Colin Beale
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cmbeale.bsky.social
Colin Beale
@cmbeale.bsky.social

Ecologist, ornithologist & nature lover.
Professor of ecology & conservation at the University of York.
Author of 101 Curious Tales of East African Birds.
Chair of A Rocha UK.

Environmental science 65%
Geography 16%

So, next up is this fabulous project with me and @funkyant.bsky.social on nomadic birds in East Africa. Fieldwork and fancy spatial statistics are on offer here, and who doesn't want birds like this fabulous, nonadic Temminck's Courser?! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

This afternoons light reading included NERC science's "Forward look". www.ukri.org/publications... I'm loving the brazen audacity with which they claim as their achievements the Paris climate accord, etc. It makes my own occasional hyperbole look positively unambitious! 🧪

Reposted by Nick A. Littlewood

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some fun PhD opportunities. Today, if you're into hydrology, forests and wading 🪶 in Scotland this one might be for you! 🧪 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
So I've been reading the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper. There's some good things in there. But when it comes to universities there's very little to cheer. The situation is very tough and will get worse. The last chance to preserve what we've got has passed. Let me explain why. (1/?)

This was an unexpected start to the morning!
A Glossy Ibis at Heslington East this morning at the west end wader scrape. Nice to have time for a quick bike twitch before work. Great find by @cmbeale.bsky.social ringing group
@nybirdnews.bsky.social @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

A Glossy Ibis at Heslington East this morning at the west end wader scrape. Nice to have time for a quick bike twitch before work. Great find by @cmbeale.bsky.social ringing group
@nybirdnews.bsky.social @yorkbirding.bsky.social

Reposted by Keith C. Hamer

This was a great paper to work with @tiff-ki.bsky.social and great to see it out now!
Really nice paper from @tiff-ki.bsky.social & co. shows no overall decline in butterfly species richness in Sulawesi over 166 yrs, but changing communities with endemics & forest specialists declining. Short-term trends unreliable measures of long term. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 🌏
Really nice paper from @tiff-ki.bsky.social & co. shows no overall decline in butterfly species richness in Sulawesi over 166 yrs, but changing communities with endemics & forest specialists declining. Short-term trends unreliable measures of long term. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 🌏

A great choice of someone who has done so much to inspire a new generation of ornithologists!
The Marsh Award for Ornithology goes to Dr. Rob Thomas! @robthomasbirds.bsky.social has made a huge contribution to ornithology through academic research, teaching & mentorship that’s inspired generations of students. He’s also published a monograph on the Storm-petrels. @marshawards.bsky.social

Fantastic news, Rob, many congratulations!
The Marsh Award for Ornithology goes to Dr. Rob Thomas! @robthomasbirds.bsky.social has made a huge contribution to ornithology through academic research, teaching & mentorship that’s inspired generations of students. He’s also published a monograph on the Storm-petrels. @marshawards.bsky.social

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

They’re back! Redwings.

A blog at

jonathanpomroy.wordpress.com

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

We are looking for a short-term residential volunteer to join the team from the 2nd to 19th October (+/-2 days). Tasks include morning bird monitoring (Point Counts / Visible Migration watches) and afternoon maintenance tasks (habitat/estate work)⬇️

Congrats to all those involved in the proposal writing!
Excited to share the preprint of our first @cascade-hei.bsky.social paper on “Potential for academic institutions to support international biodiversity commitments” 🌿 🌍.
Potential for academic institutions to support international biodiversity commitments
doi.org

I fear this bird visitor has had an unfortunate incident. She was sitting on our trellace looking dazed with a thread on her face & ruffled primaries this morning. Very cute, but wishing her well. Scarce locally, Goldcrests have already been turning up at the coast, so who knows where she's from?

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

Red-fronted Tinkerbird perched in the sun.

📍Mbuyuni Farm Retreat, Morogoro, Tanzania.

#Birds #NaturePhotography #Tanzania 🪶

This has been my experience too! With my bionic ears these days I can often hear things before the bright young students I hang out with sometimes!

Yes! I'm in the club too & well remember the first outing I took. I'd note that not all hearing aids are equal: I've had support from work to pay for somewhat more expensive ones to hear the birds I need to for research, & a proper outdoor setting & bluetooth ability to up amplification is good.

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

I wrote this short note on birding with hearing aids and thought I’d post the link here in case of interest/relevance to some birders out there
#birding #birdingScotland #birdingUK

chatterstanes.wordpress.com/2025/09/01/b...
Birding with Hearing Aids
A startling proportion of the UK population suffers from hearing loss, with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) indicating that one in five adults are deaf, have hearing loss or suffer…
chatterstanes.wordpress.com

Some different #birdringing today, as I'm at @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social on the east coast. It's still early autumn here, but a fantastic variety of #birds ringed this morning, with 8 warbler species including a fantastic wood warbler, and fun birds like this Pied Flycatcher and a young Sparrowhawk.

Thanks to all who have helped out with the season, and here's hoping there are birds aplenty for all! Roll on the autumn... All birds captured under license from @btobirds.bsky.social - find out more about ringing here: www.bto.org/get-involved... 5/5

Although I won't miss arriving on campus at 5am, I'm already wondering what season we'll have next year: will there be good over winter survival & a high population to start with? Will we be back to the glory days of 2021?! Monitoring is addictive - & contributes valuable data to national schemes. 4

have had their best years ever, including tits & blackbird. The number of reed warblers ringed is spectacular: we use only 21m of net in or adjacent to reeds, & we've caught ~90 individual reed warblers over the season! Rumour has it similar results may well be reported across UK.🤞3/5

After several years of declining numbers we started the year with very few adults & the first few sessions were slow, but productivity has been spectacular. Measuring juveniles per adult gives us a useful index of success that simply can't be done without bird ringing, & several species... 2/5

Today marked the end of our @btobirds.bsky.social Constant Effort Site ringing for 2025. We've run a site on campus for 5 years now. I think I might be the first to have a preliminary analysis of the season ready & great news: it has been a cracking breeding season here! #birds #ornithology 1/5

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

BOU @bou.org.uk · Jul 28
Check out this Senior Research Ecologist- Bioacoustics vacancy @btobirds.bsky.social

britishtrustforornithology.postingpanda.uk/job/734089

#ornithology 🪶

Reposted by Colin M. Beale

🎓🎉Huge congratulations to all our graduates!

A fantastic achievement and a lovely day celebrating all your hard work with family and friends.

Benefits only occurred in areas where cover was below 30%, a threshold people have suggested before. Although there's a lot of work on connectivity, empirical evidence that it impacts occupancy is rarer. Great work Charles & thanks to coauthors @janehillyork.bsky.social @anthropocenebio.bsky.social

Charles' work takes 800 species of 15 taxonomic groups with presence associated with UK woodland, and evaluates how important connectivity is above and beyond the simple impacts of area (landscapes with better conected woodland typically have more woodland in total too). He finds ~40% benefit. 2/