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Reposted by Mark Gurney

Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 3d

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-...

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Reposted by Mark Gurney

Dr Astrid Biddle @astridbiddle.bsky.social · 11d

Solanum revealed 2 species: nigrum & nitidibaccatum, Black & Green Nightshade. Apart from the obvious berry colour, it always remained possible that Green Nightshade could have been unripe berries.
Green= sepal lobes expand as the berries mature
Black= stays the same

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Tommy's Outdoors @tommysoutdoors.com · 16d

Can species reintroductions harm biodiversity rather than help it? Are we using reintroductions as a distraction from the real drivers of our nature crisis? Listen to my conversation with the one and only @alexanderlees.bsky.social 🌍🦤🧪🪶

➡️ pod.fo/e/32fae6

A middle-aged man with a bald head sits in front of bookshelves filled with scientific and academic texts in what appears to be a home office or study. He's wearing a dark grey jumper and has a slight smile whilst looking directly at the camera.

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BOU @bou.org.uk · 27d

An Intergeneric Hybrid Between Historically Isolated Temperate and Tropical Jays Following Recent Range Expansion | doi.org/10.1002/ece3... | Ecology and Evolution | #ornithology 🪶

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Jakob Jilg @weevil-see.bsky.social · May 16

How to find Mogulones crucifer:
The weevil is native to Europe/West Asia, but has been introduced to North America to control its host (Cynoglossum officinale; Hound's Tongue) which is invasive there.

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Reposted by Mark Gurney

Jente Ottenburghs | Avian Hybrids @jenteo.bsky.social · Sep 4

Crazy discovery in ants 🤯🐜

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants | Nature
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Males from the same mother exhibit distinct genomes and morphologies, as they belong to species that diverged over 5 million years ago."

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature

In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

www.nature.com

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Mark Gurney @markgurn.bsky.social · Sep 2

If you want to identify, well, anything, I recommend this post from @weevil-see.bsky.social. His choice of weevils to illustrate it is of course excellent, but it applies to everything from mushrooms to marsupials. This is how you can be a good identifier of things.

[Link contains spider]

Jakob Jilg @weevil-see.bsky.social · Aug 8

I started a blog and my first post is online!
The posts will try to explore topics which are not typically covered by introductory literature and textbooks, e.g. because they are considered to be "too basic". Let me know what you think!

weevil-see.github.io/taxonomy/Ide...

Species Identifications: Common Pitfalls

Some thoughts about Identifications. How do we identify properly? How do we avoid mistakes?

weevil-see.github.io

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Mark Gurney @markgurn.bsky.social · Aug 25

Top film. The smartest look at this subject I've ever seen. Also funny and sweary.

youtu.be/zl-wAqplQAo?...

LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching

YouTube video by owen reiser

youtu.be

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Tristan Bantock @britishbugs.bsky.social · Aug 21

Thought I'd post something about separating Nysius senecionis and graminicola, as both are now widespread. The features to focus on are the extent of the matt field of the evaporatory area (the brown bit) and the length of the 1st hind tarsal segment relative to the 2nd and 3rd.

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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · Aug 16

At #EOU2025 @eounion.bsky.social conference next week, we'll show new evidence implicating forestry in declines of British Marsh Tits during the era of woodland conversion in 1950/60s-1980s.
This was period of steepest decline in Marsh Tits. Why? What was going on back then? #ornithology 1/5

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BSBI Botany @bsbibotany.bsky.social · Aug 14

We just published a new issue of #BritishandIrishBotany, our Open Access online journal.
7 papers for you to enjoy inc Lady's-slipper orchid reintroductions; variation in Restharrows; a new Comfrey hybrid for UK; montane plants; sea-grapes new to Europe!
bsbipublicity.blogspot.com/2025/08/brit...

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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) @ukceh.bsky.social · Aug 1

NEW! The latest UKCEH Land Cover Map, describing the UK land surface in 2024, is now available 🏞️ 🌳

See what broad habitats—ranging from broadleaved woodland and arable land to freshwater and urban areas— there are and where in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

#LandCover #LCM

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Map of UK and Ireland illustrating broad habitats in the UK and Northern Ireland as classified by the UKCEH Land Cover Map

Broad habitats from the UKCEH Land Cover Map for an area around Norwich in England

Broad habitats from the UKCEH Land Cover Map for an area more zoomed in around Norwich in England

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Pieter Vantieghem @pietervantieghem.bsky.social · Aug 5

Also, white stork is doing very well on the continent (partly due to reintroductions), see fe breeding trend in the Netherlands ((c) @sovonvogels.bsky.social ). No doubt this population outbreak will spread to the UK. Better to use limited funding for conservation to species that really need it.

