobs #ornithology #ethology #cognition

A fish a day: More than 300 freshwater species described in 2025 Taxonomists described 309 new species of freshwater fish in 2025, according to a report released by SHOAL, the IUCN Freshwater Fish Specialist Group (FFSG) and the California Academy of Sciences…

A fish a day: More than 300 freshwater species described in 2025

BBC News leading all its bulletins on demands by former Government advisor Lord Robertson for more defence spending, without at any point mentioning his current paid senior role for US defence lobbyists

Bringing back memories of the male Pine Bunting, hopping around on the same bit of ground in late April 2023!

Having had a fly through bird last week it was nice to find this Yellowhammer (my fifth on Papay) around Holland this morning. A scarce Orkney bird, with the vast majority of records coming from the North Isles #BirdingOrkney #PWC2026 Fly through Buzzard yesterday, my first here since Oct 2022