#antsOfMastodon #ants #anstodon #formica #woodants

A fabulous day out - the sun was out, the sky was blue and as for the bird-life - wow!

#Goshawk, Pied Flycatcher, and the best views of Purple Heron I've had in the UK (flying, standing in the open, walking like it owned the planet). Of course, I was so busy looking that the photos don't do it justice so you'll have to put up with a head -shot-in-a-ditch!

#birds #birdsofmastodon #wildlife #nature #TopdDay #WoodAnts #PurpleHeron #Ant

📷 #Treecreeper
📷 Wood Ants nest
📷 Purple Heron

This just popped up on my radar again, might as well share it.

Read the story of the wood ants who fell down into a Soviet-era bunker, couldn't find their way out, and in desperate circumstances developed a society based on eating their own dead. And no, they aren't mutants. Happy ending!

#ants #woodants

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/cannibal-ants-soviet-nuclear-bunker

Here’s the head of Formica sanguinea (there is notch in the clypea), one of the #woodants. Early this year I had a chance to watch their behaviour in the field on several occasions and they do some interesting things, hunting, foraging, carrying nest-mates. It is not a perfect animation due to some artefacts from #Helicon but it’s pretty good. #ants #mymecology #macrophotography

Hashtags to help people find me... #ants #socialinsects #behaviouralecology #behavioralecology #collectivedecisions #foraging #socialnetworks #spatialnetworks #cooperation #woodlands #forests #grasslands #invasivespecies #woodants #polydomy #womeninSTEM #womeninscience

Introducing myself to Mastodon! I'm a Professor of behavioural ecology, mostly using #ants as my model system to study collective behaviour and the ecological impacts of social behaviour. I do fieldwork on #woodants in the north of England, and run lab experiments and computer models too, and love collaborating all over the world. Also active in EDI in Higher Education.