I’ve been on a self-imposed news embargo since 6th Nov. However, it’s impossible to avoid hearing some of it - and it’s never better than I expect. Here are some Durham scenes from today to promote (unjustified) calm.

Nice to have the excuse to spend a bit of time in @nlandnp.bsky.social last week, bathed in winter sun (at times).

Another fully-funded PhD via @netgain.bsky.social:
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Led by Flurina Wartmann, @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social
Deadline 31 Jan

Fully-funded PhD on "Meeting commitments to biodiversity conservation: developing a framework for predicting and monitoring the potential contributions of nature markets", with the OEP & @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

@netgain.bsky.social programme

Deadline 31 Jan

The MammalWeb project is not yet on Bluesky, so I'm posting their Winter Newsletter. It highlights some fantastic achievements over the last few months, project updates, and information on a festive competition with £100s of Field Studies Council vouchers to be won. Enjoy!
👉 tinyurl.com/MWDec24

The value of simulation before analysis: @chrissuthy.bsky.social talks through work led by @ambercowans.bsky.social, yielding some cautionary lessons for users of species co-occurrence models.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#BES2024

Christine Howard Explaining the journeys of trans-Saharan migrant birds: drivers of routes and timings - remarkable fits from simple models.
#BES2024

Great talk by Charlotte Sharpe on her use of camera traps and Littlewood boxes (@blackdogbirder.bsky.social) to search for Greater White-toothed Shrews in north east England. #BES2024.

Still waters in Liverpool. #BES2024

Just made it to Liverpool for #BES2024. Maybe see some of you here …

... and, as I can't give all the airtime (pardon the pun) to the birds ...

Hello Bluesky. I wasn't really sure what my first post here should be, so I thought, why not these guys from a recent #DurhamUniversity ecology field course in #Mpala, Kenya? After all, they know a thing or two about blue skies.