Nick A. Littlewood

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 7h

Thanks Alan - a fairly key omission from my post!

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 17h

Cessation of grouse moor management and climate change scenarios are both predicted to drive declines in Red Grouse, Curlew and Golden Plover. Our paper in @jappliedecology.bsky.social, led by Tom Mason, combines these factors in modelling future population trends.

#conservationscience🌎

Infographic showing predicted impacts of management and climate change on Red Grouse, Curlew and Golden Plover.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 1d

A Black-throated Diver was highlight of today's @webs-gsmp.bsky.social count at Portsoy.

#birdingscotland

Very grainy side-on photo of a Black-throated Diver on the sea

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 2d

Scare Umber was another NFG (and new for hectad) in the garden trap this morning among an unseasonal 6 moths of 5 species. Others were another Rush Veneer, a female 𝘌𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢 (most likely November Moth), 2 Spruce Carpets and a 𝘉. 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢.

Portsoy (VC94, Banffshire)
#teammoth

Scare Umber moth - an adult, on egg tray

Rush Veneer moth - an adult on green foliage.

A female adult Epirrita species (likely November Moth) on an old fence post.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 5d

PhD-themed cake for Rob McHenry's viva celebration last week in Thurso.

Both were adorned with (tasty) Fox scat - very apt with the viva including much discussion of caprophagy (eating 💩) linked to predators' use of tracks in #peatlands.

@theflowcountry.bsky.social

Cake in shape of a Fox's head, with fox-coloured buttercream coating and surrounded by crunchy scat-shaped morsels on a crushed-biscuit surface to represent a track.

Rectangular cake with green background (representing moss surface to bog) some bog pools in blue and a track across middle with scattered scats represented by raisins. "Well done Rob" written across cake in red icing.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 7d

First time setting garden trap in several weeks - 4/4 was good going for here in November. Highlight were migrants, Dark Swordgrass (NFG) and Rush Veneer, December Moth was NFY and Angle Shades joined the party too.

Portsoy (VC94, Banffshire)

#teammoth
@migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Dark Swordgrass adult on dead dock flower head

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 8d

Nathusius' Pipistrelle becomes #mammal species 2️⃣6️⃣ for Red Moss of Netherly, NE Scotland.

Recorded on @openacousticdevices.info #Audiomoth during September's influx. Just a handful of detections, but this quasi-constant frequency burst looks convincing.

@scotwildlife.bsky.social
#bioacoustics

Spectrogram, showing six calls over one second with more-or-less constant frequency at around 38 kHz.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 10d

Another brilliant Flow Country Research Conference.

Big 🏆 for Roxane and team at UHI Thurso.

Great to see @rob-hughes-birder.bsky.social's PhD crammed into 30 mins. Loved the Icelandic word for Meadow Pipit and check out those German bog restoration lagoons.

@theflowcountry.bsky.social

Roxane Andersen in front of screen showing conference welcome slide.

Rob Hughes in front of screen with photo of a female Common Scoter.

Slide showing trends in birds at sites in Iceland, featuring Icelandic bird names

Slide showing bog restoration in Germany, including grids of rectangular flooded cells.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 10d

Top priority research need! Just literally been discussing issue of conifer spread and regen onto bogs this afternoon.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · 10d

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...

Rather famous scottish landscape with the west highlands railway looping through mountains. A forest plantation is evident. A few small people on the left are doing their best not to be recognised.

Colin Beale @cmbeale.bsky.social · 10d

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...

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 14d

Wild bees drive increased weight and seed set in apples. Increased Honeybee visitation has -ve affect on fruit weight.

Another reminder (as if needed) of importance of prioritising 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙙 bee conservation.

@jappliedecology.bsky.social
#pollinator

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 14d

Wasn't even the strongest of winds but a northerly blast does make for a lumpy sea.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 15d

Little Auks were limited to a couple of millisecond blurs of probables but a late Arctic Tern was interesting and a Bonxie powered through.

#BirdingScotland
@patchbirding.bsky.social

Adult Arctic Tern flying left just above horizon over stormy sea.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 15d

Seawatching in a northerly at Portsoy is hampered by lack of elevated shelter. I've been cowering next to a shipping container just above sea level, so would've missed flocks of albatrosses if they stayed low.

@patchbirding.bsky.social

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 18d

Many thanks to @countrysidejobs.bsky.social for highlighting distance learning opportunities.

Really grateful for opportunity to shout about our (award-winning) @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management MSc course in the process.

Countryside Jobs Service @countrysidejobs.bsky.social · 20d

Career flexibility has become ever more common, find out how a part-time, distance-learning postgraduate programme from @srucnews.bsky.social can help make the leap into your dream countryside job: c-js.uk/4nvy3yy

A group of students stand on a cliff looking out to sea. Text reads: Making the change. Challenges and opportunities of switching your career.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 19d

Work committments prevented a visit to the Rattray Head Eastern Nightingale until today. Fantastic bird - a real shower and very strange looking, reminding at times of a babbler. Think I'd have been bamboozled had I found it.

