Martin Collinson #BLM
@docmartin2mc
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Mild-mannered scientist by day. Crime fighting superhero and one of @britishbirds Editorial Panel by night. Pissed off ex-Chair of BOURC
Hiding in the cupboard
Joined April 2007
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Send us removal request.
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After 30 years(!) have retired my old Dialyts. They'll be able to sit in a rocking chair on the porch and tell the new binoculars how there used to be more birds in the old days.
#zeiss
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Genetic analysis of a feather from this beast (found, ID'd by John Lowrie Irvine,
@RogerRiddington
and others, photo by
@dunnjons
) confirms it is a Western Olivaceous Warbler. A Happy Day for the British List.
@BirdGuides
@RareBirdAlertUK
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Sleep Token Wembley Ritual. Acrylic on canvas, 40x51 cm.
#sleeptoken
#sleeptokenart
@Sleep_Token
@ii_sleeptoken
@sleeptoken_iii
@tpwbytwtbb
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Exactly 40 years today since Richard Porter saw this on the sewage lagoons at Hodeidah, Yemen.
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The DNA result from this has come back as the cat that presumably killed it. Well now we have your cat's DNA and we will find it...
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Genetic analysis of Salthouse 'Eastern' Stonechat poo confirms it was stejnegeri, as suspected.
@RareBirdAlertUK
@BirdGuides
@_BBRC
@comicterns
@birdingprof
@MSMurphy300
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Five subalpine warblers trapped on Lundy this spring + done genetically came out as 1 Western (iberiae/inornata), 1 nominate Eastern (cantillans) (S Italy) and 3 albistriata Eastern (Balkans/Greece/Turkey)!
@comicterns
@penguin_tereza
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Not that anyone cares what I think, but I still believe the May '98 Druridge curlew was a Slender-billed, AND that the hard documentary evidence proves it. Figures from
@britishbirds
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An Iceland Wren (NMS) next to a British one. They breed 'em tough up north.
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DNA on Black-crowned Night Heron, Dingle Gardens, Shrewsbury, (eventually taken into care where in good health & eating all the fish) confirms it's an American one N. n. hoactli. ID'd w feathers that fell out in fight with mallard after it tried to eat her kids.
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Installed a Polar Bear rug in the office and I think it adds a touch of class to the place. I feel like quite the country gent.
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It's finally happening - DNA from the Bempton 'Red-tailed' Shrike.
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Cornwall Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin DNA is 2% different cf. previous bushchat DNAs (= a lot!) (= 'unknown specimen'). But others are from Israel/further S/E. Suggests Cornwall bird is from unsampled nominate African/Iberian population & poss future split. Pic Dougy Wright
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Hope I never find a Gyrfalcon cos then I'd have to guess the right way to pronounce it out loud and I'm not sure I could stand the humiliation.
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It's that Waxwing time of year. The most recent UK census concluded there are more Waxwing photographers in the country than there are Waxwings.
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Goldcrest facts: Goldcrests know all your secrets and are openly judging you
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@irnbru
@StevenDickson8
Is it true that Diet Irn Bru is made in England and that's why it doesn't cure hangovers?
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Top take-home points from 'CSI: Birding' talk
@NTBirdClub
last night:
1) If it looks like an Elegant Tern, it is one - tick it;
2) Genetics has RUINED Isabelline Shrikes;
3) Do NOT send us anything from a Crossbill or Redpoll;
4) Dead birds don't sing properly.
5) Weird shit.
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We didn't consult parliament but DNA from moulted feather supplied by Graham Jepson has confirmed Staines Horned Lark is definitely of Nearctic origin, possibly one of the western populations.
@comicterns
@BirdGuides
@RareBirdAlertUK
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No-mow May - we've magicked up a flock of Northern Marsh Orchids on the front lawn.
#NoMowMay
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Hope someone is follwing the Cape/Kelp Gull round with the pooper scooper. The only bird we ever sequenced (from The Gambia) was actually genetically identical to South American birds, not South African ones.
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This Hen Harrier was so bothered by its satellite tag it shot itself and died of sadness. On a grouse moor. You do wonder about the motivation of organisations that see this and attack the tagging programmes.
