@wmgvs
Trying to understand the world from a bird's perspective 🐦 | Migration and movement ecologist at BirdEyes.org. | Guest researcher at ibed.uva.nl | Co-founder of batumiraptorcount.org Full portfolio at www.wouter-vansteelant.com
Classic agricultural methods boosting biodiversity!
Soils of surface-drained grasslands retained more moisture than soils of deeply drained grasslands. Moisture caused earthworms to contribute to soil processes and being available as food for meadow birds.
Open Access: doi.org/10.1016/j.ag...
Bird with a long bill surrounded by tall grass.
EARLY VIEW in IBIS
Free-living Black-tailed Godwits maintain constant intake rates across varying grassland habitat conditions by adjusting their foraging behaviour | doi.org/10.1111/ibi....
Renée Veenstra et al | #ornithology 🪶
Just noticed these upside down spikes in the corners of my hotel room in Spain. What a shitty way to keep the swallows and martins from nesting here. 😪
YOUNG GODWITS, GRAND FLIGHTS - Last autumn two young godwits that we feared to have died suddenly sent amazing data from Senegal. They had flown to West Africa in a non-stop flight. Among them W1WCCG, who achieved an AVERAGE speed >90km/h. 😳🤯
Read the story at: www.birdeyes.org/young-godwit...
It is so sad that we lost a major player in our field, actively interested involved until his last days, Gerard Boere.
Many thanks, Gerard, for so many years of great support to migratory waterbirds around the world and to people who care. RIP.
eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Looking for a PhD project in Movement Ecology or animal migration? This is an exciting project with an experienced team. #migration #Ornithology #GPStracking
Meta-analyse or perish ;)
Graphical abstract.
Ecological barrier crossing strategies in small migratory birds depend on wing morphology and plumage color | iScience | doi.org/10.1016/j.is... | #migration #ecology #ornithology 🌏🪶
![A blue and red feathered parakeet? with a simple bar magnet illustration overlayed on it, and yellow lines of force radiating out from the head. It also has the word "yes*" underneath it.
I stole this from a cover photo for a video on the topic from YouTuber "Learn with Kay" with title "Birds navigte with Magnets in their heads ??" [sic]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:r643qxafn6b3pxfffiodojbn/bafkreigvdthlwkzkkbjl63ykyyssyqbuhj4jxxkbxos6cfpanbfi7pwdv4@jpeg)
A blue and red feathered parakeet? with a simple bar magnet illustration overlayed on it, and yellow lines of force radiating out from the head. It also has the word "yes*" underneath it. I stole this from a cover photo for a video on the topic from YouTuber "Learn with Kay" with title "Birds navigte with Magnets in their heads ??" [sic]
We know that birds can sense magnetic fields for navigation. But how does that work?
Do they have little magnets wired up to their brains?
The most likely answer is 1000X times weirder than that, and involves quantum spin.
Let's talk about 'cryptochromes' & magnetic sensing.🧪
Short-toed Eagle. Photo by Nikolina Bukovac.
Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out!
As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people!
👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025
"Gewapend met verschillende netten togen we op 21 december, de kortste dag van het jaar, naar de geul waar Nala de laatste weken foerageerde. Een standaard garnalennetje bleek het perfecte net te zijn om lepelaar prooien te bemonsteren."
werkgroeplepelaar.org/nieuws/2025/...
Mooie (interim) job bij de Waddenvereniging voor een ervaren fondsenwerver. Om zuinig te zijn op dit kwetsbare UNESCO werelderfgoed vind jij gulle gevers om de natuur te beschermen én te herstellen.
waddenvereniging.nl/organisatie/...
And you for the nice discussion! Best of luck with all the exciting stuff you are developing.
On the train back home, still buzzing from some great days at @vogelwarte.bsky.social where Hans Schmid wrote "Getrennte Wege" - a classic synthesis of Honey Buzzard migration. A quarter century later the species has revealed a few more, but still not all of its migratory "Geheimnisse". #ornithology
Great day exploring the hills around Sempach ahead of a work visit to @vogelwarte.bsky.social. Good practice wt woodland birds of which I've seen very little since moving to Fryslan few yrs ago. Lovely soundscape wt whistling Red Kite, croaking Ravens, ticking Hawfinch, rattling of Mistle Thrush...
