Alexander Lees

NEW BLOG: ornithologist and drone expert Andy Harmer provides guidance on the use of drones for finding and monitoring nests tinyurl.com/RBBPdrones #ornithology #birds

The Report on Rare Birds in Great Britain in 2025 is available to journal subscribers, or as a single-purchase hard copy from our shop. Packed with fascinating records, fantastic images and the stories behind Britain’s rarest birds. Read more: britishbirds.co.uk/journal/volu...

Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, the latest report from a UN Commission of Inquiry has concluded.

Support for Bolsonaro was very high in frontier and post frontier agribusiness regions of Amazonia along the arc of deforestation. Pre-frontier regions voted Lula. Lula's loss would have inevitably changed deforestation trajectories again.

I don't know who is behind tidyecology.com (maybe an AI?) but it has an amazing coverage of tutorials for all kinds of statistical modelling in #ecology with #rstats

Lads, if I was you I would try to make it less obvious who it is that is baying for more fascism, crackdowns on democracy, corruption and looting of the world’s wealth

Slop being deployed in defence of trash. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

1/3 This DOTTEREL blog appeared on this day in 2015 🎂 wadertales.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/u... Latest RSPB report shows that decline in Scotland is now estimated at 89% www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... #ukBirding

Peer review is broken because genAI has increased academic productivity by reducing barriers to submission (but at the same time compromising manuscript quality) and is now being sold as the fix for a problem that it has fostered.

I have read this lest I be accused of having a knee-jerk reaction based on headline. So here is my considered reaction: Nope. I don’t want or need this. It’s my job to identify the areas that need to be focused on. Senior scholars should be able to do this and junior ones need to learn.

In the rush to build data centers, companies are starting to use their own off grid gas generators. This results in much higher emissions – 60% to 80% – compared with using their local electricity grid and risks locking in longer-term fossil dependence. www.theclimatebrink....

Corporate profits are at record highs — but revenue from corporate taxes has plummeted thanks to the tax cuts in Trump and Republicans’ big, ugly bill. Meanwhile, workers’ wages are stagnant and their share of the nation’s income is at a record low. Trickle-down economics was always a hoax.

This whole story is infurating, but this first quote from someone at OpenAI is really making me see red. "The newer version won't do this": a) why the fuck should we believe you and b) even if so, that has fuck-all to do with OpenAI's culpability here. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/27/w...

Many scientists relieved after Lula’s win in Brazil: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

(Reuters) - Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday's presidential election and refusing to comply with a Supreme ​Court order to hand over his passports, two sources said. @reuters.com 🇧🇷 $EWZ www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Part of the colony of the estimated 1.5 million White-collared Swifts (Streptoprocne zonaris) from the KBA Saltos das Andorinhas e de Dardanelos in the Southern Brazilian Amazon www.keybiodiversityareas.org/en/site/fact... macaulaylibrary.org/asset/351481... #Ornithology

On March 18, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio handed the reins of the US Agency for International Development to Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School and DOGE affiliate. But USAID HR said he was not onboarded.

Anatomy of the nervous system in the Cretaceous seabird Pujatopouli: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🪶🧪 (📷Irazoqui et al.)

This is a BIG WEEK for avian taxonomy! This week, the newly revised 2026 avian taxonomy is released. Look for 202 newly updated species profiles; an in-depth explanation of all the changes; and an upcoming "What's New in Avian Taxonomy” webinar. birdsoftheworld.org/bow/home.

(1/4) New paper in which we identify sex-linked candidate genes for egg coloration in a brood parasite and detail the cascading genomic consequences of selection on those genes. Link at the end of thread (yes, trying the teaser method)! I

PhD being advertised soon @uniexecec.bsky.social to work on viruses and bacteria in >300 species of UK moths, to understand the relative importance of ecology, evolution and environment in determining sharing of the microbiome between host species. @xavh.bsky.social @darrenobbard.bsky.social

The UK is exporting its carbon footprint. We ship 8M tonnes of scrap steel to nations with weak environmental laws, only to buy the finished product back. #UKPol #UKSteel #NetZero #IndustrialPolicy @uksteel.org @green-alliance.org.uk @unitetheunion.bsky.social

By melting this scrap down in the UK with electric arc furnaces, we could create British-produced steel, with significantly less carbon emissions. We must invest in domestic EAF infrastructure, use our raw materials at home, & reduce scrap exports to zero.

Would be a really interesting project for @spurnbirdobs.bsky.social especially given the surprising abundance of ticks in the recording area...

