Nick Littlewood
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blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Nick Littlewood
@blackdogbirder.bsky.social
400 followers 370 following 230 posts
Bugs, bogs and birds.

Wildlife Conservation Management lecturer at SRUC, Aberdeen.

Senior Editor: Insect Conservation and Diversity.
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blackdogbirder.bsky.social
New #mammal conservation #PhD: "Understanding and Addressing Rural Hedgehog Population Declines".

@srucnews.bsky.social EastBio CASE project in partnership with (and co-supervised by) @ptes-org.bsky.social.

Details: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Act fast - applications close 15 December.
πŸ¦”πŸ¦”πŸ¦”
November 21, 2025 at 7:00 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
This is a fantastic site for ladybird variety - we've also had 11-spot on previous visits. Red Squirrels are ever reliable here too.
A Harlequin Ladybird on a gravestone A 2-spot Ladybird on a gravestone A 10-spot Ladybird next to an Orange Ladybird, on a gravestone A Red Squirrel upright on the ground facing towards the camera.
November 20, 2025 at 9:09 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
A highlight of the annual teaching calendar is the ladybird survey in Sleephillock Cemetery, Montrose. Orange Ladybirds dominated this week, as usual, but variety came from single figures of 2-spot, 7-spot, 10-spot, Cream-spot and Harlequin.

@ukladybirds.bsky.social
@srucnews.bsky.social
Seven Orange Ladybirds clustered on a gravestone A Cream-spot Ladybird on a gravestone. A 7-spot Ladybird on a gravestone. Students looking for ladybirds on a gravestone.
November 20, 2025 at 9:09 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Both cracking birds (and educational), whatever they are!
November 19, 2025 at 7:30 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
BBRC giveths and BBRC takeths away.

Latest @britishbirdsbbrc.bsky.social report includes acceptance of the 2013 Cruden Bay Subalpine Warbler as a Western.

Meanwhile, alas, the Black-throated Thrush two months earlier in @hughad.bsky.social's garden is now classed as a hybrid.

#BirdingScotland
A male Western Subalpine Warbler on a gorse stem A thrush basically looking like a male Black-throated Thrush, on a lawn.
November 19, 2025 at 7:23 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Thanks Alan - a fairly key omission from my post!
November 11, 2025 at 5:29 AM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Cessation of grouse moor management and climate change scenarios are both predicted to drive declines in Red Grouse, Curlew and Golden Plover. Our paper in @jappliedecology.bsky.social, led by Tom Mason, combines these factors in modelling future population trends.

#conservationscience🌎
Infographic showing predicted impacts of management and climate change on Red Grouse, Curlew and Golden Plover.
November 10, 2025 at 8:11 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
A Black-throated Diver was highlight of today's @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count at Portsoy.

#birdingscotland
Very grainy side-on photo of a Black-throated Diver on the sea
November 9, 2025 at 5:58 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Scare Umber was another NFG (and new for hectad) in the garden trap this morning among an unseasonal 6 moths of 5 species. Others were another Rush Veneer, a female 𝘌𝘱π˜ͺ𝘳𝘳π˜ͺ𝘡𝘒 (most likely November Moth), 2 Spruce Carpets and a π˜‰. 𝘭𝘒𝘀𝘡π˜ͺ𝘀𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘒.

Portsoy (VC94, Banffshire)
#teammoth
Scare Umber moth - an adult, on egg tray Rush Veneer moth - an adult on green foliage. A female adult Epirrita species (likely November Moth) on an old fence post.
November 8, 2025 at 5:55 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
PhD-themed cake for Rob McHenry's viva celebration last week in Thurso.

Both were adorned with (tasty) Fox scat - very apt with the viva including much discussion of caprophagy (eating πŸ’©) linked to predators' use of tracks in #peatlands.

@theflowcountry.bsky.social
Cake in shape of a Fox's head, with fox-coloured buttercream coating and surrounded by crunchy scat-shaped morsels on a crushed-biscuit surface to represent a track. Rectangular cake with green background (representing moss surface to bog) some bog pools in blue and a track across middle with scattered scats represented by raisins. "Well done Rob" written across cake in red icing.
November 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
First time setting garden trap in several weeks - 4/4 was good going for here in November. Highlight were migrants, Dark Swordgrass (NFG) and Rush Veneer, December Moth was NFY and Angle Shades joined the party too.

Portsoy (VC94, Banffshire)

#teammoth
@migrantmothuk.bsky.social
Dark Swordgrass adult on dead dock flower head Rush Veneer adult on strawberry leaf Angle Shades adult on Rowan stem December Moth adult on wooden panel
November 4, 2025 at 9:44 AM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Nathusius' Pipistrelle becomes #mammal species 2️⃣6️⃣ for Red Moss of Netherly, NE Scotland.

