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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

🐚🫧🦀 Some snaps from recent fieldwork: the view from our field site back to St Andrews, some mating sea hares, and some members of Team Fish living their best life 🦀🫧🐚 @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social

View of St Andrews and the castle across the sea from the intertidal field site

Some members of Team Fish hard at work in the rockpools

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Fieldwork photos taken 30 minutes apart and just before we got rained on quite spectacularly! You really do just have to wait half an hour in Scotland if you don't like the weather ☀️🌊☔ @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social

The largest rockpool we run field trials in. Three floats can be seen in the water, in the sun with blue sky above.

The rocky shore half an hour later, with very ominous grey clouds and rain in the distance over St Andrews.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Last weekend's reading and exploring 🌿☀️📚 I thoroughly recommend this book by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social for those who have not yet read! Also thoroughly recommend a walk around Burnhope Reservoir in County Durham for people around those parts!

Cover of The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane

Burnhope reservoir in the sunshine with trees and white fluffy clouds in the background

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

We saw so many ragworms during fieldwork today, bright green for the breeding season! @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

A brief break from the beautiful Scottish weather we've been having lately finally allowed us to get out for a little spot of fieldwork yesterday! @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social 🦀☔🪸

Three members of team fish wearing waders and carrying buckets across the rocky shore

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Had a fantastic time at @asab-meetings.bsky.social Winter meeting in Edinburgh, so many great talks and conversations about sensory ecology! 🦀🐟🐦🦋

A picture of me standing in front of my poster, titled The acoustic ecology of foraging intertidal invertebrates and fish, talking to a fellow sensory ecology researcher

The front of the beautiful Royal College of Physicians building in Edinburgh, where the conference was held. The columns are decorated with Christmas wreaths

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Already one month into my placement at Rothamsted Research and learning more and more about chemical ecology every day! 🌱

Three trays of oilseed-rape(OSR) plants
The plants in the tray on the right are looking a lot healthier and larger than the other two.

The Rothamsted Research site entrance, with a brick sign in front of a large tree and red-brick building.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

After almost a year(!!) of my PhD, I am excited to start my 3-month placement at @rothamsted.bsky.social 🌱 I shall miss this lovely group at St Andrews @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social @mikemwebster.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social but I'm sure I'll be back to the sea before I know it! 🌊🐟🦀

Five members of "team fish" in our waders and woolly hats in front of the main rockpool, with a grey sky behind us.

Three members of "team fish" wading into a large rockpool carrying rigs and floats for data collection, with a blue sky and fluffy white clouds

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Me: why do I always have a sore back? Also me:

A photo of myself and a colleague hunched over sitting on buckets in the rockpools to count shell species.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

So many happy pollinators at Alnwick Garden today 🪻🌼🐝

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I really enjoyed presenting some preliminary results from my PhD work at the St Andrews Biology PGR conference today! It was great to see all the cool work coming out of our community as well 🦀🐟🔊 (thanks to @mikemwebster.bsky.social and @lrendell.bsky.social as always)

A picture of me standing in front of my slide showing preliminary results from my first PhD studies.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

A very eventful five seconds 🦀🐟🫧

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

A really fun and insightful first day at our #eastbio25 symposium discussing research impact with excellent talks and workshops from Dr Ismar Haga, Dr Harriet Day, @viveknityananda.bsky.social, Dr Dave Blackbell, Prof Andrew Millar and William Smith!

Eastbio panel seated in front of our student and supervisor audience in the conference room.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Had a great time hosting our #Eastbio thematic meeting today - with fantastic talks by @nakedprimate.bsky.social, @sheardcat.bsky.social and Dave Shuker! @louisekandler.bsky.social @mzworsley.bsky.social Followed by some good old-fashioned rockpooling 🦀🐟

Six people walking across the rockpools covered in seaweed under a grey sky.

Me presenting the rockpooling activity at the front of a seminar room.

A black spotted sea hare under the water in a rockpool.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Another bright morning at the rocky shore with some members of 'Team Fish'🐟🦀☀️🌊 @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social

Rocky shore with members of our research group searching in the rockpools and a clear blue sky above.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

Always love a trip to the National Museum of Scotland, which has an entire floor dedicated to animal senses!! 🐍🦥🦉🐬

Animal Life section of the National Museum of Scotland.

Rooftop view from the National Museum of Scotland with trees framing the roof of McEwan Hall and blue sky above

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

Weekend walks and reading, the latter courtesy of @ambikamath.bsky.social and Melina Packer - a very good read so far! 🌿📖

A willow tree next to the river Eden in Cupar, with sunlight streaming through the leaves.

The front cover of Feminism in the Wild by Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Another beautiful day on the rocky shore ☀️🌊🦀

Rockpools in the sun, blue sky and white fluffy clouds.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Excited to start properly thinking about some very cool public outreach work alongside my PhD! 🦈🐠🦐

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Morning and evening views at the Scottish Oceans Institute 🌊

Landscape consisting of a path in the foreground, then a bench on some grass and the calm sea beyond, with a yellow/blue horizon and sky.

The same landscape of a bench with the sea beyond, with frost on the ground and the sea coloured pink by the sunset sky.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

I am starting to believe that St Andrews is indeed the most sunny place in Scotland! ☀️

A rockpool surrounded by high rocks and seaweed, with the sun shining on the rocks and a clear blue sky.

A view of East Sands beach from the Scottish Oceans Institute, with grass in the foreground, a small strip of yellow sand, the sea behind, and a blue sky with a few white fluffy clouds.

The low autumn sun shining through a large tree and onto a glass building, with a stone-walled building and flowers in the foreground. Very much golden hour.

Trees with autumn leaves covering the floor, and a glimpse of blue sky through the leaves. The sun is shining on the leaves on the floor.

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

A very fun, cold, occasionally frustrating, but mostly successful few weeks of piloting at the rocky shore 🌊 🦀 🐟 🔊

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Not quite fully thawed from fieldwork this morning 🥶 but what a BEAUTIFUL place to be! 🌊☀️🦀

Sandy and rocky shore with waves and clear blue sky in the background

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Melissa Ramsay @melissa-e-ramsay.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Hello all! 👋 I'm Melissa. I have recently started my PhD at St Andrews in the @animalsdoingstuff.bsky.social lab. I am broadly interested in sensory ecology, and currently exploring how animals use socially transmitted acoustic cues to forage. Please enjoy a picture of one of our field sites! 🦀

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