Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Alexander Lees

British Birds @britishbirds.bsky.social · 16h

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

4 6

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Portland Bird Observatory @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social · 15h

...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

13 62

Reposted by Alexander Lees

BOU @bou.org.uk · 1d

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

2 8

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 22h

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

1 6 27

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Andrés Cuervo @amcuervo.bsky.social · 1d

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
anyone else wondering about Hypopyrrhus?
#ornithology #evosky

Feeding Ecology, Evolutionary Allometry, and Convergence in the Lower Jaw of New World Blackbirds and Allied Passerine Birds (Emberizoidea)

We quantify the mandibular shape of icterids and other emberizoids using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics and its relationship with diet, gaping, and evolutionary allometry through phylogene....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

4 9

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 22h

"The causes of insufficient reproductive success in our two study populations were low rates of whole-nest survival, which were only sufficiently high to maintain population size for nests in gardens. Low nest survival rates were mostly the result of egg or chick predation."

BOU @bou.org.uk · 1d

EARLY VIEW in IBIS

Inadequate reproductive success is a potential cause of Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) population decline in England | onlinelibrary.wiley....

Malcolm D. Burgess et al | #ornithology 🪶

5 12

Reposted by Alexander Lees

St Kilda World Heritage Site NTS @stkildawhs.bsky.social · 23h

This collar-ringed European White-fronted Goose (T7Z) was ringed in Netherlands in Nov 2024 and had previously been reported at 2 other sites in Netherlands before turning up on #SKilda today. Reported to cr-birding.org. Incredible what we can learn about birds' movements from ringing projects!

5 44

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 1d

Doganova describes discounting as a mechanism through which “the present defeats the future.”

Geoff Mann @geoffmann.bsky.social · 2d

I have a new piece on the politics of discounting in the latest @nybooks.com, hopefully of interest to some.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

The Price of Tomorrow | Geoff Mann

The current discount rate means that the government views the long-term future of humanity as not metaphorically but literally worthless.

www.nybooks.com

1 2

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Keith Alexander @keithalexander.bsky.social · 1d

“We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale. […] We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

6 71 150

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 1d

@benjaminfreeman.bsky.social

1

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Dr Ingrid Pollet @ingridpollet.bsky.social · 2d

Come work with me!!
It will be fun.
#seabirds

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 2d

We have vacancies available on our committee! 🕊️👨‍👨‍👧👩‍👩‍👦

We are recruiting for 5 roles:

Secretary 👩‍🏫
Assistant Journal Editor 📉
Social Media Lead 🤳
Assistant Newsletter/ Social Media Support 🤝
Website Officer 🧑‍💻

Feel free to DM for details & email [email protected] to apply (deadline 31 Oct) 📥

8 12

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

One for the occasional series of #ornithology papers you need in your life but might not have read - Common/Spotted Sandpiper flight style as an antipredator behaviour.
academic.oup.com/auk/article-...

4 8 40

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 4d

A great thread dismantling the latest 'conservation populism' to be floated in Britain. With funding available for species recovery, this is business for some. We'll see more of this pitching for commercial projects that scientists & species experts think is useless. #ornithology #ukbirding

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 5d

More ill thought out 'conservation' translocations 🌍
www.theguardian.com/environment/... - so much to unpack here #Ornithology #UKBirding 🧵

‘It proves this can be done’: Berlin the blueprint to bring goshawks to UK cities

Conservationist plans release of 15 each of the apex predators sourced as chicks into Chester and London

www.theguardian.com

2 11 30

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Petr Prochazka @rytikerttunen.bsky.social · 2d

What an epic return! 🤩🌍🐦

A common snipe tagged in April 2025 near Olomouc is back in Czechia after migrating to the Yamalo-Nenets AO (east of the Urals) – a round trip of over 7,500 km!

#HABITRACK #ornithology #birdmigration #snipe

6 36

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Elham Nourani @enourani.bsky.social · 2d

🦅PhD position 🦅 in my new group at @fbm-unil.bsky.social in Switzerland, studying how the social and resource landscapes shape the learning process for soaring flight. Deadline: Oct 30. Pls repost! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

Golden eagle on the nest in Finland (by O. Karlin)

1 73 100

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

Walking back from the school run, a group of 11 Whooper Swans came in high from the west, and their calls spurred the 19 on the reservoir to leave; with both groups heading E up Longdendale @derbyshirebirds.bsky.social #VizMig #UKBirding

1 27

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

19 Whooper Swans, Bottoms Reservoir @derbyshirebirds.bsky.social @birdguides.bsky.social #UKBirding

1 16

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Wildlife Conservation Society @wcs.org · 3d

The wildlife pet trade is a global disaster, writes @richardconniff.bsky.social. At the upcoming #IUCNcongress, we are urging support for Motion 108 to address it.

🌍 richardconniff.substack.com/p/the-wildli...

The Wildlife Pet Trade is a Global Disaster

And it's going to keep wrecking the natural world--till we stop paying for it.

richardconniff.substack.com

21 33

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Andy McKay @korimakoecology.bsky.social · 3d

"After only one year, the transformation is dramatic. A colony of 2000 Sooty Terns, where there was previously none, were feeding hundreds of chicks. We also counted 1000’s of native Pisonia grandis tree seedlings across just 60 12m monitored plots on the forest floor—in 2024 we found zero." 🌏

Press Release: Staggering Recovery of Plants and Seabirds on Marshallese Islands Just One Year After Rat Removal - Island Conservation

Astonishing results from our work to restore sites in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, boosting climate resilience and ocean health!

www.islandconservation.org

3 24 62

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 2d

www.gwct.org.uk/news/news/20... this is clearer, will delete the initial post.

Black grouse breed in the North York Moors after re-introduction - Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

www.gwct.org.uk

1

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Keri @nonnie.bsky.social · 3d

This was in the Observer today
Worth a read

14 28

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 3d

An AI-powered satellite survey has found that the number of wildebeests migrating across Kenya and Tanzania annually might be less than half of what’s widely touted.

Scientists rethink Serengeti migration numbers with satellite, AI tools

If you’ve watched The Lion King, you probably remember the scene where Mufasa falls into and is trampled by a massive herd of stampeding wildebeests. In real life, as one of the largest mammal…

news.mongabay.com

1 10 18

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you to everyone who continues to contribute to our fundraiser. Recent greatest hits from samples sent in by ringers and birders for ID include an Atlas Flycatcher in Spain, and a Ménétries's Warbler in Poland!

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...

Genetic Identification of Birds - The Aberdeen Wildlife DNA Lab

Help Martin Collinson raise money to support University of Aberdeen Development Trust SCIO

www.justgiving.com

12 34

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · 3d

“Peter Mandelson lost his job for being friends with a paedophile. Donald Trump, who was friends with the same paedophile, was given a state banquet hosted by a King whose brother lost his job because he was friends with the same paedophile.“

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 3d

And he’s back!!

Sunday isn’t Sunday without Stewart Lee. We were so thrilled at @thenerve.news that Stewart came with us.

His satirical columns for the Observer were some of our most-read content: funny, surreal, angry true. Essential weekend reading.

www.thenerve.news/p/stewart-le...

DOUBLETHINK DOES DOUBLETIME

STEWART LEE

www.thenerve.news

5 66 270

Reposted by Alexander Lees

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

"Milei is amazing. It's Thatcherism on steroids. Cutting and slashing. That's leadership" - Nigel Farage

Milei would be the "template" for my government - Kemi Badenoch

87 670 1.7K