Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

Wonderful to welcome Chris Packham back to Campus today, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science.

Busy fews weeks. The last couple of weeks have involved externally examining the Zoology degree scheme at Manchester, which was really interesting to see what topics other Universities cover and how they are taught. I’ve done quite a few SkpeAScientist sessions, mainly with 13-16 year olds in the States. Today our new Australian Crested Pigeons arrived which is exciting! They’ll be part of some experiments looks at social interactions, dominance and energy expenditure.

Sam is back in the field in Honduras, and Dan is very busy flying pigeons. Jenny is gearing up for some lab work with ducks in the States, and Lara is underway with pigeon respirometry experiments. Rosa is in China. Exciting! Miranda and Stephanie had a very successful trip to Illinois and are now busy analysing mountains of data. Rhianna is finishing her MSc thesis and has found some fascinating results with energy expenditure and dominance. Late summer we look forward to welcoming new PhD students Jack and Cecylia, and MSc students Tayla and Molly to our motley crew.

Ever wondered “where are all the dead pigeons”? Delightful topic. And I’ve written about it for The Conversation. 

Excited to be joining the Editorial Board of Scientific Reports .

PhD student Lucy has submitted her thesis – big congratulations. One of Lucy’s chapters is already published in the Journal of Experimental Biology and another is in review.

Our new pigeon facilities are now fully built and operational. Thank you Royal Society for the grant that has made all this possible.

And keeping PhD student Dan Sankey very busy!

We had our first lab away day, that involved looking at ducks, dinner, and a comedy night. Was fun! Took four photos to get close to one where everyone was looking in the right direction, and with their eyes open.

Back left, Sam Jones (PhD Student), Jack Thirkell (PhD Student), Lara Nouri (Research Assistant), Jenny Cantlay (PhD Student), Stephanie McClelland (PhD Student).

Front left, Rosa Gleave (PhD Student), Dan Sankey (PhD Student), Rhianna Ricketts (MSc Student), Miranda Reynolds (MSc Student).

Rosa started her PhD today, supervised by Sarah Papworth, Sam Turvey (ZSL) and myself, all about the conservation of blue-crowned laughing thrushes.

Very pleased our (with Prof Craig White) paper has been accepted in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, titled “Miniaturisation of biologgers is not alleviating the 5% rule”. More details to follow.