Chris Foster
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chrisfoster.bsky.social
Chris Foster
@chrisfoster.bsky.social
410 followers 360 following 250 posts
The twit formerly known as hatbirder. Insects, birds, etc. Lecturer in ecology / entomology at University of Reading. See also @carabidaeuk.bsky.social.
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chrisfoster.bsky.social
On the major plus side, here's our local Starling roost. They may only count once for #footit but I feel mega abundance should get bonus points....Great White Egret flying through and a very overdue first Grey Heron of the year make it 54 species on foot since January 1st.
A large flock of Starlings against a dark blue sky with silhouettes of trees in the foreground A large flock of Starlings against a dark blue sky with silhouettes of trees in the foreground
January 10, 2026 at 6:19 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
My favourite scrubby accidental 'wilding' field for spring warblers in the middle of Newbury has fallen victim to a 'conservation' project. I will enquire about the intended replacement but I can't imagine it being an improvement on what was a nice mosaic of scrub, small trees and tall grassland.
January 10, 2026 at 4:43 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Cetti's Warbler, Little Egret roosting and a flyover pair of Goosanders (another fine patch tick) make 52 species for #footit @footit.bsky.social
chrisfoster.bsky.social Chris Foster @chrisfoster.bsky.social · 6d
Another delightfully wintry day. Somebody forgot to order a white Christmas so we got a white Epiphany instead! Went out for just 15 minutes and 4 Snipe dropped into the (very ordinary) field nearest our house for #footit 49.

Meanwhile the cat continues to enjoy walking across the garden pond 🙃
A domestic cat on a red harness and lead walks across a small snow-covered frozen garden pond. A snow covered canal and towpath with rows of trees on either side A garden holly bush with plenty of red berries and a dusting of snow
January 7, 2026 at 6:08 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Another delightfully wintry day. Somebody forgot to order a white Christmas so we got a white Epiphany instead! Went out for just 15 minutes and 4 Snipe dropped into the (very ordinary) field nearest our house for #footit 49.

Meanwhile the cat continues to enjoy walking across the garden pond 🙃
A domestic cat on a red harness and lead walks across a small snow-covered frozen garden pond. A snow covered canal and towpath with rows of trees on either side A garden holly bush with plenty of red berries and a dusting of snow
January 6, 2026 at 8:55 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
I can confirm my face is both smug and self-righteous 😂
January 6, 2026 at 8:42 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
A distractingly beautiful morning meant I couldn't resist a much longer walk from home than planned. Siskins *everywhere* glowing in the low sun. Lapwing and Golden Plover flocks going over bring #footit total to 47 species.
January 5, 2026 at 7:02 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Abundant Hawthorn and abundant Redwings on a 2 hour tramp from home at lunchtime. Otherwise slow going, 36 species but Redpoll and Stonechat were nice patch ticks. #footit @footit.bsky.social
January 1, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Chris Foster
thelabandfield.bsky.social
On the first day of Christmas (in about 2014), @duckswabber.bsky.social gave to me - a partridge in a pear tree.

Happy Christmas everyone!
December 25, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Chris Foster
ukecn.bsky.social
PhD opportunity using long-term data & experimental results to develop a model to predict ground beetle species responses under woodland management scenarios. With @uniofreading.bsky.social ding.bsky.social, @forestresearchuk.bsky.social & @ukceh.bsky.social blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c...
A ground beetle, Carabus problematicus. Photo by Roy Anderson
December 2, 2025 at 1:59 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
If only we could bottle the optimism of rail apps that always assume late running trains will magically make up time rather than losing more by being out of position 🚂🕐
November 24, 2025 at 11:40 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
What fresh HR hell is this?
November 20, 2025 at 1:02 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Excited to have a ground beetle project @carabidaeuk.bsky.social open for applications in @crocus-dla.bsky.social. Nice mix of analysing long-term data, fieldwork and time at @forestresearchuk.bsky.social, assessing trends in woodland carabids. Please share!

