iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Did you ever have a Grey Plover look at you like it doesn't believe a word you're saying?

Photo of Grey Plover looking askance at the viewer with speech bubbles 'Oh, really?' And 'Did you, aye?'

Close up of Grey Plover's quizzical face

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

An Otter casually crossing the sands on Holy Island this morning

Shot of an Otter running left to right across a wet seaweedy beach

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Here we go. DNA from poop of Sykes's Warbler from Girdleness last week ('IR04') is to no one's surprise exactly that. Iduna rama with 100% statistical support, to exclusion of all other species. #scottishbirding @birdguides.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social

Phylogenetic tree based on cytochrome b sequence comparing DNA from the Sykes's Warbler at Girdleness, Aberdeen, with Genbank Iduna sequences of all species and lurking at top the Western Olivaceous Warbler from Whalsay, Shetland in 2023. Red nodes have 100% bootstrap support and the Girdleness bird falls within rama as expected.

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Poops from the recent Shetland Egyptian Nightjar yielded DNA. Not much genetic difference between nominate (eastern) and saharae (western) subspecies, but Shetland bird is likely nominate; DNA is like birds from Oman and Kuwait. #birds #birding #birdingscotland @birdguides.bsky.social

Gene tree (cytochrome b) showing Shetland bird cladding with nominate Egyptian Nightjars

Egyptian Nightjar poops cradled in limpet shells

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

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

Also, given this bird, I think there's a significant possibility that Britain's only Cat A Egyptian Nightjar (Dorset, June 1984), a single (brilliant) observer record supported only by field sketches, could have been a plumipes European Nightjar. @alexanderlees.bsky.social @britishbirds.bsky.social

Photo of page from British Birds vol 92: 157 with field notes of Egyptian Nightjar seen at Portland, Dorset.

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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

Tfw the kids are getting on your tits

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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 · 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 · 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 · 30/06/2026

Ngl it was a shock. Presume these 2 have failed to breed elsewhere and moved here.

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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

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

One Black Guillemot, not Guillemots

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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

But Black Red genetics still confuses me. There is more than one 'eastern clade' and it's not clear what these refer to. See attached gene tree, sorry for the mess. 2/2

Phylogenetic tree, scrawled on, indicating the placement of Spurn and Sheringham birds in an 'eastern' clade.

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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