Surprise visitor from Siberia in our garden! Oriental turtle dove.

Nest failure in threatened #shorebirds has many reasons. Replacing eggs of vulnerable clutches with dummy eggs boosts nest survival of #Ruffs in grazed coastal meadows. New paper out 🎉 dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3... in @ecol-evol.bsky.social #conservation #ornithology

This work was led by freshly celebrated PhD Hanna Algora with vital contributions from @koivulakari.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social @jellybb.bsky.social, Kriszti Kupán and others

Boreal owl peeking from nest box entrance.

Start of breeding season 2026. Boreal owl incubating at 65° N.

The value of close replications and how to get more of them: interview with Kate Laskowski Welcome to our latest interview with the author of a recent interesting paper. Today’s interview was conducted by email with behavioral ecologist Kate Laskowski, first author ofLaskowski et a…

Stoked about the new Replication Studies section in Behavioral Ecology? Me too!

Jeremy Fox over at Dynamic Ecology interviewed me about our recent commentary on this topic and I'd love to hear the community's thoughts!

dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/t...

Interesting talk by @jellybb.bsky.social about the aberrant egg coloration in Ruff clutches. Blue eggs may affect nest survival, but fitness effects may be habitat dependent. @waderstudy.bsky.social IWSG Conference 2025 in Groningen (Netherlands) #IWSG2025 #waders #shorebirds

5/5 In addition, a huge effort is made to protect the #critically #endangered southern #dunlin. With expertise of Vroni Rohr-Bender and others, 26 chicks got an advantage be growing up in our aviary, before they got released back in the meadows, hopefully successfully #boosting the #population.

1/5 - What.an.increadible.fieldseason! Together with @koivulakari.bsky.social , @jelenasubotic.bsky.social , @chorlnev.bsky.social , @vmpakanen.bsky.social, Kristzi Kupan, Vroni Rohr-Bender and others we managed to find plenty of ruff nests (65!) and headstarted a bunch of Southern Dunlins (26!).

Female ruff in hand after ringing. Metal ring and orange colour ring with code VA

And today her four chicks hatched. From now on she is Valkyria.

Time is up for my brief fieldwork stint at #Liminganlahti. I have to leave right at the hatching peak of the #ruffs but the work is left in the capable hands of a wonderful team.

Southern dunlin, endangered living dinosaur. #theropods, #ornithology, #waders

Blonde ruff female standing in grasses by its nest.

Ruff clutch of four eggs, three eggs abnormally pale.

Yesterday, we found the nest of this blonde female. Three of her eggs were also exceptionally pale. #ornithology #waders

Ruff male with brownish ornaments co-display with pale-ruffed satellite morph. Female stands by them.

Ruff lekking: The co-display of a pale satellite and a court-defending independent morph increases male attractiveness. Lekking began here (65°N) in the first week of May and continues, even though most females are already incubating and the first chicks are expected to hatch any day now.

Yep. We use it for checking the existing rings and to avoid unecessary captures.

This year we spent long (and cold) nights out to capture #ruffs during peak #lekking. Each one ringed and fitted with a transmitter to help us track their movements and behavior.
Thanks to the team for the effort and stamina it takes to pull this off 💤
@koivulakari.bsky.social @chorlnev.bsky.social

A female Ruff enters her nest — a tent-like shelter hiding her precious eggs. She’s unringed for now, but she’ll receive her bands once the chicks hatch. #waders #ornithology

Standing ruff male. Seems like he was sleepy.

True, taking his afternoon nap.

Male ruff at his lek in standing position showing ornamental ruff an ear tufts.

Opera buffa? No, actually ruff male is dead serious in attracting females flying by to land at his lek. #waders #ornithology

Three boreal owl chicks on the ground. Picked from nest box for ringing.

Climate change in action: Went to check whether the chicks have hatched and found these. Almost ready to fledge. Three or four weeks too early.

Peekaboo! First boreal owl nest for this spring. #helmipöllö #ornithology

In the LATEST ISSUE of IBIS

Disappearing aapa mires and why we should care: unnoticed climate change exacerbates drainage effects on birds | onlinelibrary.wiley....

Anthony D. Fox, Aleksi Lehikoinen | #ornithology 🪶

It's not real.
It's not us.
It's not bad.
It's too hard to fix.
It's too late.

Just about every climate denial argument I've ever heard is a variant of one of these five categories, and each one is as bad as the next.

Why? Because they all have the same goal: prevent action as long as possible.

To hide their eggs and themselves, females need grassy vegetation away from forest edges with high nest predator activity.

Lekking ruffs in open shore meadow. Bothian Bay Finland

Male ruffs seek attention and prioritize areas of the meadow with slightly elevated spots and broad visibility.

Nests, Threats, and Leks: Nonrandom Distributions of Nests in Ruffs (Calidris pugnax) This project investigates the nest distribution of the ruff (Calidris pugnax), an endangered shorebird. Using satellite imaging, we established a suitable breeding area and analyzed the factors influ....

In large meadows, female ruffs prefer to place their nests close to male leks, even though these are not necessarily the safest locations available #ornithology (Hanna Algora, @chorlnev.bsky.social, @jellybb.bsky.social @vmpakanen.bsky.social et al: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

How do female ruffs choose their nest location? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @koivulakari.bsky.social #ornithology

Increased wind flood frequency leads to decreased nest success of endangered waders in managed shore meadows | www.sciencedirect.co... | Biological Conservation | #ornithology 🪶

Cattle and birds on shore meadow at Liminganlahti, Finland

A large part of these meadows is under intensive management. We recommend that managers preferably choose areas with the potential to create attractive short-growth habitats in elevated meadow sections that are safe from flooding. Narrow, elongated areas along shorelines should be avoided.

making earth pile before the flood

dunlin incubating on the top of the pile

Our study species are critically endangered. That is why we sometimes made desperate attempts to lift dunlin nests onto the tops of earth piles or move ruff eggs to artificial incubators until the water receded. Some nests were saved by these measures, while others were not.

Graph showing that sea level +40 or more causes marked flood losses in dunlins and ruffs

Due to the low-lying nature of the habitats, a rise of 40 cm above the mean sea level was the critical threshold after which flood losses increased steeply. This do not require stormy winds. Instead, moderate or strong wind against the shore, combined with low air pressure can cause such a rise.