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Freddie Mckendrick

@freddiemckendrick.bsky.social
136 followers 136 following 22 posts

Behavioural ecologist oddly interested in the individuality of how, why and where animals move. Postdoc with @niozsearesearch.bsky.social investigating all things red knot and their food. freddiemckendrickecology.carrd.co

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Reposted by Freddie Mckendrick
Our World in Data @ourworldindata.org · 26/09/2026
Foreign aid contributions fell in 2025 amongst almost all of the top 10 donors. In 2025, the amount of foreign aid given by the world’s richest countries fell by almost a quarter. That amounted to a reduction of roughly US$50 billion.
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Natasha Gillies @tashgillies.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
New paper in @animalecology.bsky.social!📝http://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70350 Coordination is thought to be key to the success of biparental care, but we don’t know how this varies with species’ ecology 🍃 We explore: how important is partner coordination & does this depend on environment? 🏞️
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70350
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Alice Edney @aliceedney.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Always great to help with a colour-ringing project! We ringed an extra 3 LBBG in Liverpool today (!), likely the last ones we'll catch here this summer. Keep an eye out for green colour-ringed gulls & report any sightings at nwgulls.org.uk 💍 #seabirds #ornithology @joewynnbirds.bsky.social
nwgulls.org.uk
North West England Gull Project - Home
Information on large gull colour ringing projects undertaken in North-west England
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THE NERVE @thenerve.news · 29/07/2026
“Neither the Starmer government, nor Andy Burnham’s, can say it didn’t know”: former Green party leader @carolinelucas.bsky.social on the shocking climate reports the UK government didn't want you to see www.thenerve.news/p/caroline-l...
Caroline Lucas: The shocking climate reports the UK government didn't want you to see. Illustration of a report with much of the text reacted: "Britain's [redacted] water supply, together with its [redacted], are [redacted] etc", over a red image of woodland burning
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The Socialist Dad @thesocialistdad.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Keir Starmer "I'm the worst Prime Minister the UK has ever had" Andy Burnham "Hold my pint of ale"
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Paolo Becciu @pbecciu.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
🚨Very happy to share our new paper out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🦉 We show that barn owl colour morphs do not simply experience moonlight differently — they hunt differently under it. White morphs appear to turn bright moonlight into a hunting advantage. 1/3 #movementecology #barnowl #moon
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Richard K Broughton @richardkbroughton.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Two out of the (only) three White-tailed Eagles fledged in England in 2025 have since 'disappeared in suspicious circumstances', i.e. people killed them within months. Read this, and see how much effort those people go to, to kill them. We all know who & why. Two out of three. Within months.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Crucial discussion by @rewildingbritain.org.uk of how nature conservation in the UK needs to change. It is currently locked into rigid criteria and fixed endpoints - an approach entirely alien to how ecosystems work. But there are better ways. www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/blog/the-wil...
rewildingbritain.org.uk
The Wild View: Time to move beyond the 'museum model' of conservation
In her second Wild View opinion piece, Rewilding Britain Chief Exec Rebecca Wrigley calls for a radical modernisation of the way we protect our landscapes.
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Matthias Tschumi 🦉 @matthiastschumi.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Some kids are always on the move – others prefer a good book. We show that early-life behaviour in golden eagles 🦅 cascades across life stages: more active nestlings fledge earlier, explore more, and disperse sooner. tinyurl.com/3sb8jnsz @vogelwarte.bsky.social @safilab.bsky.social #ornithology
Juvenile golden eagle soaring in front of a cliff. (c) Marcel Burkhardt
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Clara Dies Valls @diesclara.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
let's go lesbians let's go
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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 19/05/2026
Little auks are small Arctic #seabirds that need to find enough food to raise their chicks in a rapidly changing ocean. This #RSOS paper studied their feeding behaviour over seven breeding seasons in Svalbard using GPS tracking, ocean data, and diet samples: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
7 of the birds have now made it to Iceland with 6 distributed along the Orkneys and Shetland with little movement over the last day or so (strong winds??). Weather is looking more favourable later in the week so keep your eyes peeled for more on the Scottish Islands! #ukbirding #icelandbirds
Red knot movements tracked with GPS from the Dutch Wadden Sea. Each coloured line represents a different bird. 7 individuals have made it to iceland, 6 are in the northern scottish islands, 4 are in the German/danish Wadden Sea and the remaining 11 can be found in the Dutch Wadden Sea still
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Amazing photos by @northronbirdobs.bsky.social of one of our tracked knots, Arenicola with Tellina also skulking around on the island somewhere. So cool to see the knots a lot fatter now than when we deployed the loggers in February and photos like this help so much with the tagging efforts!
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Tom Lowe @saloplarus.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Nothing to see here, just 22,400 Sabine's Gulls in one flock... 🤯🇨🇦😍 ebird.org/checklist/S3...
