Tootfinder

Will do a proper #FieldDiary tomorrow but suffice to say, today went even better than hoped. Instruments behaved, weather cooperated our local hunter friend got us smoothly into the field. Looking forward to seeing what it all means now...
(Background: http://sternaparadisaea.net/2025/05/20/falling-apart/)

Is there an entomologist on the line? I have noticed at least 3 different bumble bees with this strange pale mark on the back (it's difficult to see clearly because they're never still).
I *think* it might be a kind of mite (varroa?) , they clearly feel it because I could see all the bees were stroking it occasionally with a leg, but they still continued flying and feeding. This was the best of about a hundred photos I tried to take with my phone!
Any clues what it is? @… #bumblebee #bees #mites #Mitestodon
Edit: new photo crop might be clearer

Crossing from Pembroke #Wales to Rosslare #Ireland, I just saw dozens of #puffins flying close to the Ferry.
When we first stayed in #Pembrokeshire in 1998, we happened to stay near Martin's Haven one night and simply got a place on a boat to #Skomer Island when arriving at the harbour. I never again saw so many puffins so close.
When trying to reserve a trip for this summer already very early this year, all trips to Skomer were completely booked and even the wating list filled...
#xp

Way back in 2022, as the world tried to readjust back to "normal" following COVID - I helped to co-organise a bootcamp with sponsorhop from the @… IASC, @… and a generous dollop of help from @… and @… colleagues.
We gathered 10 senior scientist mentors and 22 students in an old torpedo research station (now used by Roskilde University) for 10 days. It was an extremely intense period but the 4th paper produced by this talented group has just come out.
I consider facilitating #EarlyCareerScientists to work on important science problems an extremely rewarding part of my job, and I'm looking forward to the next one already as part of our PISCO project.
In the mean time, go and read this extremely cool work, collecting together a huge number of radiosonde observations going back to the 1950s over the Arctic Ocean and using them to assess how well CMIP6 models represent lower atmosphere.
#CMIP6 #ClimateModels #Arctic #ArcticClimate #SeaIce
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JD041412