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Twenty years of checking these trees for apparently no reason and today there was a Firecrest. Patch tick
#LocalBigYear
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Don't worry if your
#alevelresults2018
aren't what you wanted. I got 5 grade As and scraped into Cambridge but look at me now - this weekend I shall be selling magazines in a tent.
#alevelresultsday
#Birdfair
@britishbirds
@TheBirdfair
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@ActivateBritain
Those pesky inspectors, making sure your house is non-flammable, with safe electrics and construction and clean water 👎👎👎
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Super news - new, unnamed, genetic subspecies of Common Chiffchaff that colleagues had breeding on Mount Hermon in 2012/13 now also found singing in S Turkey
@yosefkiat
@yoavperlman
Prob restricted to relict Cedar forests of Turkey/Syria/Lebanon/N Israel.
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The 'Scilly Phyllosc' from last autumn was a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler P. tenellipes.
@RareBirdAlertUK
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May I also humbly present my attempt to paint The Cure from their December show in Glasgow.
#TheCure
#thecurelive
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In a dramatic twist, the 'Eastern' Yellow Wag from Rattray Head, which didn't look or sound much like one, & that I didn't go to see, has come back as genetic Eastern YW, of 'northern tschutschensis' group. Thanks to
@andyhidef
for poop and also some of the bird's.
@BirdGuides
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Here in 'Britain's Top Vicarious Birding Lab™' we never give up on a good bird. Soooo... 3 years after it turned up and 2 years after it made the British List, we have got DNA out of poop of Tiree Yellow-bellied Flycatcher supplied by Chris McGuigan &
@bubobilly
and all is well.
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.
@LabourEoin
@genotripe
I need to go to the shed for a screwdriver but afraid Theresa May might be in there addressing the party faithful.
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Argh ffs! Hanging out the washing and a Greenish Warbler starts calling in the back garden.... got my bins just in time to see it flying out over the house. Hanging around to see if it comes back.
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Everyone cheering Lorraine Kelly today remember that she is only acting the role of Lorraine Kelly for tv and if she was actually *being* Lorraine Kelly on telly she'd had to pay her million quid tax bill and there might be some more nurses.
#lorrainekelly
#lorraine
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For those who like this sort of thing, DNA results on the American Herring Gull from Newlyn earlier this year... show that it is definitely not European HG, and is definitely from the Nearctic/Arctic/Pacific clade. Work by
@penguin_tereza
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Few things in birding life more tedious than people who can't/won't twitch a rarity moaning that it would be easier/cheaper/purer to go and see 100s of them in the States/China.
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That faint gel band I posted a couple of days ago has turned into a confirmed ID of Ireland's first Alder Flycatcher. Dirty work done by Steve Millar hiking poos from under favourite perch once it left.
@bunkernut333
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We dedicated the 'CSI: Birding' paper to Martin Garner. Would've been his birthday today.
@britishbirds
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Best image I got, sorry, but cop a load of this motherlover in the garden.
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Pallas got so many good things names after him... best Phyllosc Warbler, best Gropper, best sandgrouse, best gull, even best moggy, but then he also got that reed bunting which kinda evens things out.
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Fresh from my Scottish Beaver 🦫 success at weekend, topped it today with a LEATHERBACK TURTLE on seawatch from Newtonhill 🐢
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There were never any targets for removing birds from the British List.
Well there were targets but I wasn't told.
OK I was told but I didn't read the memo.
OK I read the memo and increased the targets but they were only ambitions not targets.
And that's how I left BOURC.
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It took a while, but DNA from fecal sample confirms this accepted Eastern Black Red, (Easington 25/10/16) as 'Eastern', probably phoenicuroides. Hard work done by
@comicterns
Tea drunk by
@docmartin2mc
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Still working on genetic ID of 'red-tailed' shrikes: Red-backed & Turkestan share DNA; lack of comparative sequence. But 2022 Bempton Shrike DNA falls within phoenicuroides/collurio clade consistent with ID as Turkestan. Tree based on Genbank data.
@birdguides
@RareBirdAlertUK
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Deuteronomy 14. Must say the Bible in this hotel room is really f*cking up my plans for tea.
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We are doing Download festival virtually. Made the flag and everything
@DownloadFest
@TheDownloadDirt
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Have honestly never seen anything like it before in all my not inconsiderable puff.
