Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · 5d

Exciting news!! The World Seabird Union @worldseabirdunion.bsky.social 4th World #Seabird Conference is now open for registration! 🕊️🌏

🏢Hobart, Tasmania. 📅7-11 Sept 2026

Click the link for all the info 🤓
worldseabirdunion.org/world-seabir... #WSC4

13 14

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 21d

Find yourself a man who looks after you like this frigatebird looks after its stick

Adrift Lab (Marine Science) @adriftlab.bsky.social · 22d

Happy bird requires stick 💚 #frigatebird #seabird #OenoAtoll

22 75

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · 29d

One of this year's juvs turned up in Wicklow, Ireland! About 100 miles across the Irish Sea in just over 3 weeks 🌊

We'd love to have any more sightings reported to us so please keep an eye out for yellow colour rings w/ black code! 👀 #Seabirds

2

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · 29d

#SeabirdSeptember Another season complete with the offshore kittiwake colony I've known for 3 years now. Productivity and survival looking good, but we'll wait for the camera data to tell us more. Love to see them thriving and notice the same birds turn up on the same ledges year on year 🥰

1 2 27

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · Sep 7

An immaculate, pre-breeding Roseate #tern for #SuperSeabirdSunday #TeamTern

A Roseate tern with a black head and bill flies over the teal Irish Sea. Photo: Debs Allbrook.

1 7 49

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

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

As autumn begins & seabird season ends for another year, we've been reminiscing about the summer! We'd love to share images of #seabird fieldwork throughout September to celebrate our diverse seabird species ✨🪶

If you have one you'd like to share pls include a description & use #SeabirdSeptember! 🐦

A Common tern chick sits on a scale as its weight is being recorded. Image: Debs Allbrook. Posted in celebration of #SeabirdSeptember.

2 14 68

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · Aug 26

The next in our series of ECR talks is coming up on Fri 5th September - this time on Peer Review 👀📃

The panel will be our own @thelabandfield.bsky.social & @ingridpollet.bsky.social, @tashgillies.bsky.social & Dr. Richard Sherley ✒️✨

Time: 9.30 am (BST). Sign up now: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A pile of books and papers. Taken by Wesley Tingey.

9 14

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · Aug 6

Early career researcher who'd love a mentor? Or mid-career (onwards) looking to give back AS a mentor?

Sign up below for the new round of Guillemates 🥰🐧
Mentees👉 forms.gle/cdktNREkhUDb...
Mentors👉 forms.gle/uwA9X9giUPnA...

Such a great learning (or supporting!) opportunity 👩‍👩‍👦‍👦
Pls share! #seabirds

25 35

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

BEC Consultants @bececology.bsky.social · Aug 5

New Conservation project to protect nesting seabirds on the Great Saltee Island, Wexford - @npwsireland.bsky.social

#NatureConservation #Seabirds

www.npws.ie/news/new-con...

New Conservation project to protect nesting seabirds on the Great Saltee Island, Wexford | National Parks & Wildlife Service

www.npws.ie

3 4

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Aug 6

The outcomes of my study back in 2017 recommended wardens were appointed to help protect the breeding gannets on Great Saltee... and 8 years later they're in place 🥳

www.npws.ie/news/new-con...

#betterlatethannever #seabirds #Ireland
Well done @npwsireland.bsky.social

1 6 19

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Jul 18

🐟🐟🐟

Exeter Marine @exetermarine.bsky.social · Jul 17

Atlantic Bluefin tuna are back in UK waters, but we still don’t exactly know what they are eating.
Support crucial marine research to help uncover the secrets of their diet and secure their future.
To find out more: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/atlantic-b...
🦑🧪🌍🐟🎣🦤🌊

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

Chloe Cargill (She/Her) @meta-kittiwake.bsky.social · Jul 2

Using #genetics to sex #Seabirds? 👉 New #openaccess #Methods note published today (optimize don't reinvent👍). No PhD student is an island: huge thanks to co-authors, collaborators and funders. #ornithology @ukri.org @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social doi.org/10.1007/s126... @springernature.com

A modified primer-pair designed for the molecular sex identification of black-legged Kittiwake (Laridae: Rissa tridactyla) - Conservation Genetics Resources

In studies of avian populations accurate sex identification facilitates the study of sex-linked behaviour, ecology, social structure, decision-making, and life histories. To improve molecular sex iden...

doi.org

11 17

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · Jul 3

Couldn't let #WorldSeabirdDay go past without a nod from us and the best UK #seabird there is! Here's to another year where we will advocate and fight for our beautiful, wonderful #seabirds ❤️❤️❤️

What's your favourite seabird?? [Photo: Debs Allbrook]

4 10 46

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Jun 27

I've started using these this year - www.wildlifemonitoringsolutions.com/wilsus-trade.... They were recommended as able to work for a year at a time! They also send an image a day (if there's 4G). Your other option would be an external battery pack on your existing cam, as someone else said

Wilsus Tradenda 4G Wireless | Wildlife Monitoring Solutions

With the Wilsus Tradenda 4G WIRELESS wildlife camera, every picture taken is transmitted directly to your cell phone or email! Also perfect as a security camera!

www.wildlifemonitoringsolutions.com

1 1

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · May 12

Fully devastating footage 💔

spencer roberts 🦈 @unpopularscience.bsky.social · May 9

I will forever be haunted by this footage.

