Alice Risely
@alice-risely
Ecologist with broad interests studying gulls, pathogens, and microbiomes. Love and teach R. Dangerously close to becoming microbiologist. Gulls Eating Stuff citizen science project.
Had the incredible opportunity to ring storm petrels on Skokholm the other night with the wardens. Such an amazing bird (and island!).
As well as testing different sample types and primers, we applied co-occurrence and ordination analyses to understand foraging strategies and dietary niches of different cohorts. Although the source of single food items is often unknown, analysing which food is consumed together can provide clues.
Are you interested in #gulls, diet metabarcoding, or both? Of course you are! Check out our new preprint where we use molecular methods to decode the (animal-based) diet of lesser black-backed gulls - arguably a species with one of the most diverse diets out there. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
People who call urban gulls “flying rats” fail to realise that they are more like cats - they undoubtedly provide serious rodent control in cities. This one in Liverpool grabbed this young rat from under our bench and proceeded to thoroughly kill it in front of us. #urbangulls
The epidemic of these crappy digital screens have now reached Chorlton # Manchester. I hate them 😱.
Just coming back from an enjoyable few days on Lundy. Certainly an interesting island! Not enough gulls though ;)
We had a great turnout of students and staff from across the Manchester universities for our seminar and networking event with @naturalengland.bsky.social. Five super talks on the work NE do, challenges they face, and career pathways into NE. Lots of happy (and slightly tipsy) students at the end!
Abstracts are open for the BOU Avian Disease Ecology conference (6-8th April 2027, Nottingham, UK). Submit here (deadline July 31st): tinyurl.com/hf2hzf4p Reg fees to be released soon - but you can get an idea of rough costs from the BOU 2026 conference: tinyurl.com/3udbz3c5 Fab line up! 🦠🦜🦠🐦⬛🦠
Been doing a ton of nest box checking and ringing this spring. Had a nice day at Lyme Park yesterday with flycatchers and my first nuthatch brood ringed. Tits haven’t fared too well this year with all the rain - quite a few dead chicks in the nest. All done under licence etc
Please don’t put out hair for bird nests. Chicks get entangled in hair balls. Just had to cut hair strands that were tying 3 blue tit chicks together, and wrapped round the throat of one skinny chick that couldn’t swallow food. Hopefully saved in time 🤞
Accidentally walked through a yellow-legged gull colony on Palmaria Island in Liguria, Italy. Weird to see gulls in a forest (coastal) environment and nesting in weird places. Wondering if the discoloured egg is broken? The authorities should definitely cordon off the area to reduce disturbance.
I love the interesting Gulls Eating Stuff submissions! This one by @robspeirs.bsky.social is an unusual one - a herring gull scavenging on a dead harbour porpoise. Nope, they don't just eat chips... Submit your photos of gulls eating stuff to citsci.org/projects/gul... !
Nice afternoon colour-ring reading gulls at South Walney yesterday. Six colour-ringed birds which was less than I was expecting, but grass covered tarsus of most birds so probably missed a few! @sarahdalgulls.bsky.social
Did a Sand tailed digger wasp male this info board? Gull ID anyone? 😅
Looking through the Enterobase E. coli metadata and it's just depressing. Firstly, please tell me more than that the sample is 'from a bird'. Which bird? What part of the bird? Secondly A RACOON IS NOT A RODENT! Are you people biologists or what?! #ShakingFistEmoji Gah.
I’m catching up on an old issue of Lifecycle and found this fascinating article on a Great tit’s recovery from a nasty case of avian pox. Would be interesting to know if infection completely cleared or still transmissible #DiseaseEcology #Ornithology
Are the pembrokeshire ponies a conservation thing? Or just have always been there? Either way, they are quite photogenic!
Can anyone ID this lovely tree in the Peak District UK? This is my second favourite tree shape after the profile of an gnarly old Oak.
Had a great time at Manchester Met’s Animal Behaviour and Conservation research day yesterday, with four amazing talks including @vixfranks.bsky.social on HiHi social networks. Enjoyed learning about cool research by @stephharris.bsky.social, @jacobcdunn.bsky.social and Mark Mainwaring too!
Hi Simon, yes with addTimeslider()! I do have a large dataset (1500 locations over about 80 time points), but i've reduced dataset a lot and problem persists, so don't THINK it is sample size. Tried lots of things and can't work it out - the time slider always cuts off too early 🤷♀️.
If anyone is looking for a v talented postdoc with expertise in molecular ecology, #microbiomes, mycobiomes, and/or pathogen #genomics, my friend @microbianac.bsky.social is finishing her PhD & looking for a #postdoc. Reach out if you have something coming up (Europe pref but potentially flexible).
Did my first ever RSPB #BigGardenBirdwatch and lo and behold saw my first ever Siskin on the feeder! @rspb.bsky.social
EARLY BIRD CLOSING SOON! Get your tix for the BOU Birds and People conference in April whilst they are cheep! :p bou.org.uk/event/birds-... Member tickets are between £200-£450 depending on type of membership and room, and include all accomodation and meals for 3 days! @bou.org.uk
Painting places I want to live today. Especially with this ceaseless Manchester rain 😭. Who do I have to kill to live here?!
Surprise Stonechat pair in the net this morning around Dunham. Beautiful birds!
Always enjoy seeing the thousands of waders that exploit the rich resources of the Dee estuary around West Kirby! Including this Oystercatcher and Redshank which were foraging next to the marine lake.
