67024 and 67006 Warrington crossing the Mersey #trainspotting 🚆

Fifty Years of Bird Ringing Reveal Opposing Seasonal Responses of Migration Timing to Temperature and Rainfall on Hilbre Island This study analyses 50 years of bird ringing data from Hilbre Bird Observatory to investigate how local weather affects migratory timing and stopover behaviour. A key novel finding is the interactive....

Breaking the maternity leave silence to share my first solo author open access publication in @eco-evol.bsky.social that uses a long-term ringing dataset to explore how birds are responding to climate change. Check it out here ➡️
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#ornithology #ecology 🐦🌍

89001 Avocet looked wonderful in the sun passing through Warrington Bank Quay this morning.

Its first time on the west coast since 1987 and first time in daylight for 25 years! #trains #trainphotography

60007 Sir Nigel Gresley stormed through Warrington Bank Quay station last night. Such a majestic steam loco! #trains #trainphotography #steamtrain #steamrailway

Willow tit at Moore feeder

Bird spotting still going strong with a willow tit on the Moore reserve feeders this morning. Other highlights inc. brambling, siskin & my boy once again enjoying using his binocs. This time he managed to focus on some tufted ducks - "Tufties, Mama!" @zachinch92.bsky.social #birding #birdwatching 🐦

Birding with the newborn at Burton Mere

The toddler learns how to use binoculars!

Great and little regret comparison

Kingfisher at Burton Mere

Our baby's first @rspb.bsky.social reserve visit today at Burton Mere & the toddler finally grasped how to use binoculars! Egrets, kingfisher, cettis warbler & pink footed geese highlights. @zachinch92.bsky.social

Great-tailed grackle just now on Estuary Blvd, west of Speke Hall. Good to know I can still spot birds without my glasses 😅 Wife points gained! @birdguides.bsky.social @zachinch92.bsky.social #birds #birdwatching

Scanning birds from the hide

Looking at a black swan

WWT Martin Mere

A wild ring-necked duck on the reserve

It's a special day when you pass on your first pair of binoculars to your son & take him #birdwatching for the first time. I got them at University so he has definitely got a headstart on me!
@opticron.bsky.social @zachinch92.bsky.social @wwtworldwide.bsky.social #ornithology #birds 🐦

Help us make hope normal again.

Join the Green Party now.

#AI is transforming #ecology — but at what cost? A new #Nature piece warns that as models, drones & remote sensing boom, many scientists are spending less time outdoors (“I rarely get outside”). Are we losing essential natural-history insight? 🌿🤖
🧪🌍🌐
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Recruitment poster for 12 botanical or entomological field surveyors, April-September 2026. Closing date: January 30, 2026.

🦋🌿Hiring 12 x Botanists or Entomologists for 2026 field surveys in England!

4-month, full-time roles from late April to early September.

Field sites in Yorkshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Kent/Sussex, Lincolnshire/Cambridge, Essex/Suffolk.

Apply now: ceh.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CEH_Ca... 🧪

Avian Ecologist at UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology An academic position as a Avian Ecologist is being advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Click now to find more details and explore additional academic job opportunities.

🚨 job klaxon 🚨

Avian Ecologist, Edinburgh. Joining the long-term study of seabird populations on the Isle of May

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQA317/a...

It's becoming a Xmas tradition for @zachinch92.bsky.social & I to sneak off to Bury Bolton St on Xmas Eve day @eastlancsrailway.bsky.social for a #steamtrain fix & tasty 🍺 at the Trackside. Gotta make the most of nursery fees! Ivatt 46441 & 80097 were the festive locos this year 🚂 #trainphotography

I mean, he's on 97 but at least he will have the right attire for #100 next month! Whereas I'm on 105 so will give my Xmas pressie a whirl tomorrow 🎉 Big thanks to #parkrun for another great year #running & I've enjoyed #volunteering the last 9 months at wonderful #widnes 🏃‍♀️ @zachinch92.bsky.social

You should be able to respond to reviewer comments with memes to liven up the peer review process.

No paper from me or my lab will ever be submitted to an MDPI journal - including any of their superfluous "special issues". I will very rarely (if ever) cite MDPI papers. And I will never review for them. deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/08/gues...

The same goes for FrontiersIn journals, among others.

Gutted I cannot attend this in person but hoping to receive the materials & be able to contribute remotely to this really important topic. If you're at #BES2025 & work with long-term population monitoring data, I'd consider this workshop 👍

"Let's replace our carbon footprints with the tracks of animals" powerful final slide from Joe Roman - conservation biologist, marine ecologist 🐋 & award winning book writer (+ fellow 💩 researcher!). A great choice for the day 2 BES Lecture of the @britishecologicalsociety.org conference! #BES2025

Book cover for Reproducible Code guide. The cover has a red background with a large yellow-bodied black-headed stag beetle.

Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!

Workshop currently underway! It is centred on the paper below, as we discuss potential barriers and solutions to help address them ➡️ besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Great morning (virtually) attending the @britishecologicalsociety.org conference #BES2025 with internationally recognised functional diversity ecologist Prof Sandra Díaz presenting the Georgina Mace lecture. Big fan of giving plants the spotlight 🙌 #ecology #botany 🌿🌼🌱 #biodiversity #climatechange 🌍

Less than 2-weeks post partum & about to attempt attending the @britishecologicalsociety.org conference virtually... wish me luck 😅 #BES #BES2025 #maternityleave

Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things

Are you an MSc student based at a UK university? Or do you know one?
RSPB @rspbscience.bsky.social have just released their list of research projects for 2026:
www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu...
#ornithology #conservationscience 🌍

Elephant

Heart of Africa exhibit

Conservation Education Centre

Sun Bear

Fantastic penultimate day of work before maternity leave - teaching our @ljmuofficial.bsky.social foundation #wildlife #conservation students at @chesterzoo.bsky.social 🙌

Superb inaugural lecture from friend & past @salforduni.bsky.social colleague Prof Arijit Mukhopadhyay: Rear-View Mirror on My Successful Failures. I especially liked the advice "you can nurture self esteem but the seed needs external stimulation" aka let your friends be your research cheerleaders 🙌

Deadline is tomorrow 5PM.

Full funding, great bird study system with flexibility for you to pursue the elements you enjoy gets (whether that be #genetics #physiology #ecology or a preference for #fieldwork #labwork).

Fab supervisory team & great training/teaching opportunities! #ornithology #phd

Should I stay or should I go: Drivers of variation in population performance of a migratory bird (Pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca) as a proxy for monitoring wider climate and habitat impacts. at L... PhD Project - Should I stay or should I go: Drivers of variation in population performance of a migratory bird (Pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca) as a proxy for monitoring wider climate and habitat...

One week left to apply for this fully funded PhD studying pied flycatchers in the Peak District at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social in collaboration with @nationaltrust.org.uk

A 🐦 project that inc. #genetics #physiology & #conservation #technology to explore bird fitness.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Yesterday was national #reptile day so the pet #snakes enjoyed some 🎃 enrichment! @zachinch92.bsky.social

Did I mention this is fully funded for 3 years starting in 2026? The deadline to apply is 31st October 5pm. Excellent multidisciplinary supervisory team, great balance of fieldwork, lab work & conservation technology - and opportunity to build up bird ringing/monitoring experience #ornithology.