Mike Shewring

Sphagnum medium on Cors Fochno

Sphagnum austinii on Cors Fochno

A peat bund holding water on Cors Fochno

Saw some familiar friends (people & mosses) during my first week with @peatlandcymru.bsky.social as part of the NPAP survey team. Been a long time since I’ve been back to Cors Fochno and it was great to see the parts of the peatland I did my MSc on years ago still with Sphagnum austinii hummocks

Curlew nest site. Photo: Eleanor Rivers

Figure 9 from the article: a) Mean ± SE daily nest survival rate in dry heath, mire and wet heath, without a time component; (b)–(e) daily nest survival rate: (b) in the three habitats throughout the nesting period (day 1–67): mire = red, wet heath = blue and dry heath = black; (c) in relation to proportional area of mire in 500 m buffer round nests; (d) in relation to proportional area of scrub in 500 m buffer round nests; (e) in relation to distance from woodland (m).

🚨 Top-downloaded 2024/25: Eurasian curlews strongly avoid nesting near a major road passing through the study site, despite the habitat being suitable for breeding, underscoring how human-altered landscape features can override habitat suitability.

➡️ vist.ly/4tpkb

#ornithology #birds 🪶

🌎Check out our new #paper which analyses #AI-generated representations of #rewilding produced by different chatbots alongside visual and textual materials from UK rewilding advocacy organisations. #Rewilding #CriticalAIAnalysis #ConservationScience #NatureRecovery

Dipwell (actually stilling well) 1 in a ditch

Dipwell 23, a pipe in a Molinia bog

Looking back on photos from instrumenting the bog this last week, it’s become clear to me that somewhere in the four days of lone working between installing dipwell 1 and dipwell 23, i did in fact lose my mind

Road-induced ecohydrological changes in peatlands: Long-term dynamics and controlling factors The central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China.This study used the DigiBog_Boreal model to simulate 300-year peatland dynamics under road disturbance, asses…

Excited to see the DigiBog model, in this case DigiBog_Boreal, used by other research groups:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A forest to bog site in south wales, the trees are about 400m away, shrouded by heavy rain and fog. The site is covered in tree stumps

A logging stilling well in a ditch on a forest to bog restoration site

A logging stilling well in a ditch on a forest to bog site. The yellow thread lock is actually Rimmel London quick dry nail varnish which works better and is much cheaper than the commercial alternative. Don’t tell anyone, trade secret

Absolutely shocking weather but still managed to get some logging dipwells and stilling wells into the bog today. Two sites down, three to go before the end of the week!

A dead or dying Sitka spruce on a mound of peat excavated for planting

A dead Sitka spruce on a mound of drying peat left from planting

A dead Sitka spruce on a mound of peat excavated for planting, next to the pit the peat was dug out from

Some VERY healthy and happy looking Sitka that were planted on deep peat on a site I work on. I’m of course devastated about it. Check out the cracking on that excavated peat dollop. Hard to even think about the carbon balance for planting on 1m+ of peat when the trees don’t even survive 18 months

Glad they are dying tbh. Can’t believe they were ever planted. I understand Natural resources wales have multiple pressures on them to deliver increased tree cover but this should never have made it past the assessment stage. Just confirms the assessment process is not fit for purpose.

EARLY VIEW in IBIS

Modelling the national breeding distribution and population size of an elusive forest bird, the Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) | onlinelibrary.wiley....

James O'Neill, Paul Holloway, Jamie Darby, Andrew Hoodless, John L. Quinn | #ornithology 🪶

Why winter sheep grazing on Dartmoor’s commons must end In Dartmoor Nature Alliance’s 2025 “Call to Action” the campaign group stated clearly that all sheep grazing should be removed in winter from the Dartmoor commons, and the land be allowed to rest. Wit...

Why winter sheep grazing on Dartmoor’s commons must end.

Bold decisions are needed to ensure new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery Schemes deliver for nature and protected sites on Dartmoor's precious commons.

www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/why-win...

🚨Funded #PhD opp🚨 in my lab, co supervised by Vincent Maire at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Linking above-and belowground plant #phenology to carbon cycling in #peatlands

You can see full advert (in english/french) here: wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com/Opportunitie...

Please share!

⏰ DEADLINE APPROACHING

We have vacancies on 5 BOU committees, starting July 2026

Nominate yourself or someone you know now!

Not sure if it's for you? Why not try our NEW Committee Shadowing Scheme

bou.org.uk/about-the...

Deadline: 27 Feb

#ornithology 🪶

Warming enhances soil carbon accumulation in boreal Sphagnum peatlands - Nature Ecology & Evolution Data from long-term experiments in Finnish peatlands shows that warming induces a metabolic response in boreal Sphagnum peatlands that enhances accumulation of soil carbon, in contrast to the carbon l...

Data from long-term experiments in Finnish peatlands shows that warming induces a metabolic response in boreal Sphagnum peatlands that enhances accumulation of soil carbon, in contrast to the carbon losses in response to warming in boreal forests and tundra 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Country Focus - 15/02/2026 - BBC Sounds Your weekly programme for people working and living in rural Wales.