My first NE Scotland nightingale of any flavour.

#BirdingScotland

Eastern Nightingale on top of a fence post, facing mostly towards camera and with tail cocked.

Eastern Nightingale, side-on, on concrete ground with grass growing around edges and stone wall behind.

Eastern Nightingale on pointy-topped fence panel, with out-of-focus scrub behind.

Countryside Jobs Service @countrysidejobs.bsky.social · 20d

Career flexibility has become ever more common, find out how a part-time, distance-learning postgraduate programme from @srucnews.bsky.social can help make the leap into your dream countryside job: c-js.uk/4nvy3yy

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 20d

An "atmospheric" day for year-2 @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management students to collect moorland plant data at @hutton.ac.uk Glensaugh.

Ended with obligatory human chain to measure the giant Sitka Spruce in Drumtochty Glen - and it's still a 6-student circumference.

Three figures in the mist lumbering across a heather moor

Three figures in the mist, around a vegetation quadrat on a heather moor.

Four people visible forming a six-person chain around a large Sitka Source.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 23d

Two westbound Velvet Scoters off Portsoy this morning. Just seen one other since moving here two years ago. Now on 123 for the year - one off last year's total.

@patchbirding.bsky.social #BirdingScotland

Distant pic of two Velvet Scoters flying left just above horizon of a choppy sea.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 23d

Five species from a #smallmammal #cameratrap at Portsoy, Aberdeenshire - a mouse, two voles and two shrew species - including Water Shrew 😀

#mammal #trailcamera @nesmammals.bsky.social

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 26d

Wey-hey - grand achievement. That's about as many as ever recorded in NE Scotland!

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 26d

And there was a bonus Spoonbill (distantly) in a channel off Kinneil Nature Reserve.
#birdingscotland

Distant pic of a Spoonbill at edge of mud out across an estuary.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 26d

Big thanks to David of @savebutterflies.bsky.social and Bronwen of West Lothian Council Ranger Service, for enthusing us about their sites.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 26d

Fantastic Study Weekend with @srucnews.bsky.social Wildlife & Conservation Management MSc students. We visited sites from West Lothian through to the Trossachs, discussing site management and playing with ecology/wildlife monitoring toys!

#thermalimaging #drone #peatprobe

12 students and 2 lecturers posing for group photo in the sun on a woodland ride

Two people lifting peat roads out of a bog, showing depth of 5 or more metres. Three people looking on.

Lecturer, Colin Hardacre, about to catch by hand a drone that is returning to base.

Thermal imaging photo of 12 students, with faces showing red and more insulated areas a darker blue.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · 27d

Congratulations @laurasharp.bsky.social on being a poster prize winner at yesterday's North East Scotland Ecology Network science day. 🏆

Laura Sharp @laurasharp.bsky.social · 27d

Had a wonderful evening listening to a wide variety of talks at the North East Scotland Ecology Network science day.

I also had a chance to present a poster on my very preliminary field results, investigating how prescribed burning affects moorland #moth communities.

#TeamMoth #MothsMatter

My research poster showing preliminary results of a field study comparing moth communities on burned and unburned heather moorland in Scotland

Laura Sharp @laurasharp.bsky.social · 27d

Had a wonderful evening listening to a wide variety of talks at the North East Scotland Ecology Network science day.

I also had a chance to present a poster on my very preliminary field results, investigating how prescribed burning affects moorland #moth communities.

#TeamMoth #MothsMatter

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · Oct 6

Top patch bird. The Black-throated Diver of the finch world!

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · Oct 6

Into first week of our third year in Portsoy and still some "easy" patch ticks to be had; Barnacle Geese, yeserday, among post-Amy movement into Moray Firth. Also 10 Whoopers and an A𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘺𝘢 (that would've been #patchtick if ID nailed).

@patchbirding.bsky.social
#BirdingScotland

Six Barnacle Geese flying right to left against grey sky

Six Barnacle Geese flying right to left against a grey sky

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · Oct 4

Difficult viewing in Storm Amy (amber-warning wind) for a late afternoon look at Links Bay, Portsoy. Highlight was adult Med Gull at dusk. Singles of Wheatear and Common Tern both probably wished they'd had a bit more haste about migrating.

@patchbirding.bsky.social
#BirdingScotland

Grainy photo at dusk of an adult Mediterranean Gull, among pools on stony shore, with wings raised.

A Wheatear on bouldery shore, facing away from camera

A juvenile Common Tern by pools on a stoney shore. A Redshank is walking left in front of the tern.

Nick Littlewood @blackdogbirder.bsky.social · Sep 29

Took Wildlife Conservation & Management 1st years to Loch of Strathbeg today. They excelled by finding a juv Glossy Ibis. Four Great White Egrets was also a popular sight.

Greenshank, Goshawk and Barnacle Geese as supporting acts.

@srucnews.bsky.social
#birdingScotland

A Great White Egret flying right with wooden fence and trees in background

Back view of half a dozen students looking out of observation window in Loch of Strathbeg visitor centre.

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