Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Hector's Dolphins (south island)
Hector's Dolphin
Double-banded Plover
Awesome interest from the shore too: the 'world's smallest' dolphin - Hector's Dolphin and Double-banded Plover #birding #birdingnewzealand
'Wandering' Albatross
Buller's Shearwater
Mixed flock: Wandering, Salvin's Albatross, Pintado Petrel and Northern Giant Petrels
Flesh-footed Shearwater
NZ trip would not be complete without a visit to Kaikoura for accessible pelagic birds. Early memories of Feb '06: same skipper, many of the same species but seem to have gained sea-legs in the interim! #birding #birdingnewzealand
Rifleman
Robin
Ever difficult Rifleman and every curious and easy South Island Robin #birding #birdingnewzealand
Northern Royal Albatross
Northern Royal Albatross & chick
Northern Royal Albatross watching over chick
Otago Peninsula has NZ's only mainland breeding great Albatross - chicks looking fluffy and apparently on for a record breeding season to date with 38 hatched and carefully watched over. #birding #birdingnewzealand
Little Blue Penguin - (honest)
Sooties
Southern Royal Albatross (above mostly Shys)
Sooty Shearwater
Heaps of seawatching interest for breeders and non-breeders! #birding #birdingnewzealand
Rifleman
Tomtit
NZ Sealion - presumably in a seafood coma 😴
Weka - the 'tourists' kiwi'
Another geographical extreme and amazing bird spot in NZ is Stewart Island - great volumes of endemic birds, esp on Ulva island, sea lions, kiwis, seabirds. An idyllic paradise reminiscent of colder but more familiar haunts back home...
Takahe
Red-crowned Parakeet
Tui
Bellbird
I've taken to a period of travel. New Zealand. Tiritiri Matangi - open sanctuary just north of Auckland - has an awesome feel and maybe a window into the past, but certainly what the present can be. Awesome volume of endemics. #birding #birdingnewzealand
White-faced Storm Petrels, doing their thing
Fluttering Shearwater
White-chinned Petrel (right), Shy Albatross behind (left)
Shy Albatross
Southern Royal Albatross
Cracking pelagic out of Eaglehawkneck last Friday (30th Jan). Super views of Shy Albatross as usual but best were 20+ WF Stormies, Grey-backed Stormie, my first ever Wilson's Storm Petrel, Fluttering Shearwater and White-chinned Petrel. Super day out. Worth the sunburn. #birding #birdingtasmania
In late October, North Ronaldsay produced an incredible double of rare Asian robins – Rufous-tailed Robin and Siberian Rubythroat – which were discovered within days of each other. Finders George Gay and Robert Duncan recount these unforgettable moments:
Research in the Cairngorms NP has shown that non-lethal predator management can significantly boost breeding success for Western Capercaillie:
Who doesn’t love a contextually significant rubbish bird. A nice pair of Mandarin on Gretchen this morning, only the second time I’ve seen Mandarin in North Ronaldsay
#OrkneyBirding #NotPlasticStillFantastic
Clearly Cat A
Nothing like scoping out an Idle Shag?
301 EXT. BISHOP'S FARM 'HOME FIELD' - DAY Distant bird song: GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER Andy and Lance are detecting some distance apart. the edge of the field, picks up a strong signal. Lance looks over and calls out. LANCE
01 EXT. BISHOP'S FARM 'HOME FIELD' - DAY Distant bird song: YELLOWHAMMER. Andy and Lance are detecting a few me Andy gets a signal and digs a plug of ground. TAITAT
101 EXT. FIELD 'OLD PATCH' - EARLY MORNING Distant bird song: SKYLARK A bleak field of stubble. We hear faint electronic whines and beeps. Through the mist two stooped figures, LANCE and ANDY appear some distance apart, wearing headphones and swinging metal detectors in front of them.
A conversation on here earlier reminded me of a thing that I’ve always loved and occasionally bang on about.
It’s the care taken by Mackenzie Crook to specify which bird species we can hear in the background for many scenes in Detectorists.
Great White Egret
Australian Crake
Latham's Snipe
A big month in January continues and I am pleased to finally tick off Australian Crake + Latham's Snipe at Goulds Lagoon yesterday. #birdingtasmania #birdingaustralia
Australian Pelican
Kelp Gull chicks
Black-fronted Dotterel
Laughing Kookaburra
Building that yearlist by securing common species at local sites... Gull chicks wandering about muddy loch fringes in January messes with my Northern mindset. #birding #birdingtasmania #birdingaustralia
Happy New Year from all of us at NRBO. We’re looking forward to seeing you in 2025!
A graphic showing the silhouette of an Arctic Tern. Text reads “Arctic Tern declined by 54% in Scotland between 54% in Scotland between 2000-20021. #SaveOurSeabirds”.
Arctic Terns travel the equivalent of three trips to the moon in their lifetimes.
We don’t want to live in a Scotland without these incredible seabirds.
Tell the Scottish Government how important it is to act now: https://action.rspb.org.uk/page/154240/action/1?ea.tracking.id=RSPB_Scotland_Bluesky
Whiskered Tern
Tasmanian Nativehen
Pacific Golden Plover
Orielton Lagoon today had plenty of crisp winter plumage Pacific Golden Plovers and best of all Whiskered Tern at 'Greenshank Bay' - a local rarity! #birdingtasmania #birdingaustralia
Red-capped Plover
Black-fronted Dotterel
Black-fronted Dotterels
Finally got round to getting out of town and finding some waders at Orielton Lagoon. Red-capped Plovers and Black-fronted Dotterels were very nice to look at. Too Red-necked Stints, Pacific Goldies and more. Good site. #birdingaustralia #birdingtasmania
🚨JOB OPENING🚨
We are looking to employ a housekeeper for the 2025 season! Accommodation at the observatory included. For more information and to apply please contact alison@nrbo.co.uk
Please share!
🚨VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY🚨
We are looking for a volunteer for the 2025 season to help with bird monitoring, ringing, and obs maintenance! Full board included. Long term volunteers preferred, but all applications welcome! Contact alison@nrbo.co.uk for more info.
Please share!
Duck-billed Platypus
Up to 5 individuals frolicking around Hobart Rivulet today
Ptip ptop ptick!
Rarity finders: Eyebrowed Thrush in Orkney
North Ronaldsay's splendid autumn continued when another mega thrush was found by Craig Forsyth in early November: bit.ly/3VaCHpP
Eyebrowed Thrush
Lanceolated Warbler
Brown Shrike
Booted Warbler
The 2024 season is coming to a close! Its been an incredible year of birds. It appears we may have beaten last years yearlist total, but still need to wait on various rarities making the grade! A big thank you from me, Maddy and Alison to all the volunteers and guests this year!
Great and illustrative thread Tom! Goes to show what rewards there are for those who put in the legs and hours on North Ron during those peak periods, and beyond! Seems there is never time to be caught sleeping for the rarity finder on that island...
A special one. A memorable and rare twitch for me, from Wick of all places 😂
