This male Snow Bunting was the highlight of another stunning day up in the Swedish mountains - long arranged but highly recommended as a way to avoid the deluge of pre-election coverage

Quite a view! 2215 this evening

Today's Swedish mountain highlight was a brilliant pair of Dotterel close to the summit of a mountain. Ptarmigan continues to elude me!

A real fluke this morning - returning from an early birding trip in the rain I was lucky enough to find this road-side Hawk Owl just a short distance east of Abisko in Sweden

Another incredible day up in the Swedish mountains (here Kärkevagge looking towards Norway). Really pleased to find this female Twite feeding on a snow patch - can't think when I last got such prolonged close views of this delightfully understated species

High up above lake Torneträsk. Bluethroats showing well. Ptarmigan still taunting me

Yes!! Finally!! At half an hour to midnight on the last day Ptarmigan finally appears!

Bluethroats were fairly numerous in the Abisko National Park, often close to the tree-line, and usually skulking. This male feeding young close to a path yesterday evening gave beautiful views (photos taken at 2245 - the benefits of the midnight sun!)

Almost the only tits I saw in a week in Arctic Sweden were a family of Siberian Tits at the classic site of the Institute of Space Physics near Kiruna - both adult and juvenile here

A new bird for me in Sweden was Arctic Warbler, with a remarkable concentration of 3 singing males + a 4th bird at Järämä. Some terrible record shots - birds very active, thick fog & biblical levels of mosquitoes (at 3 am!) made seeing them well hard, but song super distinctive

Another new bird for me in Sweden was Little Bunting: two singing males at the Research Station at Abisko - one of them ringed. A quiet and easily-overlooked song; seems to have been a good year for this erratic breeding species.

I spent many hours over several days above 1000m in what looked like perfect habitat, but Rock Ptarmigan remained stubbornly absent until I found a female on the very last evening - a final new Swedish bird for me. In contrast, Willow Ptarmigan were numerous at lower elevations

The commoner species at Abisko included Bramblings (the male's 'song' could be heard from any area of trees), and at higher elevations Wheatear (breeding pairs would track you through their territory) and Golden Plover

A really surprising absence in a whole week spent outside in Abisko National Park in a range of habitats were raptors. Other than a single Kestrel, the only ones I saw were a fluky roadside Hawk Owl and - ecologically in this role up here - quite a few Long-tailed Skuas

Peter Kareiva writes his take on Priyanga Amarasekare’s ongoing troubles with the UCLA leadership. It supports Priyanga’s narrative. Well worth a read. pamarasekare.org/insider

Very proud of my brother's achievement here! National Museum Of The Royal Navy Announces New CEO Appointment nmrn.org.uk/news/national-…

That warm feeling when you discover you’re not alone

Really good to see the first work from Devi Satarkar DPhil thesis out - just in time for talk at #ECBB2024 tomorrow!

THREE EXCITING 4-year POSTDOCS in spatial ecology/conservation/applied ecology/ornithology. Thank you! drive.google.com/file/d/1aBV5Dj… IEA EcologyJobs postdoc #postdocs

Great Postdoc opportunity here: ebird.org/news/rose-post…