Part of a superflock of at least 22,400 Sabine's Gulls off British Columbia, taken by Joachim Bertrands
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Perfect timing for all those out and about in the UK this weekend particularly up in the Orkneys and Shetland to keep an eye out for colour ringed knots! (bonus points if they have a GPS tag) #ukbirding #Globalbigday #uknature
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
aaand we have movement North. The first bird to begin migration left the Friesian coast at 9am on Tuesday, passing directly over Aberdeen at 10pm before touching down in the Orkneys in the early hours of the morning. Headwinds potentially stopping it from making the leap to Iceland in one go?
GPS track of a red knot moving across the North Sea from the Fresian coast in the Netherlands to the Orkney islands in Scotland. GPS track of a red knot above the Orkney islands in Scotland.GPS track of a red knot landing on the North Coast of Sanday.
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Lewis Lancaster @lewislancaster.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
🥳 New paper alert 🥳 The first of the data chapters from my DPhil, and the works from my first few field seasons on Skomer, is out! "Shearwaters make efficient navigational decisions, even at very fine scales" - doi.org/10.1242/jeb.... A huge thank you to everyone involved 🩵
doi.org
Shearwaters make efficient navigational decisions, even at very fine scales
Summary: A fine-scale displacement of Manx shearwaters, a wide-ranging pelagic seabird, reveals that they preferentially adopt shorter homing routes following release at proximal sites, demonstrating ...
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Denis REALE 🇨🇦 @denisreale.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
You are interested in evolutionary ecology and quantitative genetics. You enjoy fieldwork and birds. Join our laboratory and our international team. csee-scee.ca/job/fully-fu...
Pictures of blue tits, adults and nestlings, with some views of the field sites of the research project on Corsican blue tits.
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Tohar Tal @tohar-tal.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Why are Bewick’s Swans declining? Here, we set out to answer this question by breaking down the reproductive cycle of the rapidly declining Western Palearctic population, using both GPS/ACC and citizen-science data. Click the link below to read the full story! @hanslinssen.bsky.social
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Reminder that you can still follow our tracked knots as they gear up for their migration. Nephtys (dark blue off Cuxhaven) continued its journey North last night and is now up with it's compatriots on the German/Danish Wadden Sea border! Who will make the first leap and head to the breeding grounds?
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
The greatest use of supplementary material yet. All here for evolution leading to just popping an egg into a nest cavity and seeing what happens.
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Reposted by Freddie Mckendrick
Samantha Patrick @samanthacpatrick.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Join me & @olliepadget.bsky.social at @livuninews.bsky.social! #postdoc #seabird movement & navigation in response to environmental cues @ukri.org. Developing new loggers w/ micro-engineers & computer scientists @yorkuniversity.bsky.social. Job tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5 Press release tinyurl.com/2zuzktv5
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Common Tern Project @commonternproject.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Out now in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment: a study in which we assessed whether mercury levels vary among feather types within individual terns, how feather mercury levels relate to those in blood, and whether all levels vary with sex and age in a similar way: doi.org/10.1007/s106...
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Another good entry into the award for fun and cute ways of weighing birds
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Edward Grey Institute @egioxford.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
🚨🚨 Breaking news from Wytham Woods: The 80th year of data collection of the long-term tit study officially started today with this nest with 3 Blue Tit eggs (pic: @mcmahok.bsky.social). First egg inferred 23 March which is our earliest EVER nest - beating the previous record of 26 March by 3 days!🚨🚨
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Jonathan A. Green @jon-seabirds.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Need to assess the future impact of changed survival or productivity on your UK #seabird population? Want to do PVA but don't have the resources? We have run 100000 PVAs for you and built a library of those impacts! New paper by Eve Merrall, @cathorswill.bsky.social + more doi.org/10.1002/2688...
A plot that shows how different impacts to breeding success affect population size in fulmar and guillemots. These are two UK seabird species that are included in our paper that is the subject of this post.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
... Huge thank you goes to Sasha Kitaysky, Alexis Will and Sebastien Descamps for all the work they have done to maintain this dataset and also to @samanthacpatrick.bsky.social for all the fun during the PhD. Paper is available to read freely here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Three kittiwake chicks sat on a nest at the abandoned mining town of Pyramiden in svalbard.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
... While it did not play a role in how individuals respond to changes in their environment, we show that personality type (here characterised by boldness) may influence how well individuals gather resources across the year with bolder birds doing better during breeding but worse in the winter...
Plot showing the variation in feather corticsoterone across the annual cycle. Bolder birds do better when more constrained (breeding and post-breeding) where as they do worse when able to freely move through the environment.Shoutout to butch for playing the pantomime villain all these years. Picture shows a blue plastic penguin toy used to assay boldness in our population of kittiwakes.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
..We found that increasing Atlantic waters may benefit generalist species like kittiwakes breeding in the Arctic by providing more resources but understanding what drives resource acquisition during non-breeding was more challenging...