Trawling has only been filmed underwater a few times in documentary history, and never with such clarity.

What’s so heart-rending about these shots is watching how the animals don’t just get swept up — they swim for their lives.
🌎🦑🧪

3

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Apr 10

Maybe not for this generation, but technology evolves so fast it can be hard to stay ahead of the curve..

2

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Apr 10

The trouble is the skills you need evolve over time, in some cases quicker than you become employed!

In my case I focused heavily on practical skills, but now I am in a position where stats & computer modelling are king, and I simply have never done these. Learning from the ground up now is HARD 😖

1 4

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Apr 9

@exetermarine.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social @northwaleswt.bsky.social @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social @rspbengland.bsky.social @rspbcymru.bsky.social @stubearhop.bsky.social @alicetrevail.bsky.social

1

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Apr 9

They are particularly likely to show up in or around colonies in North Wales, the Isle of Man, the SW Scottish coast, Lancashire or Cumbria 🗺️

They have a yellow ring plus a secondary coloured ring on the other leg - we'd love to know the yellow code, plus secondary colour. And photos if poss! 📷

1 2 7

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Apr 9

Listen up anyone working in the Irish Sea this summer! We tagged a bunch of kitts in Liverpool Bay and want to gather as many resightings as we can. If you spot these yellow colour rings please give me a shout ([email protected]) 🐦💍💛

(Modelled by our very own VIP 😌👑)

#Seabirds #IrishSea

A juvenile kittiwake in the hand, wearing a 3-digit coded yellow colour ring, a red plastic ring and a metal ring.

2 64 110

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Mar 28

Really interesting chat on #seabird #research careers from @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social this morning 🕊️🐥🐧 Thanks everyone on the panel for your time, some food for thought 🙏✨

The Seabird Group @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social · Mar 28

We had an excellent discussion this morning on #seabird careers (skills, advice, hurdles) for our 2nd ECR talk. 🐧 A huge thanks to our panel: Ana Carneiro, Maria Dias, David Steel @steelyseabirder.bsky.social & Jon Green @jon-seabirds.bsky.social! 🙏 rep @jacquiglencross.bsky.social for facilitating!

1 3

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Mar 18

This is terrifying..

Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · Mar 13

Most worryingly, we found evidence of neurodegeneration in <90-day-old seabird chicks with high levels of ingested plastic - protein expression signatures akin to what we see in human patients with dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's (3/5)

Four hundred three pieces of plastic removed from sable shearwater A. carneipes 90-day-old chick.
On the left are five plastic items (0.073 g) removed during lavage, and on the right are the 398 items (41.812 g) that remained inside the stomach after lavage. The 398 items could not be removed during lavage as the large volume of plastic created a blockage. Instead, these items were recorded during necropsy after the bird was deceased. Pumice (128 pieces, 6.819 g) and squid beaks (not counted) also ingested by the bird are displayed in the petri dishes

1

Reposted by Debs Allbrook

Rob van Bemmelen @robvanbemmelen.bsky.social · Mar 5

New #OA paper in the #seabird journal (@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social)! We GPS-tracked Black-legged #Kittiwakes breeding on an offshore platform in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. In short, we show that they have a short foraging range compared to coastal... 1/6
www.seabirdgroup.org.uk/seabird-37

1 20 27

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Mar 6

Worrying..

Nat Duffus @natduffus.bsky.social · Mar 6

Wrote this opinion piece with some fellow zoologists about the use of so-called 'welfare' penguins across Oxfordshire. We argue that penguins are ill-suited to such a role (sorry penguins 🐧) and that there are better ways to reap the benefits of contact with nature! 🌱 cherwell.org/2025/03/05/u...

Unhappy feet? Uni on thin ice over welfare penguins - Cherwell

Welfare opportunities for humans do not need to come at the expense of welfare penguins. The penguins are not treated well.

cherwell.org

1 1

Debs Allbrook @debsallbrook.bsky.social · Feb 28

This makes fascinating reading. I've always felt uncomfortable with these encounters (despite finding orcas the most fascinating animal on the planet) and though I love close, incredible wildlife encounters, it's just never really sat right.. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Snorkelling with orcas (killer whales) in Skjervøy, Northern Norway: Ambivalent encounters in a crowded tourism space - Sadie E Hale, 2025

The opportunity to snorkel with orcas (killer whales) near the Norwegian Arctic town of Skjervøy is unparalleled globally, due to the absence of regulations pro...

journals.sagepub.com

1 1