blogs.reading.ac.uk/crocus-dla/c...
CR2026_58 – Crocus DLA
blogs.reading.ac.uk
November 19, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Chris Foster
stephencollins.bsky.social
If you're a National Trust member, it's that time of year again: Midnight tonight is the deadline. It's a shame people have to keep doing this to keep a toehold on historical truth in this country, but here we are. Voting link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/a...
[Scene is the entrance cabin to a NATIONAL TRUST PROPERTY AND GARDENS] 1 NATIONAL TRUST EMPLOYEE [inside cabin]: Hello there 2 [A young family - two parents two kids - have arrived at the front desk]. DAD: Hi - do you have an activity trail, for the kids? 3 NT EMPLOYEE: Of course – you’re just in time for the Autumn Gammon Trail! 4 MUM: That sounds fun, doesn’t it kids? 5 NT EMPLOYEE [handing an activity sheet and pencils to the kids]: Every autumn, the Reform Trust gammons flock back to the National Trust for the AGM. Just follow the trail round the grounds, and see how many you can spot! 6 NT EMPLOYEE [hearing something in the gardens]: Listen - that's their call [Calls emanating from the landscape]: tut-tut woke-woke 7 NT EMPLOYEE [showing the family an apparently empty fenced enclosure with some bushes in]: They are extremely sensitive and fragile... But you can bring them out of hiding if you put a little sign down mentioning slavery. 8 KIDS [pointing]: There they are! [Some little red faced PEOPLE wearing Barbour jackets and gilets emerge cautiously from the bushes. They are creeping towards a TINY SIGN in the middle of the enclosure]. [Little people noises]: woke-woke tut-tut woke-woke 9 [Close-up of the TINY SIGN - we can read that it says]: Slavery had a bit to do with building this massive house. [Noises from the little people again as they inspect the tiny sign]: tut-tut woke-woke 10 MUM [pointing]: What's that one doing there? NT EMPLOYEE: Oh, that's so sweet… 11 [We see that one of the people is sat on a rock, with a little laptop open on a tree stump, and they are furiously typing away]. NT EMPLOYEE: I think he's writing a column for the Daily Telegraph… 12 [We see close up to the little person’s screen, it is a word document reading]: Are National Trust scones secretly WOKE? [ends]
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Splashes of October colour on Greenham Common this morning while a Woodlark sang (listen below! 👇)
October 18, 2025 at 11:50 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Redwings!
October 12, 2025 at 6:42 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Ah, happy memory of a formative and necessary experience as a politician at any level - being slightly misquoted out of context by the press 😆
October 6, 2025 at 11:09 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
I'm delighted to announce that I am....not the new Archbishop of Canterbury, despite 'rich hat priest follows mitre' being an anagram of my full name.
October 3, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Chris Foster
acespacenewbury.bsky.social
ACE Space Newbury‬
‪@acespacenewbury.bsky.social‬
· 8m
A busy October for #livemusic at ACE Space, Newbury

Fri 3 Oct - Unplugged Open Mic
Sat 4 Oct - Annie Keating Band
Sat 18 Oct - Mark Harrison Band

acespace.org.uk/events/
September 30, 2025 at 5:18 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Great Green Bush Cricket from a park in Potsdam earlier this month. Strikingly yellow legs on this individual
September 29, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Chris Foster
nicolawriting.bsky.social
Exciting news that the Kennet Valley Wetland Reserve has finally been given the go-ahead. The ancient, but innovative, rural town of #Hungerford & its unique Town & Manor (that upholds commoners rights, keeps commons & open spaces for all) will be creating a new wildlife & community reserve 1/2
September 28, 2025 at 7:59 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Turns out, German trains are indeed actually worse than ours which is pretty impressive. At least we usually get announcements on the train.
September 18, 2025 at 11:51 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
What's the earliest we should be worried about a general election happening, and what slightly more sensible (if any are left by then) other countries might take in political refugees?
September 8, 2025 at 2:44 PM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Kevin and the rest of us are looking forward to welcoming you!
taphonomist.bsky.social Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · Sep 8
Very excited to announce that I will be joining the staff at @uniofreading.bsky.social in the new year.

Especially looking forward to working alongside Kevin the Ichthyostega and the team at the @colezoology.bsky.social as part of my new role.
Picture of a smiling Ichthyostega called Kevin. He is a chonk.
September 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Chris Foster
tfinch.bsky.social
I really like this paper, which models patterns and drivers of occupancy change across GB for 1252 insect species. Especially like Fig 5 which shows the most important negative and positive drivers for each grid square #conservationscience 🌍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The drivers are ordered by geographical coverage for which they are the key cause of increased predicted probability of presence (A) and decreased predicted probability of presence (B). The percentage values in the legend indicate the proportion of the map covered by each of the colours. For example, B shows that increases (↑) in the proportion of urban cover and decreases (↓) in the proportion of broadleaf forest are the first causes of degradation in 17% and 5% of the map respectively.
September 4, 2025 at 7:28 AM
chrisfoster.bsky.social
Looking forward to seeing everyone at Ento25 this coming week @royentsoc.bsky.social. This memory popped up today, entomophagy at Ento15 in Dublin! As I recall the ants were quite piquant.
September 6, 2025 at 11:21 AM