Plot showing the relationship between the level of Atlantic water and feather corticosterone for black-legged kittiwakes breeding in the Arctic. In years of more Atlantic water, individuals tended to be in a better nutritional state.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
..Resource acquisition is crucial for organisms to survive but measuring this through time is hard. We used feather corticosterone as an indicator of nutritional state across the annual cycle and find that it is a good predictor of both breeding success and potential survival...
Two graphs showing the negative relationship between feather corticosterone (an indicator of nutritional state) and breeding success and survival
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Behind schedule with this but it was also very nice to see one of my PhD chapters officially come out in @animalecology.bsky.social last week! This one felt like a long road but came from a great collaboration and highlights the importance of long-term time series! 🧵below...
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Great to see this paper by Tash out now in @royalsocietypublishing.org. Beautiful piece of work bringing together an impressive dataset to show the flexibility in diel patterns of kittiwakes. Pleasure to be a part of!
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Chris Hassall @katatrepsis.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Very excited to announce that we are hiring for three faculty positions at @universityofleeds.bsky.social in @bioscienceleeds.bsky.social: A/Prof Plant Science, A/Prof Animal Biology and Lecturer in Ecology, Zoology, Biodiversity or Ecosystem Management. Please do get in touch to chat. Links below:
jobs.leeds.ac.uk
Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Associate Professor of Plant Science
Associate Professor of Plant Science Salary: Grade 9 (£61,759 - £73,708 p.a, depending on experience)This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for elements of the job to be undertak...
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Journal of Avian Biology @avianbiology.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
✨ Editorial: a summary and synopsis of the studies included in the special issue on migration physiology written by the editorial team @pablosalmon.bsky.social @barbarahelm.bsky.social #TiiaKärkkäinen ➡️ vist.ly/4ucex #ornithology #birds #migration #physiology
Special issue flyer. Photo shows bar-tailed godwits (image: iStock)Editorial team behind the special issue: Tiia Kärkkäinen, Pablo Salmón and Barbara HelmFigure from the editorial: Features and topics of the studies included in the Special Issue. (A) Global distribution of studies with Flyway System boundaries and names defined according to BirdLife International. The circle size represents the number of studies per country. (B) Taxonomic composition of studies grouped into broad species categories. (C) Distribution of studies across physiological domains addressed in this issue. Each category represents a primary focus, although several studies span multiple topics.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
WATLAS birds: maps.nioz.nl/watlas/
maps.nioz.nl
WATLAS Bird Tracking
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
GPS birds: www.globalflywaynetwork.org/tracks/speci...
globalflywaynetwork.org
Global Flyway Network - Birds connecting the dots
Global Flyway Network (GFN) is a partnership between researchers worldwide who are devoted to long term – usually demographic – work on long distance migrating shorebirds.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
30 GPS, 30+ WATLAS tags and 120 exploration assays done and a successful week in the Wadden sea finished with lots of fun science to come. Both the GPS and WATLAS birds can now be followed along (semi) live to keep up with your daily dose of knot action. (links in 🧵 below)
Sunset on the island of Griend in the Dutch Wadden Sea.
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
All GPS birds are being released alongside birds with WATLAS tags which can be followed along in real time alongside a few other waders here: maps.nioz.nl/watlas/ #movementecology #ornithology
maps.nioz.nl
WATLAS Bird Tracking
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
24 knots now released and slowly spreading around the Wadden sea and beyond. Our UK bird has now moved down to Walton-on-the-Naze and seems settled down for now! #movementecology #ornithology #ukbirding @allertbijleveld.bsky.social @hanslinssen.bsky.social
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
East coast UK birders keep an eye out for colour ringed knots especially anyone near Thorpeness where R6PGPY is hanging out. Doesn't look like particularly perfect knot habitat on satellites but if anyone could let us know the conditions in the area that would be interesting! #ornithology #ukbirding
R6PGPY GPS tagged red knot on release from the Wadden Sea
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Freddie Mckendrick @freddiemckendrick.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Red knot GPS tagging expedition on Griend off to a flying start (sorry). 6 birds released with 24 more to go. Most are hanging around in the Wadden sea but one left for the UK with strong tailwinds last night! #MovementEcology #ornithology @allertbijleveld.bsky.social @niozsearesearch.bsky.social
Tracks of red knots moving around the Wadden seaTrack of one individual red knot flying from the Netherlands to the East coast of the UKTrack of one individual red knot arriving in the UK to Thorpeness
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BTO | British Trust for Ornithology @btobirds.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
📢 We're looking for a PhD student to focus on habitat use of wintering Curlew in and around coastal SPAs. Apply now ➡️ bit.ly/CurlewPhD The student will be based at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social and BTO, starting in October 2026 for four years. 📆 Deadline to apply: Wednesday 18 February #Ornithology
A Curlew, a wading bird with a long downcurved bill, stands on an estuary shoreline with water in the background. Wording below reads: PhD opportunity with BTO and Liverpool John Moores University. BTO logo is top right of the image.
