Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2h

Indicative of what proportion of birds are missed on Scillies that a pigeon could basically evade detection in the 1.48 km2 of St Agnes despite lots of people looking #UKBirding

Henry Cook @hcbirding.bsky.social · 2d

American Mourning Dove finally in the bag!!! 3 days of searching put to rest. Tiny little thing. #UKBirding #RareBirdsUK #IoSBirding #IslesofScillyBirding @sophieshrike.bsky.social

A rare dove sits on a wooden pallet amongst a polytunnel frame

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 7h

Heritage = heritable there. Was saying that there isn't evidence that there is genetically-controlled prey-specialisation in generalist raptors

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 12h

None of it is convincing.... no evidence that prey specialisation is a heritage trait and likely just reflects variation in prey abundance. And Grey Squirrels only in Italy for the time being...

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 14h

Yes.... you can upload any interesting ones there

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 14h

Going to be a very uninspiring October Big Day for me as I'm in uni for an open day...
ebird.org/octoberbigday

October Big Day - eBird

Submit observations and support conservation worldwide.

ebird.org

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 2d

Hey US scientists, the NY Times wants to hear from you if you've had your funding cut. 🌊🧪

Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.

www.nytimes.com

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 1d

As a county bird recorder I can honestly say that the best and easiest way for you to make your birding count, is to upload them to either eBird or BirdTrack. Doing so contributes directly to #ornithology and bird #conservation at both local and national levels.

#birdingScotland #birdingWales

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project

In 2002, an online database was set up allowing birdwatchers to record their species observations. It is now a vast resource, shaping scientific research.

theconversation.com

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Steffen Oppel @steffopp.bsky.social · 1d

NEW JOB in #ornithology with @RSPBScience to oversee research in #Wales with #seabirds and #waders: buff.ly/qkTVU6m

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PiedFly.Net @piedflynet.bsky.social · 3d

JOB ALERT: We have an exciting Senior Research Assistant post available for a project tracking predators and prey simultaneously starting early 2026. We need someone with experience tagging adult raptors or wader chicks. This you? app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Wilson Ornithological Society @wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social · 2d

BIRDBASE, a new publicly available dataset, brings together "ecological and life history traits for 11,589 bird species across 254 families." #ornithology

Explore a bird database with 11,500 species

Twenty-six years ago, a PhD student's unanswered question sparked a bird data revolution.

www.popsci.com

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Jen Gill @jengill.bsky.social · 2d

The latest wadertales blog (no. 151) describes how scoring moult from photographs can reveal moult season duration and how it varies between populations: wadertales.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/m...
#ornithology

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

Just noticed this artwork at Piccadilly for the first time. It must have been a subconscious search image....

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

Impending Clements alignment with AviList
ebird.org/news/2025-ta... #Ornithology #SplitsLumps&Shuffles

2025 Taxonomy Update—COMING SOON - eBird

The 2025 eBird Taxonomy Update will begin on 28 October and big changes are already underway as we prepare the eBird database for this year's revisions. Follow this page for updates throughout the pro...

ebird.org

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Miles King @milesking.bsky.social · 2d

Same story - 2 very different takes.

Reeves claims she unblocked a development being held up by a "microscopic snail or something", while Natural England claim they and the EA negotiated an agreement with Southern Water, to reduce water abstraction from the snail's habitat.

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Scientists for Global Responsibility @responsiblesci.bsky.social · 11d

The AI boom promises convenience, but at what cost?

Award-winning science communicator and author Dr Simon Clark argues that the energy and water demands of the requisite data centres are enormous, and that this poses great risks in a grid yet to fully decarbonise. 🧪 #AI

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

How many on site?

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 3d

The U.K. government has rejected calls to fully ban bottom trawling in its offshore marine protected areas, despite evidence that the fishing practice tears up seabed habitats and releases large amounts of carbon.

UK rejects total ban on bottom trawling in offshore marine protected areas

The U.K. government has rejected calls to fully ban bottom trawling in its offshore marine protected areas, despite evidence that the fishing practice tears up seabed habitats and releases large…

news.mongabay.com

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 3d

Just openly cheering the destruction of any representation of gay people in public space. They think their power is totally unrestricted, and the entire country will support them rolling back society to the 1950s, or maybe the 1850s

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 3d

erm, so 3D scans from the Scottish Maritime Museum (!!) have been used by the IDF to create animations of supposed terror sites, tunnels and bunkers they've destroyed (!!!) 🫠

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 3d

As someone who works with satellite and 3D imagery, this project reinforced how crucial it is to question what’s rendered as truth.

Keep an eye out for some follow ups in different mediums looking ahead

Full story w/ @972mag.com via Oren Ziv:

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda

An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

www.972mag.com

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 3d

The only previous October Needletail in Europe was recorded in Denmark on 2012-10-21 www.netfugl.dk/fotos/89802

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Dr. Catie Ivy @catieivy.bsky.social · May 6

Do you like songbirds? Are you concerned about how wildfire smoke may impact their physiology?

I'm searching for graduate students who are interested in looking at the effect of wildfire smoke on songbird physiology! Come join my lab @usaskartsci.bsky.social!

research-groups.usask.ca/ivy-lab/

The Ivy Lab! - Welcome to the Ivy Lab!

research-groups.usask.ca

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

British Birds @britishbirds.bsky.social · 3d

britishbirds.co.uk/news/golden-...

Golden Eagles go missing in Southern Scotland | British Birds

Conservationists and police are appealing for information after a satellite-tagged Golden Eagle vanished in southern Scotland. The bird, a male named Tarras, was part of the South of Scotland Golden E...

britishbirds.co.uk

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Reposted by Alexander Lees

Portland Bird Observatory @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social · 3d

...also on the ringing front: we've received notification of a fantastic recovery of a Firecrest ringed here last October that was controlled a few days ago by a ringer in the Czech Republic - the first movement of a UK-ringed Firecrest to the Czech Republic or indeed to anywhere in central Europe

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BOU @bou.org.uk · 4d

Learned use of an innate sound-meaning association in birds | www.nature.com/artic... | Nature Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶

Learned use of an innate sound-meaning association in birds

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model...

www.nature.com

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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 4d

Gray-headed Chickadee aka Siberian Tit may now be extinct in North America #Ornithology 🌎🪶 @richardkbroughton.bsky.social
www.aba.org/lost-on-the-...

Lost on the Frontier - American Birding Association

Conjectures—and some evidence—regarding why the Gray-headed Chickadee may have been extirpated from the ABA Area.

www.aba.org

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