David Smyth 🦇🌳

We have a new location for this month's Green Drinks-upstairs at Screene's on the Square. Join us to learn all about bats from @scottbastow.bsky.social! Register @ bit.ly/4bcg8cw.

@david-smyth-eco.bsky.social @hetzgonnabeme.bsky.social @cianoceallaigh.bsky.social @bkollmann.bsky.social

Its a mix of both there - RR did ALEW spot and rest was estate

Lasted until Year 03 of PhD to start training for a half marathon - True to form as an academic, behind in everything.

Am starting to build up stamina again after being on/off sick since November and aiming for a sub 2 hour half marathon in 6 weeks time.

Lot of the rhododendron removed in ALEW site by @rhodorangers.bsky.social

3rd year of treatment - some work still to do with new seedlings and regrowth

Hope you saw a difference?

Baile na hInse

People and large mammals are known to coppice hazel etc, but they're not essential to the process. Hazel can self-coppice in 2 ways: first, the big old stems simply fall over, and new growth emerges to replace them. 1/2

Fieldwork season continues at pace

#LoveIrishResearch

We're excited to share details for the March Green Drinks, and the speaker is a Rhodo Ranger, @scottbastow.bsky.social! Scott will discuss his work as an ecologist w/ a focus on bats, their role in the ecosystem, &the relationship between bats & urban development. Registration: bit.ly/468GjOe

Greater Mouse Eared bats cluster hibernating.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for a repost of my favourite cluster of hibernating Greater Mouse Eared bats. #LoveBats

What an incredible turnout for this month's Green Drinks! Thanks to all who joined us and especially to @hannahmul.bsky.social for teaching us all about turloughs.

Some events have been making up for it though

Sometimes you spend half a day putting up trail cameras and 75% of the images are you leaving and arriving at point and 23% vegetation triggers

3 wildlife events on a two month deployment

#LoveFieldwork

ESPERDYNE: A dual‐band heterodyne monitor and ultrasound recorder for bioacoustic field surveys Background. Ultrasonic monitoring is essential for ecological studies of bats and other animals, yet high-performance field devices remain prohibitively expensive and inaccessible—particularly in ...

📖 Published!

Introducing Esperdyne, an open-source, dual-channel ultrasound monitoring and recording system for bioacoustic field surveys🖥️ 🌍 🦇

🔎 Find out more:

Lowering deer densities can help restore Scotland's lost Highland mountain woodlands, new research shows A six-year long Stirling-led study looked at the impact of deer management on mountain woodland

Congrats @sarahwatts.bsky.social @stir.ac.uk for completing this important study buff.ly/rksat4z looking at the impact of deer management on montane woodland (sadly increasingly rare in Scotland). Data revealed that if deer densities are reduced, dwarf birch can survive across multiple habitats.1/2

📖Published!

These results provide the first experimental evidence that enhancing structural heterogeneity at the landscape scale can restore multidimensional hoverfly diversity in temperate forests🌲 🪰

Read more:https://buff.ly/XdZNi2J

Our first Green Drinks of the year was a big hit, and our largest turnout yet! Thanks to Aoife Crowe for teaching us all about saproxylic beetles in Ireland.

New report by Bat Conservation Ireland - 'The Lesser Horseshoe Bat: Mapping Landscape Connectivity to Facilitate Species Recovery and Expansion in Ireland'.

#NatureConservation #BatConservation #LesserHorseshoeBat

www.batconservationireland.org/wp-content/u...

Delighted to have been able to contribute to this and looking forward to see what nature positive steps it helps facilitate

#LesserHorseshoeBat
#LandscapeEcology

🦇

This Tuesday.
Free.
Saproxylic Beetles.
Galway.

Please share around

Our first Green Drinks of the Year is coming up on January 13th! Hope to see you there. Registration: eventbrite.com/e/galway-green-drinks-tickets-1978194333503

A highlight for me this year was the launch of @rewildyourland.bsky.social and I met dozens of people across Ireland who are already enjoying the thrill of rewilding.

There are more plans in the pipeline so here's hoping that 2026 will see rewilding go from strength to strength in Ireland!

I do love being up the mountains still though

Please follow @rhodorangers.bsky.social Bluesky also!

Help us get the good word out there!

I hear what ye are saying - no hat?
It got blown down the mountain

No wet gear? It wasn't supposed to be that bad

Small acorns ✅️
Mighty oaks 🔳
Massive woodlands 🔳

"I wouldn't consider what I do work..." through gritted teeth

Y'day was our last visit to coill Gleann dá loch for 2025 which we wrapped up nicely with a few well earned pints and meal

2025 in summary: 2.7ha of Rhodo cleared (6.67 acres) over 12 days with an average of 7 volunteers each outing. Not to mention our follow up work at two other local sites (1/2)

Excited to be speaking at #BES2025 next week on my PhD research also just ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION: "Thinking outside the bog: planting Dwarf Birch for mountain woodland restoration beyond habitat refugia constrained by overgrazing" Implications for practice, policy & deer management.
@stir.ac.uk

New OA 🦇 research 📄 studying the wonders of #bat #migration

To Migrate or not to Migrate? Exploring the Genomic Basis of Partial Migratory Behavior in Bats

academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Christmas is just around the corner if you were wondering what to get me!