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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 17h

Sykes's Warbler at Girdleness is doing a science - pooping for Scotland. #birds #birding #birdingscotland

Hawthorn leaf and bird poo in petri dish

Digi-binned poor image of Sykes's Warbler in a Cockle Shell tree

Sykes's Warbler poop liquidised and digesting in a reaction tube in the lab

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's that time of year in the back garden.

Screenshot from phone showing Merlin app and 3 birds heard: Robin, Goldfinch and Yellow-brewed Warbler

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Bird Photograph of the Year. A juvenile Long-tailed Skua on the sea off Newtonhill in the rain this evening #birdingscotland

A crappy photo of a distant grey-brown blob on the sea, which I assure you is a Long-tailed Skua

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Reposted by Martin Collinson

RareBirdAlert @rarebirder.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

RBA Round-up: 4 - 10 Sept Jon Dunn looks back at a week which brought us Britain's first twitchable Egyptian Nightjar www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/w...

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

This is a lab first... Egyptian Nightjar poop, neatly presented in cockle shells. A sprig of parsley would enhance the presentation. By the smell it's been feeding on beef casserole.

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Reposted by Martin Collinson

BirdGuides @birdguides.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A European Nightjar in Malta has been identified as an individual of the East Asian subspecies – and raises "significant possibility" that Britain's only record of Egyptian Nightjar, in Dorset in June 1984, could have been this form:

f.mtr.cool

Asian nightjar in Malta is European first

The specimen was identified as belonging to the Asian plumipes subspecies of European Nightjar.

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Reposted by Martin Collinson

M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Jason Arday is dead. The UK media won’t learn a thing from this. Because they’re racist bastards. He has two children.

PROF GONE Jason Arday 'found dead after being found unresponsive at home' following Cambridge plagiarism scandal
Bruno Brown, Reporter

Published: 20:04, 14 Aug 2026 | Updated: 20:14, 14 Aug 2026

picture: Jason Arday a black man with long hair

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Just out in Dutch Birding... Galea R, Collinson JM, Cleere N. 2026. European Nightjar of Asian subspecies plumipes in Malta in November 2024. Dutch Birding 48: 236-241. First for Europe. Note genetic split between western and eastern subspecies of European Nightjar @birdguides.bsky.social

Photo by Raymond Galea of pale European Nightjar(Eastern subspecies plumipes) in the hand, from Dutch Birding

Phylogenetic tree based on mitochondrial cytb showing deep genetic split between Western and Eastern European Nightjar subspecies, with the Maltese bird in the 'eastern' group.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

New paper with an unbelievable team of collaborators, led by Bob Flood. @scillypelagics.bsky.social A new subspecies of Cape Verde Storm Petrel Hydrobates jabejabe from São Tomé Island, Gulf of Guinea. Ostrich, 1–18. doi.org/10.2989/0030... @manuelschweizer.bsky.social

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Shoveler at Loirston Loch today is a very useful patch year tick. Though the GC Grebes had lost a couple of kids but it turned out they had just wandered off.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

We've been working on subalpine warblers from this spring. Still a couple to do but: North Ronaldsay, 30/4: Western Calf of Man, 10/5: Western Isle of May, 28/5: Western Troswick, Shetland, 3/5: Western Portland, 12/5: Western Sumburgh Head, 9/6: Eastern @birdguides.bsky.social

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

We don't know who you are, anonymous donor, but we love you ❤️ Thank you to everyone who has supported our bird DNA work. www.justgiving.com/fundraising/...

Screenshot of our Just Giving page showing an anonymous donation of £100

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Two Minke Whale lunge-feeding off Newtonhill this evening were quite the treat.

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Reposted by Martin Collinson

Martin George @jannerbirder.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Al-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk. “The idea that we could maybe use those [Facebook] photos to help us understand where species are in space and time is very difficult”, said @alexanderlees.bsky.social in the science journal Nature.

theguardian.com

Al-altered images on birdwatching forums putting research at risk

Experts warn increase in enhanced photos on birding platforms creating fake sightings, threatening credibility of tool used by scientists

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Reposted by Martin Collinson

King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I'm not posting Odyssey memes because one must be wary of GIFs bearing Greeks.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The appropriately named Dark Green Fritillary on the clifftops today.

