Those magpies 😍

A St.Marks fly resting on the road

St.Marks flies out in their thousands today, never seen so many.

A quick photo of a Great Tit nest in Wytham Woods, taken during standard nest-monitoring protocol. A female Great Tit lying to one side on the nest, with three eggs and two just hatched nestlings visible in a nest constructed of moss and animal hair

First sight of a new generation... The first Great Tit eggs have hatched in Wytham Woods this morning.

bUt wHy sHOulD we dO nEt zERo wHeN INdIa aNd CHiNa dONT

Common pill millipede on moss

Common Morel fungus

Couple of woodland inhabitants spotted while checking nest boxes yesterday. A shiny pill millipede and a common Morel. Have never seen a morel in the woods before.

You're telling me. This is usually my prep time!

Bluebells in a woodland

The bluebells are peaking in Wytham Woods already. About 15-20 days earlier than normal.

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...

‘We didn’t want to be preachy’: David Attenborough’s unexpected new show – which might enrage cat lovers The great naturalist, who is about to turn 100, is still surprised by wildlife in his new series about British gardens. But not every pet owner will be happy with his top tips

Yes, David!!
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

🚨🚨 Breaking news from Wytham Woods: The 80th year of data collection of the long-term tit study officially started today with this nest with 3 Blue Tit eggs (pic: @mcmahok.bsky.social). First egg inferred 23 March which is our earliest EVER nest - beating the previous record of 26 March by 3 days!🚨🚨

My second DPhil paper is out! A nice example of how continuous long-term monitoring of natural populations can be so valuable for understanding impacts of climate change on wild animals 🪶

📍Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire 🌳🪺

A no brainer at this stage, if it wasn't already.

A generic England rugby player and a generic welsh rugby player fighting over a wooden spoon.

#rugby 😂

The most Scotland 6 nations ever.

Pretty sure this guy isn't anywhere near this tanker.

Little bit of the birdsong this morning (sound up)

Firecrest

Chiffchaff

Spring has sprung in Wytham woods today. Chiffchaffs singing (first I've heard here this year), and a surprise firecrest in the mist net.

A flat, colorful poster that reads "Avert Catastrophe! Home is where your cat should be" (Originally from 2021!)

Say no to Palantir in the NHS NHS England is rolling out software to run our health records from Palantir - fight back

notopalantir.goodlawproject.org/email-to-tar...

Great pre-print led by @davididiaquez.bsky.social discussing possible causes of declines in adult and nestling mass. I suggested it be titled "Weapons of mass reduction"

Decline in body mass in adult (left) and nestling great tits. In the nestling plot, the purple line represents all nestling and the green line those that recruited to the population as breeders. Their different slope suggest an increase in the strength of selection on nestling mass something confirmed in the MS by analysing the temporal trends in selection differentials (see link for further information)

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...

Bluesky Map Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!

bluesky-map.theo.io

I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

FFS

Wes Streeting defends Lord Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein WES Streeting has defended Lord Peter Mandelson’s relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein after it was revealed the Labour peer called the…

Vote Wesley, in the leadership election to come, for More Of The Same. www.thenational.scot/news/2545164...

Someone make it happen.

Short-term Field Assistants: Bird Ecology – Spring 2026

Still time to apply for our spring field assistant roles on the Wytham tit project. Deadline this Sunday. Wonderful work in a wonderful setting (but I'm biased). egioxford.web.ox.ac.uk/event/short-...

New preprint! 🐥🦠🏝️

We study a great speciator, the silvereye, to test whether parasites follow island biogeography rules, and find that parasite diversity and isolation effects depend strongly on transmission strategy.

Led by PhD student Sarah Nichols.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

RFK Jr. Demonstrates How To Remove Tapeworm By Scooting Ass Across Carpet

RFK Jr. Demonstrates How To Remove Tapeworm By Scooting Ass Across Carpet theonion.com/rfk-jr-demonstrates-how-...

@tntsports.zpravobot.news.ap.brid.gy Can someone tell Matterface how to say Wirtz properly.

Came on here to rant about this. If it was Vee-ertz it would be spelled Wiertz.