Dr Steve Portugal, The University of Oxford

Things have been moving along with preparation for the SEB Egg Satellite Meeting for next year. The website and submission system is nearly good to go, and more information will be available soon. A brief synopsis can be found here!

Dr Lucy Hawkes, from the University of Exeter, is visiting the Department this week, and will be giving a seminar today at 4pm. More details here!

The new pigeon facilities are built and ready for the new birds to arrive. The set up comprises the pigeon loft and two additional sheds for behavioural tests and respirometry work.

Looking forward to presenting a keynote talk at next years conference on Fluid Mechanics and Collective Behaviour in Ascona, Switzerland. More information can be found here.

Two new postgrads, Rebecca McGoran and Matt Tate , have recently joined the lab, both to work with the Siamese Fighting Fish (which have been busy with Open Days recently). You can read more about the work they’ll be doing as their projects progress on the “Group” tab.

Emily Shepard and I received some great news, that our proposal for a special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on Flight was successful. We’re thrilled. The issue is due in the Autumn of next year. Contributors are world leaders on flight, and will be writing about a variety of interesting topics, including primary data papers, reviews and syntheses. Contributors include (in no particular order): Michael Dickinson, Bret Tobalske, Robert Dudley, Andrew Biewener, Tatjana Hubel, Pat Butler, Susanne Akesson, Judy Shamoun-Baranes, Ty Hedrick, Shane Windsor, Richard Bomphrey, Hao Liu, Sanjay Sane, Graham Taylor, Jason Chapman, Anders Hedenstrom and more. 

Organisation for our Egg Satellite SEB Meeting 2016 (in Brighton) is getting underway, with more details to follow. Some preliminary information can be found here via the SEB website.

Fieldwork in Panama went very well, lots of data gathered and lots of interesting animals seen. The anti eggs were fascinating (as were the chicks, left), and we were able to measure what we needed in the developing embryos, and return hatchlings to their nests. Big thanks to Christie Riehl and her team, and Emma Dunford.