Gareth Jones

The dusky warbler at Boscathnoe is tricky, though I managed some decent views yesterday.

One of my favourite signs of Spring is seeing the adders basking in the Cornish hedges. There's a rove beetle Paederus (presumed littoralis) in the second image.

We managed to catch up with the eastern black redstart at Sheringham and watch it singing, a week before its departure.

Firecrest in a lichen-covered tree.

More interesting Newlyn gulls - Bonaparte's and little.

A stunning show of the Aurora Borealis in St Ives last night.

Some good birds in Cornwall this month already: lesser scaup, ring-necked duck, lesser yellowlegs and Pallas's warbler .

Some interesting gulls at Newlyn yesterday: juvenile Iceland, adult yellow-legged and a herring gull (second-winter?) with a. well defined streaked head.

One of the two Pacific divers at Roskilly near Mousehole today.

Our new paper in PNAS, led by Megan Power: a large-scale study of telomere shortening in relation to reproductive costs in bats. Photo of one of the greater horseshoe bats we studied at Woodchester mansion by Hetty Metcalfe.

The female blue-winged teal on the Hayle Estuary showed well today.

A dream send off organised by my former PhD students, with people travelling from as far as Boston MA and Poland, and videos from Australia and NZ. I am so proud of them.

At least 2 snow bunting on the Island at St Ives recently, and the drake lesser scaup at Helston Boating Pond.

A privilege to receive a Distinguished Service Award for 40 years of continuous service at the University of Bristol.

Here's the original

Photoshop's AI did a decent job of removing a barbed wire fence above the bird's head and a fencepost close to its tail.

Interesting subspecies: steppe grey shrike and Greenland white-fronted goose in Cornwall. Only 15,000 geese remain after being hit by climate change. The shrike's taxonomy is debated, though is currently recognised as conspecific with the great grey shrike.

Some good birds in Cornwall at present including photogenic lesser yellowlegs and ring-necked duck.

Great sea watch from St Ives on Saturday with great views of at least 6 first-cycle long-tailed skuas.

Chysauster Ancient Village was great to see and hosted a splendid wryneck.

Great to see two phalarope species close up on the same pool.

Ones to watch our for in the future: glossy ibis (29), osprey and white-tailed eagle at Chew Valley Lake.

Smart red-belted clearwing in the garden today.

New paper from the lab led by Raphael Reinegger: surveying macaques by using thermal cameras on drones. Raphael's work was covered by Science in March. www.science.org/content/arti...

RIsso’s dolphins.

Alpine accentor in beard lichen, Aire Point, West Cornwall.

Sparrowhawk eating a feral pigeon, Lyme Regis.

My last practical class! A great one to finish with and a gift of coasters containing vole bones in resin from the tech team. A peregrine did a flyby as I left the building. I'm not going yet - a new research project on ageing started on the same day.

A splendid male hawfinch.

The Cornwall booted eagle showing its 'landing lights' when viewed front-on.