Wouter Vansteelant

1. post! What a nice start here with a celebration - our work is now published! 😊 In short: The annual survival of the collared pratincole, a migratory bird species that breeds around the Mediterranean, depends on flooding conditions in the Sahel. Sincere thank you to all contributors! Read more!👇

Het verdient een mooie naam, zo'n kleurrijke troep #kemphanen en -hennen. Een menigte kemphanen? Een gala? Een karavaan? Verschillende aspecten van de soort roepen verschillende connotaties en woorden op. Wie kan wat moois bedenken?

Dutch Spoonbills are in the air and on their way to Netherlands. These are the days to visit www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci... and enjoy the antics of spoonbill #migration. Cool story by @wmgvs.bsky.social about these tagged birds, including joint flights www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

NEW PUBLICATION! Long time coming — now out: the results of our pilot spring raptor counts in Batumi! Read about seasonal contrasts in raptor migration, the eastern Black Sea coast as a principal spring flyway, and much more. 🦅 Paper: doi.org/10.5253/arde... #ornithology @batumiraptorcount.org

Classic agricultural methods boosting biodiversity! Soils of surface-drained grasslands retained more moisture than soils of deeply drained grasslands. Moisture caused earthworms to contribute to soil processes and being available as food for meadow birds. Open Access: doi.org/10.1016/j.ag...

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Free-living Black-tailed Godwits maintain constant intake rates across varying grassland habitat conditions by adjusting their foraging behaviour | doi.org/10.1111/ibi.... Renée Veenstra et al | #ornithology 🪶

Just noticed these upside down spikes in the corners of my hotel room in Spain. What a shitty way to keep the swallows and martins from nesting here. 😪

YOUNG GODWITS, GRAND FLIGHTS - Last autumn two young godwits that we feared to have died suddenly sent amazing data from Senegal. They had flown to West Africa in a non-stop flight. Among them W1WCCG, who achieved an AVERAGE speed >90km/h. 😳🤯 Read the story at: www.birdeyes.org/young-godwit...

It is so sad that we lost a major player in our field, actively interested involved until his last days, Gerard Boere. Many thanks, Gerard, for so many years of great support to migratory waterbirds around the world and to people who care. RIP. eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Looking for a PhD project in Movement Ecology or animal migration? This is an exciting project with an experienced team. #migration #Ornithology #GPStracking

Ecological barrier crossing strategies in small migratory birds depend on wing morphology and plumage color | iScience | doi.org/10.1016/j.is... | #migration #ecology #ornithology 🌏🪶

We know that birds can sense magnetic fields for navigation. But how does that work? Do they have little magnets wired up to their brains? The most likely answer is 1000X times weirder than that, and involves quantum spin. Let's talk about 'cryptochromes' & magnetic sensing.🧪

Recommended read: our 2025 Autumn Report is out! As part of our tradition and commitment, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the season’s highlights and phenological peculiarities — complemented by many beautiful photos of both birds and people! 👉 batumiraptorcount.org/autumn-report-2025

"Gewapend met verschillende netten togen we op 21 december, de kortste dag van het jaar, naar de geul waar Nala de laatste weken foerageerde. Een standaard garnalennetje bleek het perfecte net te zijn om lepelaar prooien te bemonsteren." werkgroeplepelaar.org/nieuws/2025/...

Mooie (interim) job bij de Waddenvereniging voor een ervaren fondsenwerver. Om zuinig te zijn op dit kwetsbare UNESCO werelderfgoed vind jij gulle gevers om de natuur te beschermen én te herstellen. waddenvereniging.nl/organisatie/...

On the train back home, still buzzing from some great days at @vogelwarte.bsky.social where Hans Schmid wrote "Getrennte Wege" - a classic synthesis of Honey Buzzard migration. A quarter century later the species has revealed a few more, but still not all of its migratory "Geheimnisse". #ornithology

Great day exploring the hills around Sempach ahead of a work visit to @vogelwarte.bsky.social. Good practice wt woodland birds of which I've seen very little since moving to Fryslan few yrs ago. Lovely soundscape wt whistling Red Kite, croaking Ravens, ticking Hawfinch, rattling of Mistle Thrush...