We were very glad to welcome Country Focus for BBC Wales to our Llwyndewi Nature reserve in Carmarthenshire to show all the work we are doing to restore biodiversity onsite. You can listen here from about 14 minutes in: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Study confirms Arctic peatlands are expanding New research confirms Arctic peatlands are expanding as temperatures continue to rise.  The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 4°C in t...

Press release by @exeter.ac.uk on our new paper, published today in GCB: "Pan-Arctic Peatlands Have Expanded During Recent Warming".

See more: news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-e...

RSPB: PeacePlus Nature Peatland Conservation Scientist advertised with CJS Salary: £39,205.00 - £41,856.00 Per Annum Terms: Fixed-Term, until 31st July 2029, Full-Time, 37.5 hours per week Location: Flexible in Northern Ireland We are looking for a peatland scientist to…

@rspb.bsky.social is also seeking a PeacePlus Nature Peatland Conservation Scientist. Fixed-term, until 31st July 2029, full-time, 37.5 hours per week. Location: Flexible in Northern Ireland @rspbni.bsky.social c-js.uk/4agNMwf

🚨 #PhD opportunity 🚨
Disturbance Impacts on swamp and forested peatlands in southern Québec

This project will quantify how disturbances affect carbon cycling and hydrology in swamp and forested peatlands of southern Québec

More info here: wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com/Opportunitie...

Pan‐Arctic Peatlands Have Expanded During Recent Warming Arctic peatland carbon is important because it represents a large carbon stock that may be vulnerable to climate change. This work explores the expansion and/or shrinkage of Arctic peatlands using ob...

🚨 Our new peatlands paper "Pan‐Arctic Peatlands Have Expanded During Recent Warming" published today in Global Change Biology, led by Josie Handley.

Open access and free to all: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Halting predicted vertebrate declines requires tackling multiple drivers of biodiversity loss Global vertebrate populations decline faster in the presence of multiple threats compared to single threats.

🚨Paper alert🚨
Very happy to see our paper published in @science.org #ScienceAdv.

Very greatful to have worked with such a great team @duncanobrien.bsky.social #tomJohnson @robinfreeman.bsky.social #ValentinaMarconi #LouiseMcRae @expecocons.bsky.social

👇Check the main findings below!

Sphagnum moss stained black

Sphagnum moss stained black

Very emo Sphagnum on site today. Must have heard the rumours of a new my chemical romance album this year and (as I’ve been considering) dyed its hair black like it’s 2008 again. Caused by deposition of organic C and humic acids when peaty water evaporates as far as I know #MireChemicalRomance

PeacePlus Nature Peatland Conservation Scientist Are you passionate about protecting and restoring peatlands? The restoration of Northern Ireland’s peatlands will deliver major conservation benefits and is a key part of PeacePlus Nature. We are ...

#peatland job environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/108978-...

PeacePlus Nature Peatland Conservation Scientist Are you passionate about protecting and restoring peatlands? The restoration of Northern Ireland’s peatlands will deliver major conservation benefits and is a key part of PeacePlus Nature. We are ...

#peatland job environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/108978-...

Size matters – at least for the Nightjars A study on how white patches convey the quality of male European NightjarsBy Richard Schnürmacher • Many avian species sport bright, contrasting colours, but what about the birds active at night? • V...

For all the #nightjar enthusiasts out there - www.globalnightjar.org/post/size-ma...

@ogbogdog.bsky.social ear flappometer back my popular demand.

Careful out there folks #stormingrid is at least 1-1.5 on the ear flappometer scale.

marsh tit, www.garthpeacock.co.uk

Very pleased to share #OpenAccess paper, which we think is important to understand woodland bird declines and impact of forestry on native ancient woodland in Britain.
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #ornithology @ukceh.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social @mizpas.bsky.social
🧵1/n

I had a wonderful time looking for chough as part of the @gowerchough.bsky.social project last summer - have a read of Mike’s piece to find out more about the work!

(and then please help us find some more funding to do it again this year, thanks)

🤩We’re excited to announce our winner of Capturing Ecology🤩

🐊Zeke Rowe, @zekerowe.bsky.social, with their photo 'Wouldn't hurt a fly'🪰

Taken in Panama, the image shows an American crocodile fixing the camera with its golden eyes, utterly unmoved as blood-sucking horse flies feed on its snout.

Gower Gold Red-billed Choughs on Gower's Cliffs

Wrote a few words on our @gowerchough.bsky.social survey this summer - mikeshewring.substack.com/p/gower-gold

New National security and global biodiversity loss assessment from uk government. Some stark and scary predictions in here assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696e0e...

Front covers of Issues 2 and 3 of volume 4 of Milvus, journal of the Welsh Ornithological Society. Issue 2 features an image of a Nightjar camouflaged on its heathery nest, by Tony Pope. Issue 3 features a Kingfisher with a tiny fish in the tip of its bill, from which an arc of water droplets fly as it's shaken by the bird. That photo was taken by Alun Lambert.

Always a relief to see the Welsh Bird Report arrive with all the pages in the right order and the photos reproduced well. Diolch Caxton Press

@birdsinwales.bsky.social members also get the latest papers in Issue 2 of Milvus in the same post, thanks to editor @fidhw.bsky.social

#BirdingWales (1/2)