Ben C. Sheldon | Lightnews

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3h

Details of this week's @egioxford.bsky.social seminar - all welcome, either in person (LaMB LT2, 1530 Fri 14 Nov), or online - details of how to get link in the poster below

Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 19h

Welcome to this week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk when Prof Craig White @craig-white.bsky.social from @monashbiol.bsky.social will talk on The Evolution of Metabolic Rate and Life History: 3.30pm Fri 14 Nov in Lecture Theatre 2 in the Life & Mind Building. Also live-streamed: instructions ⬇️

Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 19h

Welcome to this week's EGI seminar in @biology.ox.ac.uk when Prof Craig White @craig-white.bsky.social from @monashbiol.bsky.social will talk on The Evolution of Metabolic Rate and Life History: 3.30pm Fri 14 Nov in Lecture Theatre 2 in the Life & Mind Building. Also live-streamed: instructions ⬇️

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d

Careful dissection of genetic association claims in a couple of recent studies of human genetics

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Confounding fuels misinterpretation in human genetics | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

The scientific literature has seen a resurgence of interest in genetic influences on human behaviour and socioeconomic outcomes. Such studies face the central difficulty of distinguishing possible cau...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d

'an almost Shakespearean decline'... seems rather revealing of his inflated sense of his own importance.

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 3d

Reminder of today’s seminar at 3.30

Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 8d

We're all looking forward to this week's seminar, being given by Kristen Ruegg from Colorado State University on the power of avian landscape genomics in the Genoscape Project. Seminar at 3.30pm on Friday 7 Nov in Lecture Theatre 1 in LaMB. Welcome in person or to join online - details ⬇️

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 4d

Truly the year that keeps on giving!

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 4d

🤩

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d

I've always been tempted by them!

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 5d

View from my office window in the new @biology.ox.ac.uk building. I didn’t *ask* to be put somewhere with a Rook colony right outside the window but it worked out pretty well 🤓

Jennifer Morinay @jennifer-morinay.bsky.social · 6d

🚨 Come join the fantastic long-tailed tit team 🚨
🐦We are recruiting a field technician to collect behavioural data on a long-term studied population of wild long-tailed tits (passerine birds).
🪶20 months contract in Sheffield, UK.
🌲Deadline: 23/11/2025.
jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Technici...

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 6d

This is an exciting project as part of an exciting larger grant - excellent opportunity

Andreas Nord @cyanistesnord.bsky.social · 6d

I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇
shorturl.at/WA1Qa

Would appreciate a re-post!

@evoldir.bsky.social

Andreas Nord @cyanistesnord.bsky.social · 6d

I am recruting a #postdoc for a project investigating the evolution of avian heat tolerance in @erc.europa.eu project #HotLife. Fieldwork over broad latitudinal gradients, common-garden experiments, and more. Read more and apply👇
shorturl.at/WA1Qa

Would appreciate a re-post!

@evoldir.bsky.social

Department of Biology, Lund University @biologylu.bsky.social · 6d

We're hiring! Post-doctoral fellow in evolutionary ecology w/focus on ecophysiology.
Uncover why global warming and heatwaves reduce reproductive success and cause excess mortality in wild birds. Work with @cyanistesnord.bsky.social 👏

Please apply no later than 25 November.
👉 lnkd.in/dkAh9jnc

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 6d

This video summary (I think a new innovation for the RBBP) is excellent

The Rare Breeding Birds Panel @ukrbbp.bsky.social · 6d

Our report for 2023 is out now in @britishbirds.bsky.social. There's a summary at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... but if you prefer to watch rather than read then here's RBBP secretary @markaeaton.bsky.social with a few key points and some lovely photos! #ornithology #ukbirds youtu.be/arj1m7NfKmY

Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2023

YouTube video by Rare Breeding Birds Panel

youtu.be

The Rare Breeding Birds Panel @ukrbbp.bsky.social · 6d

Our report for 2023 is out now in @britishbirds.bsky.social. There's a summary at rbbp.org.uk/2023-report-... but if you prefer to watch rather than read then here's RBBP secretary @markaeaton.bsky.social with a few key points and some lovely photos! #ornithology #ukbirds youtu.be/arj1m7NfKmY

Rare Breeding Birds in the UK in 2023

YouTube video by Rare Breeding Birds Panel

youtu.be

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 6d

We are working on the merch...😉 But this artwork is from Kristen's Lab

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 7d

Quite a masterpiece of economy of information to length there!