New funded PhD projects with @marius-somveille.bsky.social, myself and collaborators. Examining migratory connectivity for seabirds www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d... and and the dynamics of seasonal migration www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPK742/p... #ornithology @ueaceec.bsky.social @ueaenv.bsky.social

Dispersal, maturation and recruitment in a long-lived, intercontinental migrant bird | www.sciencedirect.co... | Animal Behaviour | #ornithology 🪶

The meadows still have to flood, but the winter bird community at Blaugerzen is starting to form. The first Barnacle and White-fronted Geese are back, and mixed flocks of Lapwing, Starling and Golden Plover are on the fields again. They'll define the birding scene for next five months. #birding

1.5 MILLION RAPTORS! 🦅🤯 For the first time in BRC history, we have recorded a staggering 1.5 million raptors in a single autumn season — a true milestone after 17 years of counting! Read more here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/brc17/2025/10/15-million-raptors #ornithology #RaptorResearch

New visual story: Bird migration is one of nature’s greatest spectacles — and scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into how new threats are reshaping these epic journeys. Follow the remarkable travels of three birds as they fly across the planet. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The structure of the annual migratory flight activity in a songbird | royalsocietypublishi... | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | #ornithology 🪶

EARLY VIEW in IBIS Challenges in population monitoring: Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) on the East Atlantic Flyway defy assumed population structure | onlinelibrary.wiley.... Jesse R. Conklin, Roeland A. Bom, Åke Lindström, Pierrick Bocher, Theunis Piersma | #ornithology 🪶

GREAT DAY FOR EEL CONSERVATION The Basque Country is the craddle of glass eel consumption Today, the Basque Government has announced a ban on glass eel fishing due to eel's critical situation Similar movements needed in Spanish @miteco.gob.es and EU @ec.europa.eu www.eldiario.es/euskadi/gobi...

170.000 RAPTORS IN ONE DAY! After yesterday’s heavy rain and a quiet morning, today the sky exploded with Steppe Buzzards and large eagles! Continuing from 10 am until almost the end of the count. At some point, we counted over 14.000 raptors in less than 20 minutes. THAT'S BATUMI! #ornithology

After a super intense week with a back-to-back Spoonbill and Wader Study conference, its time to shift to lower gear for a bit. Starting the day with a slow stroll through the fog at Griene Dyk. Hoping for a Yellow-browed Warbler among the plentiful Gold- and Firecrests. #birding

After the thrill of reaching the million, we went straight to the peak of diversity. The challenge of counting high numbers of birds slowly shifted into identifying the (relatively) fewer but more difficult ones: the large eagle species! But they also brought a special guest along...👇 1/2

Thank you to all of today's speakers for a really interesting array of talks! So much great research, and more on the way tomorrow! #IWSG2025 #waders #shorebirds #ornithology

What an honour to open the 50th @waderstudy.bsky.social conference with a plenary on Spoonbill migration culture on the beautiful stage of DOT in Groningen. The Spoonbill-inspired concerto 'Solanum' by Tjibbe Stelwagen and Caspar Kootstra made for a perfect tandem wt the arts. #ornithology

We're got a variety of great talks at our conference today, with topics including... 👥️ Population development 💧 Resource use ☀️ Responses to environmental change 🪱 Foraging ecology and diet #IWSG2025 #waders #shorebirds #Ornithology

Here we go then! Our 50th annual conference is officially open 🥳 #IWSG2025

A vagrant juvenile Sanderling turned up in Israel—likely after a single non-stop flight from the Dutch Wadden Sea. Here’s thread explaining why that’s remarkable and interesting. @wadertales.bsky.social @globalflyway.bsky.social #Birds #Migration

A dramatic end for an ambitious Spoonbill. Yday morning LAYLA crashed into the ocean just offshore Madeira, 56h after departing from the Wadden Sea. She rested barely 7h even though she found nice Spoonbill hotspots on the way. Poor choices... #ornithology www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci...