Recorded on @openacousticdevices.info #Audiomoth during September's influx. Just a handful of detections, but this quasi-constant frequency burst looks convincing.

@scotwildlife.bsky.social
#bioacoustics
Spectrogram, showing six calls over one second with more-or-less constant frequency at around 38 kHz.
November 2, 2025 at 7:29 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Another brilliant Flow Country Research Conference.

Big πŸ† for Roxane and team at UHI Thurso.

Great to see @rob-hughes-birder.bsky.social's PhD crammed into 30 mins. Loved the Icelandic word for Meadow Pipit and check out those German bog restoration lagoons.

@theflowcountry.bsky.social
Roxane Andersen in front of screen showing conference welcome slide. Rob Hughes in front of screen with photo of a female Common Scoter. Slide showing trends in birds at sites in Iceland, featuring Icelandic bird names Slide showing bog restoration in Germany, including grids of rectangular flooded cells.
October 31, 2025 at 5:08 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Top priority research need! Just literally been discussing issue of conifer spread and regen onto bogs this afternoon.
cmbeale.bsky.social Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social Β· 25d
Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some fun PhD opportunities. Today, if you're into hydrology, forests and wading πŸͺΆ in Scotland this one might be for you! πŸ§ͺ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Rather famous scottish landscape with the west highlands railway looping through mountains. A forest plantation is evident. A few small people on the left are doing their best not to be recognised.
October 31, 2025 at 4:47 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Wild bees drive increased weight and seed set in apples. Increased Honeybee visitation has -ve affect on fruit weight.

Another reminder (as if needed) of importance of prioritising π™¬π™žπ™‘π™™ bee conservation.

@jappliedecology.bsky.social
#pollinator

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Wasn't even the strongest of winds but a northerly blast does make for a lumpy sea.
October 27, 2025 at 7:36 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Little Auks were limited to a couple of millisecond blurs of probables but a late Arctic Tern was interesting and a Bonxie powered through.

#BirdingScotland
@patchbirding.bsky.social
Adult Arctic Tern flying left just above horizon over stormy sea.
October 26, 2025 at 9:12 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Seawatching in a northerly at Portsoy is hampered by lack of elevated shelter. I've been cowering next to a shipping container just above sea level, so would've missed flocks of albatrosses if they stayed low.

@patchbirding.bsky.social
October 26, 2025 at 9:12 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Many thanks to @countrysidejobs.bsky.social for highlighting distance learning opportunities.

Really grateful for opportunity to shout about our (award-winning) @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management MSc course in the process.
countrysidejobs.bsky.social Countryside Jobs Service @countrysidejobs.bsky.social Β· Oct 22
Career flexibility has become ever more common, find out how a part-time, distance-learning postgraduate programme from @srucnews.bsky.social can help make the leap into your dream countryside job: c-js.uk/4nvy3yy
A group of students stand on a cliff looking out to sea. Text reads: Making the change. Challenges and opportunities of switching your career.
October 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Work committments prevented a visit to the Rattray Head Eastern Nightingale until today. Fantastic bird - a real shower and very strange looking, reminding at times of a babbler. Think I'd have been bamboozled had I found it.

My first NE Scotland nightingale of any flavour.

#BirdingScotland
Eastern Nightingale on top of a fence post, facing mostly towards camera and with tail cocked. Eastern Nightingale, side-on, on concrete ground with grass growing around edges and stone wall behind. Eastern Nightingale on pointy-topped fence panel, with out-of-focus scrub behind.
October 22, 2025 at 7:24 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
An "atmospheric" day for year-2 @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management students to collect moorland plant data at @hutton.ac.uk Glensaugh.

Ended with obligatory human chain to measure the giant Sitka Spruce in Drumtochty Glen - and it's still a 6-student circumference.
Three figures in the mist lumbering across a heather moor Three figures in the mist, around a vegetation quadrat on a heather moor. Four people visible forming a six-person chain around a large Sitka Source.
October 21, 2025 at 6:11 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Two westbound Velvet Scoters off Portsoy this morning. Just seen one other since moving here two years ago. Now on 123 for the year - one off last year's total.

@patchbirding.bsky.social #BirdingScotland
Distant pic of two Velvet Scoters flying left just above horizon of a choppy sea.
October 19, 2025 at 12:41 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Five species from a #smallmammal #cameratrap at Portsoy, Aberdeenshire - a mouse, two voles and two shrew species - including Water Shrew πŸ˜€

#mammal #trailcamera @nesmammals.bsky.social
October 18, 2025 at 8:54 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
Wey-hey - grand achievement. That's about as many as ever recorded in NE Scotland!
October 15, 2025 at 7:20 PM
blackdogbirder.bsky.social
And there was a bonus Spoonbill (distantly) in a channel off Kinneil Nature Reserve.
#birdingscotland
Distant pic of a Spoonbill at edge of mud out across an estuary.
October 15, 2025 at 5:42 PM