Sorry #ESAus2024, I’ve made a sneaky exit. I’ve got to get home to be yelled at by some tiny humans, er, I mean, parenting responsibilities. Thanks so much for having me. You’ve been swell. Get in touch!

Wren-watch 2024 - get on board! Our coordinated, multi council #citizenscience starts Sunday in Melbourne. Head to our page to see the list of partners and more resources than you can poke a stick at (or plug “superb city wrens” into your fave search engine). #urbanecology @hollykirk.bsky.social

Been a while since I was in a town where these beauties still stand tall #urbanforest #noticingnature

A huge, huge thanks to my collaborators, the 'road castle group'. We worked really hard (see pic) on this over a *really* long time, so it's a relief to see it out. 14/END besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

An unexpected side note: we found two very tricky biases that hinder studies (see pic). These are really important to look out for if you’re doing this type of research, because they can make it *look* like structures were successful, even if they aren’t. 10/n

In better news, there’s good evidence that adding a wildlife crossing structure is better than doing nothing! Most of the studies that looked at this question found improvements. Even adding vegetation cover or ledges to existing structures helped 9/n

A bit worryingly, we don't seem to be great at preventing movement declining - this only happened 9 out of 22 times it was measured. Often the amount of movement declines *even when* we build a wildlife crossing structure 8/n

Unfortunately, we don’t have good evidence that wildlife crossing structures can prevent a barrier effect or restore movement across an existing barrier. Instead, we usually have some kind of 'partial' mitigation 6/n

Most studies aren’t set up to measure whether wildlife crossing structures actually *change* the number of animals crossing the road. Only 14% asked ‘Did crossing structures improve movement?’, ‘Did they restore movement ?’, or ‘Did they prevent movement declining ?’ 4/n

Crossing structures definitely *allow* animals to cross roads. Less than 2% of the studies found animals using the crossing structure. Insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals of all shapes and sizes. So it’s true that ‘if we build it, they will come’ BUT 3/n

Most of us will have seen images of crossing structures like this by now. They’re becoming popular all over the world, for everything from crabs to cougars. But how well do they actually work? Do they mitigate the barrier effect of roads on wildlife movement?🧵coming

Here’s a fun little tale about Melbourne’s floating wetlands experiment. Featuring Science, Birds, Conservation, And Shania Twain #urbanwildlife #wildoz 🪶 🧪https://www.ecolsoc.org.au/bulletin/floating-wetlands-wildlife-habitat/

Bogong moth! Get home from a bike ride to find this little legend chilling on the balcony. They might not look like much, but they’re a critical part of Australian ecosystems and the focus of the Moth Tracker citizen science project. Let them know if you see one 🧪 mothtracker.swifft.net.au

In lieu of being able to post videos here, please enjoy this stunning image of a black swan family raised on one of Melbournes artificial floating wetlands. We super thrilled that efforts to reinstate nature to the river are cygnet approved! (📸Shahzad Siddiqui)

Hello inbox! Please remember that when I can’t do things for you, it’s because I have to do this for him. This is my second maternity leave and I thought it would be easier to find the balance. Dear reader, it is not #academicmama #maternityleave

Today’s Aussie Bird Count view: peak suburbia. Eleven species seen or heard flitting around this novel environment. Twenty minutes well spent.

Did you know that cities are great places for nature conservation? In fact, sometimes they’re *necessary*. Our research found 39 threatened species that ONLY occur in Australia’s urban environments. So we better get better at sharing cities with nature theconversation.com/the-39-endange…