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Martin Collinson

@docmartin2mc.bsky.social
1.1K followers 873 following 212 posts

Britain's Top Vicarious Birder. Aberdeen Wildife DNA lab. Aniridia research. Likes birds, stamps, ghosts, art, and wasps. Leeds United #lufc because I was bad in a previous life. www.justgiving.com/fundraising/aber…

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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 3h
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
🤣
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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 NightjarsEgyptian Nightjar poops cradled in limpet shells
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Yellow-browed Warbler in the sunshine in the back garden 😍😍😍
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Martin Starr as Bohdi: It's A Very Strong Maybe
ALT: Martin Starr as Bohdi: It's A Very Strong Maybe
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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 dishDigi-binned poor image of Sykes's Warbler in a Cockle Shell treeSykes'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
🤣 they probably get beaten up by the YbWs
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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
Whyyyyy is the spice of life so stinky 😭😭😭
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Rabbits rarely eat beef casserole.
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
😭😭😭 now you're gonna tell me they're limpets 😭😭😭
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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 · 08/09/2026
Look at ma sexy back garden badger! @naturespy.bsky.social #helarctos
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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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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Yes it's 03/06 not 03/05. I was told Troswick.
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
🤣
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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
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 BirdingPhylogenetic 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 · 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 · 08/08/2026
From @privateeyenews.bsky.social 😃
Cartoon by Martin Ross showing a giant kitten chasing Greek soldiers on the cinema screen
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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
Magnificent
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
We love you anyway
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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 · 30/07/2026
This made me happy.
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
For the last time 🥲 youtu.be/JNvQxyXu1Vc?...
youtu.be
Madonna Loves Bill Oddie
YouTube video by Classic Rathergood
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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
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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
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
#nomowmay
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
PeopleWhoHaveTwoSpeciesOfOrchidGrowingInTheirLawnSayWhat?? What?
Small pink Common Spotted Orchid in the grassNorthern 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 · 08/05/2026
I too would risk it all for a landfill seedsnipe. Peak birding. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
independent.co.uk
Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak ‘possibly caused by couple’s birdwatching trip’
Eight suspected cases of hantavirus have been linked to the boat, which sailed from southern Argentina
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Martin Collinson @docmartin2mc.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
He's escaped from Elba 😭😭😭
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