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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1m

meanwhile, the field has largely stagnated, methodologically, and everyone treats references from >25 years ago as the most current knowledge because it's easier and doesn't make things too messy. Sigh.

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 2m

I spent years reviewing papers because I thought it would make a difference.

Authors ignored my comments and editors went with the authors' justifications.

So I have declined to review any stable isotope paper for the last 7 years as it clearly made little difference.

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 4m

Folks, this is why I refuse to engage in seabirds / stable isotope analysis even after spending 8 years deeply in the field.

It's all* rubbish and facts about how it works are treated as opinions by journal editors

*98.6% or more

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 5m

"The relationship we observed could be because of <confounding ecological explanation> or it could be because <actually the most parsimonious explanation grounded in metabolic theory>"

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 2h

two were getting them sent off to others (coauthors, journal) and the other two were sort of related

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Jack Shoulder @jackshoulder.bsky.social · 7h

#TodayInQueerHistory
October 11 (1988)
Coming Out Day is launched #OTD by Jean O'Leary and Robert Eichberg. They aimed to tackle homophobia. Eichberg said:

"It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes."

A bright Keith Haring work showing a person coming out

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Graham Appleton @wadertales.bsky.social · 9h

Yesterday, IUCN declared the Slender-billed Curlew to be extinct.
How did we let this happen?
What lessons are there for the future?
WaderTales blog based on paper by Graeme Buchanan et al
wadertales.wordpress.com/2024/12/12/l...
#extinction #ornithology

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 17h

This is true and they are super endangered by poachers who shovel them up by the hundreds and sell them at flea markets and shit. You should not buy the plants and if you happen to kick the poacher in the shins on accident, no one will hear about it from me.

mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 20h

still amazing to me the number of movies, games, etc. which have Venus Flytrap-based creatures in some form compared to the actual native range of Venus Flytrap, which is like, the great untamed jungles of a few wet pine savannas in North Carolina

map illustrating the native range of Venus Flytrap plants, just a little half circle around coastal North and South Carolina in USA

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

International Wader Study Group @waderstudy.bsky.social · 17h

Today IUCN has officially declared the Slender-billed Curlew extinct, marking the first known global extinction of a formerly widespread migratory bird species whose range included mainland Europe, North Africa, and West Asia.

Read more here ⬇️
www.unep-aewa.org/fr/node/6632

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 19h

four notable exceptions...

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 19h

Worked on four collections-based manuscripts today that I doubt many people will actually read or cite, but they are fun so

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BirdLife International @birdlifeglobal.bsky.social · 1d

🚨2025 #RedList Update🚨

We have reassessed 1,360 bird species. Out of the 11,185 species assessed worldwide: 

⚠️11.5% are globally threatened.

📉61% have declining populations.

But restoring habitats will help put these species on a path to recovery.🌱

Read more👉 www.birdlife.org/red-list-upd...

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 1d

with the official IUCN listing for the slender-billed curlew now being Extinct here is the rather sad piece I wrote about what went into this decision

I tried to include everything we know about their behaviour and biology, which is tragically little 🪶🧪
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

A picture of two slender-billed curlews in the Natural History Museum's collections.

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Dr Joby Hollis @jobium.bsky.social · 1d

I really want to make a custom biscuit roller/stamp that has the Ea-nāṣir cuneiform on it. That way I could make biscuit tablets complaining about the quality of 3700 year old copper.

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 23h

Newsletter/ Social Media Support position on our ExComm! Description ➡️ www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/files/Newsle...

Apply by sending max. 200 words to [email protected] explaining why you're interested 🤩

[White tern image: Hayley McLennan]

#seabirds #teamtern #AssistantEditor

A White tern flying across the sea with a backdrop of bright blue sky.

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 23h

Website Manager position on our ExComm! Description ➡️ www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/files/Websit...

Apply by sending max. 200 words to [email protected] explaining why you're interested 🤩

[Common tern image: Debs Allbrook]

#seabirds #teamtern #WebManager

A Common tern sitting on a red Fire Point box.

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Prof Susie Maidment @tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 1d

After we published the new specimen of #Spicomellus a few weeks ago, we were contacted by George Blasing, who said he'd bought some on the commercial market, and wanted to return it to Morocco. It arrived last week. Thanks George for doing the right thing in the name of science!

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The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 23h

Assistant Journal Editor position on our ExComm! Description ➡️ www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/files/Assist...

Apply by sending max. 200 words to [email protected] explaining why you're interested 🤩

[Arctic skua egg image: Danni Thompson]

#seabirds #SEABIRDJournal #science

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 23h

Social Media Manager position on our ExComm! Description ➡️ www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/files/Social...

Apply by sending max. 200 words to [email protected] explaining why you're interested 🤩

[Humboldt penguin image: Ahmet Yüksek]

#seabirds #penguins #SocialMedia

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Biodiversity Heritage Library @biodivlibrary.bsky.social · 1d

Devastating news: the Slender-billed Curlew has just been declared extinct. This Slender-billed Curlew is from "A history of the birds of Europe, not observed in the British Isles" (1863). #SciArt by Benjamin Fawcett #ExtinctionIsForever www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42530095

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

It's also not "just another" extinction, it's the first from mainland Europe in centuries. CENTURIES.

And there will be others within our lifetime.

That's biodiversity loss.

We'll never hear this sound, ever again xeno-canto.org/398794

XC398794 Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

Awful wind noise in the original! See sonogram and notes of the recording circumstances on p12 of Gretton A. (1991) The ecology and conservation of the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris). ...

xeno-canto.org

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Reposted by Dr Alex Bond

Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 1d

The bird gallery at @mfnberlin.bsky.social is closed for redevelopment, but instead of packing away their #birds, they crated up 11,500 #taxidermy specimens and put the crates on display instead. It's a really interesting - and beautiful - approach to open storage. #museums

A series of wooden crates with glass fronts, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy birds.

A wooden crate with a glass front, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy birds.

A wooden crate with a glass front, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy birds of prey.

A wooden crate with a glass front, containing densely packed shelves of taxidermy toucans and hummingbirds

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Dave Watson @ecosystemunraveller.com · 1d

It’s National Egg Day, a reminder that although Kiwis may lay proportionally massive eggs, it’s exactly the volume expected by their body mass. The only birds that lay WAY more egg than expected are the only ones that incubate without body heat—moundbuilders! ecosystemunraveller.com/connectivity...

Graph between clutch volume and body mass for all modern bird families with just one dot (actually a black square) diverging from the overall close relationship

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