Simon Evans
@sevans
Scientific & Technology Lead for ARIA's Accelerated Adaptation programme, and co-founder of BES Evolutionary Ecology Group. Views my own.
We’ve temporarily moved in with my lovely in-laws, so while I’ve lost my view of deer wondering past my moorland office, I’ve gained this acceptable vista from my makeshift desk.
Last year was a bumper year for our apples, gooseberries & currants. All have been much more chaste this year, yet our plum tree has gone all in. This isn’t even the entirety of today’s harvest.
Visited my former study site almost exactly 20 years since I first visited to map out nestbox sites. I painted ‘2’ onto this box all that time ago.
Fifteen minutes into @danielbolnick.bsky.social plenary at #ExE2026 and it’s already clear this is a fabulous presentation. A great start to day 3.
Bizarre level of precision in The Guardian. Did a human copy edit this, let alone author it?
I was watching a spider making its way across my office window when it was plucked off the pane and swallowed.
Last year I found a wild strawberry with white fruit. I planted a stolon and am delighted to find it’s not reverted.
If pedantry was a competitive discipline, The Guardian’s sports editor would surely be a household name.
I have a nagging feeling that the BBC’s subtitles aren’t fully conveying the original Swedish.
Oh Good God. I was prompted to download the newest version of RStudio and it has AI. "Ask it to explore patterns". Surely, any form of intelligence—organic or silicon—can see that pattern mining is not something ecology is short of.
Is the opening sentence to this new PNAS article true? What happened to nuptial gifts? Access to guarded resources (e.g., territories)? www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
But this morning, the great tit gen was back! Will there be some eggs soon?
With the great tits seemingly absent, the local blue tits have continued to show an interest.
Nope! No egg laying. We’re pressing on with making this a very comfortable home.
I don’t think she revisited the box since late morning. Having brought in lots of cup lining material, I’m wondering whether we might get an egg in the morning 🤞
About ten minutes ago, there was a switch from moss (which forms the bulk of the nest) to something fluffier, which is used to line the nest cup and insulate the eggs and chicks so they stay warm.
Another flurry of nest-building activity in the evening sun. It’s starting to look very cosy now.
But nest building has now been accelerated. No exaggeration to say she is bringing in moss at 1 minute intervals.
Mornings always seem to start with a refamiliarisation. And lots of this “moss surfing” behaviour (does it have a name?)