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So... a birdstrike, hit plane in April somewhere between Oslo and London, came back as Tawny Pipit on DNA. Presumably a good record for Oslo, London or the North Sea recording areas! :-D
@northseabirds
@LondonBirdClub
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Herring Gulls have picked a top spot to nest in ASDA car park. Gonna get a bit hairy there for shoppers when the eggs hatch.
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that you never see a Long-tailed Tit on its own. If you *do* see a Long-tailed Tit on its own, it's up to no good. Keep your eye on it.
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Don't like to boast but currently got the Sooty Tern all to myself at Inch Point.
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More DNA news. Not that this needed DNA, but poop sample from the Spurn Two-barred Warbler has confirmed it was genetic plumbeitarsus.
@SBOmad
@spurnbirdobs
@BirdGuides
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Kinda enjoyed the Foo Fighters first 2 albums but went off them afterwards. Do I get to stay in the Labour Party?
#LovetheFooFighters
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Rarity assessment over time. Specimens to sight records, to photos and DNA. What will future generations make of records in the Badlands period supported only by descriptions? Will DNA take the fun out of birding? Drew this for the Bernard Tucker Memorial Lecture
@britishbirds
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Eastern Stonechat from Camb, Yell, Nov 2021 has come back genetically as Siberian maurus as expected.
Found by
@timsykes74
, photo and sample from
@birderkettle
, analysis by
@penguin_tereza
, not quite sure what I actually did.
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...AND THEN BOU REVIEWED AND REJECTED IT EVEN THOUGH IT SHOWED FEATURES THAT WERE 100% DIAGNOSTIC OF SBC IT WAS CRAZY LIKE GROWN MEN THROWING A WOBBLY COS SOME OF THE PHOTOS WERE BLURRY I MEAN COME ON IF IT HAD TURNED UP IN WHEN DIGITAL TOGGING WAS A THING THEY'D HAVE NAILED IT!!
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Long gestation, but this paper in latest BB led by
@YosefKiat
describes grey-rumped Little Terns from Eastern Med and Red Sea as distinct from nominate European birds. So much so that all records of Saunders's Tern from Israel now rejected 😭
@britishbirds
@penguin_tereza
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Happy 60th birthday to
@_BBRC
Since 1959, BBRC has rejected 126,843 records of Black Kite
#TrueStory
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Sadly(?!) the Arctic Warbler from Hartlepool Headland in October came out genetically as bog standard Arctic and nothing more Kamchatka-esque.
Analysis by
@penguin_tereza
I hear a displaced feather from the Hartlepool Arctic Warbler is being supplied to
@docmartin2mc
(hopefully to be repeated with every future handled Arctic Warbler that drops a feather). We will see or not!
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Thanks to Roger for the pooper-scooping, this bird has come out genetically as Siberian maurus.
@RareBirdAlertUK
@BirdGuides
@BirdwatchExtra
@britishbirds
Finally, decent views of the long-staying Eastern Stonechat at Quendale this morning. Its colours depend significantly on the light. Sibe rather than Stejneger's I think? Hopefully
@docmartin2mc
will deliver a definitive answer idc.
@NatureInShet
@RareBirdAlertUK
@BirdGuides
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Heading to sequencing today...
Spurn Subalpine Warbler
Kenidjack Great Horned Owl
Bucks Blue-winged Teal
Polish Subalp and 'eastern' Lesser Whitethroat.
Feather from Bempton Turkestan Shrike did not yield DNA but we have lots of poo to try.
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1/2
Massive THANK YOU to everyone who donated in 2023. donations have paid for ID (or confirmation) of:
Western Olivaceous Warbler (Whalsay)
Alder Flycatcher (Skokholm)
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (Tiree 2020)
Great-tailed Grackle (Nolton Haven)...
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Nesting Herring Gulls in ASDA car park have been collecting boxes of snacks.
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@MoorlandAssoc
Served in local pubs with an average lead content 1000x higher than would be permitted in chicken.
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The Cure! Got a new t-shirt and ate cold chips and Bob Smith was on top form, crying a fair bit 💛💛💛
#thecure
#thecureglasgow
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I'm Britain's top vicarious birder.