Dark-green Fritillary sat on a Spear Thistle flower

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The immune system is just a myth invented by Big Pharma to make us buy more drugs. There, I said it.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

A Quail calling in barley field at the back of Newtonhill. Today has been a good patch day.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Loirston Loch on fire today, metaphorically. The Great Crested Grebes have a stripy chicken, an Osprey circled for a bit, and the Little Grebes have families.

Pair of Great Crested Grebes at Loirston Loch. One is on the nest incubating, other is carrying a stripy head (arrow)

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

With Download Festival then a trip to Scarborough I missed the last 2 weekends at Loirston Loch and while I was away *Great Crested Grebes moved in!!* My first at this site and less than annual in my 10K radius. Occasional fly-bys on seawatches. #winning

Great Crested Grebe sat on a floating nest in the middle of the Loch.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Code Red: Turtle Dove in my back garden!

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Cheer my pot of self-seeded Northern Marsh Orchids

Four enormous Northern Marsh Orchids flowering in a pink plant pot

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

PeopleWhoHaveTwoSpeciesOfOrchidGrowingInTheirLawnSayWhat?? What?

Small pink Common Spotted Orchid in the grass

Northern Marsh Orchid, purple flowers, in the grass.

Lawn with Northern Marsh Orchids, and our house behind.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Happy Duck Necrophilia Day to all who celebrate

Screenshot of title page of 'Moeliker, C.W., 2001 - The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae) - DEINSEA 8: 243-247 [ISSN 0932-9308]. Published 9 November 2001

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Plenty of Cuckoo action at Red Moss of Netherley this morning. 4 birds including this shifty-looking female, surveying the Mipits quietly.

Female Common Cuckoo half hidden in foliage

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

The art world was shocked today by a new analysis of John Constable's iconic painting 'The Hay Wain'. Confocal X-ray imaging of the canvas revealed that Constable originally intended to portray the mill pond populated by cute little ghosts. #art #thehaywain

Pencil and ink drawing of The Hay Wain with cute ghosts walking a ghost dog, fishing, swimming, playing in a boat, driving the hay wain and leaning out of the window of the house. The other images are details of cute ghosts

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Found a long-dead Little Auk behind the dunes today. One from winter wrecks. A6 notebook for scale. #HolyIsland

Dried up corpse of a Little Auk, missing its head, sat in the grand next to a tweet daffodil-themed notebook.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Black Guillemots off the Heugh, Holy Island, this evening

Blurry photo of first summer Black Guillemot on the sea

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Behold! My beautiful genotyping PCRs. So clean. Many beauty. Much science.

Agarose gel image with fluorescent orange DNA bands and a DNA ladder. The other photos are beautiful clean variations on this.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

An old fashioned used-to-be Mealy/Common Redpoll in the garden today. Digi-binned.

Blurry cropped pic of Mealy Redpoll on feeder, with a Eurasian Siskin and 2 Greenfinches.

Blurry cropped pic of Mealy Redpoll on feeder, interacting with a Eurasian Siskin and 2 Greenfinches.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

In Llandudno hotels you have to pay the bill by passing biscuits through the window to the rent collectors.

Herring Gull peeping menacingly through the gap in a window

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I've never seen one before, but presume this monster is Queen of the Tree Bumblebee people. Found on our kitchen floor.

Huge fuckoff bumblebee, cuddly dense foxy orange thorax, black abdomen, white bum, sat on wooden bench.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Friday on the Great Orme, Llandudno. Sheep and Chough

Heath landscape, sheep and lamb sat in foreground with a Chough on the short grass behind them

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Black Redstart poops from 'eastern' birds from Spurn (Nov 25) and Sheringham (Dec 25) have cytb sequences that clade with birds from west/central China and from Tyva (Russia). Distinct from western DNA. Consistent with subspp phoenicuroides/murinus. @birdguides.bsky.social 1/2

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

A Pochard at the other side (can you tell) or Loirston Loch was a very handy 10K radius year tick. Ring-necked Duck still here.

Blurry distant pic of male Pochard swimming right

Ring-necked Duck swimming right with a blurry male Wigeon in the foreground.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Still tidying. Behold school exercise book from age 13. Religious education - 40 pages of blood-curdling military history

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Rearranging bookshelves. Found 20s year-old Martin's pen drawings of rarities what I saw. 1990 Holkham Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1991 Waxham Lark Sparrow, and 1991 St Andrews Chimney Swift. #birding