Allies, access and (collective) action:

Contrary to popular media tropes of the ‘young, lone, male refugee’ arriving at Europe’s borders, Greece has in fact seen a steady flow of young refugee women arriving since 2015. While many wish to engage in post-compulsory (15+) education, in order to gain valuable skills and enjoy new freedoms, various factors make it difficult to do so. Based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork – involving semi-structured interviews with refugee youth (aged 15-25) and other stakeholders – this paper details young refugee women’s expressions of collective and relational agency as they navigate educational constraints. These constraints primarily stem from tensions in micro-level relationships with family, peers and teachers which result from, or are exacerbated by, the conditions of ‘unsettlement’. Young refugee women’s navigational tactics involved finding and shaping alternative learning opportunities, educating peers and leveraging collective strength. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations for gender-sensitive educational initiatives.s.

First record of the Blue-and-white Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelana (Temminck, 1829) (Aves: Passeriformes: Muscicapidae) from Bhutan

During a patrolling duty in Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park (JSWNP) in Bhutan, a lone male Blue-and-white Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelan was observed and photographed. This is the first photographic evidence and confirmation on presence of the species in Bhutan. These new record confirm an extension of the species’ distribution in the North East Indian Sub Continent. As this is new record to Bhutan, there could be other undetected incidence of migrant species occurrence in the country. More observation must be carried out during bird migration seasons to discover such instances.

Parental care by lone male Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis), Rough-legged Hawks (Buteo lagopus), and Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) was limited to providing food

In three long-term studies of Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis), Rough-legged Hawks (Buteo lagopus), and Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus), we observed rare but regular occurrences of superabundant prey at nests where nestlings were hungry, emaciated, or dead. In these cases, a male appeared to be the lone parent; the female parent was found dead, kept away by disturbances, or simply absent. We conclude that the male parents, whose normal role is to provide food, were unable to expand their care to include morseling, feeding, and brooding. Faced with the stress of incessant food begging by nestlings, the male parents responded by bringing more and more food to the nest, to the point where food spoiled while the young starved amid plenty. We provide and interpret detailed observations for 11 such cases and suggest several variables that would influence the nestlings’ chances of survival.

Calling-song function in male haglids (Orthoptera: Haglidae, Cyphoderris)

We studied the response of males to the singing of nearby male conspecifics in two species of the orthopteran genus Cyphoderris, primitive relatives of crickets and katydids. Lone male Cyphoderris buckelli stridulating in a large cage made a phonotactic approach to a nearby speaker broadcasting conspecific calling song. But in field experiments no phonotaxis to song broadcasts occurred; rather, a significant number of male C. buckelli increased their chirp duty cycle and pulse rate. There was no change in their carrier frequency. Calling male Cyphoderris monstrosa were exposed in the field to (i) playback of a synthetic calling song at a typical conspecific pulse rate, (ii) relayed broadcast of their own call, and (iii) low-frequency audio noise. Call duty cycle decreased significantly in response to the noise, while the pooled song models fell just short of significance. Singing C. buckelli were marked individually and their perches flagged over successive nights. We observed low site fidelity and extensive male displacement. Such behaviour is inconsistent with defense of topographically fixed singing territories and concurs with the absence of fighting in this species. Chirp duty cycle was increased significantly in C. buckelli in response to the singing of nearby conspecifics, but unlike in C. monstrosa, this change in duty cycle plays no role in overt aggression, though it may maintain a male's relative attractiveness to females.