Rob Thomas
@robthomasbirds.bsky.social
2.9K followers 2.3K following 870 posts
Bird-watcher and conservationist in and from Wales, until July 2025 (20+ years) teaching and researching at Cardiff University. Co-director of Eco-explore Community Interest Company, trustee of Initiative for Nature Conservation Cymru and Craig y Rhondda
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robthomasbirds.bsky.social
Heineken warbler - refreshes the parts other warblers cannot reach...
Reposted by Rob Thomas
pauldufour80.bsky.social
What a stunning bird to come across today: the rare dark morph of the Atlantic Islands subspecies of the Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla heineken)!
robthomasbirds.bsky.social
Same here this evening! Welcome back! :) :) :)
Reposted by Rob Thomas
btobirds.bsky.social
We're looking for Youth Reps for our BTO Youth team! ➡️ bit.ly/YouthRep25

If you love nature and would like to join our amazing team of volunteers (expenses paid) aged 16-24 then apply to become a BTO Youth Rep today!🐦

📝 Closing date: Sunday 9th November 2025.
A group of young people standing outside in a semi-circle listening to a member of the team talk. Wording reads: BTO Youth. Become a BTO Youth Rep! Scan the QR code to find out more and apply. A QR Code is in the bottom right of the image.
Reposted by Rob Thomas
peterjukes.bsky.social
So it now appears the woman Farage and Gill were so close to has a direct link not only to Putin’s “Man in Ukraine” Medvedchuk, but his predecessor as President, Medvedev

These are top Russian agents.
Reposted by Rob Thomas
carolecadwalla.bsky.social
NEW: The British politician, his Russian intelligence handler & a Kremlin plot against the US & Ukraine.

My new piece about Nathan Gill and Nigel Farage for @thenerve_news in which we ask:

Why, even now, is no-one asking questions?

t.co/BUTtpK9C4S
Reposted by Rob Thomas
zackpolanski.bsky.social
Maybe there's something in this Nigel Farage and Nathan Gill Russian bribes story....
Lots of stories about Nathan Gill and Russian bribes.
robthomasbirds.bsky.social
Storm petrels showing well in central Bath this afternoon. Don’t even think about parking - sensibly or otherwise.
Reposted by Rob Thomas
martinswarren.bsky.social
The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...
Front cover of the European Butterfly Red List, showing Polyommatus humedasae. The report can be downloaded at https://www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?name=red-list-butterflies-2025
Reposted by Rob Thomas
commonternproject.bsky.social
Out @animalecology.bsky.social today - a paper with David Ewing in which we explore the #HPAI outbreak in the terns. We find bird-to-bird transmission to be the main driver of infection and estimate the probability of mortality to drop from 0.26 to 0.14 from 2022 to 2023: doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Reposted by Rob Thomas
mehr.nz
samuel mehr @mehr.nz · Dec 14
it's wild that R, the ubiquitous statistical computing language, was co-created by a Māori prof (Ross Ihaka) — and yet the vast majority of scientists who use R don't know

this is like inventing the toaster. possibly the largest impact of a single member of an indigenous community on modern science
Reposted by Rob Thomas
thelabandfield.bsky.social
Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology
Reposted by Rob Thomas
ryankatzrosene.bsky.social
About *a third* of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions emitted during the Industrial age have occurred in roughly the last 17 years. The previous third was emitted over a period of roughly 26 years. The first third was emitted over a period of about 131 years.
Reposted by Rob Thomas
wilsonornithsoc.bsky.social
BIRDBASE, a new publicly available dataset, brings together "ecological and life history traits for 11,589 bird species across 254 families." #ornithology
Explore a bird database with 11,500 species
Twenty-six years ago, a PhD student's unanswered question sparked a bird data revolution.
www.popsci.com
Reposted by Rob Thomas
bou.org.uk
NEW on the #BOUdiversityBlog from Ellie Leech

Redressing the balance: why gender equity matters to BTO

bou.org.uk/blog-leec...

#ornithology 🪶
Reposted by Rob Thomas
aquilabirding2.bsky.social
WHITE-THROATED NEEDLETAIL ‼️ Tophill low, Yorkshire.
📷 photo credit to follow.
Reposted by Rob Thomas
llantwit.bsky.social
“Uni defends new Kazakhstan campus amid human rights concerns” - BBC News

“The UCU, said it was not opposed to the venture in principle, but that it had serious concerns regarding staff workload and the speed with which it had been set up.”

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Cardiff University defends Kazakhstan campus amid concerns
Hundreds of students have started lectures at the new campus, which is 3,712 miles from Cardiff.
www.bbc.com
robthomasbirds.bsky.social
Ah, looking forward to this!
robthomasbirds.bsky.social
Ah no -that’s really bad
Reposted by Rob Thomas
asharpephotography.bsky.social
The birds panicking as these 5 kite surfers came in way too close. They couldn't settle as they'd immediately panic again. As a results the godwits, all the spoonbills and half the avocets now left the lagoon @harbourbirds.bsky.social @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social @footprintecology.bsky.social
Reposted by Rob Thomas
adambienkov.bsky.social
BBC accused of 'extraordinary' anti-Green bias after party say the Laura Kuenssberg Show scrapped a promised interview with @zackpolanski.bsky.social on Sunday.

Green sources say the show also refused to interview Polanski after he was elected as leader last month

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...
Reposted by Rob Thomas
theseabirdgroup.bsky.social
We have vacancies available on our committee! 🕊️👨‍👨‍👧👩‍👩‍👦

We are recruiting for 5 roles:

Secretary 👩‍🏫
Assistant Journal Editor 📉
Social Media Lead 🤳
Assistant Newsletter/ Social Media Support 🤝
Website Officer 🧑‍💻

Feel free to DM for details & email [email protected] to apply (deadline 31 Oct) 📥