New funded PhD projects with @marius-somveille.bsky.social, myself and collaborators. Examining migratory connectivity for seabirds www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d... and and the dynamics of seasonal migration www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK742/p...
#ornithology
@ueaceec.bsky.social @ueaenv.bsky.social
Dispersal, maturation and recruitment in a long-lived, intercontinental migrant bird | www.sciencedirect.co... | Animal Behaviour | #ornithology 🪶
The meadows still have to flood, but the winter bird community at Blaugerzen is starting to form. The first Barnacle and White-fronted Geese are back, and mixed flocks of Lapwing, Starling and Golden Plover are on the fields again. They'll define the birding scene for next five months. #birding
Steppe Buzzards moving through the cloudy Batumi bottleneck. Photo by Tohar Tal.
The Station 1 team.
The Station 2 team.
The team of coordinators at station 3 — for a change.
1.5 MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅🤯
For the first time in BRC history, we have recorded a staggering 1.5 million raptors in a single autumn season — a true milestone after 17 years of counting!
Read more here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/brc17/2025/10/15-million-raptors
#ornithology #RaptorResearch
New visual story: Bird migration is one of nature’s greatest spectacles — and scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into how new threats are reshaping these epic journeys. Follow the remarkable travels of three birds as they fly across the planet. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The structure of the annual migratory flight activity in a songbird | royalsocietypublishi... | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | #ornithology 🪶
EARLY VIEW in IBIS
Challenges in population monitoring: Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) on the East Atlantic Flyway defy assumed population structure | onlinelibrary.wiley....
Jesse R. Conklin, Roeland A. Bom, Åke Lindström, Pierrick Bocher, Theunis Piersma | #ornithology 🪶
Teenagers SILENE and SPARTINA only reached France and N Morocco on their 1st journey in 2024. Now they caught the wave to W Africa! They flew together for 10h until SILENE split of to land in basins of a phosphate factory. Let's see how far they'll go! 2/2
www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci...
Over the past 2 weeks, no less than 10 Dutch GPS-#Spoonbills made the crossing from Iberia to Africa. They did so in classic Spoonbill fashion by starting the ocean-crossing near Cadiz, rather than taking the Strait of Gibraltar. 1/2 #ornithology
www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci...
GREAT DAY FOR EEL CONSERVATION
The Basque Country is the craddle of glass eel consumption
Today, the Basque Government has announced a ban on glass eel fishing due to eel's critical situation
Similar movements needed in Spanish @miteco.gob.es and EU @ec.europa.eu
www.eldiario.es/euskadi/gobi...
Today's totals! See our website for more details!
Steppe Buzzards. Photo by Filiep T'jollyn
After-count team photo - with perhaps the most beautiful rainbow ever seen in the background
170.000 RAPTORS IN ONE DAY!
After yesterday’s heavy rain and a quiet morning, today the sky exploded with Steppe Buzzards and large eagles! Continuing from 10 am until almost the end of the count.
At some point, we counted over 14.000 raptors in less than 20 minutes. THAT'S BATUMI!
#ornithology
After a super intense week with a back-to-back Spoonbill and Wader Study conference, its time to shift to lower gear for a bit. Starting the day with a slow stroll through the fog at Griene Dyk. Hoping for a Yellow-browed Warbler among the plentiful Gold- and Firecrests. #birding
Lesser Spotted Eagle - Photo by Eduardo Campos Wals
Lesser Spotted Eagle - Photo by Matthew Sprangers
Black Kite (left) and Steppe Eagle (right) - Photo by Matthew Sprangers
Lesser Spotted Eagle - Photo by Filiep T'jollyn
After the thrill of reaching the million, we went straight to the peak of diversity. The challenge of counting high numbers of birds slowly shifted into identifying the (relatively) fewer but more difficult ones: the large eagle species!
But they also brought a special guest along...👇
1/2
Thank you to all of today's speakers for a really interesting array of talks! So much great research, and more on the way tomorrow! #IWSG2025 #waders #shorebirds #ornithology
What an honour to open the 50th @waderstudy.bsky.social conference with a plenary on Spoonbill migration culture on the beautiful stage of DOT in Groningen. The Spoonbill-inspired concerto 'Solanum' by Tjibbe Stelwagen and Caspar Kootstra made for a perfect tandem wt the arts. #ornithology
