With most of our ringing sites currently underwater, we've started the year targeting the linnet flock in one of the few dry(ish) fields in Oxford. 49 ringed over two afternoons is a promising start, given we ringed 46 total in 2023!

Balearic Shearwaters show surprising flexibility to adapt to climate change A new study has shown that individual birds were shifting their range northwards by an average of 25km per year rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/Bal…

Very pleased to see this out! A throwback to that covid-ridden summer trying to prevent the laptop overheating. Worth a look if you’re keen on #migration and how it’s changing with climate 👀 well done again to Patrick Lewin on a great 1st first-author paper, was a pleasure ☺️

Adaptive evolution and loss of a putative magnetoreceptor in passerines | royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.10… | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | #ornithology

EARLY VIEW in BOU 👩🏻‍🏫👨🏿‍🏫🧕🏽👳🏽‍♂️ 🌈 Using citizen science image analysis to measure seabird phenology | onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111… @animal__alice et al | #ornithology

Wet and windy weather has prevented much ringing recently, so it was great to finally get out and catch migrants on a beautiful spring morning! Highlights included the first willow warblers of the year, as well as a blackcap with a spectacular pollen horn from the continent.

Most years we catch one to two Green Woodpeckers, so it was great to catch our first for 2024 last week. Even better, this is the first Green Woodpecker we've re-trapped! She was originally ringed by us in September 2023, and was caught in exactly the same net ride!

Ringing has its ups & downs and today we had both... The session got off to a cracking start when we caught our 1st Grasshopper Warbler (out of 2 reeling) at a site where they're now less than annual! But we had to leave shortly after, as a herd of cows broke into the field 🐮

Out today! Two papers on #migratory #insects as part of The Royal Society PhilTrans issue about #insect monitoring methods (royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/curre…) Monitoring insect #biodiversity using #radar: doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2… Diel timing of insect migration: doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2…

It's always exciting to find out where birds are moving, especially when it's not just within your local area! A Greenfinch we ringed in December 2023 was recaught in Old Weston, Cambridgeshire on 20th May 2024, having travelled 91km! 💚 ✈️

Nice one Will!! Nice to see this one out, thanks for inviting me onboard. Some exciting questions for sure!

Check out our latest review in J. of Avian Biology ! Regulatory basis of migratory behaviour: different paths to similar outcomes. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/… Thoughts that have been hovering above our heads for several years given our results in our phylloscopus system.

My first paper from my PhD is out today on Manx shearwater behaviour and climate It’s published in the same journal as the first paper from the OG Dr Siddiqi (my grandpa) 🥳 ‘Behavioural responses of a trans-hemispheric migrant to climate oscillation’ royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

I am so happy to see this work finally out! By compiling existing data we were able to quantify bird/tick species interactions for migratory birds across the Western Palearctic flyways. Thank you so much to Lars Burnus Joe Wynn and @GenMig 😍🎉 nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

Check out our new paper “Night flight facilitates late breeding catch-up in a long-distance migratory seabird” We found that late laying shearwaters were more likely to fly more at night during migration and stopover less to “catch up” time nature.com/articles/s4159…