I had another great trip to Scilly with my family, with plenty of time to get around the islands and take photos of nature. The birdlife is very different at this time of year compared to when I visited in April, with many fewer species that are passing through on their migrations. However, this time of year is great to see the (mostly) resident shorebird species as their feeding behaviour works like clockwork with the rising and falling of the tides.

This year I was lucky enough to take part in the centuries-old tradition of the Swan Upping. This is a five-day journey up the Thames where a flotilla of traditional boats manned by smartly-dressed 'Swan Uppers' row 79 miles from Sunbury-on-Thames to Abingdon.

As a child, I remember hearing that widely-told fact: "Did you know the Queen owns all the swans in the country?". But this is not quite true! While the Crown holds the right to claim ownership of all 'unmarked' mute swans swimming in open waters across the UK, this doesn’t mean they own every swan.

Historically, swans were considered a delicacy for royal banquets, and ownership rights were granted to individuals and organisations by the monarchy. Today, just three organisations retain these rights: Abbotsbury Swannery, the Vintners and the Dyers. Abbotsbury Swannery, located on a coastal lagoon in Dorset, is a managed colony where swans live and breed under the care of the swannery's staff, who maintain the environment to support their needs. In contrast, the Vintners and Dyers are two London livery companies, and they hold ownership rights to wild swans found on the River Thames. These river swans live in the wild, navigating the challenges of life on a busy waterway. This difference highlights the role each organisation plays in the ongoing stewardship of mute swans in the UK, and it’s where the centuries-old tradition of the Swan Upping comes in!

During the Swan Upping, every third swan encountered across the five-day journey along the Thames is claimed by either the Crown, the Vintners, or the Dyers. In the past, notches were made to the top of swans' beaks to claim ownership. These days, individuals can be marked through much less obtrusive methods, and instead a metal ring is placed around one leg, which is a harmless method of identification commonly used in bird research. However, much more has changed than just the marking method. Although swans were once prized for their meat, they are now protected as a species, and so the modern-day Swan Upping is a celebration of conservation and education.

Conservation is essential for the swan population on the River Thames as boat activity, fishing, and riverbank construction has disrupted their natural habitat. Additionally, predation by non-native species such as mink, and injuries from discarded fishing tackle, pose significant threats to swans. The King’s Swan Marker works closely with swan rescue groups to protect swans on the river, helping to ensure the population's survival. The annual Swan Upping also provides a valuable opportunity to collect data on how the population is fluctuating over time with changes in land-use, while also tracking how other bird populations (such as geese, ducks and grebes) are changing.

Education also plays a large role in the Swan Upping. Children from local schools visit the Swan Uppers along the banks of the River Thames, gaining the opportunity to learn about swan biology and the habitats they need. Seeing cygnets up close often sparks a sense of wonder and fosters a connection with nature, inspiring future generations to value and protect wildlife.

Participating in the Swan Upping gave me a deeper appreciation for this wonderfully quirky and uniquely British tradition, blending history, conservation, and community engagement. It’s a celebration of how even the most unusual customs can inspire connection with the natural world. Embracing traditions like these reminds us of the importance of cherishing not just the natural world, but also aspects of our cultural heritage that shape how we protect the environment for generations to come.

Finally, I recently helped at a ringing demonstration for a local environmental group. Here, we got to show those who attended the wonderful diversity of species across the site, which made me realise how sharing these types of data collection with local communities can encourage people's appreciation of the natural world, promoting conservation of key habitats even in urban settings.

I​ have just returned from an incredible trip to The Isles of Scilly, where I had some really amazing wildlife encounters. I have been visiting Scilly every year all my life, and as mentioned many times on this blog, it is a very special place for wildlife. However, given the geography of the islands, it is a particularly special place for birdwatching during spring and autumn when it hosts a wealth of migratory species that drop down during their journeys to-and-from breeding grounds. I have only once visited the islands outside of mid-summer, and I am too young to remember much of what we saw!

I started the trip with a calm crossing on the Scillonian III ferry, where the holiday began with sightings of many manx shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills in rafts between Land's End and Scilly. It's extraordinary to think of the journey these birds have made, with many of our Manxies migrating across the Atlantic from South America to breed in Scilly (and other areas along the western coast of the UK). When I arrived on St Marys, I had a few hours before my mum would join me on the islands. I walked to some of the nature reserves on the island, managing to see the stunning purple heron which had been on the islands for a few days, in addition to a soaring hen harrier - both Scilly firsts for me!

In total, I saw 85 bird species over the course of the week (eBird trip report found here) - it certainly isn't a trip I'll forget any time soon!

This year I was really pleased to be shortlisted for the British Ecological Society's Elton Prize, awarded for the best research paper in Journal of Animal Ecology written by an early career researcher. As part of this shortlisting, I wrote a blog post for Animal Ecology in Focus outlining the background to our research on age-assortative mating in bird populations - read it here!

Another wonderful trip down to Portland Bird Observatory brought with it a new species for my bird life list - purple sandpiper! There was a small flock of five individuals at Portland Bill. This is a winter visiting species in the UK, and there is still much we do not understand about their migratory movements, though it is thought that many of our wintering birds come from Arctic Canada. I took some photos myself but my colleague David López Idiáquez took these even more impressive ones below!

A lot of what I post on this blog concerns local wildlife sightings and endeavours, but when I'm not out birdwatching I undertake research on the causes and consequences of variation in age structure in natural populations (for example, if there are many old versus many young individuals in an animal population, how does this affect how the population socialises, performs reproductively, and interacts with its environment?). I recently had the pleasure of presenting some of my findings at a Royal Society scientific meeting themed on Age and Society. This was a great privilege as these meetings have been running since the 17th Century, and have previously held talks from some of the most eminent scientists including Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke and Charles Darwin. I got incredibly useful feedback, and it was very encouraging to see scientists working on the most contemporary challenges in ecology and social evolution. My talk can be found below from 1:48:30.

New OxPods episode is out! Found on our website, Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts.

The trajectory of evolving species is strongly affected by the environment in which they exist, and one particularly interesting example of this is when organisms evolving on islands differ predictably from their continental counterparts through a suite of morphological and behavioural traits, known as ‘The Island Syndrome’. But what is it that’s so special about islands that leads to this process, and what can biologists learn from the species that exhibit the syndrome?
 
In this episode of OxPods, I chat to Prof Sonya Clegg, an associate professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Oxford who studies the processes that promote species divergence

New OxPods episode is out! Found on our website, Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts.

Sex is so widespread that you could assume it’s essential for life as we know it, playing a central role in the evolution and the development of animal and human societies. However, it’s not the only way of producing offspring, and compared to asexual reproduction, sex actually entails a number of costs. Because of this, ‘Why sex?’ is one of the most fundamental questions in biology that has puzzled scientists for many years.
 
In this episode of OxPods, I chat to Dr Chris Wilson, an evolutionary biologist whose research aims to uncover why sex exists.​

Waxwings are surely one of the most sought after bird sightings for a UK-based birdwatcher in the winter. These birds are winter visitors to our isles, but the numbers that visit fluctuate greatly year-by-year depending on the size of the local population in their Scandinavian breeding grounds. This winter has been a waxwing "irruption" in the UK, and I was waiting for some local visitors until today where there has been a small flock feeding in the housing estate where I live! It was great to see them on my walk into the office. It also made me wonder about the wider patterns of winter visiting birds in the UK. This year I have seen many more redpoll and siskin around Oxford, both of which are winter visitors to the UK (although siskins do have a moderate breeding population restricted outside of central England). I wonder whether waxwing irruptions correlate with winters where we see many more numbers in the other species that come from their Northern breeding grounds?