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Biological Recording Company @biologicalrecording.co.uk · Jul 25

Most weevils have a snout, elbowed antennae & a heart-shaped foot—making them easy to recognise (with a few exceptions). 🪲

Learn more for free with @markgurn.bsky.social:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1491232379...

#Weevils 🧪
@amentsoc.bsky.social @britentsoc.bsky.social @royentsoc.bsky.social

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William (Bill) Sutherland @billsutherland.bsky.social · Jul 14

How do broomrapes find their hosts? How can they specialise on different hosts? Enter the astonishing world of strigolactones
. youtu.be/mUp9n_RW2eg?...

Host-specific broomrapes: the role of strigolactone cocktails

YouTube video by Bill Sutherland's Conservation Concepts

youtu.be

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Phillip Ayoub @payoub.bsky.social · Jun 28

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

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British Mycological Society @britmycolsoc.org.uk · Jun 12

The BMS's Field Mycology journal is now available to all on a new, open access online platform. Find out more, and visit the journal website to read the latest articles and access back issues here: www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/fm-journal.h...

Front cover of the Field Mycology journal, with a photo of Chromocyphella muscicola by Peter R. Smith

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Mark Gurney @markgurn.bsky.social · Jun 13

It looks like Lasiorhynchites to me.

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Birds of the World | The Cornell Lab @birdsoftheworld.bsky.social · Jun 11

A monumental taxonomy unification effort has just been published - thanks to all those who've collaborated for years to make this happen!
birdsoftheworld.org/bow/news/avi...

Birds of the World - AviList: A Unified Global Checklist of the World’s Birds is Now Available

AviList, a unified global checklist of birds, that provides the most current and authoritative taxonomy of birds around the world was released today by experts in taxonomy, nomenclature, and bioinform...

birdsoftheworld.org

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Mark Gurney @markgurn.bsky.social · May 30

Yes, it is another Philopedon plagiatum.

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Steve Dudley @stevedudley.bsky.social · May 19

Has the Nechisar Nightjar Mystery Been Solved?

A fascinating summary on the identity of the mysterious single wing found in Ethiopia in 1990.

www.aba.org/has-the-nech...

#birds #birding #ornithology @aba.org

Has the Nechisar Nightjar Mystery Been Solved? - American Birding Association

The authors of a new study believe they have solved one of the world’s great rare bird mysteries: the case of the Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala.

www.aba.org

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William (Bill) Sutherland @billsutherland.bsky.social · May 16

We trained 10 large language models with 6 retrieval strategies then compared all of these with our experts with access to literature. Well-trained LLMs won! General LLMs without extra training are likely to perform poorly and misinform decision-makers
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Careful design of Large Language Model pipelines enables expert-level retrieval of evidence-based information from syntheses and databases

Wise use of evidence to support efficient conservation action is key to tackling biodiversity loss with limited time and resources. Evidence syntheses provide key recommendations for conservation deci...

journals.plos.org

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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · May 13

Since we are still talking about interactions, I worked with some ecologists a couple of years ago on measurement scale, interactions and interpretation issues. I think some problems arise from failure to distinguish prediction from inference, a chronic problem in ecology imo doi.org/10.1111/brv....

Three common inferential errors when investigating context dependence in ecology. Consider a test of context dependence in its most basic form: a 2 × 2 factorial experiment, measuring an ecological response Y, to the crossing of factors X and Z, each with two levels. The analyst fits a statistical model with an interaction term to the data: Y ~ X + Z + X × Z, to test for and quantify context dependence. Three inferential errors are possible when the measurement scale or symmetry of the interaction are overlooked: detection and magnitude (Type D), sign (Type S) and misidentification of underlying processes (Type A).

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Aleix Palahí i Torres @aleixpalahi.bsky.social · May 12

1/6) New paper out in Molecular Ecology! We uncover the intriguing biogeographic history behind the Holarctic disjunct distributions in Vanessa butterflies. @phylomigrationlab.bsky.social
#biogeography #insectmigration #butterflymigration #butterflies #evolution
shorturl.at/UFrrU

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Birds on the Move @birdsmove.bsky.social · Apr 7

Every year, fewer #WhiteStorks cross the Straits of Gibraltar on their annual migratory journey. In this paper, we unveil the mechanisms driving the recent and rapid loss of their migratory behaviour.
👉https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2656.70035

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