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Dr Katrina Siddiqi-Davies @katrina-siddiqi.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
We are looking to hire a Seabird Field Assistant for 2026 for our Manx Shearwater research project. Please share this to anyone who'd like to get out in the field this summer and learn about biotelemetry, bird handling and research into animal behaviour. drive.google.com/file/d/1SGZt...
Last years field assistant holding a Manx Shearwater on the isle of Rum (under a towel), retrieving a GPS device after a bird has returned from a foraging trip!
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Alice Edney @aliceedney.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
The first drone census of the St Kilda gannet colony is now published in Scottish Birds! We counted 59,205 AOS in 2023 - similar to previous years. The overall impact of #HPAI appears less than at some other colonies, with notable declines in flatter areas 🧮 #ornithology #seabirds #NTSseabirds
researchgate.net
(PDF) The first drone census of the Gannet colony on St Kilda, 2023
PDF | An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (hereafter drone) survey of Gannets at St Kilda was carried out in June 2023. The survey was the first census at St... | Find, read and cite all the research you need ...
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Kirsty Franklin @kirstyfranklin.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Seasonal field staff needed for @rspbscience.bsky.social projects in 2026 - advert live, closing date 11 Jan. Lots of #seabird (& non-seabird) opportunities! Get in touch if you’d like to know more about any of the #seabird roles 🌊🐦 app.vacancy-filler.co.uk/salescrm/Car... #seabirds #ornithology
app.vacancy-filler.co.uk
Research Assistant and Senior Research Assistant - Seasonal Recruitment 2026 | RSPB
We are delighted to bring the details of our seasonal Research Assistants and Senior Research Assistants vacancies on a variety of projects within Great Britain in 2026.Full details of the roles curre...
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Dina-Leigh Simons @dinathebiologist.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
It’s me! 🧬 www.mba.ac.uk/pioneering-s...
mba.ac.uk
Pioneering study uses eDNA to reveal intertidal biodiversity across UK shores | Marine Biological Association
A groundbreaking study, part-funded by the Marine Biological Association (MBA), has demonstrated the power of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to assess
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Joe Wynn @joewynnbirds.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
One week left on this! Good opportunity for someone interested in #behaviour, #genomics and #migration to come work will some fun seabirds and some fun people 🧬🐣🛰️ www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
findaphd.com
To lead or to follow: disentangling the genetic and cultural contributions to long-distance seabird migration at University of Liverpool on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - To lead or to follow: disentangling the genetic and cultural contributions to long-distance seabird migration at University of Liverpool, listed on FindAPhD.com
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Joe Wynn @joewynnbirds.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
🚨 PhD alert 🚨 We are looking for a highly motivated student to use 🧬 genomics 🧬 and 🛰️ bio-logging 🛰️ approaches to disentangle cultural and genetic contributions to seabird migration 🐣 Think this is you, or someone you know? Then come to our Q&A session at on 29/09 and check out the ad below!
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British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU) @bou.org.uk · 26/08/2025
🎉 Huge congratulations to Ollie Padget on receiving the 2025 BOU Early Professional Award at #EOU2025 last week 🎉 Richly deserved recognition for an outstanding initial contribution to #ornithology 🪶 Read the IBIS citation here: onlinelibrary.wiley....
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Lila Buckingham @lilabuckingham.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Do you use geolocators to estimate foraging time, behaviour, or energetics in diving seabirds? See our new paper for insights from a study of Common Guillemots. doi.org/10.61350/sbj... @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social
A graphical abstract depicting the paper title, author list, and brief description of the paper. One images displays an adult common gullemot with one logger on each leg, next to a chick. The second image displays a close-up of a common guillemot's legs with both loggers shown. The text reads: 
An improved method to derive behavioural budgets and energetics from geolocator data in Common Guillemots Uria aalge
Lila Buckingham, Maria Bogdanova, Francis Daunt, Robert Furness, Sophie Bennett, Ruth Dunn, David Jardine, Mark Newell, Ewan Weston & Jonathan Green
We deployed two devices (time-depth recorder & geolocator) on 39 Common Guillemots for one non-breeding season.
We allocated time to behaviours using 1) both devices (see Buckingham et al. 2023) and 2) only geolocators, following previous methods. 
We compared the behavioural budgets. We could not extract foraging behaviour (diving) when only using geolocator data.
We devised an improved method for estimating behaviours and energetics in Common Guillemots using geolocator data. We also provide guidance for studies of other diving seabirds that rest at sea.
Photos by Andrew Carter
Seabird 37 (2025) Early Release
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