Denise Wawman
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denisewawman.bsky.social
Denise Wawman
@denisewawman.bsky.social
Bird ringer. Birder. UK Hippoboscidae Recorder (flat flies/louse flies/keds). Former NHS GP, studying flat flies & keds role as vectors and avian diseases. Bird related side projects. Natural history. Based in Oxford and on Exmoor.
Reposted by Denise Wawman
It's that time of year again, Dipterists Forum 'Dipterists Day & AGM' 🪰

Nov 14th 2025- a day in the Museum of Zoology, Cambridge Diptera collections

Nov 15th 2025 - Dipterists Day and AGM

For more details please go to dipterists.org.uk/events/dipte...
November 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
New #OpenAccess work in #RESMedVetEnt by @denisewawman.bsky.social, @sheldonbirds.bsky.social & A.L. Smith reports on how #CitizenScience reveals host-switching in louse flies & keds (#Diptera: #Hippoboscidae) during a period of anthropogenic change
doi.org/10.1111/mve.70029

@wileyeco.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 2:03 PM
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
November 1, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Another new Hippoboscidae described, this time from Singapore.
October 31, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
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 🎃
October 27, 2025 at 9:28 AM
I suppose I ought to start thinking about what I am going to talk about - flat flies I guess!
BTO talks are on waterbird monitoring, WinGS & the Heathland Birds Survey. Local speakers include Dartmoor Curlew Recovery Project 2021-2025 by Jon Avon, Mapping the UK’s Flat Flies by Dr Denise Wawman, Cornish Chough Project by Hilary Mitchell & #WildlifeGardening by @brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social
October 20, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Is it fair for grant reviewers — who are often our colleagues — to judge the legitimacy of career breaks due to personal circumstances?

go.nature.com/48yaJvF
Parenting, illnesses and medical commitments: the private details grant reviewers shouldn’t need to know
Is it fair for grant reviewers — who are often our colleagues — to judge the legitimacy of career breaks due to personal circumstances?
go.nature.com
October 16, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Description of Ornithomya palmae, a new species of louse fly from the Canary Islands is published with @borjamila.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
October 14, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
JOB ALERT: We have an exciting Senior Research Assistant post available for a project tracking predators and prey simultaneously starting early 2026. We need someone with experience tagging adult raptors or wader chicks. This you? app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car...
October 8, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Any comments on this gull, please.
Tesco's carpark, Minehead, Somerset, UK. April 2025.
Black eye but eye-ring is yellowish.
Third winter Herring Gull that has survived avian influenza?
@tmbirding.bsky.social
October 4, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
New preprint alert! We DNA barcoded 95 thousand Ghanaian arthropods, more than doubling the number of BINs (a species proxy) available online from West Africa. In doing so we’ve released a huge amount of new data to scientists studying the region 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Characterising a species-rich and understudied tropical insect fauna using DNA barcoding
Background: West Africa has high biodiversity that is relatively understudied, especially for insects. Studies of West African arthropod diversity can therefore help address important questions regard...
www.biorxiv.org
October 2, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
We're looking for a new postdoc on our new BBSCR grant (Graham Taylor/Tim Guilford/Cait Newport). See link below!

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
September 19, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Some stuff I learned today at #Ento25:

1. Honeybee threats to native pollinators were already known about 89 years ago in the US.
2. There is a louse fly on Nightjars, recently newly recorded in the UK.
3. Ladybirds rock (okay, I already knew that!).

@royentsoc.bsky.social
@alanknox.bsky.social
September 10, 2025 at 10:24 PM
The cloud finally cleared a while after totality of tonight’s lunar eclipse.
September 7, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Hummingbird Hawk-moth, on Valerian, Minehead, yesterday evening. #TeamMoth
August 31, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Calling all mothers trappers…. Check out this great project from @ukceh.bsky.social
Do you do moth trapping in the UK? We'd love your help! 💡

At @ukceh.bsky.social we're training & testing AI to detect multiple moths in a single image.

Send us top-down photos of multiple moths on egg trays to support this work.

More info & form: forms.gle/e3HzBPEd7RVV...

#mothsmatter #TeamMoth
August 28, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Burnished Brass [Diachrysia chrysitis] with Parasitic Wasp takeover (I think). Interesting to watch. Any help with identification? Never seen this behaviour before. @norfolkmoths.bsky.social @timstrudwick.bsky.social

#norfolk #moths #teammoths #muchadoaboutmothing
August 22, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Humans outperform Merlin Sound ID in field-based point-count surveys | doi.org/10.1093/orni... | Ornithological Applications | #ornithology 🪶
August 13, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
New paper: rdcu.be/eyR0w

Great to see this one out, concerning findings but a lot more to understand about the ecology and transmission of AMR bacteria in wild bird populations and at bird feeders #ornithology 🧪
High prevalence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria in faecal samples from UK passerine birds
Scientific Reports - High prevalence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria in faecal samples from UK passerine birds
rdcu.be
August 4, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Weekend challenge, can you get further than the second paragraph of this paper without falling asleep? Or maybe you just need something to help you to dose off?
In case you are wondering, it's part of the second chapter of my DPhil. doi.org/10.1007/s116...
Clarifying the Taxonomy of the Finch Louse Fly Ornithomya Fringillina (Curtis) (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) – An Analysis of Morphotypes - Acta Parasitologica
Background The louse flies in the genus Ornithomya Latreille are avian ectoparasites. The patterns of alar microtrichia on the wings of the Ornithomyae are commonly used to help distinguish the variou...
doi.org
August 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Wild great tits display early behavioral signs of pair separation during winter, with less time spent together predicting a higher likelihood of "divorce" before the next breeding season.
Great tits show early signs of splitting up, providing social clues to bird 'divorce'
In a discovery that deepens our understanding of animal social bonds, a study led by University of Oxford researchers in collaboration with the University of Leeds has demonstrated that wild great tits exhibit clear behaviors signaling "divorce" long before the breeding season.
phys.org
July 29, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Must time for bed, a Nightjar is flying around the field outside my window.
July 13, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Denise Wawman
Reposted by Denise Wawman
In an unconscionable decision, the Smithsonian Institute has decided to no longer support the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 1 Jan 2026. Please someone step up and take it over.
Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research.
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...
Call for Support: – About BHL
about.biodiversitylibrary.org
July 2, 2025 at 3:56 PM
You can click on the link to see the figures for your region, country or city.
showyourstripes.info/c/europe/uni...
Show Your Stripes
Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe
showyourstripes.info
June 21, 2025 at 9:18 PM