Ben Sheldon
@sheldonbirds.bsky.social
Ornithologist and Evolutionary Ecologist at the University of Oxford - natural history, science, cycling
Ben C. Sheldon is the Luc Hoffmann Chair in Field Ornithology and Director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology of the University of Oxford's Department of Zoology. He was Head of the Department of Zoology between 2016 and 2021. .. more
Biology
32%
Environmental science
30%
It is a challenge in teaching Biology as well. In cash-strapped times, field courses may be seen as an 'extra' or to require additional funding, sometimes from students. I've been arguing for a while that that's an indirect subsidy of lab biology teaching & that they are educationally unparalleled.
Client Challenge
www.nature.com
Some useful perspectives in this article but surprised it says very little about the importance of field experience in training future generations of biologists (not just ecologists)
‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘I rarely get outside’: scientists ditch fieldwork in the age of AI www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The wintering male Black Redstart at Christ Church College was enjoying the sun and finding food among the creepers on the south side of the college this beautiful winter morning
A Great Northern Diver!
Would there have been Harris Hawks in late 16th century England as suggested in the trailer for Hamnet? Ornithology-geek surfacing unbidden....
I loved this book.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
This is pretty comprehensive. It may not be quite what you are after as rather than a two-sided debate, we have lots of hypotheses, none of which seem to be able to attract very strong support
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
...though I was tempted to suggest (1) which came first, chicken or egg? and/or (2) why did the chicken cross the road? as spoof debates to kick things off
Why are avian social and genetic mating systems so often discordant?
Would think one of the most desirable species that could but haven’t yet occurred in Britain. The site in Norway is actually quite accessible…
Stunning bird
When one of your PhD students makes you very jealous… I believe the first Azure Tit for Norway this afternoon near Trondheim
"Recently" = post 2000?
‘Three norths’ set to leave England and not return for hundreds of years - British Geological Survey
The historic alignment of true, magnetic, and grid north is set to leave England, three years after they combined in the country for the first time since records began.
www.bgs.ac.uk
Sorry to have missed out on this alignment as it moved steadily north at a rate of 0.51km/day - passed not far west of Oxford in Sept 2023
www.bgs.ac.uk/news/three-n...
www.bgs.ac.uk/news/three-n...
Remembering a day back in May last year at Mai Po, Hong Kong, watching waders from the boardwalk hide when sudden torrential rain caused all the waders to stop foraging and this Terek Sandpiper to adopt this striking bill-upwards pose
Happy 2026! Out at dawn on Otmoor with the prospect of more geese to watch a tempting prospect for the New Year. Widely scattered across Ashgrave were 69 Russian White-fronted Geese, 20 Tundra Bean Geese (too distant for photos) and 9 Barnacles among the normal masses of Canada and Greylags.
Same trend here - progressive slow decline in species recorded. 200 has been done once in Oxon 15 years ago - pretty full effort this year in what seemed like a good autumn at least yielded 194 as highest individual total
Some enticing species from an Oxfordshire perspective. What would a good county yearlist in Cambs be?
Traditional collage of record shots of a rewarding yr's local birding. Highlights: Red-foot, Savi's Warb, Marsh Sand, Bluethroat, Twite & Tundra Bean; most of all friendly year-listing with @conormackenzie.bsky.social @tmbirding.bsky.social Simon Myers & Peerawant Chiaranunt collectively 202 species
Ok - happy to have a look
For species of which we normally just see a handful each year, it's been a real treat to have so many wild geese around locally just now. This afternoon's flock of White-fronted Geese near Chimney Meadows totalled 185 birds - I think the largest flock seen in the county for some decades.
If Books Could Kill Pod
The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds
www.ifbookspod.com
Over Christmas I've been binge-listening to this podcast which is great on deconstructing the junk claims made in pop science/politics/airport bestseller books (e.g. Gladwell, Pinker, Fukuyama etc) Done with a winning combination of righteous indignation and laugh out loud humour www.ifbookspod.com
Popped out to look at Farmoor this morning - pleasantly surprised to find, first, a female Scaup, and then a first winter male Common Scoter that had seemingly just dropped in onto the centre of F1
ML287435881 - Gray-headed Chickadee - Macaulay Library
Macaulay Library ML287435881; © Sami Tuomela; Uusimaa, Finland
macaulaylibrary.org
Can look quite small-bibbed at times, e.g: macaulaylibrary.org/asset/287435...
Think looking quite Siberian-like in this picture. Bib looks like it extends to flanks
artportalen.se/MediaLibrary...
artportalen.se/MediaLibrary...
With the various feral species, and if you count Egyptian as a goose, we had 10 species of goose in Oxfordshire today...
We're lucky if we get more than a single family party of White-fronts each winter here; the last gettable Beans were in 2017, & Pink-foot probably the hardest of the three to see genuinely wild. Probably at least 250 WFG & 24 Beans in the county today 🤯
The superb Christmas 2025 goose-fest continued today with 2 Pink-footed Geese on a murky late afternoon by the Thames at Tadpole Bridge, in a mixed flock with c. 110 White-fronted Geese and a further 3 Tundra Bean Geese. Unprecedented numbers for Oxfordshire.
Further photos suggest that more likely - hard to see how you’d get the cap/bib contrast in a Willow Tit plumage variant
artportalen.se/MediaLibrary...
artportalen.se/MediaLibrary...