This winter, help protect Sussex birds by keeping your dog on a lead. Many birds live on a calorific knife edge as weather gets colder: their food has to cover the energy they burn staying warm, with little margin for error. Read our tips for walking your furry friend without startling birds nearby.

Funnily enough many (most?) of us have already been subject to unsanctioned review by LLMs - with frustratingly depressing results.

Look, I know all the reasons we got here, but we really need to start seriously thinking about what we do in a world where The Markets punish whole countries for voting for decency, compassion, and fairness. We must stop pretending the capitalist machine is an objective, value neutral force.

It's that time of the year again when the @nationaltrust.org.uk membership elects new Council members. It's vital that all NT members use their vote (online) to keep the Restore Trust Reform-adjacent entryists off the Council & away from any decision making. Vote online by 30th October - Friday.

Recently, there was quite a furore in Australia's parliament about invasive species management. It seemed to me there was some misunderstanding about terminology & the very important reasons for controlling some introduced & invasive species. So, I wrote this 👉 theconversation.com/calling-spec...

Details of my Annual Exhibition in Norfolk this November. The show will feature recent watercolours plus prints and books.

Light level geolocator data indicates that Band-rumped Storm-petrels range over the edge of the continental shelf north all the way to Iceland.. #UKBirding #IrishBirding #Ornithology

No MPDI I won't be guest editing a special edition of your predatory journal off the back of an invitation letter consisting of the titles of various papers I have co-authored lately with a proposed issue title that makes no sense....

Cory's shearwaters are collecting stones at the nest entrance. But why?? Read this new paper for potential explanations: www.marineornithology.org/PDF/54_2/54_... #seabirds #OpenAccess

This is shocking! Like (I assume) many other researchers in both #archaeology & #ornithology - I rely on access to "low-use" books for my work. And as a former resident of NH & frequenter of the UNH campus, with friends there, I'm devastated to see this happening. Niche work requires niche texts.🏺🪶

"If you wake up on high alert, you cannot go back to your cave of paralysis and discouragement, ready to give up" sumauma.com/en/a-vida-ve...

In-depth: Roads as a thermal resource for migratory nightjars Read the blogpost by Carlos Camacho about a new study that reveals how nightjars use asphalt roads to improve their energy balance. ➡️ vist.ly/5pvnx #ornithology #birds #thermoregulation #energybalance

Can we use vomit as a time machine? Snow petrel stomach oil piles up at nests for millennia, recording Antarctica's past, but only if we know what birds eat today. Our new paper led by @zhongxuanli.bsky.social provides a key step to reading those archives doi.org/10.3354/meps... #OceanSky 🦑🦉🌊🧪

After the first round elections, Congressman André Janones created a WhatsApp channel titled “Lula’s Army.” It ballooned to 10 million people following his commands on how to behave online to counteract Meta’s far-right-favouring algorithms. The right knows how to use socials. We must learn, too.

What you fight, you feed. The right is very intentional about the vile they spread. They lie not to be believed but rather to be repeated. Congrats Brazil - may this and Serbia be a portent.

Lawmakers in at least 32 states have introduced legislation to limit or eliminate ultra-processed foods in school meals, according to a nonprofit. An alliance between the right-wing Make America Healthy Again movement and progressives backs the effort.

In a historic runoff victory, President Lula defeated Flávio Bolsonaro, who campaigned on rolling back Amazon protections. With four consecutive years of declining deforestation, Lula promised to strengthen climate policy even as congressional opposition looms. Read more. 👇️ mongabay.cc/GsDGDR

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Beyond the specimen: rethinking ornithological collecting in a changing world | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Ken Norris, Heather Avrili | #ornithology 🪶

There needs to be a major public outreach/education campaign that shows that the rush for profligate genAI usage is incompatible with myriad sustainable development goals.

Lula: "We had to overcome foreign interference through digital platforms, which we will have to regulate. A crime in the digital world must be treated the same as a crime in the real world. We cannot have monstrous companies earning millions... not paying taxes... wanting to steer elections."

« If university bots graded bots, you would no longer have a university. You’d have a tomb, an academic mausoleum in which digital phantoms murmured emptily. »

We really need to take the wins

I'm old enough to remember Clarkson eating Ortolan Buntings on TV

Let's not forget that Lula's re-election was a victory of people power over the attempts of the 'AI oligarchy' at controlling the narrative #ExércitoDoLula www.newscientist.com/article/2595...