DNA results from Prof. Martin Collinson have confirmed the id of the phyllosc present in early July as GREEN WARBLER. Photo Thomas Kirchen
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We got a feather from the Blue Rock Thrush and are working on it to try to determine subspecies.
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Very exciting new member of the lab. I'm old enough to remember when genome sequencers filled the entire room.
@nanopore
@SoundApproachUK
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Only 3rd genetically confirmed Ibe Chiffie for Britain. Most of the candidate birds we get have nominate collybita mtDNA.
Just heard back from
@docmartin2mc
that our Iberian Chiffchaff on 25th April has been confirmed through feather samples obtained when it was ringed. Great work all by all concerned! First for the island!
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Love how they name new estates after what they used to be. Don't build on floodplains, folks.
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Autumn in our lab: we wait eagerly for the easterlies that blow the postie to our door with offerings of Siberian DNA goodies... Whether the posties are drift migrants, reverse migrants or pioneering outliers on the migrant postie vector map remains an open question.
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Pied , Cyprus and Eastern Black-eared Wheatears show no consistent genetic differences. Western Black-eared is genetically divergent and prob different species from Eastern.
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Staff at
@NaturalEngland
sit silently in the tea room, avoiding each others' gazes, knowing this is not what they signed up for...
#buzzards
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Love this. Bird ringed by
@dg_aitken
at Bempton on 10 Oct 2020, genetically confirmed as blythi (Siberian Lesser Whitethroat) by
@comicterns
and
@penguin_tereza
has been attempting to winter in
@LoDerwentValley
's garden.
@BirdGuides
@RareBirdAlertUK
@yorkbriding
@LDV_NNR
With the help of the guys at Aberdeen University I've managed to track the Lesser Whitethroat species which was in my garden last week to a Bird rung at Bempton cliffs this autumn. Its a Blythi. An armchair tick in more than one sense.
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As usual work done by
@comicterns
and
@penguin_tereza
, Haribos and Vimto consumed by me.
Some positive news from
@docmartin2mc
and his team at Aberdeen Uni last night. The DNA results on the Green Warbler came through and we’re happy to say they’ve confimed what we thought, it’s a Green Warbler! Big thank you to Martin and his team :)
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The autumn has started in Britain's self-styled 'Top Vicarious Birding Lab', with DNA extraction from Skokholm likely-Alder Fly, a Bonelli's warbler, some unstreaked Acros and a few other odds n sods.
@SkokholmIsland
@PortlandBirdObs
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Best we can tell, based on incomplete data, is the Blue Rock Thrush 'MS01' is of S European /N African origin.
@BirdGuides
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Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab. Currently, we are validating genetic identification of Daurian and Turkestan Shrikes, hopefully to facilitate field ID of first winters and ticks for all.
Work made possible by your donations thanks!
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The Silent Killer... 1 in 4 will be affected by Chronic Digiscoping Disability during their lifetime. There is no cure. RT to raise awareness.
Alleged Balearic Warbler at Boquer Valley.
#Mallorca
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Poop samples... 1) the Bempton Turkestan Shrike, probably a lot of beetle juice and 2) East Halton Pits weirdo gull, probably a lot of unspeakable slime.
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Four more Daurian Shrikes from the
@__BBRC
Kazakhstan excursion. Can we distinguish them from Turkestan and Red-backed by DNA? Can we get the results before Spurn
#Migfest22
Hopefully will form part of Friday night talk. Last minute, much?
@spurnbirdobs
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Our paper just out in Dutch Birding led by
@Scillypelagics
&
@KentOlsen_NHMA
about identification of Western Pal's first and only Audubon's Shearwater (3rd left). Cat among the pigeons for extralimital 'Little' Shearwater records?
@penguin_tereza
@comicterns
@dutchbirding
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The Sound Mirror at Kilnsea. Originally intended to detect dastardly incoming WWI Zeppelins, now crying out for a remote audio recording mic to pick up thrushes as they're leaving Norway.
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Bird DNA lab is going BIG. We are fundraising for University of Aberdeen Development Trust. Check out our Forensic Birding page and please donate if you can. Thank you!
#JustGiving
@UoAResDev
@aberdeenuni_smd
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Spurn Migfest is just two and a bit weeks away and I'm the KING of promotional videos. Buy your tickets at
@spurnbirdobs
@_BTO
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