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 7d

This week's EGI seminar - 3.30 on Friday in @biology.ox.ac.uk with Kristen Ruegg on the Bird Genoscape Project. Also live-streamed; details below

www.birdgenoscape.org

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 8d

Dawn visit to Otmoor this morning rewarded with the elusive Water Pipit that's been around here the last few days in front of screen 1. Never close, light poor, and always looking nervous but a tricky species to see locally these days.

Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 8d

We're all looking forward to this week's seminar, being given by Kristen Ruegg from Colorado State University on the power of avian landscape genomics in the Genoscape Project. Seminar at 3.30pm on Friday 7 Nov in Lecture Theatre 1 in LaMB. Welcome in person or to join online - details ⬇️

Steve Portugal @sjportugal.bsky.social · 8d

Once a year I like to remind myself and others how amazing Guira Cuckoo eggs are!

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 9d

Are you sure about the Crossbills? The current AviList checklist has Parrot and Scottish still as distinct (as well as Cassia, Red & Hispaniolan)

www.avilist.org/checklist/v2...

The Checklist v2025

The AviList team worked for four years to harmonize the global checklist of birds. The final product includes a consensus taxonomy combined with a full set of taxonomic and nomenclatural components, t...

www.avilist.org

Denise Wawman @denisewawman.bsky.social · 9d

More Mapping the UK's Flat Flies Project results published today with Adrian Smith & @sheldonbirds.bsky.social 212 host-parasite interactions, including 70 not previously reported, & a recent switch to gulls by some Louse Flies, Hippoboscidae. @btobirds.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Citizen science reveals host‐switching in louse flies and keds (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) during a period of anthropogenic change

A study of louse flies in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, and Ireland found 212 different interactions between Hippoboscidae and their hosts, of which 70 were previously unrecorded. No louse flies ...

doi.org

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 11d

Reminder of today’s @egioxford.bsky.social seminar from @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social in @biology.ox.ac.uk - will actually be in Lecture Theatre 1

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 14d

We’re kicking off the year’s EGI seminars this Friday - follow @egioxford.bsky.social for details of these & forthcoming jobs, papers etc

Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 15d

Now that we're properly moved in & set up in the new Life & Mind Building, we're pleased to restart our tradition of Friday afternoon seminar speakers, kicking off with Alex Thornton of @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social at 3.30pm on 31 Oct. Also live streamed: see below for details. Corvid-themed for 🎃

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 12d

A very close singing Coal Tit yesterday morning - fascinating to see these almost perfectly regular repeated motifs in the song with very rapid changes over huge frequency range. Must require some very precise neuromuscular control of bird's vocal system
macaulaylibrary.org/asset/644354...

Part of a sonogram of a singing Coal Tit

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 12d

Interesting: it immediately ID-d an inland bird (here in Oxford) a couple of weeks ago. We had a wintering one for 3-4 weeks back in 2023; perhaps that is enough to tip the algorithm

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 12d

Coming up soon (9 am today) an opportunity to hear this classic episode of In Our Time on Bird Migration featuring Tim Guilford of @biology.ox.ac.uk

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Bird Migration

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how birds navigate and the risks and benefits of migration

www.bbc.co.uk

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 12d

Private Eye nailing it.

A story in Private Eye, headlined "Minority representation on TV causes outrage". The article reads: "There has been widespread support for prominent Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she complained about the over-representation of minorities on television.

Said one angry viewer, "She's right. Every time you turn on the telly there's another Reform MP being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg."

She added, "I respect their way of life and their strange customs, but Reform MPs comprise only 0.7 percent of the House of Commons. Yet Nigel Farage is on Question Time more than Fiona Bruce."

"I'm not prejudiced. Some of my best friends are swivel-eyed loons, but enough is enough. There are too many people with angry red faces on television."

Tom Bedford @tombedford.bsky.social · 13d

If you are in the Oxford area next Thursday, I’m giving a talk on the birds of the Lye Valley area. It’s a multimedia presentation (pictures and calls!) covering the resident and migratory birds recorded in this part of the city. See you there!

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#Oxonbirding
#Oxford

Flyer designed by the local eco group. Thursday 6th November, 7:30pm, Coach House, Quarry Road, Oxford OX3 8NU - see you there!

Vladimir Pravosudov @cognitiveecol.bsky.social · 13d

I am looking for a postdoc to work in our long-term system of food-caching mountain chickadees in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The expected start is April 2026. Please see details here: chickadeecognition.com/positions
If interested and qualified, please contact me directly (email on the website).

POSITIONS

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chickadeecognition.com

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