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 ⬇️

Did you miss the EGI-seminar by Alex Thornton a couple of weeks ago? Don’t worry, we got you covered!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=GXEa...

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 ⬇️

Reminder of today’s seminar at 1530 - actually will be in Lecture Theatre 1 - come along!!

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 🎃

Interested in a PhD in ornithology? Funding available for projects at the interface of ecology, behaviour & evolution from Oct '26 working on long-term population studies of tits at Wytham, based in @biology.ox.ac.uk in the new Life & Mind Building in Oxford
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Agreed! Creds to the organizers for a wonderful conference!

During house sparrow fieldwork this week at Helgeland, Northern Norway, we also managed to read the ring number of this common tern. Ringed as juvenile bird at Seal Sands, Teesmouth in August 2016, 1509 km away. Busy carrying fish back to the local colony.

Last fledge check of the season home in Norway today. Very low production this year, with most of the early broods failing. However, rather high density, with eggs in 137/186 boxes. Distribution:
Great tit 76
Blue tit 24
Pied flycatcher 27 (record high)
Coal tit 7
Nuthatch 2
Marsh tit 1

Interested in Postdoc Research here in Oxford? Many projects possible using long-term population studies of birds, field & lab experiments with insect consumers, phenology of trees all in Wytham woods & based in new Biology building
marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/calls/msca-p...

Now that the field season is coming to an end (first day off since late April, I decided to compile some stats of what I have done during the last month.

To check the 208 (reduced a bit in mid-May), I have walked a total of 446km with an accumulated elevation gain of 9431m!

New paper out🚨 Yimen Araya-Ajoy led this investigation on the impact of environmental and demographic stochasticity on (fluctuations in) growth rates in house sparrows. Also show how evolutionary change in body mass is driven more by drift than selection!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The first eggs have been laid in this, the 79th year of data collection in the Wytham Tit Project! First Blue Tit egg laid 2 April, first Great Tit 3 April. Looks like an early spring, with first oak leaves out, though the observed first egg dates fit the long-term pattern well
wythamtits.com#intro

The first great tit (and blue tit) egg in my round for the season! Marley Plantation early as always🥚

Todays nest-box round revealed some nests close to completion. Not many had started building tho. Yet! Also produced a less fancy Strava-map than @davididiaquez.bsky.social, but still looks cool from above!

Wonderful last couple of days at @portlandbirdobs.bsky.social! Med gulls, sandwich terns, black redstart, purple sandpipers, little owls, avocets, ring ouzels, lots of newly arrived migrants and more! All this in wonderful EGI company

Delighted to be hosting Prof Andy Dobson @andy2dobson.bsky.social for an EGI Seminar next week (Fri 14 March) on "The Eye of the Finch: Ecology and Evolution of an Emerging Avian Pathogen" All welcome at 3.30pm, Seminar Room in @biology.ox.ac.uk Mansfield Road