A true Bluesky — filled with raptors! After days of rain, we were greeted by a bright, blue, cloudless sky this morning! The result? Thousands of birds and a high species diversity. With the main message: the eagles are coming! Stay tuned for more! For daily totals: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data

The www.BirdEyes.org team is thrilled to announce a new paper by Mohamed Henriques showing how Spoonbills change space use over the course of their summer stay in the eastern Dutch Wadden Sea. After breeding, many adults converge in the Lutjewad area. #ornithology www.birdeyes.org/lutjewad-amo...

Yday >1900 #Spoonbills left 🇳🇱 via the watch-site at Cadzand! Among them were 4 GPS-birds that departed from the Delta, including LUNA who met PLUK in flight over Ostend (🇧🇪). Meanwhile, TAAS and HIDDE jointly flew from Balgzand to the Delta. #ornithology www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci...

Astounding for the @batumiraptorcount.org crew to reach the 1 million milestone so early in the season. 😳 Congrats to all volunteers and flyway trainees, expertly led by the first ever all-women coordinating team: Eva Drukker, Elien Hoekstra and Mitra Daneshvar. Celebrations are in order! 🤩

This achievement was only possible thanks to our amazing and hard-working team – counters, trainees, coordinators – and our wonderful host families for their endless hospitality. Check out our daily counts and news flashes here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data 2/2

A Goshawk managed to catch a Snipe at Blaugerzen the other day. Then got the attention of one, two, three Marsh Harriers. In the squabble, a juvenile harrier was eventually able to claim the prey for itself. #birding

Had a privilege and pleasure to teach terra pkg (created by @roberthijmans.bsky.social et al.) and spatial sampling with R together with Alexandre Wadoux at the #EOSummerSchool2025 at WICC. You can follow the terra tutorial from here: differ.blog/p/processing... 📹: youtu.be/q9sQkg7BeAc?...

The Honey Buzzards keep on coming! With another 50K+ counted today, we’ve now passed half a million HBs this season! Rising numbers of Black Kites — as their peak is still ahead — pushed our overall total past 700K! And it’s not just the bulk species 👇 #ornithology 📸Eduardo C. Wals 1/2

🚨 Calling researchers, students, technicians in cognition 🚨 We’re running a 10-min anonymous survey on how animal cognition is defined and studied across disciplines (from ecology, ethology, psychology, neurology, etc). 🧠✨ Scan the QR code & share widely #AnimalCognition #ResearchSurvey #Science

Foremost, we found it an exciting experience to publish our scientific debate in such a public manner, and thank @moveandconserve.bsky.social and co-authors for the constructive and cordial discussion! Exciting times ahead — only together can we connect birds, people & places across the flyway!

A new study led by @moveandconserve.bsky.social used GPS tracking to test the monitoring potential of Eilat and Batumi. An invaluable step toward linking counted birds to their origins, but we found it needed some elaboration from a migration count perspective! Our commentary: tinyurl.com/nnbzu7kc

The first week of September is barely behind us and already the impressive volunteer crew of @batumiraptorcount.org has tallied over half a million raptors making their way south along the eastern Black Sea coast. #ornithology

We are experiencing a particularly exciting season so far! For example, we've counted exceptionally high numbers of Short-toed Eagles, Marsh Harriers, and Black Kites! Meanwhile, we're not even halfway through the season yet, with still so much to come. 2/3 Photos by Eduardo C. Wals & Paul Buntfuß

Luckily, we have a great team of counters, trainees, and coordinators to count and identify the many thousands of raptors heading their way! Make sure to check out our daily count updates and season totals here: www.batumiraptorcount.org/data Stay tuned for more news from #BRC17! 3/3